Christmas Eve Souffle tradition

The Ultimate Dinner Souffle

When we are home for holiday dinners the one recipe that I like to serve is my Grand Marnier Souffle. I realize that what to me is like ‘eating a cloud,’ is to others a mouthful of nothingness, but still the technique of making a soufflé is one that was hard-learned. Friday night was soufflé night and after an afternoon of meat-ball-making [stay tuned], having a light dinner (basically a fancy omelet), was a delight.

OUR NEW TRADITIONS

Does it get any better than Dim Sum?

As supreme-court nominee Elena Kagan answered about where she was Christmas Day “Like all Jews I was probably at a Chinese restaurant,” we have discovered that if you are adults without grandchildren or any need for Santa Clause and Christmas cookies forget the usual Christmas hubbub and go Chinese instead.

Today’s Dim Sum at Hong Kong Chinese Restaurant, Durham NC was just the ticket. Chinese waiters push carts around the tables, each cart loaded with stacks of steamer pots, bamboo trays or just small dishes of tasty morsels. Some have sauce and some do not; some are fried, roasted, stir-fried or steamed, nearly every technique of Asian cooking is brought forth. On each guest table there are pots containing hot mustard, sweet chili sauce, hot chili oil and soy sauce to use as is or mix any combination to get a tasty sauce to your own liking.

 Dozens of little dishes come out of the kitchen making one wonder – how many cooks have been working for how many hours to produce such a feast? But the really curious thing is the ticket system, each table gets a paper ticket and as the waiters bring new plates the additional sum is added in Chinese to the ticket (which also numbers the empty plates). Your final charge is added up by the cashier, on an abacus no less, and then charged on your credit card. The 12th century meets the 21st century between the beginning and the end of an elegant and ancient brunch.

 We traditionally go there about three to four times a year and find most of the tables filled with authentic Chinese and other Asians from the Triangle’s diverse population. Very popular place, so popular in fact that getting there after 10:20 am on weekend mornings means you will not find a nearby parking space and by the time you do find parking and walk back to the restaurant there will be a line waiting for a table. Good Luck, waiting 45-55 minutes is not unusual because no one eats Dim Sum in a hurry. This meal is the classic weekend meal where two or three generations of a family meet around a large table to discuss family business; who’s doing what, what to do about the kids, what’s ailing grandpa and other pertinent topics of the day. Everyone eats, everyone talks, everyone meets and greets the extended family and then when the meal is over or the tea is cold, the dim sum is over.

TODAYS NOTE: Sauces

In recent days I have been cooking to the max. Not particularly any one specific dish but rather stocking up on items that can be frozen and then used at will in any number of ways to make a quick dinner.

But first my “Secret Sauce” bottle was half-empty (yes, really), and needed a new dose of ingredients. To that end I added the remains of a commercial jar of “Mustard Dill Sauce” (really good with fish); the last of a ‘Wasabi’ bottle, two packets of take-out ‘Sweet Chili Sauce’ a splash of soy sauce, two spoonfuls of ‘Black Raspberry’ jam to sweeten the mix and finally a couple tablespoons of Basic Salad Dressing (see previous blog) to thin the mix and shake several times.

Please note that this is only an update on a sauce that has been existing [in its present form] for about four years. As to whether it contains more sweet+ than sour- can only be determined by tasting and adjusting to suit. That’s what I like about the sauce: you can change the flavor in an instant.

THE SECRET INGREDIENTS IN THE SECRET SAUCE
This is the everyday ‘use it up’ down-and-dirty sauce that everyone loves and cannot figure out what the secret is. Read on.

FOUR BASIC FLAVORS  Practice the tongue to balance and contrast flavors of -

SWEET       SOUR

SALT         BITTER


BASIC SWEET-SOUR SAUCE: equal parts yellow mustard and grape jelly will produce a classic sweet-sour sauce. Mix it up and watch the color turn to a caramel-like brown. Use the cheap, ubiquitous yellow mustard and the cheapest jar of grape jelly.

To vary the sauce:

Add wasabi paste or powder to make the Secret Sauce tangier
Add Basic Salad dressing to make the Secret Sauce thinner.
Add soy sauce to make a dipping sauce [dip raw vegetables]
Add ketchup to make the Secret Sauce for burgers
Add plum or hoisin sauce to make the Secret Sauce thicker and sweeter
Add ginger preserves to give the Secret Sauce a pepper- edge
Add fruit jellies or preserves to sweeten the Secret Sauce
Add apple butter to thicken the Secret Sauce
Add vinegars or fruit juices to make the Secret Sauce more acidic

Now for the “Secret” of the Secret Sauce: What’s in the fridge?

