Raspberry Souffle for Mothers’ Day

Tuesday, 10 May 11

I turn to Tim, “You know, it’s been a really long time since I’ve photographed food.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, not since tres leches at Easter.”

“You know…that was only two weeks ago.”

But what a long two weeks it has been. For once, there are photos of people in my camera, when once upon a time, you could literally scroll through my memory card and not have a single glimpse of a human…well, except for maybe someone photobombing the cake. There are photos of flowers, and buildings and three-headed dogs (learning to use the multiple exposure function – Tora was not terribly impressed). And now, souffle.

It was Mothers’ Day on Sunday, and all morning I had been dreaming of a pink dessert. Musing out loud “raspberry souffle…rose and lychee sabayon…raspberry coulis…” (Dad replied “Sounds good.” Mum: “…What?”). Not that Mum is a particularly pink sort of person (except after a couple glasses of wine), but I wanted to do something that would be challenging, but also sweet and light.

So Mum went off to visit Grandma, Dad cooked french onion soup and roast lamb with cider and honey, and I made dessert.

It was far easier than I had assumed.

I was a little worried when Tim, recalling a scene from Glee, piped up “Did you leave room for them to rise?”. Me: “Uh…recipe didn’t say so”, but the souffles rose beautifully, if a little unevenly. When the timer went off, I whispered “No one sneeze”, gently opened the oven door, and holding my breath and a pair of kitchen towels, cautiously slid them out of the oven and onto a heat mat on the table. A dusting of icing sugar covered any surface imperfections, and then I “plated up”, with a drizzle of raspberry coulis, some of my aunt’s heart-shaped Napoleons and a jar of rose and lychee sabayon.

All the components were perfect. The souffle was airy and disappeared like a wisp of cloud on the tongue, the tart raspberries balancing the sweet floral sabayon. A perfect dessert for my Mum.

Recipes

(based loosely on Bill Granger’s Raspberry Souffle and Maggie Beer’s Sabayon, inspired by Pierre Herme’s Ispahan)

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Posted at 4:59 pm in Desserts, Recipes | Respond?

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