sow and sow

Easy Courgette Souffle (for two main courses or six starters)

3 medium courgettes
Red onion
Garlic
100g plain flour
75g butter
1 pt whole milk
3 egg yolks
4 egg whites
Mature cheddar cheese

Butter the souffle dishes.

Preheat the oven to 190 degrees C

Coursely grate the courgettes and add to a frying pan (or any wide based pan) and gently fry off without any oil to dry them out a bit.

Once fairly dry (before it starts colouring), add olive oil, onion and garlic and fry until lightly golden – not too brown.

Remove from the heat.

Whisk the egg white to the soft peak stage.

Make a bechamel sauce by melting the butter and removing from the heat. Add the flour and stir in until you get a thick paste. Adjust the quantities of butter and flour at this stage so that you get a paste that sticks together and comes away from the pan. Using a wooden spoon, stir the paste as you add the milk a ladle at a time. Once you’ve added a few ladles then return to a gentle heat as you add the rest.

DON’T PANIC – I promise that even if it looks like baby sick now, if you keep stirring it will produce a smooth bechamel. Keep stirring over the heat until it is nice and thick.

Once all the milk is added and the sauce is smooth add this to the courgette/onion mixture and add the grated cheddar and the egg yolks. Stir this in thoroughly.

Next adding a bit at a time, fold the courgette/sauce/cheese mixture to the egg whites taking care not to over work. (It’s the bubbles in the egg white that make the souffle rise.)

Once it has all been combined, transfer it to the souffle dishes and fill them about 3/4 full.

Place carefully in the oven for 20-25 mins for large souffles or 15 mins for small ones – KEEP AN EYE ON THEM BUT DON’T OPEN THE OVEN DOOR. The timings seem to vary every time I do this dish, so although it’s a pain, I keep checking through the oven door every ten minutes. They should be dark golden brown on top and not wobble when you knock on the oven door. If they wobble, I leave them in for another 5 mins and check again. It’s a faff but the end result is worth it!

Once they don’t wobble, open the oven door, grab a spoon and eat – Frank likes Dijon mustard with this dish too.

Courgette Toast

Sounds weird but this is lovely comfort food on Sunday evenings…

Three courgettes (for two people for light supper)
300g grated cheddar
2 medium free-range eggs
Worcestershire sauce
Toasting bread

Grate up the courgettes and squeeze as much water out as possible.

Grate up the cheddar and mix into the courgette

Add the eggs, Worcestershire sauce and season. The set to one side while you lightly toast the bread.

Then simply spread the mixture onto the slices of toast so that it’s about 1/4″ thick and grill until it goes lightly brown.

The first time I made this I had to make it three times I just couldn’t stop eating it so be warned!