requested #10
Last request for a while. I need time to think about all of these new ones you are sending in. BUT, I have to finish some from the last time and this one caught my eye and is stinging it like a needle through my retina.
Today's Topic - Souffle
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA. I love to say the word, souffle. It rolls off the tongue and sounds kinda naughty in that, foreign-word-I-don't-know-what-it-means kinda way. Sue-FLAY. Nasty! I love it. ( it means - to rise, in French)
It's a yummy treat, depending on what kind you get and it's one of the hardest things in the world to make. It's not something that should be criticized by novices. Souffles are so hard to make that it's the last thing you are tested on in Chef school before you are allowed to graduate. Yes. Four years of school accumulating in one souffle. Fail it and you will be cooking at a minor league ball park for the rest of your life. It's that rough. You have to be a truly dedicated cooking enthusist to even attempt cooking one.
You take egg whites and you beat the piss out of them with other yummy ingredients. Then you pour the mixture in a baking pan with or without a crust, and you bake it. It rises during the cooking process and you serve it that way. The challenge is to serve it before it deflates, which is common and demoralizing. It's a lot like a man losing his souffle right before the most incredible sexual experience of his life. Sad...
A deflated souffle is just a quiche, which isn't challenging or yummy at all. So, a chef must be cautious. You can over beat the egg whites, temperature could be set too high, timing could be wrong, ingredients didn't see eye to eye, etc. There is a real challenge which rivals any task that any other specialty field could offer. I would think it would be easier to build a working plane out of mud than it would be to cook a souffle.
I have never tried to cook one, it's more of a cooking challenge than I dare take. I love food, but I love eating more and making a souffle seems like it would take a better part of your day for a measly ten minute taste bud orgasm. ( I should really rethink this...) Those of you that absolutely love cooking will probably love the challenge that a souffle offers and I am sure it will win you brownie points with your fine dining friends. If you don't have fine dining friends, cook a frozen chicken pot pie and they will be just as amazed and awe struck.
My passion for cooking seems to be fleeting. I have so many other things that I am interested in and so many other things that I have to do, I can't dedicate any time to working on yummy meals for myself. It's one of life's basic necessities, but I have to take short cuts for the moment. Presently I am surviving on clemtine oranges and spinach salads. Not because I don't want to cook something but because it's 4000 degrees and those are foods that are refreshing. It's hard to crave hot soup when you are sunburned, covered with dirt and horse shit and thirsty. Fruit and salad will have to do. They cool the body core and make me feel healthy. They make you want to souffle.... oooooohhhhhh....
I think when the cool of fall rolls into town, I will see more cooking. The number of outside jobs will fall off and the need to finish the inside work will regain the floor of power and influence over my day. Warmer foods will sound good again and I will most certainly fall back into the soup and sandwich menu.
I think the sun is also screwing up my appetite. Darkness makes you hungry and when the evening sky starts to lose it's light, the hunger trigger in your head goes off and you start thinking of food. Any food and lots of it. It's in these moments of weakness that fast food was born and flourished. The days here still last until 9 which is an hour before bed time for me and I don't like to eat 5 hours before I go to bed because I wake up with a bloated belly and cramps. This timing dilemma forces me to eat in the brightest part of the day and that doesn't seem to encourage a sit down meal. Just snacking.
If you ever see souffle on a menu, which will be a rare occasion, order it. No matter if it's a dessert or a meal. They are lovely. It will take up to an hour to get the dish, but it's worth the wait. Something I can say about nice restaurants. The finer the restaurant, the easier it is to pass the time. You can't say that about Denny's. You just want to eat and get the hell out as fast as you can. No one wants to be seen at a Denny's, maybe that's why. At a ritzy restaurant, you can pretend to be rich or like you do this everyday and this dining experience is nothing new. At Denny's you are saying, "I have no taste, anything will do and I don't care what that sticky shit is on the corner of my plate."
I love watching people act like they know what they are doing in a nice restaurant, especially if it's obvious that they don't dine in one very often. My father was the champion of trying to look like he knew what he was doing. I loved watching his faux pas accumulate over the course of a dinner. He sat more erect. He put his arm on his leg with his elbow crooked at his side and he would laugh loudly as if he were Peter Sellers from the Magic Christian. One of his more notable moments was in the Savoy Grill in Kansas City. Old school, fine dining. Glorious experience. Great food. Anyway, he was convinced that the tiny fork was used for removing fruit from your drinks. ( for those of you who don't know, that little tiny fork, is not for the removal of your lemon from your water glass, just a hint)
Souffle is yummy. It won't save the world and it won't bring about it's demise but they make it a lot easier to pass the time until it does.
