Hot Cheese Souffle

This is a quick and easy recipe that doesn’t need too many ingredients.

Ingredients

• Butter – 12 g
• Maida – 12 g
• Milk – 120 ml
• Grated cheese – 25 g
• Salt – 1/6 t
• Pepper powder – a dash
• Mustard powder- a dash
• Egg – 1

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C.
2. Separate the egg white and the yolk.
3. Melt butter in saucepan and stir in the maida.
4. Gradually add the milk and bring to a boil. Stir till the mixture is smooth and thick.
5. Cool the mixture a little. Add the grated cheese, seasoning and the egg yolk. Beat well.
6. Separately beat the egg whites till they form stiff peaks. Fold in the stiff whites in the above mentioned mixture. Pour this in an oven proof dish.
7. Cook at 200 degrees C for 15-20 minutes till it turns golden brown and is well risen.

Ensure the following:

1. This recipe serves 1. So multiply it by as many people you need to cook for.
2. Containers used should be to be dry
3. The egg yolk and white should be separated very well.
4. Use clean bowls and beater.
5. Serve the soufflé immediately. In time it sinks.

Source: Basic Food Preparation published by Orient Longman. This is a book used by all Home Science students in Delhi. It pretty much works like their Bible! Its a very well researched,precise and detailed book.

Lakshmi’s notes: Bring Milk to room temperature before you warm it with the All purpose flour. To separate eggs really well follow this link for fool proof method. Sweat it out to beat the egg white. It makes all the difference in the world. Seasonings of choice work with the recipe – I used a pinch of Wasabi, and it was delightful.

Mandira’s notes: You may end up with some lumps when you add the milk to the maida. It may help to warm the milk a little before adding. If you still get some lumps(which you probably will) dont worry too much. When you add the other ingredients and beat them together, the lumps will dissolve.

If you use this recipe as it is, you may find it difficult to measure such small quantities. In that case using a bit of approximation is alright. For example.1 tbsp of maida is about 15 gms. Two Brittania cheese cubes will give you about 25 gms of cheese.

Whatever you do just make sure you beat the egg white really,really well- thats what will make the souffle fluffy and light. And dont put the dish in the oven and go and watch tv- if left unmonitored in the oven,the top may turn too brown-just like mine did!!