San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Spirits rise with Sunday souffles
For the past three months my quarantine pod and I have made souffles every Sunday, which we aptly call Souffle Sunday. It started out as an excuse to use the gleaming copper bowl my friend’s mother gave her, but when we embarked on this journey to souffle mastery, I had no idea that making these pillowy-soft egg dishes would become a reliable and resilient tradition, lifting and fortifying my tender 2020 spirits just like the souffle itself. It’s been a dinner I look forward to every single week, without fatigue.
Because of the hype surrounding souffles and their difficulty, we were anxious in those first weeks, but we quickly learned that our anxiety was baseless. Sure, our attempts needed some work — the seasoning was hardly present one week, a high oven temp made one souffle rise too quickly, and our batch sizes landed us with a hodgepodge of ramekins requiring different cooking times. But they tasted as if we’d done God’s work. Seeing raw ingredients transform into an airy, delicious cloud of flavor is really satisfying every single time. During each Sunday dinner we’re already brainstorming next week’s flavor.
Whatever we settled on had to work with souffle’s basic form, which has two common components: a flavored sauce, like a bechamel with cheese added, and stiff-peaked whipped egg whites.
Our premiere was a classic Gruyère with nutmeg, but we quickly moved on to aged white cheddar ( Fiscalini Farmstead) and butter-melted leeks; fresh goat’s cheese, lemon and grated sunchokes; Bay Blue with a puckery dressed salad; and a charmer for me: chunks of triple cream cow’s milk cheese ( Mount Tam from Cowgirl Creamery) and chopped Meyer lemon.
Besides flavors, each week gave us the opportunity to test out different methods. We tried more or fewer eggs to adjust the overall size, strengthening/ torturing our arm muscles by hand-whipping in a copper bowl. A chemist will tell you that when you use a copper bowl to beat egg whites, copper ions combine with proteins in the whites to make the beaten mixture more stable, thus yielding a more resilient souffle. We found this to be true, but also found that using a motorized mixer with a steel bowl and a pinch of cream of tartar was just as effective.
As 2020 nears its end, it makes sense to share my new tradition. We have a lot of iconic local flavors to employ here. While Dungeness crab season is delayed, local shops like BiRite Market have picked Dungeness from Oregon. Chunks of bloomy-rinded triple cream Mount Tam may seem over the top, but trust me, they add the perfect salty butter and white mushroom notes. Bins at the farmers’ markets are filled with Meyer lemons, which can be used in the souffle batter and in a separate chive butter sauce. I love a souffle on its own, don’t get me wrong. But this sauce adds fresh allium flavor, really bright lemon and more rich butter — you can’t go wrong with it.
Some people went on weekly hikes to keep themselves sane in 2020. We made souffles on Sundays. Jan. 1 won’t land on a Sunday, but I’m going into this new year like a souffle: rising up, breathing out. Always resilient and wearing a mask.