Goat Cheese Soufflé

I am not a great cook. I don’t have the intuition for what a dish needs to make it better (my solution is always chipotle sauce or truffle oil, both picked up from L). But I can follow instructions like nobody’s business, and I have a few impressive dishes in my arsenal, like this goat cheese soufflé. It combines several of my favorite things: goat cheese, ramekins, and yelling at my friends to eat their food at a specific moment (you wouldn’t want the soufflé to fall before you get credit for it!). The problem is that I can never keep my mouth shut and let people assume I cook like this all the time. I always let the cat out of the bag that I ate frozen peas the night before. (Actually, much like I’m doing with this post.)

Makes 4 servings with 2 ramekins per person

Ingredients:

5 tablespoons butter

3 tablespoons flour

1 cup milk

4 eggs

4 oz soft goat cheese (You can also use some Gruyere and/or Parmesan cheese, just keep the total quantity to 4 oz)

Finely grated Parmesan cheese

Fresh thyme

Cayenne

Salt

Black pepper

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 400° Fahrenheit.

Melt 5 tablespoons butter in a heavy saucepan over medium heat.

Stir in 3 tablespoons flour and cook for 2 minutes until it starts to thicken – keep stirring and don’t let it burn.

Add a couple tablespoons of milk, whisk until it bubbles and thickens, then repeat until you’ve added 1 cup of milk total. It should get pretty thick each time, especially in the beginning it’s nearly paste. Make sure it’s not sticking to the bottom and burning.

Add salt, fresh ground black pepper, the leaves of 1 sprig of fresh thyme, and a pinch of cayenne (or whatever your favorite spice is).

Cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes. Then take it off the heat and allow it to cool slightly.

Separately from the béchamel sauce you’ve just made, split 4 eggs into whites and yolks. Keep the whites aside (you’ll need them later) and add the yolks to the béchamel.

Add 4 oz soft goat cheese, and a little more salt.

Butter 8 ramekins and sprinkle finely grated Parmesan cheese into them, so the cheese coats the inside of the ramekins.

Whip the egg whites into moist firm peaks. Stir 1/3 of the whites into the soufflé base, then gently fold the rest of the egg whites in with a rubber spatula. Be super gentle – you don’t want to deflate the whites.

Pour the soufflé mixture into your prepared ramekins and bake for 10 minutes until they’ve risen and the tops are golden.

Make all of your guests come into the kitchen and admire your soufflés when you take them out of the oven, because they’re pretty much guaranteed to fall immediately. Don’t worry, though, they still taste great after they’ve fallen.

Adapted from Alice Waters’ The Art of Simple Food. Everyone knows the best part about food blogs is the photos, but I’ve never taken pictures of this recipe because the timing is too precarious. Sorry!