All cooked and ready to eat
I have a confession, Faithful Reader: I've never tried making a soufflé. My impression is that they are persnickety. And I've never eaten one so I have no idea what it's supposed to taste like. But I'm not going to let either of these things deter me. I'm intrigued by an onion soufflé I came across in Fannie Farmer's What to Have for Dinner so let's try making it.
Ingredients needed
The directions start off a bit vague: boil onions, rub through a sieve to get 1 1/4 cup onion pulp. This evidently takes about 2-3 medium onions. I boiled 3 onions and now have extra onion pulp which I have no idea what to do with. (Suggestions welcome!) But other than the onion amount, the ingredient list was detailed enough to.
Onion Soufflé:
(Adapted from Fannie Farmer's What to Have for Dinner, 1905 edition)
Ingredients:
2-3 medium onions
4 T butter
4 T flour
1/3 cup cream
3 eggs, separated
Instructions:
1. Heat a medium saucepan full of salted water to boiling.
2. Peel and slice into thick rounds 2 to 3 medium onions. Boil onions until soft. Reserve cooking liquid.
3. Puree onions in food processor until pureed.
4. Melt butter in medium sauce pan, add flour and cook until pale brown.
5. Pour in 1/3 cup cooking water, cream, and onion puree. Stir.
7. Stir in egg yolks.
8. Beat egg whites until stiff.
9. Fold whites into onion mixture.
10. Turn into buttered dish and bake at 350 F for 25 minutes. (N.B. My oven runs cold and it took 50 minutes for me.)
11. Serve immediately.
A texture I like and cannot describe.
Results:
It's good. Texture-wise: sorta like really fluffy scrambled eggs but with a nice onion-y flavor. Or as I told Beta Taster, "it's a bit like grits but without the grain." And serves about 3 to 4 people. Also, soufflés are not as persnickety as I imagined. In fact, it was a bit of a let down. I'd braced myself for a difficult recipe and instead found something well within my cooking capabilities. I'm sure there's a life lesson in here somewhere. Probably about facing down things that you think are intimidating. Thanks for tuning in.