Today's Topic - Souffle
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA. I love to say the word, souffle. It rolls off the tongue and sounds kinda naughty in that, foreign-word-I-don't-know-what-it-means kinda way. Sue-FLAY. Nasty! I love it. ( it means - to rise, in French)
It's a yummy treat, depending on what kind you get and it's one of the hardest things in the world to make. It's not something that should be criticized by novices. Souffles are so hard to make that it's the last thing you are tested on in Chef school before you are allowed to graduate. Yes. Four years of school accumulating in one souffle. Fail it and you will be cooking at a minor league ball park for the rest of your life. It's that rough. You have to be a truly dedicated cooking enthusist to even attempt cooking one.
You take egg whites and you beat the piss out of them with other yummy ingredients. Then you pour the mixture in a baking pan with or without a crust, and you bake it. It rises during the cooking process and you serve it that way. The challenge is to serve it before it deflates, which is common and demoralizing. It's a lot like a man losing his souffle right before the most incredible sexual experience of his life. Sad...
A deflated souffle is just a quiche, which isn't challenging or yummy at all. So, a chef must be cautious. You can over beat the egg whites, temperature could be set too high, timing could be wrong, ingredients didn't see eye to eye, etc. There is a real challenge which rivals any task that any other specialty field could offer. I would think it would be easier to build a working plane out of mud than it would be to cook a souffle.
I have never tried to cook one, it's more of a cooking challenge than I dare take. I love food, but I love eating more and making a souffle seems like it would take a better part of your day for a measly ten minute taste bud orgasm. ( I should really rethink this...) Those of you that absolutely love cooking will probably love the challenge that a souffle offers and I am sure it will win you brownie points with your fine dining friends. If you don't have fine dining friends, cook a frozen chicken pot pie and they will be just as amazed and awe struck.
My passion for cooking seems to be fleeting. I have so many other things that I am interested in and so many other things that I have to do, I can't dedicate any time to working on yummy meals for myself. It's one of life's basic necessities, but I have to take short cuts for the moment. Presently I am surviving on clemtine oranges and spinach salads. Not because I don't want to cook something but because it's 4000 degrees and those are foods that are refreshing. It's hard to crave hot soup when you are sunburned, covered with dirt and horse shit and thirsty. Fruit and salad will have to do. They cool the body core and make me feel healthy. They make you want to souffle.... oooooohhhhhh....
I think when the cool of fall rolls into town, I will see more cooking. The number of outside jobs will fall off and the need to finish the inside work will regain the floor of power and influence over my day. Warmer foods will sound good again and I will most certainly fall back into the soup and sandwich menu.
I think the sun is also screwing up my appetite. Darkness makes you hungry and when the evening sky starts to lose it's light, the hunger trigger in your head goes off and you start thinking of food. Any food and lots of it. It's in these moments of weakness that fast food was born and flourished. The days here still last until 9 which is an hour before bed time for me and I don't like to eat 5 hours before I go to bed because I wake up with a bloated belly and cramps. This timing dilemma forces me to eat in the brightest part of the day and that doesn't seem to encourage a sit down meal. Just snacking.
If you ever see souffle on a menu, which will be a rare occasion, order it. No matter if it's a dessert or a meal. They are lovely. It will take up to an hour to get the dish, but it's worth the wait. Something I can say about nice restaurants. The finer the restaurant, the easier it is to pass the time. You can't say that about Denny's. You just want to eat and get the hell out as fast as you can. No one wants to be seen at a Denny's, maybe that's why. At a ritzy restaurant, you can pretend to be rich or like you do this everyday and this dining experience is nothing new. At Denny's you are saying, "I have no taste, anything will do and I don't care what that sticky shit is on the corner of my plate."
I love watching people act like they know what they are doing in a nice restaurant, especially if it's obvious that they don't dine in one very often. My father was the champion of trying to look like he knew what he was doing. I loved watching his faux pas accumulate over the course of a dinner. He sat more erect. He put his arm on his leg with his elbow crooked at his side and he would laugh loudly as if he were Peter Sellers from the Magic Christian. One of his more notable moments was in the Savoy Grill in Kansas City. Old school, fine dining. Glorious experience. Great food. Anyway, he was convinced that the tiny fork was used for removing fruit from your drinks. ( for those of you who don't know, that little tiny fork, is not for the removal of your lemon from your water glass, just a hint)
Souffle is yummy. It won't save the world and it won't bring about it's demise but they make it a lot easier to pass the time until it does.
posted by Daniel Loomis | 9:06 AM
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