Cheese soufflé recipe
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Total: 1 h Diners: 6
One of the most famous dishes of French cuisine that is best known in Spain, and also one of the most feared when it comes to cooking it, is undoubtedly the soufflé.
Generally sweet but also in its savory version, there is no cook who is not afraid of that moment, after having “suffocated” in the oven, in which the temperature change if it is not well balanced and executed everything throws down the work.
It can serve us for a formal meal, but also to use all those cheese leftovers that have been abandoned in the fridge after the holidays although we can not say that it is a light recipe if not quite the opposite.
The kitchen, with many years of adornment and prominence of butter, takes us to another sphere of gastronomy in which we see that recipes from Spain have been adapted (or vice versa) to their products and traditions. For better or for worse, French chefs have revolutionized what we know today as gastronomy and made some of the most representative dishes of this cuisine; a very manual cuisine that is gradually being lost.
We speak of the preparations “a la royale”, the consommé geleè, the tarte tatin, the quenelles, sauces such as beurre blanc or foie gras. Also, of course, one of the most representative recipes of classic French cuisine: the soufflé.
A preparation that is really two preparations in one: on the one hand a béchamel sauce (another centuries-old French invention) and, on the other, whipped egg whites with all the ingredients you could wish for. Sweet or savory, it doesn’t matter if the result is to shine (in Cocinillas you can also find one of emmental and ham)
The interesting thing about the soufflé is that it swells and doubles its size protruding from the bowl as a result of the penetration of heat in the fluffiness of the whipped egg whites. It is a more laborious task than complicated by the fact that it must always be done at the time (perhaps this is the reason why soufflés have been left aside to be replaced by siphons and various deconstructions), but the result is very worthwhile.
A Belle Epoque dish that will dazzle everyone and that is not so easy to find even in the best French restaurants in Madrid. For this recipe I have followed Gordon Ramsay’s guidelines with some adaptations but with certainly optimal results, like his sirloin Wellington.
How to make a successful cheese soufflé
Ingredients
. Butter in ointment, 30 g Wheat flour, 25 g Liquid cream, 270 ml Bay leaf, 1 leaf Small onion, 1 pc Country eggs, 3 pc Aged gruyere cheese, 50 g Parmesan, 50 g Old manchego cheese, 50 g Salt and ground black pepper, c/s Worcestershire sauce, a few drops Dijon mustard, 1 teaspoon
Step 1
In a saucepan put the cream with the peeled and diced onion and also the bay leaf. Bring to a boil over low heat, turn off the heat, cover with plastic wrap and let stand 30 minutes. Strain and put the infused cream back in a saucepan.
Step 2
Mash the butter with the flour in a blender, or mix with your fingertips until you get a kind of sand.
Step 3
Heat the cream until it boils and add the butter and flour mixture. Start stirring over low heat until the mixture takes consistency forming a béchamel sauce. Allow to cool slightly.
Step 4
Add salt, black pepper, Worcestershire sauce and mustard to the mixture and stir well.
Step 5
Set aside some diced gruyere cheese and also some grated parmesan. The rest of the cheeses add them to the béchamel, previously grated. Mix very well until a kind of elastic cheese cream is formed. Add also only the egg yolks and mix.
Step 6
On the other hand, grease the molds with butter and a little ground Parmesan cheese. Also whip the egg whites until stiff with the help of a whisk. Preheat the oven to 180 ºC (heat below and fan).
Step 7
Add the egg whites to the cheese mixture, which should be at room temperature, using a stirring motion.
Step 8
Pour the mixture into the molds, placing a cube of gruyere between two layers. Finish with some parmesan on top and also with some black pepper.
Step 9
Bake for 10 minutes at 180 ºC and then lower the oven temperature to 160 ºC and bake 15-20 minutes more. Serve immediately.
