OMG its soufflé

The second day at Le Gargantua started with a trip to the old town Castelajoux where we purchased ingredients for the day's dishes including basil, white and yellow peaches, fava beans (aka broad beans) and strawberries…strawberries?…but they aren't on tonight's menu. 

The local produce growers were all out in force with a beautiful selection of fruit and vegetables including some really great looking cep mushrooms yet as it was technically still early in the season for them (well according to what my mother has always told me, late August/September is mushroom time) we shied away from them in favour of local and ripe fare. 

Remember that last word, we’ll revisit that one later.

I was super duperly excited to start cooking because today meant soufflé! I’d never made a soufflé before this and was keen to try. I think that I’ve always avoided trying to make a soufflé because they are so light and delicate and I’m really not very good at makings ‘delicate’ in any way shape or form.

On our first day we had made a range of rustic dishes which could all be made in advance and therefore there wasn’t much more work required on them before dinner. Well apart from plating up. 

Today, however, the dinner party plates require additional attention so whilst we prepared all the elements in the afternoon and set the groundwork, we later came to revisit and cook the dishes just before they were served. 

We began the afternoon session by preparing a béchamel sauce of the soufflé. This was then turned into a sauce mournee with the addition of egg yolk and cheese, thus making it lovely and rich. It was then we added any additional ingredients to our soufflés to make it our own creation I added chives from the garden to mine whilst Andrew went for the more adventurous option and put chilli in his. 

Next up we filleted the mackerel and poached the peaches in white wine flavoured with saffron and ginger.

At 7 pm, shortly before dinner, we gathered in the kitchen to finish off off our dishes. Starting with the soufflé: 

We whisked egg whites before carefully folding the fluffy mixture into our sauce being mindful to keep as much air as possible in the bowl. The next step was to transfer the mixture to a greased ramekin dish and placing it in the oven in a bain marie. This will mean that the soufflé is cooked in steam. 

Pro tip: open the oven for 20 seconds half way through the cooking process to let the steam to the oven. 

Everyone watched the oven anxiously as they saw their soufflés slowly rise but I was scared to join them as I was worried that mine would simply collapse and sink miserably. 

It appeared that my fears were misplaced as quite on the country my soufflé rose like a majestic soaring eagle, not only looking the part but also looking really quite nice actually. 

For the main, we blanched and then peeled the fava beans before purring with onion, garlic and a bit of double cream. This was served with mushrooms, (not the ceps from earlier btw) crushed potatoes and our mackerel fillets. Alas just as I moving the mackerel from the pan and onto my plate with a pair of tongs I dropped it and it fell to the floor. 

The dessert also went a bit pear shaped, or should I say peach shaped, as the peaches did not peel very easily once poached. This was due to them not being very ripe. It’s alright though, cover it up with enough chantilly cream and everything will be fine.

It was Richard and Sue’s last night at Le Gargantua as they would not be joining us on the patisserie part of the course. We bid them a fond farewell and lots of group pictures.