That open jar of jelly that’s nearly empty, dump it in the Secret Sauce
That bottle of ketchup that nearly empty, dump it in the Secret Sauce
That bottle of nearly gone chutney, dump it in the Secret Sauce
That left over Chinese packet of mustard or chili, dump them in the Secret Sauce. Thin the bottle of any condiment, add a few tablespoons of Basic Salad dressing, let set until softened, shake well and dump it in the Secret Sauce.
Add almost anything except mayonnaise or cream-based condiments.

What’s the secret? Who knows!
After adding all the left-over condiments and continuing to augment the sauce by balancing the taste you will not remember what was added or in what proportion. And you do not need to know, so long as you like the taste – only you can decide what balance of flavors suits you. My sauce is in a tall bottle with a pour-top and I use it on Boca Burgers several times a weeks. It is SO much better than plain ketchup.

BALSAMIC – splash plain balsamic over fresh strawberries before dinner and by dessert time they will be a perfect match of sweet and sour. Dust with fresh ground black pepper to tease the tongue.

HORSERADISH - A perfect sauce for hot pork or beef. Take a pale, light jelly such as mint or apple and mix 1 Tablespoon of horseradish (plain) into a half-cup of jelly. Stir well and serve on as a side to a meat dish. The balance of sweet and sour will vibrate your tongue.

Also try the website for French’s Mustard at http://www.frenchs.com/index.php

French’s will allow you to select a product, recipe type, and main ingredient and search their vast index for recipes that meet your criteria. For instance:

CHICKEN SATAY SAUCE - From French’s Mustard Recipe Index. I love this recipe, just add peanut butter to the basic secret sauce and you will get something like this.

Mix the following ingredients and serve along side grilled and sliced chicken.
1/3 cup peanut butter
1/3 cup FRENCH'S Honey Mustard
1/3 cup fat free chicken broth
1 tbsp. minced peeled fresh ginger
1 tbsp. light brown sugar
1 tbsp. soy sauce
2 tsp. minced garlic

WHAT’S NEXT?

Very proud of my current well stocked freezer, I can make Hot Pot with noodles, salads with either chicken or whitefish, a steamer pot with vegetables, cabbage and turkey sausage, any kind of vegetable-broth soup with meatballs, or a meatloaf and mushroom gravy dinner. And in short time too. bb

Our Christmas Eve dinner was almost as spectacular as Christmas Day but just for the two of us. One of my impressive cooking skills way back when was making souffles, a process that takes some practice to perfect. But recent years and eating habits changed so I had long abandoned souffle making. We have been eating steamed vegetables and salads for so long making anything with real cooking technique is no longer a valued skill.

The important thing to remember is not to tell anyone you are serving souffle. Wait to see if the dish rises as expected. If it works you made souffle. If it collaspes, you are serving custard.

What to make for the two of us for a special dinner? Nearly ten years or maybe more since I made a Grand Mariner Souffle, I chose to resurrect the recipe. The irony of retirement life is that I find myself in a house with an upscale kitchen, the dual-power stove I always dreamed of, a butcher-block topped island and all the gourmet gadgets you could hope for right at hand. We eat salads six nights out of seven. I have become the dainty Southern Lady who replied when asked if she could cook, "Honey, I don't COOK, I just FIX!" But I digress.

What to fix? Partly because we had plenty of eggs and partly because I postponed making any decision until the last minute, the idea of souffle appealed to me. The good news is: I still have it!

Yes, souffles are time consuming, laborious and everything must be at exactly the right temperature but I did it. Just one slight miscalculation. Reducing the egg yolks by one, I increased the egg whites by two. More precisely I used the carton egg whites and measured out the listed equivalent for four eggs (four whole eggs and four whites). Souffle dish all buttered and dusted with sugar, as the egg whites were beaten and fluffy, the batch was ready for the dish. Only the egg whites produced about twice the volume I had anticipated and the mix kept getting bigger and bigger. Very akin to a "Lucy and Ethel" sit-com scenario.

Quickly I pulled up a second souffle dish, buttered and dusted and divided the mix. We had TWO tall, browned, crusty, pouffy and delicious souffles for dinner. That was it, just Souffle and of course champagne.

Did you know that nothing bad ever happens to you when drinking champagne?
That's a fact. bb