FETA CHEESE SOUFFLÉ

A few days ago I decided to try something totally new for me – soufflés. I had never tried them before, but I can certainly see how one could get carried away experimenting with them. They are a bit rich, but very light and just the right tangy cheese flavour to satisfy... I have to say too, that these were much easier to make than I had originally anticipated. They took about 35 minutes, more or less, from start to finish.

I recently saw an episode of Iron Chef America where the secret ingredient was ham...the challenger made a twice baked ham soufflé and it looked REALLY good. My soufflés aren’t quite that sophisticated or fancy, and they are only once-baked, but they were quite tasty. I didn’t need my "Plan B" after all! Hehe.

My own humble opinion of this particular recipe is that the pepper and the cheese in the soufflé were really complimented well by the creamed spinach sauce that I made for a side. This was inspired by a tiny cookbook “The Fast Egg” that I recently acquired from a local book shop. I thought it might have some interesting new ideas and I was in need of a bit of inspiration lately.

Anyway, now that I have the gist of it, I think I can come up with a few new flavour combinations to impress lunch or dinner guests in the future. So long as the experimental creations turn out as nicely as these did, I will be more than happy. So...watch this space for future soufflé ideas.

INGREDIENTS:

Cooking Oil Spray
¼ Cup Bread Crumbs
30 Gm (2 Tbsp) Butter
2 Tbsp Flour
1 Cup Milk
4 Eggs, separated
¼ Tsp Cayenne Pepper
150 Firm Feta Cheese, crumbled


DIRECTIONS:

First, preheat the oven to 200° C/400° F.

Next, spray your soufflé dishes (6 one-cup capacity dishes or 3 two-cup capacity dishes or mugs), with cooking spray and coat in bread crumbs then place them onto a cooking tray.

Make a roux by melting your butter in a small saucepan and adding the flour to cook for a minute or so.

Once the roux paste is ready, add the milk and bring to a gentle boil just briefly and remove it from the heat once it has thickened.

Pour this hot mixture into a large bowl and quickly stir in the egg yolks (barely beaten), the pepper, and the cheese – allowing it to cool for approximately 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, beat the egg whites until soft peaks form. (You can add a tiny amount of cream of tartar or white vinegar to stabilize the whites if you wish).

Next, you gently fold the whites into the yolks mixture in two batches.

Now, divide the mixture amongst your prepared soufflé dishes and bake about 15 minutes or until they are puffed and lightly browned on the tops.

I served mine with a creamed spinach sauce that was a fantastic compliment to the slightly spicy and cheesy soufflés.

Here’s how:


INGREDIENTS:

1 Cup Baby Spinach Leaves, wilted (steamed, boiled, micro waved, etc.)
(Alternatively, thaw out a half cup or so of frozen spinach)
⅔ Cup Cream or Evaporated Milk
*Salt

*Amounts vary to individual tastes


DIRECTIONS:

To make a quick creamed spinach sauce, just steam a good bunch of fresh leaves or thaw out a portion of frozen spinach so that you have about a half to a cup of wilted leaves, give or take.

Blend or otherwise puree the leaves whilst slowly adding the cream/milk and return this mixture to heat in a small saucepan. Add a bit of water or regular milk if the consistency is too thick for your liking.

Heat until warmed through and salt to taste.

Bon appetite!