Thursday, November 6, 2008

corn meal souffle





I don't even know what I'm doing any more, or what to call things. Here's what I did. 

Cracked two smallish eggs into the immersion blender cup. Whipped them on high into a froth. Added milk, a palm full of coarse corn meal, about a tablespoon of flour, 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda, 1/2 teaspoon baking powder, salt, pepper, then a tablespoon of sour cream to activate the baking soda. This gives me three forms of lift: eggs, baking soda, baking powder. So whatever happens, this thing is going to be lifted. Cut a slice of sandwich cheddar into pieces then rolled the stuck together bits in a small amount of flour so they'd suspend in the mixture. This failed. They sank anyway. So did the corn meal bits. My mixture was thin. Dumped it into a buttered dish and put it in the little convection oven then watched it like a box television, rise and spill out. I cracked open the top with a knife to give the foam inside a bigger exit hole so it didn't continue to  spill over one side. It was fun!

See how this differs from a proper well-considered souffle?  Usually, you'd make a sauce containing the egg yolks and fold it into whipped egg whites. Bah!  I didn't bother with any of that.  

The breakfast sausage comes in a big fat log. I cut off two thick chunks and smashed them into thin discs between plastic. Sliced half an onion and used it to lift the fond off the pan.

This was easy as pie to make. Eating pie, not making pie, but it's still easier than making a pie. And it's a great break from the usual fare, but it would have been a lot better with a sauce. A light lemony sauce. That'll be my next thing -- light lemony sauces.

It would have also been better if I took the time to prepare the baking dish with more than just butter so the crusty bits wouldn't have stuck to the dish. I knew better but I just couldn't be arsked, because then we'd be getting into pie-making difficulty territory, and the whole point was to be careless. 

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