Rising To The Occasion With A Broccoli and Walnut Souffle!

What are you doing for Valentine’s Day? Stay at home and make this elegant dinner to share with your special someone.  A soufflé, always has a “wow” factor to it, and this one is a beauty.  They are not as tricky as you would think, so let the illusion remain and accept the praise with grace.

A mouthful of this soufflé is full of tiny bits of fresh broccoli, and crunchy walnuts, and paired with the sour cream horseradish sauce, it is a little bit of heaven on a fork.

A salad or just about any vegetable would be a nice accompaniment. We chose these beautiful heirloom tomatoes, because they were so pretty and smelled like garden grown tomatoes. (Yes, we are desperate for summer produce again.)

And because Valentine’s Day was on the February calendar, we felt it necessary to make a chocolate dessert.  Valentine’s Day, President’s Day, Any Day,  . . . you get the picture. Finding these beautiful raspberries cemented the deal.

Pretty Raspberries All In A Row!



Broccoli Walnut Souffle
Serves: 5 -6
Source: “The Vegetarian Epicure Book Two”, Anna Thomas, Knopf

4 T butter
4 T flour
1 ½ c hot milk
5 egg yolks
1 ½ c chopped cooked broccoli
½ c finely chopped or sliced walnuts
3 T minced onion
3 T grated Parmesan cheese
½ t salt
freshly ground black pepper
7 egg whites
pinch of cream of tartar

garnish
Sour Cream Horseradish sauce

Butter a 2 quart soufflé dish and tie a buttered “collar” around it.
Melt the butter in a heavy saucepan and stir in the flour. Cook the roux over medium heat for a minute or two, stirring constantly. Then add the hot milk and stir with a whisk as the sauce thickens.
When the sauce is perfectly smooth, remove it from the heat and whisk in the egg yolks, one by one. Then add the cooked broccoli, the walnuts, the onions, and the cheese. Stir well and season with salt and pepper.

In another bowl add a pinch of cream of tartar to the egg whites and beat them with a clean whisk or beater until they are stiff enough to form peaks. Do not overbeat them, as they will be too dry.
Stir about 1 cup of the beaten egg whites into the warm sauce. Now add the remaining egg whites and gently fold them in. Do this carefully, as you want to lose as little air as possible.
Pile the soufflé into the prepared soufflé dish, place it in the middle of a preheated 375’ oven, and bake it for 40 – 45 minutes.

Serve immediately with hot Sour Cream Horseradish Sauce.

Adding chopped broccoli to the batter.

Filling the souffle dish.

The gorgeous souffle!

Sour Cream Horseradish Sauce

Makes about 2 ½ cups
Source: “The Vegetarian Epicure Book Two”, Anna Thomas, Knopf

2 T butter
2 T flour
1 c hot milk
2 egg yolks
½ c grated Wensleydale or other mild cheese (we used Gruyere)
1 c sour cream
1 T prepared horseradish
½ t Dijon mustard
salt and pepper to taste

Melt the butter in a heavy skillet and stir in the flour. Lower the flame and cook the roux for a few minutes, stirring constantly. Gradually add the hot milk, stirring with a whisk as the sauce thickens. Then whisk in the 2 egg yolks, one at a time, and stir in the grated cheese.

Continue stirring with the whisk until all the cheese is melted. Do not let the sauce boil.
Add the sour cream, horseradish, mustard, and salt and pepper to taste. Cook over a very low flame for about 5 minutes more, still gently stirring. Serve hot.


Baked Tomatoes
Recipe developed by Sue & Meg For Saturday Night Specials 2/09/13

3 heirloom tomatoes
1 clove garlic, grated
1/3 cup Panko bread crumbs
¼ tsp. red pepper flakes
1 tsp. Italian herbs
2 Tbsp. grated Parmesan
2 Tbsp. olive oil for drizzling
Salt and Pepper to taste

Cut tomatoes and place on oiled baking sheet. Salt and pepper to taste.

Mix the remaining ingredients, except the olive oil, in a small bowl. Sprinkle over tomatoes and drizzle with olive oil.

Bake at 400 degrees on top rack for approximately 15 minutes. Broil for 1-2 minutes to brown tops.

Pretty, pretty tomatoes.

Tomatoes ready for the oven.

Kestrel "Lady In Red" , Columbia Valley, Washington

Raspberry Chocolate Pecan Torte
Serves: 8 – 10
Source: “Great Desserts of the American West”, Frances Towner Giedt, Lone Star Books

½ c (1 stick) butter, at room temperature
3 oz semisweet chocolate, chopped
1 1/3 c granulated sugar
1 c pecan halves, toasted
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 t pure vanilla extract
1/3 c unbleached all-purpose flour
3 c fresh raspberries, rinsed and drained on paper towels
powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350’. Lightly butter a 9 inch round tart pan.

In the top of a double boiler or a large stainless steel bowl suspended over a pot of simmering water, (don’t let water actually touch bottom of the bowl), combine butter and chocolate. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until chocolate melts and mixture is smooth. Remove from heat and stir in sugar.

In a food processor or nut grinder, process pecans until they form a fine powder. Stir into chocolate mixture along with eggs and vanilla extract. Add flour and stir to mix well. Pour batter into prepared pan.

Set aside 1 cup of the raspberries. Gently place remaining berries on top of cake batter, gently pressing each berry slightly into the batter. Bake for 45 – 50 minutes, until a tester inserted 1 inch from the edge comes out clean. Cool in pan on a rack for 10 minutes; invert out onto a rack, turn torte right side up, and cool.

When cool, sprinkle powdered sugar from a shaker or sieve onto the top of the torte and pile the remaining raspberries in the center. To serve, cut into wedges.

A 5 star dessert!

Almost too pretty to eat, almost.

Our unsolicited and biased opinions:

We wouldn’t change anything about the soufflé. The sauce however, needed some boosting, which we did with two additional tablespoons of horseradish and a few red pepper flakes. This would be a great sauce for eggs Benedict or fish or a potato gratin. Confession time: Sue did not have any Dijon, (a pantry staple, can you believe it?), which probably affected the flavor, but we made up for it, in our minds, with the horseradish.

Sue fell in love with the wine label during a tasting at Total Wines. Lucky for her, the wine was really good and paired well with this meal. It was even on sale, so Sue claims it was meant to be.  (Who buys wine because of a pretty label?)

This Raspberry Chocolate Pecan Torte is “five star” wonderful. Excuse us for a moment while we go on and on about this dessert. It has a chewy edge, and  gooey raspberry surprises throughout.  Plan on sharing this with a lot of friends, so that the temptation leaves with them. Otherwise, you will have to hide it under all the other food in your freezer like Sue is doing. Meg has more will power and says she will have a small slice with coffee for the next five days. Yeah, right.

We enjoyed this, and we hope you do too!