Cheese Souffle

Ever since I got my satin black Le Creuset Pie Dish, I have been slowly building my collection. During a dull afternoon at work, I decided to go browsing Amazon for Le Creuset Ramekins and what do I find? A cute pair in satin black to match my pie dish. I have other, smaller ramekins that I use for mini puddings and things, but these are the first proper big ramekins I’ve owned. What wondrous new recipes I can make now!

So here is my first attempt at making a savoury cheese soufflé, because I just love cheese. I think they were fairly successful if I do say so myself. They rose and started splurging all over the place (too much mixture in the ramekin perhaps?). My only issue is that they rose lopsided and I wonder if this is because I didn’t butter the top side of the ramekin as well as I should have.

I’m still very pleased with myself at the first attempt not only because I’ve never made soufflés before, but also because of the hard work I put into this dish. Seriously, I have no space for a mixer, so I hand whisked my egg whites until stiff. I’ve seen TV chefs do this before; in fact there was an episode of the Hairy Bikers where they were competing with different way to make stiff egg whites. One had a mixture, another had an electric whisk, another had a manual whisk and the other had a hand whisk. If you’ve ever tried a Powerball before, you’ll understand the type of pain I went through to whisk my eggs. The end result is satisfyingly tasty and utterly worth it!

The spillage, and my old ramekins (from the Gu puds)

In terms of the filling, I used lots of grated cheddar and half a block of leftover feta cheese from another dish. I wanted the filling to be fairly strong as the soufflés are so light and the combination of the cheeses meant that you got a sharp and salty creamy melt in the mouth flavour from this dish. It was so delicious and I only accompanied it with rocket to give the much needed peppery flavour. This is the perfect starter for two (yes, I’ve been reading a lot of David Nicholls recently). :)

Ingredients

2 tbsp Butter

1 heaped tbsp Flour

Just under ¾ cup of Milk (5 fl oz)

½ cup grated Cheddar

½ cup crumbled Feta

pinch of Paprika

pinch of grated Nutmeg

½ tsp Mustard

3 Eggs (2 yolks, 3 whites)

Recipe

Butter your ramekins! Then chill in the fridge. Pre-heat oven to 220 C

Make a roux with the flour and butter. Then add milk. Stir until smooth and thickened. Take off the heat, then add the cheeses. Stir until melted in and season with spices, mustard and a bit of salt and pepper.

Separate eggs, and stir egg yolks quickly into the cheese sauce mixture. If you do this quickly they won’t scramble. Beat egg whites until stiff but still wet and fold (don’t use a whisk) into the wet mixture until combined.

Pour mixture into ramekins, I would say 2/3 full. Run your thumb around the top rim. Put in the oven and turn down the temperature to 170 C. Cook for 20 minutes.