I’m thinking of making these culinary experiments a weekly thing. To follow up on last week’s “Les Oeufs Jeanette,” today I cooked the next dish in Jacques Pépin’s book The Apprentice, which he calls “Maman’s Cheese Soufflé” (see recipe below). It’s relatively easy to make, but of course everything is more involved than my daily routine, which usually just entails unwrapping and re-heating something. So if I can cook it, anyone can. It turned out rather well, if I do say so myself. (Also, somehow I’m always impressed by dishes that involve using both the stove and the oven, which this does.) I would’ve paired this with a light white wine, but all I had was… apricot ale. Mmm, soufflé and beer.
I rounded out the evening at home watching To Catch a Thief over a few scoops of vanilla ice cream. Ah, Cary Grant and Grace Kelly on the French Riviera… parfait.
Maman’s Cheese Soufflé
Yield: 4 servings
6 Tbsp (¾ stick) unsalted butter, plus more to butter a 6-cup gratin dish
6 Tbsp all-purpose flour
2 cups cold whole milk
½ tsp salt
½ tsp freshly ground black pepper
5 extra-large eggs
2½ cups grated Swiss cheese, preferably Gruyère (about 6 oz)
3 Tbsp minced fresh chivesPreheat the oven to 400 degrees.
Butter a 6-cup gratin dish, and set it aside. Melt the butter in a saucepan, then add the flour, and mix it in well with a whisk. Cook for 10 seconds, add the milk in one stroke, and mix it in with a whisk. Keep stirring with the whisk until the mixture thickens and comes to a strong boil, which will take about 2 minutes. It should be thick and smooth. Remove from the heat, and stir in the salt and pepper. Allow about 10 minutes for the white sauce to cool.
Meanwhile, break the eggs into a bowl, and beat well with a fork. Add the eggs, the cheese, and the chives to the cooled sauce, and mix well to combine. Pour into the buttered gratin dish and cook immediately, or set aside until ready to cook.
Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, or until the soufflé is puffy and well browned on top. Although it will stay inflated for quite a while, it is best served immediately.
Some production notes: I used skim milk, just ’cause that’s what I usually drink and had in the ‘fridge, and it seemed to turn out fine. (I suppose whole milk would give it a little more substance.) Also, when I went to Linens N Things to get the hardware, I couldn’t find a gratin dish that large, so instead I used a round 1.5-quart casserole dish. Again, it was all right, but a gratin dish, which is oval and shallower, would’ve made for more even cooking.
Lastly (and this applies to all cooking, of course), keep an eye on it! My oven door doesn’t have a little window, so I should’ve known to check on the soufflé periodically, but I didn’t, and after 30 minutes, the top was already browner than it should’ve been. But otherwise, a tasty dish all around.