Roquefort Souffle

Souffle=Scary... Or so I thought. After hearing many stories of souffle failures, I became too nervous to even try such a feat. Keeping true to my New Year's resolution, "be fearless", I found it suiting to make a souffle as one of my first new food ventures. I recently purchased Barefoot in Paris, an Ina Garten cookbook (Christmas gift for my mother, that I tend to monopolize), and found a wonderful recipe for a Roquefort souffle. I decided that this would be my first attempt. I studied and calculated each step, so when it came time I would be prepared. I found a comparable recipe in Food and Wine, and made some edits to form a finalized outline of the recipe that I would try.

Before starting I made sure I had all of my equipment out and ingredients prepared and measured: Mise en place. All I had to do was make sure everything was combined properly. I was extremely nervous that my souffle was going to fall, and as anxious as I was, I made sure not to open the oven until the complete 20 minutes had passed (cardinal rule of making souffles: DO NOT OPEN THE OVEN!).

It was light...it was fluffy...it was... SENSATIONAL! I couldn't believe my eyes when I opened the oven and the perfectly golden and fluffy tops held strong. They were begging for someone with a fork to pierce them and devour the deliciousness inside. The nutmeg and cayenne pepper proved to be excellent accents for the full-flavored, earthy Roquefort blue cheese. I chose to serve it with a light mixed green salad and roasted pork tenderloin for a substantial dinner. (This would also be perfect with a fruit tart for brunch). My drink of choice was a 2007 Hermann J. Wiemer Dry Riesling; a nice balance for the bold flavors in this dish.

My first attempt at a culinary success! I will maintain my fearlessness and try a souffle again, perhaps with a different cheese, spinach and/or ham!

GO FOR IT!

Nora

New Food Venture 1: Poached Pears

In my down time I tend to be a foodnetwork junkie. From Thanksgiving to Christmas I have seen poached pears made over and over AND over again. They look so elegant and light...what a nice way to end a meal. I always have to have something sweet after dinner and the holiday season has left me all cookied and cheese-caked out, so I decided for my first new food venture I would attempt poached pears. Typically pears are poached in a sweet wine and spice mixture. After studying a few different recipes, I decided to put my own spin on it and threw a bunch of things I thought would work into a pot, hoping for the best. I chose a Madeira wine and added sugar, honey, whole all-spice berries, a cinnamon stick, bay leaf, orange peal and vanilla to it. I decided to use Bosc pears; I really like their shape and they are sturdier than other pears.

The boiling wine and spice mixture made the whole house smell like winter--it was fantastic. Madeira was a good choice for a base; it is sweet enough that it really doesn't need much else to make a great sauce, and the color is wonderful. I considered using a Riesling but I don't think it would have made as much of a statement. I served the pears with the warm poaching liquid (after reducing) and vanilla ice cream, which combined into creamy-syrup sauce that was delicious. Unfortunately, I don't think I poached my pears properly, as they were still a bit hard and caused eating to be both challenging and messy. I know the pears were ripe because I purchased them about 3 days in advance, so that couldn't have been the issue. The poached pear is supposed to be very tender just break with a spoon...I needed a knife to cut mine.

Next time I am going to poach the pears for a longer time or use Anjou pears which are a bit smaller and naturally more tender. I guess this was lesson number one for the New Year. I will definitely attempt these again. They are so simple to make, can be done in advance and would surely impress company. This dessert is the perfect dinner party dessert for the fall/winter. Lesson learned, and still waiting to master this method.

Staying committed,

Nora

New Year: New Blog

2010 is rapidly approaching, and although I am not a complete believer in New Year's resolutions (seriously do people ever keep them past the second week in January?), I think it is important to set goals. Aside from getting a job after college, I am going to take some inspiration from the movie Julie and Julia(a recent Christmas gift from my parents who know me too well), and write a more focused blog. No, I'm not going to copy the premise of that movie and no, I'm not going to stop writing about my bread, cheese and wine revelations. This year, I am going to be brave and attempt to master new culinary skills. I want to make souffle, fillet a fish, de-bone a duck, make sushi and attempt to create my own sauces. Honestly you never know until you try, and you learn from your mistakes so why not take risks? I'm still a student, so it is hard to focus my life around food, but I am going to explore at least one new dish each week until graduation in May, and grow from there. For consistency's sake I will publish my attempts on Sundays, and if I have any additional thoughts or foodie experiences I'll provide those sparingly in separate blogs through out the week. I think this is a realistic goal. I'm committing.


Game On,

Nora