Light fare. Cheese soufflé. Again potato starch.

Southwesterly 6 to gale 8, increasing severe gale 9 at times, then perhaps storm 10 later.

Rough or very rough.

Squally showers.

Moderate or good.

Pretty rough day today. And while I want something light, salad alone won’t cut the mustard.

Cheese is always a good idea, but the problem with cheese is that I cut a chunk off, and before I notice, the whole cheese is gone.

A grilled cheese sandwich is better, but too stodgy.

Cue: A cheese soufflé, the nightmare of every cook.

The problem with a soufflé is not that it is difficult to do, it’s actually fairly easy, but it is not necessary a presentable dish. Soufflé has its roots in the verb souffle: breathing/air/expelling air, a souffleur is someone who, in the theatre, breathes the forgotten words to you.

And while a soufflé should be light as a summer breeze, the slightest breeze can deflate it. If you want to know if your windows are draught proof when shut, bring a soufflé nearby. If it collapses, look for the tiny gaps.

So it might not be the best dish for a dinner party or in a restaurant, but it’s great if you eat alone. You don’t mind if it might deflate a bit, don’t you?

All recipes I searched for, try to stabilize the soufflé in one way or the other. Some use Quark, others crème fraiche to bring a bit of body, but most start with a roux. Bocuse is the only one who has a different approach, but he also uses the most flour.

So I go with Simon Hopkinson`s (probably my favourite chef, followed very, very closely by Yotam Ottolenghi) recipe from “The Vegetarian Option” and take it from there. BTW, its a really good book and aimed a meat-eaters who either want to reduce their intake or want something when Vegetarians visit. Some Vegetarians might be offended that he occasionally dares to suggest to use lardons or chicken stock for a rounder taste, but the recipes itself are nearly all Vegetarian.

His recipe is pretty straightforward and starts with a classic roux. A roux is the easiest way to stabilize any sauce; basically you just heat gently butter, add flour in more or less equal measurements (weight, not volume) and try to make it into a smooth paste before it takes on colour. You then add stock or milk (with milk it is called a béchamel sauce) very slowly and whisk, whisk, whisk.

I really, really wanted to use wheat flower, but then I noticed I have only strong flour for bread-making. So I grabbed the potato starch again. The béchamel did not look right, too glossy, too sticky; so I put on the coat and purchased wheat flour and started again. Fortunately I did not throw my first attempt away. While the second roux looked like it should, I preferred the taste of the first. It was less floury tasting. Somehow lighter. No idea how it will react in the soufflé, but I try that route.

And before we come to the recipe, make sure you avoid all draught (close your windows). And, if you have time, prepare your ramekin(s) the morning or even the evening before, cold ramekins aid the soufflé to rise.

Oh, and very important. A soufflé is normally a very light lunch or a starter, so I took the liberty to make a bit more, hence I prepared two ramekins. After all it is my main dish on a ghastly cold day.

Cheese soufflé

Butter your ramekin(s) and cover the inside with grated parmesan (about 30gr). Tip the rest of the cheese out and mix it later in with your other cheese. Put the ramekin as long as possible in the fridge.

20gr unsalted butter

15gr flour (I used potato starch, see above)

100ml milk

1 small chicken egg, separated

75gr grated cheese

a small pinch of salt

a small pinch of cayenne pepper

a small pinch of grated nutmeg.

Preheat your oven to 200c/gas mark 6. Dont use the fan assisted oven function.

Heat the butter gently in a small pan. As soon as it is liquid and starts to foam add the flour and stir. Try to make the paste as smooth as possible, break up all the lumps (not really difficult if you use potato flour) and make sure it does not take any colour. Add the milk bit by bit and whisk until you end up with a very thick, custard like, sauce.

Take off the heat and let cool down a bit. Add immediately the salt, nutmeg and cayenne and taste. The sauce should taste already edible, so not bland at all. But be careful with the salt, depending on your cheese and the rest of the parmesan you introduce more salt.

You can do this step ahead. If your sauce is completely cold, just reheat it a tiny bit until lukewarm if you are ready to proceed.

Grate some nice tasting, easy to melt, cheese, according to your taste. I used a mixture of Comte and Abondance de Savoie, just because I had them and they needed using up.

Please grate at the last minute, freshly grated cheese melts better.

Whisk the egg white (maybe with a pinch of salt or cream of tartar= I used my copper bowl without addition), until nearly stiff peaks. Just take your whisk out of the bowl and while you slowly take it out, the egg white will cling to it, detach from it and have a little peak. If that peak holds for a few second and then collapses, it is right. If it collapses very quick, beat again a few seconds. Don’t overbeat it. The bowl you whisk it in, must be completely clean and fat free. If you are not sure, rub it out with a bit of white vinegar before you start. However, if you over-mixed it and it is grainy, you can save it by adding another egg white and beat until you have the stiff peak stage again.

If necessary reheat your sauce a tiny bit, but it should not be hot. Take of the heat again. Add in the lightly beaten egg yolk. If you can manage, do it in two parts, stir in-between the two parts. If you do soufflé for more people, add one egg yolk at a time. Add all the cheese and stir very well.

Now take one tablespoon of your egg white mixture and stir it into the cheese sauce, just to lighten it a bit. The rest of the egg white needs to be folded in very gently. It does not matter if it is not even and you see bits of white. That`s how it should be. If it is too mixed, it will not rise properly.

Pour into your ramekin(s), but only ¾ full and transfer immediately into the oven. Check after 15 minutes, they normally take 20-25 minutes in the small ramekins, 30-35 for a bigger bowl.

Make a green salad with Dijon mustard dressing; you need to counteract the cheesy lightness.

Verdict:

Lets start with the positive things: The amount was perfect for two ramekins. It smelled incredible. It tasted divine. It was light. Might have been a tad too much for one person but it was so scrumptious that I scoffed it all.

It rose and rose and rose..

and then it collapsed. Already in the oven. I will change my usual routine of just providing ingredients or tools and show actual photos of the food. The first one is at 15 minutes in the oven (through the glass), the second photo is the same ramekin at 18 minutes, a second after I opened the oven.

I opened the oven because it has already collapsed, so it was not the shock in temperature.

There are several explanations:

My oven (which I still need to discover properly) is not perfect and not draught free. It might be also too hot. 18 minutes is fast.

The potato starch is no good. Potato starch is such a common ingredient on the continent that I am sure that one chef tried in the past to experiment with it. However he might not. Never change a winning team once you mastered it.

The cheese was too fatty. The whole stability of the soufflé depends on the egg white. Hence some people incorporate quark, which basically results in a light baked cheese cake, and too much fat/liquid can destroy the structure.

In order to find out which is which, I need to use the same recipe over and over again and exclude one factor.

Nope. Wont do it. Might go next time for wheat flour but that is about it. But then I will have a different cheese.

On the other hand I might just try the recipe from Bocuse. His approach is so different that it resulted in me scratching my head and asking myself “What is he doing here, that does not make sense “.

However it served the purpose to the dot. And what is a sunken cheese soufflé between friends?