The Perfect Souffle :)

I have been enamoured by souffles for quite sometime. And, I will be the first to admit that my many failures to make the perfect one has added not insignificantly to the appeal of the dish. That is not to say that the souffle does not stand up for itself by taste alone. But, sometimes the skill required to make the perfect dish stretches the desirability beyond the line!

As any moderately accomplished chef will tell you, the secret to the perfect souffle is in beating the egg whites to a frothy lightness that adds air and bounce to the dish. Get the right consistency for the whipped whites and manage to not break its fluffiness while incorporating it into the rest of the dish and you have sailed home. After watching many, many of Giada's and Ina's shows on Food Network, I found out that the skill is much aided by just a light touch of the sacred ingredient, Cream of Tartar!

Ah! what a world this is that gives us such awesome stuff as cream of tartar! It acts as a stabilizing agent that helps keep the egg whites peaks from not breaking. A teeny pinch of it is all that is required. The science behind it is amazingly simple; Egg whites are the rare few of nature's stuff that are completely non-acidic i.e. they are alkaline. And cream of tartar is an acid salt. A little bit of both is need for maintaining balance and that is exactly how it works to create the perfect egg white peaks and hence, souffle.

Science aside, the sheer joy of seeing your egg whites not fall flat and dissipate when combined into rest of the dish is totally worth the rather steep price of the salt. And discovering this simple helper has made my life so much easier to make a variety of stuff involving beating egg whites - souffles, meringues etc.

Now that I have laid open the secrets to making of a perfect souffle, let me tell you about my shrimp version of it. I wanted to make shrimp souffle; where I got the inspiration, I don't know but I was adamant about bringing the shrimp and souffle together. I googled and did not find an appealing recipe. So I kind of made up one of my own. It is a bit of an effort but is totally worth it.

It makes for a nice project for a lazy Sunday lunch; no hurry to eat and a large appetite to appease. :) And, you can easily substitute the shrimp with crab meat or tuna. I would, as I did, serve it with a light salad and a generous helping of the shrimp sauce on souffle and salad. The salad takes away from the heaviness of all the eggs in the souffle and the sauce harmoniously marries everything on the plate together.

Update: Since the first attempt using the perfect recipe but imperfect dish, I recreated the dish with the right sized dish. Have updated the picture in this site! Doesn't it look gorgeous?! :)

Shrimp Souffle with Shrimp and Wine Sauce
(Serves 2-3)

3/4 lb medium sized shrimps peeled and de-veined
1 medium red onion diced fine
1 clove of garlic minced
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp dried oregano
2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp cayenne
5 egg whites
4 egg yolks
1/8 tsp cream of tartar
1/4 cup grated Parmesan + 2 T for coating souffle dish
4 T butter
3 T all purpose flour
1 cup whole milk
1/2 cup white wine
1/2 cup fish/clam/shrimp stock
1/2 cup half & half or light cream
3/4 tsp tomato paste
salt and pepper to taste
olive oil as needed

Heat the oil in a medium pan, saute onions until they are translucent. Toss in the cleaned shrimp along with the thyme, oregano, paprika, cayenne, salt and pepper. Saute for a 5-6 minutes until the shrimps are completely cooked and opaque. Remove from heat and cool. Divide the shrimp mixture into two parts - finely mince one and rough chop the other.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Heat the milk till it is scalding but not boiling. In a sauce pan over low heat, melt 3T of butter and add 3 T of flour to it. Stir the mixture continuously till the flour is cooked and the roux is light golden, about 2-3 minutes. Add the hot milk and continue stirring till the mixture thickens and becomes smooth. Remove from heat and mix in the egg yolks one at a time. Stir in the parmesan and the finely minced shrimp mixture.

In a large bowl, whisk together egg whites, pinch of salt and cream of tartar. Beat on low speed for 1 minute, on medium speed for 1 minute, then finally on high speed until they form firm, glossy peaks. Whisk 1/4 of the egg whites into the shrimp and white sauce mixture and then carefully fold in the rest.

Pour into a 1-1/2 quarts souffle dish that has been buttered and coated lightly with parmesan cheese. Smooth the top. Place in the middle rack of the oven. Turn the temperature down to 375 degrees and bake for 30-35 minutes until puffed and golden.

Important: Do NOT open the oven in between to check!

While the souffle bakes, add stock to the pan in which shrimp mixture was made. Over medium heat, add the wine to it to deglaze it. Reduce the mixture to half. Add the tomato paste and rough minced shrimp mixture and cook for 2-3 minutes. Stir in the cream and remove from heat. Just before serving, reheat the sauce and melt in 1T of butter. Sauce will be chunky in texture which lets you taste the shrimp as you bite into the bits.

Serve the souffle immediately after removing from oven with a generous helping of the shrimp and wine sauce and green salad.

Have a happy Sunday!