I was home visiting my parents and sister this weekend in
Indiana and of course wanted to share my French cooking journey with them. My
mom mentioned that she had recently seen a rerun on TV of Juila Child making
soufflé and suggested that as a possibility for our dinner. Of course, my
parents’ well-equipped kitchen has several soufflé molds, a missing tool that
has prevented me from making any molded dish so far this summer. So soufflé it
would be!
The authors of MAFC
give extensive directions and illustrations for the delicate processes of
whipping, folding, and baking a variety of soufflés. I chose a shrimp variation
because it was on hand. The diced shrimp was first cooked in butter and
simmered for a moment in vermouth. The shellfish was set aside while the main
mixture was made. I cooked flour in butter for a few minutes and then beat in
boiling milk and seasoning. Then four egg yolks were beaten in one by one.
Then, the authors direct stiffly beaten egg yolks to be folded slowly into the yolk
mixture along with grated Swiss cheese. The mold had been prepared with butter
and cheese sprinkled inside. The egg mixture was layered with the shrimp,
sprinkled with cheese, and baked for 30 minutes. The soufflé breathed spectacularly
high above the mold, but unfortunately collapsed before I was able to take the
picture as soufflés are apt to do.
The main dish was accompanied by a sauce mousseline sabayon,
which is very similar to hollandaise. The recipe called for fish liquor but I
could not find any at the local store so substituted vegetable stock. It was
simply a whipped combination of egg yolks, whipping cream, stock, butter, and
seasoning. You can see the sauce below over the soufflé in the final plated
images. The soufflé was a little on the dry side and denser than I expected so
the sauce, while a little more bland than I had hoped, helped make it more
palatable.
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| Souffle drizzled with sauce |
To accompany the soufflé, I chose two vegetables, one more
tedious than the other. The authors suggest that peeled and boiled asparagus in
the French method is the best. So, even though the asparagus I bought was rather
thin, I peeled every stalk – a process that took an hour. The stalks were the
bundled together and boiled in a pot of salted water for about 15 minutes. They
were indeed very delicate and tender, but we all agreed they were not quite
worth the effort.
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| Look at that beautifully peeled asparagus! |
Finally, my parents’ luscious home-grown tomatoes were too
tempting not to include in some way. In fact, they had one very large tomato
that, when quartered, served the four of us. I chose the Provençale recipe as a
bold contrast to the delicate soufflé. The recipe is a simple process of
removing the seeds and juice from halves (or in our case quarters) and stuffing
with herbs and breadcrumbs. I was able to use fresh basil, parsley, and thyme
from my mom’s garden along with garlic, green onion, and salt and pepper. These
herbs where mixed with olive oil and some baguette crumbs, stuffed in the
tomatoes and roasted in oil for about 15 minutes. This vegetable was a
wonderful summer accompaniment to the rest of the meal. As an avid tomato
eater, I will certainly make this dish again.
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| Close-up of the tomato |
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| Baguette |
This meal was quite enjoyable with my family on our back
porch on a pleasant summer evening. We had pinot grigio paired with the fish and
ate the rest of the baguette. Unfortunately, all photographs were taken in the
kitchen under artificial light and many of them were blurry as I was in a bit
of a hurry. Better luck next week!
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