On occasion, my dear friend Jessica comes over and we cook together.  We cocktail and catch up while making lunch and it’s one of my favorite ways to spend an afternoon.   Last week she stopped by, and still on a French high, we made Soufflé Au Fromage.  Surprisingly easy, super delicious and really pretty

Well, it was pretty.  Until it fell.  They were tall and mighty, until I took them out of the oven and they crashed.  Turns out, still delicious and totally worth it!   We whipped up a quick side salad with parmesan, pepper, raisins and a light olive oil dressing, sipped a lemony cocktail and it was absolutely perfect.

Soufflé Au Fromage (From Mastering The Art of French Cooking, Julia Child)

…Ingredients

1 tsp (for buttering mold), 3 Tb butter

1 Tb grated Swiss or Parmesan Cheese

3 Tb Flour

1 cup boiling milk

1/2 tsp salt

1/8 tsp pepper

pinch of cayenne pepper

pinch of nutmeg

4 egg yolks

5 egg whites

3/4 to 1 cup coarsely grated Swiss and/or Parmesan

…What You’ll Need

Soufflé Mold, 1 6-cup mold, or 6 individual molds

2.5 quart saucepan

wooden spatula or spoon

wire whip

… Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

Butter inside of soufflé mold and sprinkle with 1 Tb of grated cheese

Melt 3 Tb butter in the sauce pan.  Stir in the flour with a wooden spatula or spoon and cook over moderate heat until butter and flour foam together for 2 minutes without browning.  Remove from heat: when mixture has stopped bubbling, pour in all the boiling milk at once.  Beat vigorously with a wire whip until blended.  Beat in the seasonings.  Return over moderately high heat and boil, stirring with the wire whip for 1 minute.  Sauce will be very thick.

Remove from heat.  Immediately start to separate the eggs.  Drop the white in the egg white bowl, and the yolk into the center of the hot sauce. Beat the yolk into the sauce with the wire whip.  Continue in the same manner with the rest of the eggs.  Correct Seasoning.  *May be prepared ahead to this point.  Dot top of sauce with butter.  heat to tepid before continuing.

Add an extra egg white to the ones in the bowl and beat with a pinch of salt until stiff. *Add a pinch of Cream of Tartar to stiffen them.  Stir in a spoonful (about one quarter of the egg whites) into the sauce.  Stir in all but a tablespoon of the cheese.  Delicately fold in the rest of the egg whites.  Be careful not to overfold.

Turn the soufflé mixture into the prepared mold, which should be almost three quarters full.   Tap bottom of mold lightly on the table, and smooth the surface of the soufflé with the flat of a knife.  Sprinkle the remaining cheese on top.

Set on a rack in the middle of the preheated 400-degree oven and immediately turn heat down to 375.  Do not open oven door for 20 minutes.  In 25 to 30 minutes the soufflé will have puffed about 2 inches over the rim of the mold, and the top will be nicely browned.  Bake 4 to 5 minutes more to firm it up, then serve at once.