Chile Daikon String-bean Creamed-corn Souffle
OK, you've clicked into the domain of the all-caps-intimidating SOUFLEE. Don't worry, just try it & you'll see how easy it is. Disregard the horror stories, try it a few times, and souflees will likely become a mainstay of your culinary repertoire. First get yourself a souflee dish. I forget their fancy name, but they're flat-bottomed and vertical-walled, and if you just go to a food supply place & ask for a souffle bowl, you'll be fine. Either get the medium (I recommend the medium ~7" diameter size. They come in bigger sizes, as well as small 3-4" individual ones, but medium is a good size to learn on; the recipes will be a manageable size, and you only have to worry about one dish.)
The typical story of course, is that the souflee falls. Well, it's supposed to, so just serve it straight from the oven. The other problem is that it may not rise much-- even then it's good eating, but in any case don't worry, because just pay attention to the following two points:
1) Keep even tiny bits of yolks out of your egg whites. Yolks are oily and even a drop will make beating whites into a foam much harder.
2) Basically, you make the yolk-milk-flour part, and combine it with the foamy beaten whites, then pop it into the oven. Combining is not hard, simply use a full third of your whites and mix it pretty well into the yolk-milk-flour; I know you've been told this is delicate, but go ahead and combine well. The remaining 2/3s of whites, you can be extremely delicate, and fold gently (not mix) and just barely into the yolk-milk-flour. The first third needs to be well-mixed so it "lubricates" your thick yolk-milk-flour so that it gracefully allows itself to be folded. At first, don't try less than a full third of the whites for the initial mixing. You can experiment yourself on later attempts.
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups diced string beans
4" of a daikon, or about 3/4 cups radishes
3/4 cups diced hatch chile, or 3-7 dried red chile peppers
1 cup creamed corn; or same amount whole-kernel corn
5 Tbsp. butter
3/4 cup grated gruyere cheese
1/2 tsp minced peeled fresh ginger
salt & white pepper
2 1/2 Tbsp Flour
3/4 c hot milk
3 eggs yolks, 4 egg whites, at room temperature.
Preheat oven to 450. Butter a medium souffle dish well, then sprinkle with 1/4c gruyere or parmesan cheese. The butter and cheese lubricate the souflee as it rises in the oven. Dice beans, chiles, daikon. The daikon should be sliced into medallions about 1/4-1/2" thick, then quartered; if you are using radishes, quarter them in two slices.
Melt 2 Tbsp butter in skillet over medium heat. Add garlic & ginger and cook 1 minute. Add daikon, pepper, and string beans and cook saute lightly for 1 minute but no more, as they will cook further in the oven later. Mix in corn, then set skillet aside to cool.
Melt 2 tbsp butter in heavy saucepan over medium heat. Add flour, and cook 2 minutes, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon but do not let brown. Remove from heat, and when bubbling stops mix in half of the hot milk and return to heat. Stir in remaining milk and cook 2 minutes until thick. Add salt & pepper to taste. Transfer mixture to a large bowl, and whisk in egg yolks one at a time.
Beat egg whites in a bowl until forming stiff peaks. Be careful that no drops of yolk are in the whites when you separate the eggs. Add in 1/3 of the whites to the yolk mixture and fold in lightly but thoroughly, then partially fold in vegetable mixture and remaining cheese. With this first 1/3 of whites, it is better to fold too thoroughly into the yolk-flour mixture than less so, although over-mixing is definitely to be avoided. Then very gently fold in remaining whites extremely gently. Spoon into souffle dish. The souffle may rise several inches, so the oven rack should be set low enough to allow clearance. Bake 18-25 minutes until browned.
Serve immediately. A pie-cutter is handy to cut around the edge of the dish to the bottom, then taking out pie-shaped slices.
Notes: I like the slight sweetness that creamed corn adds to this recipe, although the consistency may end up slightly watery. Also I often choose the hot variety of green hatch chiles or many dried red peppers to make this a very spicy dish, but the chiles may be omitted altogether if desired. The daikon & string beans do most of their cooking in the oven, and should be delightfully crunchy. Of course if you have no gruyere handy, you can always try with a light cheese like a regular swiss or mozarella. The proportions in this recipe may result in slightly too much vegetable mix, so you can always set some aside to eat by itself as an appetizer.
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