Every Friday, Roots in Alpharetta features an article on food and dining in a series I like to call Foodie Friday.
Happy wife, happy life. That’s something I hear Clark Howard say from time to time. In the hustle and bustle of suburban life, sometimes I think romance falls by the wayside. This is a topic I want to address in more detail later on. Would Valentine’s Day be a good time to start that conversation? Perhaps. But I think being romantic is not something saved for one day a year.
Nevertheless, I want to offer one idea for Valentine’s Day this year. It would be easy to suggest a delicious restaurant, but who likes the crowds on February 14? I suggest staying home and make something challenging in the kitchen.
Maybe it is the engineer in me, but I enjoy trying new techniques in the kitchen. Following a simple recipe is boring! I see these chefs on TV screw up souffle all the time, so I wanted to try it. When I found this recipe for dark chocolate souffle on the Cooking for Engineers website, I had to give it a try.
Check out the link and follow along with his detailed steps and pictures. I’ll let all that speak for itself. But I’ll add a few things. First, don’t let the fact that this is a souffle scare you. I’ve made this three times now without it falling. It really isn’t that hard, yet will impress whoever is lucky enough to try it. Here are a few more gotchas…
Ramekins
Remember all that practically useless stuff you got as wedding gifts? Most of it is buried in your dining room still in the boxes. Somewhere in there you’ll probably find ramekins or perhaps a creme brulee set that’s never been used. Dig out those ramekins and give them a good wash. It took me forever to scrape the price tags off. I think over the years the glue on the price tags had turned to cement.
Egg White Foam
That’s the key to making this stuff rise. If you’ve never beat these things, just know that you’ve gotta beat this stuff forever. First time I tried these, I used a hand whisk. Big mistake! Use a powered kitchen hand mixer with whisk attachment. Hit those egg whites on high speed. Stiff peaks are the key to the rise. And the rise of your souffle is what will get a rise out of your sweetheart!
Chocolate
Don’t worry too much about the chocolate. I know the recipe calls for higher quality stuff. I made this with cheap stuff from Trader Joe’s one time and Ghirardelli from Publix another time. Unless you are a serious chocolate snob, I don’t think you’re gonna taste the difference. And if you don’t like the taste of dark chocolate, I wouldn’t fret. This stuff is so rich, it doesn’t taste like eating a bar of dark chocolate.
Also don’t stress if this doesn’t work. Worse case if it doesn’t rise, you call it molten chocolate cake! But if you do manage to get a good rise out of it, your sweetheart will be impressed.
Photo credit: Robyn Guy Photography
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So, did you get a good rise out of it?