Spinach Cheese Souffle, 'Scaped

I am not a huge souffle person in general. It's not much good making them for yourself, and I'm not crazy about twitchy, difficult last-minute food for company.

This souffle, however, was engineered to use a few bits and pieces from the farmbox- notably the spinach left after an excellent lemony spinach salad of Thursday night, and the stray garlic scapes I found with in with the oregano in my crate. I zeroed in on the scapes thanks to a dim memory of the chocolate lady's post (and great photo) on the topic last year, just about this time. Also, there was some leftover goat cheese from the unsuccessful "Everyday Pasta" gnocchi recipe of last week. I adapted a souffle from Deborah Madison's Local Flavors to suit what I had. Hence, the following, which made a fine Saturday brunch, with plenty of hot coffee, and those fine strawberries-thank you Kretschmanns!

Here's how:

Infusion
3 green garlic scapes, minced
1 cup cream
thyme sprig

Souffle
4 Tbsps butter, plus more
1/2 cup freshly grated parm
12-16 oz baby spinach- de stemmed
4 Tbsps flour
1 1/3 cups milk
sea salt and fresh pepper
4 oz goat cheese
4 yolks
6 egg whites

Heat the cream to just shy of boiling. Add scapes and thyme, and let it sit while you do the rest. Preheat oven to 375F. Wilt the spinach in its washing water and chop it up finely, or puree in a processor..

Butter a 2 qt. souffle dish and dust with a bit of the grated cheese. In a heavy pan, heat the butter, whisk in the flour, and whisk smoothly, until the sauce thickens. Turn off the heat, and whisk in the cheeses, salt and pepper. Add the spinach, and finally, whisk in the yolks.

Beat the egg whites until very stiff. Fold into the sauce, and pour the mixture into the prepared pan. Cook about 35-40 minutes. Consume for brunch with hot coffee. Follow with strawberries if you can. This was also very nice reheated gently, as a side with my roasted dinner chicken and salad. So, the souffle didn't look huge,or have a tremendous crown or anything, but it was very light, and pretty tasty. I'm thinking about getting more inventive with some souffles-perhaps I will do them in a broader, flatter gratin-ier baking dish, though- I quite like the crustier parts on the top and sides, and wanted more of that. Also, this would have been extremely nice with a hot cheesy sauce of some sort.

Did I mention that I'm going to try making some cheese-mozzarella, in fact? Stay tuned for developments. And please, if you would: Vote for me in the GrillMe contest. You can vote for yourself, too, and we can go to Napa and get grilled.

Comments

[Tanna]

Oh, Lindy that looks lovely and has all the right ingredients. Nice one.

[Wendy]

I haven't attempted a souffle yet. This sounds do-able and very tasty. Will give it a shot!

[anapestic]

The recipe sounds wonderful, but I am losing sleep over the apostrophe in the title. Is "garlic 'scape" a shortened form of "garlic escape," "garlic landscape," "garlic dreamscape," or "garlic seascape"?

[lindy]

Thanks, Tanna-it was good.
And easy, too, Wendy-do give it a try and let me know how it goes.
anapestic-I'll never tell. You may, if you wish, interpret this to mean that I kind of forget what I had in mind. I believe it had something to do with escaping, which, you may have noticed, is what I'm trying to do here. oopsie.

[:: Suzanne ::]

Thanks! You've just settled my "what's for dinner?" question.

[Lynn D.]

Since I've always found these little garlic buds pretty fiery, perhaps they are fire escapes.