“Don’t be afraid”

I know she’s like one of the most famous chefs out there, but the truth is, I had never made a Julia Child recipe in my life.

I guess it always just seemed really intimidating. Especially after I purchased her 700-plus page cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cooking.  I mean, holy crap, that’s not a cookbook, that’s a manual.

As it turns out, though, it wasn’t nearly as bad as a I thought to prepare a soufflé from scratch. It was fun, actually. And it was pretty much just like any other cookbook I’ve made my way through (minus the glossy photos). It’s simple: Follow the recipe step-by-step and it’ll turn out. My soufflé didn’t even sink! Success.

As part of a challenge lead by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel I (along with a handful of other Wisconsin foodie bloggers) was asked to pick one recipe from Child’s famous cookbook. You know, sort of a mini version of Julie and Julia, which will make its way into theaters August 7. Julie Powell, a foodie blogger just like me, created a name for herself through the cookbook, which was published in 1961, decades before either Powell or I was born. A book and a movie later, Powell is famous and has an honorary degree from Le Cordon Bleu in Paris.

Why did I not think of this? Seriously.

My rationale behind selecting the recipe I did – a spinach soufflé – was simple. I wanted something sort of classic that I have never made before. A soufflé even sounds French. Oh wait, it is.

Soufflé Aux Epinards (Spinach Soufflé)

What you’ll need:

A 6-cup soufflé mold
An enameled sauce pan

1 tablespoon minced shallots or green onion
3 1/2 tablespoon butter
1 cup heated milk
3/4 cup blanched chopped spinach
3 tablespoons flour
3/4 cup ham
4 egg yolks, beaten
5 egg white, beaten
1/2 cup Swiss cheese, grated
salt and pepper
bread crumbs

Butter the soufflé mold and sprinkle with cheese. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Measure out remaining ingredients.

Cook the shallots for a moment in the butter using enameled sauce pan. Add blanched spinach, salt and ham and stir over moderately high heat for several minutes to evaporate as much moisture as possible. Remove from heat.

Blanching spinach: Fill a large kettle with water. Bring to a boil. Add 1 1/2 teaspoon of salt per quart of water. Add spinach and boil slowly for about two minutes. Test it by eating a piece. Poor spinach into a large colander and run cold water over the top to refresh the spinach. After a small amount of time, squeeze the spinach between hands to remove as much water as possible. Chop the spinach with a big knife.

Prepare soufflé sauce base by creating a béchamel sauce by combing 2 1/2 tablespoon butter and 3 tablespoons flour in a small pan and season with salt and pepper, then whisk in 1 cup heated milk. To the béchamel sauce add 4 beaten egg yolks and ham and spinach mixture.

Next, beat the egg whites and salt until still stiff. Sir in one fourth of them into the sauce. Stir in all but a tablespoon of the cheese. Fold in the rest of the egg whites and turn mixture into prepared mold.

Sprinkle top with remaining cheese and set on rack in the middle level of the preheated oven. Turn heat down to 375 degrees and bake for 25 to 30 minutes.

The soufflé is done when it has risen 2 or 3 inches over the rim of the mold and will have browned on the top. It will be fragile and sink rapidly. It will collapse less readily if you allow it to cook 4 to 5 minutes more, until a trussing needle or thin knife plunged into the center through the side of the puff comes out clean. A well-cooked soufflé will stay puffed for about 5 minutes in the turned-off hot oven. As it cools, it begins to skin. Therefore, there should be no lingering when a soufflé is to be eaten.

How to serve: Puncture the top of the soufflé lightly with a serving spoon and fork – held vertically – and spread it apart for each serving.

I should note that much of the recipe in Mastering the Art of French Cooking is laid out in charts. Further, in order to blanch the spinach and make the béchamel sauce, I had to lean on other recipes within the book. Therefore, some of the steps are paraphrased using my own words. However, if you follow all these steps, the recipe should turn out just fine.

We really enjoyed the soufflé and will definitely make it again. It took me about an hour and a half from start to finish. It was creamy, but not runny or undercooked-scrambled-egg-style the way I thought it would be upon removing from the dish. It was light and would probably be best served for a breakfast, brunch or lunch dish. I served the soufflé with hash browns (yep, the frozen kind you get at the grocery store) and a side of hot sauce. Some things don’t change.

Oh, and, I’ll leave you with one piece of advice: Buy the book. It’s not so much a cookbook as it is a manual that has all the answers to all things you’d ever want to do in your kitchen. The index is amazing, the recipes precise and as the book jacket tells: “Mastering the Art of French Cooking is for both seasoned cooks and beginners who love good food and long to reproduce at home the savory delights of the classic cuisine…”