Cheese souffle (recipe by Julia Child)

I love Julia Child's book. It is a book that tells the different culinary techniques, knowing that the reader may not know anything about cooking, to go seeing them applied to the different recipes that it exposes, which are many. Thus, you are entering the culinary world, and the truth is that his passion for cooking invades you.

For those who do not know much (or nothing!) about cooking, it is undoubtedly a must to take it; and those who already have many notions, enjoy all the recipes that Julia proposes, and with which they can undoubtedly show off.

With that being said, I love that Carmen from Yerbabuena en la cocina put together one of the recipes found in Julia Child's book. An ideal proposal for the summer, and that I am convinced that you will enjoy .

Summer is coming strong and the heat is beginning to do its thing, it is becoming more and more difficult to fall asleep at night and it is increasingly desirable to prepare light or fresh things that not only help us feel better, but also have more time to enjoy family or friends without this implying an added effort while our long-awaited vacations arrive.

In my house we love snacks, informal meals, I really enjoy improvising a dinner with family and friends, and I admit that Saturday nights are very special to me, since I take the opportunity to be with my children sitting on the sofa around the table, while they are in charge of taking out of the fridge what they like the most, some cold cuts, pizzas, different types of cheeses that are never lacking at home...

That is why I could not resist showing you this Tellier "Frisette" cutter, which allows you to remove large shavings in the shape of rosettes called girolles, designed for Swiss Tête de Moine cheese, whose name means monk's head, and which comes from the Bellelay Abbey.

But going back to today's recipe, I will tell you that the soufflé is a classic of French cuisine, light, soft, delicate, and that excites both children and adults, whether in its sweet or savory versions.

And what better reference than Julia Child, icon of French cuisine, to learn how to make a good soufflé? His books are a culinary compendium of good work, with rigorously tested recipes and clear and precise instructions. Of North American origin, Julia Child elevated an act as everyday as cooking to something much more sublime and, as she titles her work, made The Art of French Cooking available to us.

I have followed the recipe in the book to the letter, just instead of using a larger pan, I have used these beautiful Le Creuset ramekins , which I have presented accompanied by a simple and rich salad of rocket, figs and girolles de Tête de Moine, which contrasts both in flavor and texture to perfection.

In the photo, Pallarès boxwood handle knife , Bérard olive wood board , Le Creuset ramekins , frisette cheese slicer , and Julia Child's books The Art of French Cooking, volumes 1 and 2.

Ingredients (4 people)

For the souffle:

• 3 tablespoons of butter
• 3 tablespoons of flour
• 1 Cup of boiling milk (200 g)
• 4 egg yolks
• 5 Egg whites
• ¾ cup grated Gruyère cheese
• 1 tablespoon grated Parmesan
• ½ teaspoon of salt
• White pepper
• A pinch of nutmeg
• Butter to spread in the molds
• Bread crumbs

For the salad:

• 1 package of arugula
• 4 figs cut into quarters
• 8 Girolles from Tete de Moine

For the vinaigrette:

• 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• Salt

Elaboration

1. Melt the butter in a saucepan, add the flour, stirring constantly, and leave over medium heat for about two minutes. Add the boiling milk and add the salt, pepper and nutmeg. We move with some rods to mix well and once it starts to boil we let it boil for a minute without stopping stirring. The béchamel has to be very thick. We get away from the fire.
2. Separate the whites from the yolks, add the latter one by one to the saucepan of milk, stir after each addition, until the last one is incorporated. We rectify salt.
3. Whip the egg whites until stiff, if we do it with an electric mixer we start with a low speed for one minute or until we see it start to foam, then add a pinch of salt and gradually increase the speed until we get shiny peaks.
4. Add a quarter of the whites to the mixture in the saucepan and integrate it with smooth movements. Add the Gruyère cheese and the Parmesan (both we will have grated them previously; the Microplane zester grater is fabulous for me, which you will surely have heard about because they say it is the best in the world); We also add the rest of the whites and stir with enveloping movements from the bottom up and to the center.
5. Pour the soufflé mixture into the ramenquines (I have used the ones from Le Creuset, but otherwise some mini-cocottes would also work), previously greased with a little butter and sprinkled with breadcrumbs, we must cover three quarters of the the containers. We tap the molds on the table and smooth the surface of the soufflé a little.
6. Preheat the oven to 205º. We place the ramenquines in the central part of the oven and lower the temperature to 190º, cook until we see that the surface begins to brown. We leave 4 or 5 minutes in the oven to give them a little more consistency.
7. To prepare the salad, take the Tête de Moine cheese out of the fridge for a while beforehand so that it warms up. We turn the blade of the cutter over it, remove the shavings in the shape of a flower and reserve.
8. Combine all the vinaigrette ingredients in a bowl and stir well. Cut the figs into quarters. Place the arugula in a salad bowl, dress it with the dressing and place it on the plates, leaving a hole for the ramequin . Place the figs and cheese flowers.
9. After 4 minutes, we immediately serve the soufflés with the salad.