Goats’ cheese, pea and asparagus souffle
Serves: 6
Ingredients
- 50g butter
- 30g walnuts, crushed
- 300g British asparagus
- 200g peas
- 200ml whole milk
- 2 tbsp flour
- 3 eggs
- 100g goats’ cheese – Moz Murphy, owner of grate Newcastle recommends Ticklemore
- sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Method
- Preheat the oven to 200C/Gas 6.
- Melt half the butter and use it to brush the inside of 6 ramekins. Sprinkle the walnuts into the ramekins and tap around the edge so they stick to the butter. Place dishes on a baking sheet and set aside.
- Snap the asparagus into 1cm pieces. Place them and the peas in boiling salted water and blanch until tender. Drain and purée to a coarse paste with a hand blender or food processor. Set aside.
- Melt the rest of the butter in a saucepan. Add the flour and mix with a wooden spoon to a paste (roux) and cook for 1 min. Whisk in the milk a little at a time until the sauce is smooth and thickened. Remove from the heat.
- Chop the goats’ cheese into cubes and stir through the sauce with the puréed asparagus and peas. Season generously.
- Separate the eggs carefully, tipping the yolks into the sauce and the whites into a clean metal bowl. Stir the yolks through the sauce to mix well. Whisk the egg whites until stiff and fluffy. Don’t over whisk as they will be too dry to fold through the cheese sauce. Take a large spoon of the egg white and stir it vigorously into the sauce, then very gently pour the sauce into the egg whites. Using a large metal spoon fold the sauce extremely gently through the egg whites.
- Spoon the mixture very gently into the prepared ramekins and bake in the oven for 20 mins. Resist opening the oven door while they’re cooking as they will collapse.
- Serve immediately with green salad.