Cheese souffle with sweet red onion chutney
April 29, 2012 |
| A simple supper made a bit special by a sweet red onion chutney hiding underneath the fluffy souffle |
On a lazy Sunday, especially if I've made good use of my drink accompanying nibbles on a Saturday, I like to keep suppers simple. Supper to me is a light meal later in the evening than dinner, enough to fill you up but not too much to make you fall into a stupor and miss the last little bits of the weekend.
It's also another one of my ways of using up left over bits from meals in the week. I had some cheese sauce left over from my bake leeks last Sunday so I poured it into a freezer pot and kept it frozen knowing I can defrost it overnight in the fridge or quickly in a pan on the hob ready for a simple supper.
Recipe:
For the souffle:
Use the ramekin you want the souffle to fill when its finished to measure your cheese sauce, you will need about half a ramekin full of cheese sauce per finished souffle, you can always make more if you don't have left overs! Use the recipe here http://bit.ly/IJDeSE
1 egg per souffle
For the sweet red onion jam:
This recipe will give you enough for your souffles and some over, use it will cheese on crackers or in sandwiches with cold roasted meats.
2 red onions
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
5 tbsp red wine vinegar
4 tbsp jam sugar
Start by turning the oven on to 180c.
I make the chutney first so that it has time to reduce and thicken whilst you make the souffles. Slice the onions up quite finely and fry in a little oil in a frying pan on a high heat, once they have softened and glistening splash in the balsamic vinegar, it will sizzle and fizz and reduce quite quickly which will make it sweet. When it has reduced to a sticky syrup pour in the the red wine vinegar and shake over the jam sugar, swirl the pan until the sugar has dissolved then turn down the heat to a gentle simmer and leave to reduce and thicken until its a deep glossy, claret red.
Now you can move on to your souffle, defrost or melt the saved cheese sauce or make a batch of cheese sauce following the recipe here http://bit.ly/IJDeSE. Warm your cheese sauce on a gentle heat in a saucepan and keep stirring it so it doesn't burn.
Crack your eggs, holding back the yolks and letting the eggs whites drain through your fingers into a very clean and grease free bowl. Plop the egg yolks into the pan of sauce and stir in, the mixture should thicken a little and become a little more golden. Take the pan off the heat and stand aside, using an electric hand whisk beat the egg whites until they are thick and fluffy and stand in stiff peaks when you pull the whisk beater out of the whites.
Using a silicon spatula fold the egg whites into the cheese sauce and yolk mixture ever so gently so that the puffiness of the whites is not lost.
Now take a heaped tablespoon of your sweet red onion jam and drop it into the bottom of your souffle pots. Then pour the souffle mixture into your ramekins, make sure you wipe around the tops and clean up any spills, you will serve the souffles in these dishes so it's nice if they look smart.
Bake the souffle in the oven until it has risen a good inch to two inches above the top of the ramekin and has formed a lovely golden brown crust on top.
Serve up with a fresh salad as a perfect Sunday evening supper.
0 comments