Banana & Rum Soufflé

Hey,

So I don't know about you but there is only so much Banana Bread I can eat, and now I'm all smoothied out too!

Good News - I am going to share a recipe for some Banana Soufflés I made not so long ago.

Soufflés seem to have an air of mystery about them, or people believe that they are much harder to make then they really are. All a Soufflé is, is air and structure. Air to lift it up and make it fluffy, and then something to capture the air and give the Soufflé structure.

Most Soufflés use a pastry cream or fruit pureé for the structure and all Soufflés use egg whites to provide the air.

The only thing you need to be careful with when making your structure mix is the fat content - you see fat breaks down egg whites, so a high content will weaken your structure (creating a recipe for a blue cheese Soufflé still gives me nightmares!).

It is also important to note that fat can prevent you whisking your egg whites to a peak; due to this it is highly recommended to use a glass or metal bowl, as plastic can trap fat and may be the cause of failed attempts.

So I had brown banana's and decided to make up some Soufflés for after tea (or dinner depending on your north/south divide). A dash of rum beacause... I like rum! You can exclude the rum if that is your preference, but I would be careful if you decide to increase the amount as this may ruin our precious structure!

I used this recipe from Eric Ripert as a base, it  made enough for 4 x 125ml ramekins. I simply swapped out the lime juice for some Rum and a squeeze of lemon juice.

First grab hold of all the ingredients!

You need a lot less sugar than you might think - ripened bananas have plenty of natural sugars, and you don't want to make your Soufflé sickly sweet!

I added the Banana, Rum, and Egg yolk and blended together to form my structure base. I was unsure of using the egg yolk due to the fat content, but it added a nice bit of richness to the Soufflé. I didn't add any cornflour to my pureé as there is enough strength with the bananas and egg, but cornflour can be added to mixes for additional rigidity, however that comes with more weight which will result in less height in the final Soufflé bake.

You then need to whisk your egg whites, when they start to form peaks, slow down the mixer slightly and and gradually add sugar until it is all combined and you have beautiful glossy peaks.

You will then need to butter your ramekins and line them with caster sugar before combing your two mixes.

Mix 1/3 of your egg white into your structure mix until fully combined, then fold in remaining egg whites until fully combined, be gentle and take your time.

Once you are happy you can't see chunks of egg white and you have a smooth mix spoon it into the ramekins and give each one a light tap (hard enough to settle the mixture, but not so hard as to deflate it - think a gentle door knock) on the counter top to settle the mix. Then run thumb around inside edge and dust with icing sugar.

Place Soufflé in the oven on a flat tray - they should take between 8-12 minutes in a pre-heated oven. This is the perfect amount of time to caramelise some banana to serve with your souffle, simply dust with sugar and get into a non-stick pan!

Once the Souffles have risen, and the tops are golden brown they are ready to serve, get them onto the table as quickly (and carefully) as you can, with a good scoop of vanilla ice-cream and a couple of slices of caramelised banana - yum!

Really hope you have a go at this recipe, I think I may revisit this and try cooking out a banana puree first to intensify the flavour!

Recipe for Soufflé

• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, softened 
• 3 dessertspoons sugar for pureé
• 1 dessertspoon sugar for egg whites
• 1 ripe banana
• 1 dessert spoon rum
• 1 large egg yolk 
• 2 large egg whites
• 1 tea spoon lemon juice 

Extra Caster sugar used to dust Ramekins. Optional extra Caramelised Banana + Sugar for garnish.

separate.

Anyway please watch the below short video of this recipe - like, comment, and subscribe!

Thanks/bye

Rob

x

Sweet Potato Gnocchi

I have made a lot of Gnocchi, but I had never made a sweet potato Gnocchi. I wasn't certain it would even work, the first thing you learn about making Gnocchi, the drier your mash the better! And if there is one thing that I know about a sweet potato and that is it makes a wet mash - surely it can't work?!

It did...sort of!

First things first - I need a recipe, as everything I have isn't going to work - wrong potatoes! I had a look at a few different recipes online, and quickly realised that they followed the same rules as normal Gnocchi...just more flour.

So I decided against using a recipe - and decided to add flour in small quantities until I got what I thought was a good Gnocchi dough consistency.

That is where I came a little unstuck - I knew sweet potato mash was going to be wet (I had even strained my mash through a muslin, removing 100ml of excess fluid) - what I hadn't realised is that the dough would have to be worked with wet - otherwise you end with too much flour in your mix, which leads to a (heavens forbid) tough Gnocchi!

As the mix is wet I avoided the use of eggs (which are contentious enough in Gnocchi), and stuck to a mix of sweet potato, flour, salt, and a little parmesan.

As mentioned earlier I was adding flour little by little, and with the dough being so wet I had put in 400g of flour before I made a sample Gnocchi to see how the mix held up, the good new was, despite the wetness of the dough, the Gnocchi firmed up and floated to the surface. The bad news? To my fussy palate I had overstepped the flour mark, it was bordering on the brink of having to chew!

If I was to do this recipe again - I would test at 200g and see where the mix was at - as the extra 200 I had added - really did very little to dry the dough. And less flour in Gnocchi is what we should all be aiming to achieve!

When it comes to serving Gnocchi it's really versatile and can be partnered with so many things. However, as this was my first time making sweet potato Gnocchi I wanted the dumplings to be the main flavour of this dish and kept it simple; butter, sage, sunflower seeds, rocket, and a little Parmesan to finish!

Overall I am pretty happy with the results - I need to try again with lower flower quantity and see how that works for me - if you give it a try i'd love to here how you did!

Anyway please watch the video below (like, subscribe - we all know the youtube drill!)

Thanks/bye
Rob x

Getting Rosti with it

Chicken, Chinese leaf, and beansprout salad

Hey,

So my partner came home from a day out raving about a salad she had.

When she described it to me it sounded simple enough to throw together...so I did!

And it was gooooood, simple food, clean flavours  - give it a try!

Recipe for 2:

2 chicken breasts
1 red pepper
4 large leaves Chinese leaf
200g beansprouts
1 lime
2 teaspoon almond oil
1 teaspoon of sesame oil
1 tablespoon of rapeseed oik
Handful of coriander

Season and grill both sides of the chicken breast and place in an oven at 180°c for 17 minutes (until cooked).

Sear beansprouts in a very hot pan, heat as quickly as possible (only cook a handful at a time) and then spread in an oven tray to cool.

Slice red pepper and Chinese leaf, add into bowl with cooled beansprouts.

Combine oils, lime juice, and coriander to make dressing.

Use most of the dressing to coat leaves, keep some back to glaze the cooked chicken.

That's it. Easy! 😊

Take care.