Oh summer, I am finally starting to feel ok with you being around. Much to my friends' chagrin I am very much a winter girl, often summer, that is when it gets to scorching degrees, can leave me feeling light headed, ill, and frankly very cranky, but this summer has been mild and pleasant. I think this summer is exactly what people think and dream about when they are lost in their winter doldrums (as I happily flock through heaps of snow) and simply long for the summer sun on their eyelids. The temps have had me wanting to just lie back, lounge and indulge in my very favorite summertime read, Brideshead Revisited. This is a book that begs for a blanket in the grass, some champagne coyly popping next to you in a glass, and the very best of summer fruits to get you through the chapters.
The funny thing about this book is that I usually tend to gobble up the first part: Et In Arcadia Ego. Roughly, this translates as "I, also, am in Arcadia". It refers to two paintings by Nicolas Poussin which, again roughly, are interpreted to mean that in the face of death, art's duty—indeed, her raison d’être--is to recall absent loved ones, console anxieties, evoke and reconcile conflicting emotions, surmount isolation, and facilitate the expression of the unutterable, which honestly sums up Sebastian and Charles' relationship to a T. Anyway after Sebastian, feeling rejected and heartbroken and decided to go away on his own, steps out of the novel, I begin to feel lost and frankly a little bored with the book. Sebastian gives the work so much life, Waugh lets his prose just blossom and flourish with that dear boy on the page. That said, I think it says a great deal about Waugh's ability with this work that I grow tired and thin with the absence of Sebastian, because though maybe he won't admit it to himself this is how Charles feels without Sebastian for the rest of his life. Sure he marries Julia, the female counterpart to Sebastian, but she will never fulfill that tiny hole of loss Charles will forever feel.
Which brings me to the big meal in the middle of the book.
Now, suffice it to say the first part of the book is
simply bursting with beautiful descriptors of food, fruit, and drinks. These college kids are simply living it up. Especially the
summer that Charles and Sebastian spend at Brideshead alone
and reveling in each other's company. Daily meals of fresh fruit (peaches, strawberries, and white raspberries) and evenings spent learning about wine using a book to guide them through the reserves in the cellar of the estate. Not to mention the copious amounts of champagne these boys drink, oh how often I've longed to be their classmate at Oxford. Alas.
So the meal I spoke of, it takes place a few chapters before part two of the work, where Charles, now studying art in Paris, returns to his room one day to find Rex (Julia's fiancee) waiting to meet with him and take him out for a meal. Charles, knowing the boastful Rex will pay for the meal, takes him to a small, but quite excellent restaurant where they dine like kings.
"I was there twenty minutes before Rex. If I had to spend and evening with him, it should, at any rate, be in my own way. I remember the dinner well--soup of oseille (*which is a sorrel soup. Sorrel being a sour, spinach-looking herb*), a sole quite simply cooked in white wine sauce, a caneton a la presse (*this consists of various parts of a duck served in a sauce
of its blood and bone marrow, which is extracted by way of a press. It is
often considered the height of elegant eating*), a lemon soufflé."
What follows are pages and pages of Rex going on and on about
himself, much to the extreme boredom of Charles, but thankfully
he had that luscious meal to escape into, thank heavens. Keep in mind at this point Rex has been going on and on about himself without a breath. Charles stays lost in his thoughts.
"After the duck came a salad of watercress and chicory in a faint mist of chives. I tried to think only of the salad. I succeeded for a time in thinking only of the soufflé. Then came the cognac..." "He [Rex] lit his cigar and sat back at peace with the world; I, too, was at peace in another world than his. We both were happy. He talked of Julia and I heard his voice, unintelligible at a great distance, like a dog's barking miles away on a still night."
For myself I decided to focus on the lemon soufflé, I had never made a soufflé before and now seemed like the best time. Now I know that you may have heard the many horror stories of fallen soufflés from doors banging, but honestly that is simply not the case. With a touch of preplanning this dish was actually quite simple to make, and holy-cow delicious to eat! When I say preplanning I mean that a) I read through the whole recipe several times (I know this sounds like an obvious step, but I am the type of cook that reads through the ingredients, then thinks yeah, I have all that stuff, then proceeds with the dish. The only time I actually read through the recipe is as I make it. It is a terrible habit that has brought on a fair few kitchen disasters! I decided to try and break the habit here.) And b) I watched a few soufflé making videos, to watch other chefs' folding techniques etc. Checks theses out: Julia Child making a cheese soufflé, How to make a sweet soufflé, from the Guardian . Ok now that we are all feeling confident let's get started.
I used this very simple recipe:
Ingredients
2 tbsp. unsalted butter, plus more for greasing molds 1⁄2
cup sugar, plus more for molds
3 tbsp. flour
2 tbsp. lemon zest
8 eggs, separated, plus 1 egg white 1 cup milk
1⁄2 cup fresh
lemon juice Confectioners' sugar, to garnish
Instructions:
Heat oven to 375°. Grease eight 6-oz. ramekins and then
coat with sugar, tapping out excess; set aside on a baking sheet. *I only had
10-oz. ramekins, so I dusted six of those.*
Also I learned in watching those videos, that it's best to melt the butter down and brush it in the ramekin, that way you'll get an more even coat for your sugar (the sugar here is important as it adds that extra bit of sweetness the soufflé needs)
Whisk together 1⁄4 cup sugar, flour, zest, and egg yolks in
a 2-qt. saucepan; add milk and stir until smooth.
Place pan over medium heat;
cook, stirring often, until thickened, about 12 minutes.
You're looking for the consistency of chunky Greek yogurt.
Pour through a fine
strainer into a large bowl. *Ok, I didn't strain my mixture at all. It was too thick
and I didn't understand what I was supposed to
be removing (maybe the zest?), so I skipped this step*. Stir in
butter and juice.
Place egg whites in a bowl; whisk until soft peaks form.
Soft Peaks! Well softish, I think maybe a tad more stirring to allow it to come together a little better.
Add remaining sugar; beat until firm peaks form.
Firm peaks!
Add 1⁄3 of the whites to lemon
mixture; stir until smooth. Add remaining whites; fold until combined. Divide
batter among ramekins.
Bake until risen and golden brown, about 18 minutes.
These took a tad longer than 18 minutes. I kept checking every minute or so. Just be careful opening the oven, it's not that the soufflés will fall with any noise, its just that any heat that escapes the oven will hurt the cooking process. I only opened the oven door a crack so I could peek in on their progress.
Immediately transfer to serving plates, and dust with confectioners' sugar.
Add a few cherries and some champagne, and you have a meal worthy of a summer in Brideshead. I imagine that wonderful summer is what Charles thought about at he drowned out Rex and thought of his dear companion Sebastian.
Bon Appetite
