Pistachio Souffle

* i had this souffle at Koffman's in London and was in love with it. When i returned to HK, i tried to search for the receipe and at the end found one at "The Renaissance Epicurrean Cooks..." Give it a try. You wont succeed in the first attempt but when you do or when you did it in the next few rounds, it is a wonderful feeling!

Ingredients:
500ml milk
1/2 vanilla pod (slice it up lengthway)
4 egg yolks (or 120g)
100g caster sugar
50g plain flour
3 tbsp (40g) pistachio paste
25g butter, softened
25g dark chocolate, grated
4 egg whites (or 120g)
1 tbsp caster sugar
icing sugar, to serve

How to Make it:

1. Grate the chocolate and store in fridge first.

2. Preheat oven to 230'C

3. Boil milk with the vanilla pod. Once boiled, turn off heat and let the vanilla pod sits in the milk.

4. Whisk egg yolks with caster sugar until the mixture slightly thickens and turns light in color.

5. Sieve the flour and add into the egg yolk misture, continuing whisking until all smooth.

6. Add half of the milk, continuing whisking, until there are no lumps.

7. Remove the vanilla pod from the rest of the milk in the pot and sieve the egg yolk and egg mixture into the milk pot. Turn on the heat again (but dont boil it), keep whisking at simmering point for say approx 5 mintues.

8. Turn off heat and add the pistachio paste and keeo whisking untill all is well combined. Then pour it to a shallow tray or bowl and let it cool down. (you can make your own pistachio paste but i think it is not as creamy, smooth and consistent as the one i ordered online from amazon)

9. Generously butter 5 individual souffle bowls and coat the inside of the bowls with the grated chocolate.

10. Beat the egg whites until firm, then add 1 tbsp of caster sugar and whisk until stiff (eg. when you hold the bowl upside down, the egg whites do not fall down).

11. Add 1/4 of the egg whites to the pistachio/milk mixture with the whisk to soften it, then mix well quickly.

12. Fold in the rest of the egg white to the pistachio/milk mixture with a spatular smoothly but as quick as possible,

13. Then quickly spoon the mixture into the souffle bowls (right to the top of the bowls) and bake in oven at 240'C for 15 min on until well risen. (dont place it too high up in the oven, otherwise, when it rises, the top will get burn easily.)

14. Once you notice the soufle has risen well and the top is brown, remove it from oven quickly but carefully as each bowls are REALLY HOT!!

15. To serve, dust the top with icing sugar and serve with ice cream of your choice!



Enjoy!!