using up apples

It all started when we got more apples in the basket this week. We found a recipe for Apple and Cheddar Souffle in the Enchanted Broccoli Forest, and thought, great, we’ll make that. Never mind that we had been making all our souffles from the Julia Child cookbook, and they had turned out quite well. Never mind all that. We decided that this was it, and we would use up more apples, and that would be great.

goat milk

We also thought it would be a good time to use Goat Milk, which I had been wanting to do for some time. So here is the recipe. Perhaps it will work for others, but certainly didn’t for us.

• 2 cups of milk (we used goat milk)
• 2 tbs butter
• 6 tbs rice flour
• 6 eggs separated
• 1 cup grated cheddar
• 2 cups grated apples
• a bit of nutmet
• 3/4 tsp salt

It wasn’t like we didn’t follow the direction, because we did.

finished

But, it didnt’ rise, and it didn’t sink when we got it out. And it didn’t taste quite right, even when cooled, so this was one that we just tossed out, when we had finished tasting it.

Only duck eggs left

Cartoonist invited her friend over to cook, and they decided to try the souffle again, but this time, having used up the last orange in the house, they set out to make an Almond Souffle instead, as we have a plethora of almonds. I keep them around to munch on.

But, I had no chicken eggs left. I had used them all up when my sweetie and my mother we staying with us, and all I had left were duck eggs. I get the duck eggs from Camp Joy, my CSA. They are quite a bit larger then hen eggs, so I told Cartoonist to use one less than the recipe called for.

Bouilie sauce with almond meal

The thing about the almond version is that it called for pulverized toasted almonds.  According to the Julia Child cookbook, one should pulverize them in a blender or processor, and to add sugar as you pulverize them. Well, knowing the luck I have had with the blender, and not having any toasted almonds, I just grabbed some almond meal and handed that to Cartoonist and told her to use that. Not as sweet as the version in the cookbook, but very almond tasting. The mix was sweet enough as it was.  It did make the mix very brown though.

Finished Almond Souffle

Cartoonist and her friend folded in the egg whites, and put the souffle in the oven. When they took it out, it had hardly risen, and it was at that point that they realized they had not added the butter, which should have gone in the sauce. It still tasted good, though it wasn’t light and airy, and everyone who tasted it agreed that it tasted good, but more like an almond cake then a souffle.

So, now we had two souffles in as many days, and we couldn’t possibly eat them all, and it seemed a shame to throw it out.

Baggie of souffle

Fortunately, Cartoonist was working this week at the Art Center, and the teacher had heard about her cooking and asked to have some, so Cartoonist took it to work with her in a baggie. Not the best presentation, but it tasted good, and was enjoyed by all.

Mixing the bouilie sauce base

After the disaster that was the cheese souffle, Cartoonist wanted to make a different flavor, so I told her to try making a sweet souffle. She thought that sounded like a good idea, so jumped into it. Once again we turned to the Julia Child Cookbook, and she picked out the Souffle a l”Orange. We still had some left over half and half, so she didn’t have to use yogurt to make the bouille sauce It thickened up well, but we didn’t want to do what the cookbook suggested which was mash the sugar lumps against an orange. Instead Cartoonist used the zest of the orange and put it into the sauce.

Mixing the egg whites

Having made marange, she was now an old hand at mixing the egg whites, and they got nice and fluffy. Instead of just vanilla extract, she also put in almond extract, and we didn’t have an orange liqueur, but we found a liqueur, and figured that was better than nothing.

Cartoonist followed the rest of directions and put it in the mold and then into the oven.

Finished sweet souffle

It rose just fine, but of course, as soon as as we punctured it, it fell. Tasted good, though it was sweet, and we put the left overs in a baggie, not sure what to do with them, until later.

I don’t like cheese. There, that being said, why in the earth did I make something with cheese in it yesterday. Well, as I tried to explain to whomever would listen, because it was the first first recipe under souffles. That was the only reason.

Fallen souffle

Next time I will make something I enjoy making. I only ate the first bit, because it said to serve right away, and I try to obey what the books tell me to do.

But now, a day later, it has fallen, very much, and I’m taking little bits off it, tasting the cheese and saying, yuck.

So, tomorrow’s recipe is going to be something I wouldn’t mind eating (and I’d better not mind it, because Cartoonist is out of town, and there is no one else but the cats and dog.  She said to share it with someone, but with the souffle in the shape it is in, the only thing that I can share it with is the compost.

Cook book, and Souffle bowl

One of the products that I bought, the other day, was a souffle bowl. I had wandered all over Chef Works, looking for one, but didn’t realize that it was supposed to be glass, as I had only seen the dessert kind. After walking through the whole shop, I finally had to ask for one. I brought it home, and set it, and the Julia Child cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cooking down together.  I guess I thought I wanted them to know each other better.Perhaps if the dish hung out with the book long enough it would pick up some tips and work right when I cooked it.

I hadn’t cooked anything from that book, but it seemed to have the clearest directions, of my cook books, on how to make a souffle, so I knew I would have to plunge in at some point.

The recipe is on page 163 of the book. I only changed a few things, and made note of what I changed.

I studied the cookbook, reading through what I needed to do, or so I thought. I mean, I knew I need to separate out the eggs, and that the dish had to rise in the oven, so I figured I had it all covered.

I grated out the Vegetarian Parmesan cheese that I had bought for the polenta bake and set it aside. I took the eggs out and preheated the oven. I was doing everything right.

yogurt and flour mixture

I set out the sauce pan to make the sauce. I put in the 3 tb of butter, and grabbed my gluten free flour, but then noticed that I was to add a cup of boiling milk. I had no milk, having used it up the other day to make more yogurt. I did have soy milk, though and figured it would work, which is what Cartoonist also thought would work. I told her it did not, because one of the things the milk was supposed to do was thicken, and the soy milk wouldn’t thicken. I had to toss the whole thing out, and start again, but still not having milk, I put in a cup of boiled yogurt. That seemed to work fine, though it looked funny going in. I could not find any Cayenne pepper, so left that out.

Souffle before cooking

The next bit was a bit confusing, as it wasn’t clear if I was supposed to keep the mix in the pan, or move it to a bowl.  There were instructions about taking it on and off the stove, which I did, but at one point it looked as though I was supposed to bold and mix things, and it didn’t seem quite right to keep doing it in the pan. After a while, I moved it to a bowl, when I had to fold in the whipped eggs.

I separated out the eggs, and after all we went through with the merange, this wasn’t as hard as it had been, because I made sure not to get my skin oils on it, and keep everything clean and not over whip. Wow.

finished souffle

I took the souffle out after 30 minutes, and it turned out fine, though cheesy, as I told Cartoonist. Well, which recipe did you use? she asked. Souffle Fromage (which of course means cheese souffle.) She laughed. Of course it is going to be cheesy.

But now that I’ve got the hange of it, I’m going to see about the other ones. Not so scary now that I have done it. In face, when I bought the souffle dish at Chef Works the woman who checked me out said she had had no trouble making her first one, which made me feel a little better that this one turned out fine.

If I had any advice I would say have three whisks around, because there are three points you will have to whisk something, and it gets old having to wash the whisk off each time.

Using so many eggs (five) makes me, more than ever, to start raising chickens. I will have to talk to a friend that does so, and see how hard it will be.  As of now, I’m still buying them at the Farmer’s Market, and getting duck eggs from my CSA. I did not use the duck eggs in this.