French Vanilla Soufflé

Soufflé – the sound from the lip and tongue is  so classically romantic, like everything French. An Indian woman (that’s me ), trying to type a French letter é in the US keyboard of a laptop made in China. And if I intend to write a book, seriously I need to be as perfect as I can.  My only known French literate person is my son who studies French as a second language.  So, an opportunity for me to test his knowledge and increase mine.  The word soufflé is the past participle of the French verb souffler which means "to blow up" or  "puff up".  And seriously, the magic puff up will last only 1-2 minutes, the time gap from the oven to the table.  As  French says: Le soufflé n’attend pas, on attend le soufflé. Meaning le soufflé doesn’t wait, we (the guests) wait.  The real secret of soufflé-making is it's not that hard. Trust me, and follow the recipe, you will get the same sweet results. Lets not wait for le soufflé, but make the soufflé.

Ingredients : For 4 servings
• Flour  – 1 tbsp
• Unsalted butter  – 1 tbsp 
• Warm milk - ½ cup 
• Vanilla extract – ½ tbsp
• Caster sugar -  2 tbsp 
• Eggs -  2 nos 
• Salt – pinch 
• Icing sugar  to serve
• Butter and sugar to prepare the Ramekins

Instructions

1. Take melted unsalted butter to brush the inside of ramekins well from bottom upwards. This helps an even rise of the soufflé. Sprinkle sugar to coat the ramekins with sugar. Shake out any excess and then keep in refrigerator to chill.
2. Preheat a pan in medium heat. Add butter and melt it. Add in the flour and cook for 1 minute stirring with a wooden spoon.
3. Remove the pan from oven, add warm milk, and keep stirring  until homogenous and smooth. Put the pan to medium heat, stir continuously till it boil. The sauce should form ribbons. Pour the mixture onto a pan at normal temperature to prevent dehydration. 
Take egg yolks, add caster sugar and vanilla extracts. Start beating till it becomes a thick paste. This is white sauce.
4. Take the egg white in a dry bowl, add sugar gradually and whisk slowly till it looks foamy, creamy and peaks form. Be careful not to crush this. This is French Meringue. 
( set the oven to preheat at 200° C.)
5. Then, pour about half of white sauce into meringue and mix by fold inside with a spoon while rotating the bowl. Add balance of white sauce. Keep lifting with a spoon to mix and combined. Be careful not to crush the delicate meringue.
6. Pour the mixture into ramekins using a laddle. Run thumb around inside of rim to help the soufflé to rise straight. 
7. Put the ramekins in the oven preheated at 200° C and allow to bake  for 12 to 15 minutes, or until well risen.
Imagine when it emerges from the oven puffed up like a pillow with a golden surface and soft, yielding middle 
8. Sprinkle icing  sugar and serve immediately out of oven.

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Nargisi Kofta

There are several versions of Nargisi kofta. Sometimes raw grounded keema/ mince is used. Sometimes the keema is boiled with split pea or chick pea and then grounded again to use the kofta. Sometimes the kofta is cooked in gravy, while sometimes it is served dry, without gravy.

Among these various versions, I would love to share the raw mince version where Koftas and gravy are made separately and then Koftas can be put into gravy.  

Ingredients for the Koftas 

• Minced meat ( chicken) – 500 gm

• White oil for deep fry – 200 ml 

• Hard boiled eggs – 4-5 nos

• fried onion  - 1 cup

• Ginger-garlic paste – 2 tbsp. 

• Chopped mint or pudina – 1/4th cup 

• Red chili powder – 1 tbsp. or as per taste

• Finely chopped green chili – 1 tbsp.

• Cinnamon powder- ½ tbsp.

• Nutmeg powder – ¼ tbsp.

• Mace/ javetri powder – ¼ tbsp.

• Cumin powder – ½ tbsp.

• Gram masala or kabab masala – ¾ tbsp.

• Beaten eggs – 3-4

• Powder of roasted peanuts, or bread crumbs

• Salt to taste

• Beaten egg white 

Ingredients for the Gravy

• White oil – 4 tbsp.

• Ginger-garlic paste – 4 tbsp.

• Chopped Onion – 4 tbsp.

• Almond – 4-5 no’s

• Chopped tomatoes – 1 no

• Yoghurt – 4 tbsp.

• Cilantro – to garnish

• Salt – 1 tbsp.

• Red chili powder – 1 tbsp. 

• Gram Masala powder – 1 tbsp.

Procedure to make Kofta 

1. Now mix the minced meat with bereshta, ginger-garlic paste, pudina, green chili, chili powder, cinnamon powder, nutmeg-mace powder, garam masala powder, and cumin powder, salt. 

2. Add roasted peanut powder and again mix well with the above mixture.  

3. Now take each egg and cover with good amount of keema/ mince to create a shell around it. Coat in beaten egg and roll it over bread crumb. Repeat the process of coating it again in beaten egg and give another coat of bread crumb. This double coating helps to make it crispy. Now, keep the coated eggs in the refrigerator for about 1-2 hours which helps the mince coating bind well.

4. Now, deep fry on medium- low flame until golden brown and done.

5. Let the Kofta cool down and then cut in halves lengthwise with a very sharp knife or using a thread.  

For the gravy

• Heat oil in a deep pan/pot. Add ginger and garlic. Fry till onions turn golden brown. 

• Add all spices, salt, and almonds mix well then add chopped tomatoes and cook it for 2 minutes. Add water and cook it for further 10 minutes on simmer. Add yoghurt and let it heat through. Add garam masala and stir. Remember to make the gravy thick. Transfer the hot gravy to the serving dish. Place the koftas carefully  into the hot gravy with the yolk side up. Garnish with chopped cilantro.  

You can serve the Koftas as a snack or use gravy to use it as the main dish serving with Naan. 

Tips:

1. Do not wash the minced meat too much. If you wash, then squeeze out the water completely to retain the flavor, texture and binding agent. If keema is washed too much, you will need more binding agent so that it does not fall apart while frying. But more you add binding agents like bread, flour, besan (gram flour), corn flour; it loses softness.

2. Coat the eggs with good amount of mince because after adding the kofta to the oil, the meat will shrink down. If there is not enough mince around the eggs, the minced meat will fall apart.

3. Use egg whites for coating which also keeps the frying oil clean. If you use egg yolks, frying oil will get dark.

4. If you have left over and unused minced meat preparations like Keema Matar, then you can use the same also to make Nargisi Kofta. Just blend  the keema Matar with a blender and use it. I have done that many times, and it  is tastier. 

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