Monday 25 May - Watercress and Gruyere Souffle

On a bit of a quest to use up some eggs, and not made a Souffle for years. So long in fact that we realised we don't own a souffle dish, so a frantic Bank Holiday Monday hunt for one ensued. No joy and we ending up borrowing one.

 I found this recipe in a Valentine Warner book, and thought it would make a change from the usual plain cheese one.

The dish started by blanching watercress, squeezing dry and blending to a puree. No way was my squeezed out watercress going to turn into any sort of puree, so I ended up adding some of the milk that was due to be made into the sauce base.

The base for the souffle was a thick roux, made in the usual way.

Then grated gruyere, egg yolks and the watercress puree were added and stirred in.

This mixture then had the beaten egg whites folded in, and was poured into a dish that I had buttered and dusted with grated parmesan (rather than the flour that was suggested in the original recipe)

Grated gruyere over the top, and into the oven. Once the cooking time was up it was served, put back in the dish and back into the oven again as it wasn't cooked

This was served with some homemade olive bread.

Plates were cleared, but I felt it was missing something - I would probably add some more flavourings to the base sauce - mustard maybe, and use a strong cheddar rather than a gruyere next time - the colour though was beautiful!