Eggs + Air = Deliciousness
Even though I disdain Valentine’s Day as a “made-up” holiday, I am willing to use it as an excuse to make a delicious dinner.
The highlight of this year’s valentine’s meal was the souffle at the end.
Paul and I have a very special relationship with souffle. It was the dessert we had at our very fancy, way-out-of-our-price-range, first anniversary dinner. It is now funny to think of how overwhelmed we were by the sheer fanciness of everything.
It was a prix fixe menu. Not wanting to appear too unsophisticated, we ordered iced tea instead of sodas. I have no recollection of what appetizers or salads we had, though I know they were there. For the entrees, I went with the pepper-crusted steak while Paul thoroughly enjoyed the duck. And then we had dessert.
This was the first time ever that we had been required to commit to a dessert before the meal even began. But, as our very kind and patient waiter explained, souffles take time.
The dessert of the day was the Grand Marnier Souffle. We each had one placed in front of us, then the waiter plunged two spoons into the middle of them to make way for a dollop of whipped cream.
We were enchanted and impressed, and loved every moment of it. And ever since then, the souffle has held a special place in our hearts.
At that time, with my limited cooking skills, I never even considered trying to recreate the dish. Eight years ago I was braver and made my first souffle for our 10th anniversary.(Holy Cow! How OLD am I?) It was very egg-y tasting. Think puffy, sweet scrambled eggs. Not a good thing.
But over the years, my cooking skills have continued to improve, and I had a fridge-full of fresh, beautiful eggs that were calling to me. So I tried again, and it worked.
The recipe I used can be found here, so I won’t retype it. The only think I did differently was not using orange oil, since I didn’t have any.
Otherwise, it was really easy. Buttered and sugared the ramekins, and made the recipe up to the point of beating the egg whites. Then, after dinner, it was a simple matter of beating and folding in the egg whites, spooning everything into the ramekins, and baking.
And savoring.
Tags: baking, romantic, sweets
Recipes | greengrassliving | 
April 9, 2009 12:11 pm
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