Four servings
INGREDIENTS
11/2 cups chopped King Bolete mushrooms (or substitute your choice of mushrooms)
9 oz. whole milk
1 oz. lightly salted butter (or olive oil)
2 oz. unsalted butter
2 oz. all-purpose flour
6 eggs
11/2 oz. cognac
DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 400 F. Melt 2 oz. lightly salted butter (or olive oil or garlic butter) in a medium-large skillet over a high heat. Add chopped mushrooms, stirring often, allowing the mushrooms to turn golden brown. Remove from heat.
In a saucepan, begin scalding 9 oz. whole milk over high heat. While milk is warming, melt 2 oz. unsalted butter in a second sauce pan, then slowly add 2 oz. all-purpose flour, a bit at a time, stirring with a wooden spoon. The flour should sizzle when added. When the paste-like butter and flour mixture has bubbled and cooked a bit, the milk should be starting to bubble. Remove the butter-flour mixture (known as a roux at this point) from heat and begin adding the hot milk, stirring vigorously, until you reach a porridge-like consistency. Add the browned mushrooms and mix.
Transfer everything to a large mixing bowl to cool. In a moment, you will be adding egg yolks and egg whites separately, and if the mushroom mixture is still hot, as it is right now, the eggs will begin cooking as they mix, and ruin everything. A helpful cooling-off trick is to use the paddle attachment on your kitchen blender to let the ingredients cool as they’re being mixed for no other reason on low speed.
Constant mixing represents no harm to the souffle at this stage.
While the mushroom-flour-milk mixture is cooling, separate 6 egg yolks and egg whites, saving the yolks and the whites separately. Grease well the insides of four or five oven-proof 10-oz. souffle bowls or ramekins. Sprinkle a bit of sugar in each bowl, then swirl around to coat the buttered surface. A single spot of uncoated bowl sides can cause the rising souffle to cling to the sides of the bowl, inhibiting perfection.
On low mixing speed, slowly begin adding dribbles and globs of egg yolks to the mushroom mixture.
Add the cognac, mixing a bit more. After 20 seconds or so of mixing, the ingredients should not be runny nor should they be a stiff paste. Imagine thick oatmeal. A clean finger dragged through the mixture should leave an alley whose walls slump inward slowly.
Now it’s time to mix the egg whites. On high speed in a separate bowl, whip the egg whites, along with a pinch of salt, until foamy and white. The frothy egg whites should form stiff peaks when a spoon is lifted out of the now-white foam. Or, you should be able to turn the bowl upside down without regret.
No more electric blending.
You have now entered a race between bubbles and time. You’ll want to fold the egg whites, which are now filled with microscopic air bubbles, into the mushroom-egg yolk mixture without popping a single tiny bubble in the egg whites. Air bubbles are what make a souffle taste like warm, delicious air.
Of course some tiny bubbles will pop. But pretend it’s possible to pull it off. And you do this by folding large portions of the mixture together with such light, gentle turns of a wide spatula that bubbles don’t realize they’re being moved around. You’re holding your breath as you do this.
Pour the mixture into each greased bowl, allowing about 1/2 inch of room at the top. Don’t fill the bowls completely. Bake at 400F for about 17 minutes or until each souffle has risen nicely and browned.
Meanwhile, pour chilled Chardonnay for everyone and ring the dinner bell loudly. Once removed from the oven, the souffle will eventually fall, so bring these party lightweights to your guests immediately.
Feel free to substitute your favorite wild mushrooms!
