French Provincial Cooking - Elizabeth David [116]
(9) Immediately, before it has time to lose this sponginess, turn the mixture into the utensil in which it is to be cooked; this must instantly be transferred to the preheated oven so that cooking starts without delay. It is a great help, with soufflés, to stand the dish on a baking sheet which has been standing in the oven so that it is already hot. In this way cooking starts from the bottom as well as the top, and the over-liquid layer which sometimes remains at the bottom of an otherwise well-cooked soufflé is avoided. On the other hand a good soufflé should retain a slightly creamy liquidity at its centre, which supplies the soufflé with, as it were, its own sauce.
(10) Although it is now considered essential to have special straight-sided fireproof china or glass dishes for soufflés, this was not always the case. They were formerly cooked in oval metal utensils which, when taken from the oven, were slipped inside a larger more ornamental dish with handles, in which they were brought to table. So, if called upon to do so, it should be quite easy to improvise a soufflé even in a pie dish or any other fireproof utensil.
SOUFFLÉ AU FROMAGE
CHEESE SOUFFLÉ
Prepare the basic mixture by stirring one generous tablespoon of flour into 1 oz. of butter melted in a heavy saucepan. Gradually add just under pint of warmed milk, stirring until your mixture is quite smooth. Let this sauce cook very gently over an asbestos mat, stirring frequently, for close on 10 minutes. Now stir in 2 oz. of finely grated Parmesan cheese (or if you prefer, 1 oz. each of Parmesan and Gruyère) and then the very thoroughly beaten yolks of 4 large eggs. Remove the mixture from the fire, and continue stirring for a few seconds. Now add a seasoning of salt (always to be added after the cheese) and quite a generous amount of freshly-ground pepper, plus, if you like, a scrap of cayenne. This basic mixture can be made well in advance.
When the time comes to make the soufflé, preheat the oven to Gas No. 6, 400 deg. F. Have the shelf placed fairly low in the oven, and a baking sheet on the shelf. Butter a 1-pint soufflé dish (the size is important).
Whisk the whites of the eggs, plus one extra, in a large, scrupulously dry and clean bowl, until they will stand in peaks on the whisk and look very creamy. Tip half the whites on top of the basic mixture. With a palette knife cut them into it, slowly rotating the bowl with your left hand, lifting rather than stirring the whole mass. Add the remainder of the whites in the same way. All this should take only a few seconds and as you pour the whole mixture, without delay, into the dish, it should look very bubbly and spongy, but if the whites have been over-beaten or rammed into the main mixture with a heavy hand, it will already begin to look flat. With the palette knife, mark a deep circle an inch or so from the edge, so that the soufflé will come out with a cottage-loaf look to the top. Put it instantly into the oven.
As to timing, it depends so much upon the size and type of both the oven and the dish that it is misleading to give precise details. I can only say, as a general guide, that in the oven of a representative domestic gas cooker, this soufflé is perfectly cooked at No. 6 in 23 to 25 minutes.
PETITS SOUFFLÉS AUX COURGETTES
MINIATURE COURGETTE SOUFFLÉS
1 lb. courgettes, 2 whole eggs and 2 extra whites, 5 tablespoons of grated Gruyère cheese (1 to 2 oz.), a béchamel sauce made from 1 oz. butter, 2 tablespoons of flour and a scant pint of warmed milk, the whole well seasoned with pepper but not too much salt until after the cheese has been added.
Prepare the courgettes as explained on page 253, and when they have been salted and drained, cook them in a heavy saucepan with a ladle of water until they are quite soft and the liquid evaporated. If they dry up before they are soft add more water, but only a very little, because the object of this operation is to extract the moisture from the vegetables, not to add more. Sieve them and stir the resulting purée into the prepared