It is not very often that a wizened auld urban degenerate such as meself gets told off like a bold little schoolboy. But when I do get a bollicking, I like it to be done as epicly as possible.
The last earful I got was over in The Botanic Gardens in Glasnevin about 10 days ago. Twas a nice family day out and all was very civilized, until the Davis family primeval urges kicked into play. We spotted a few trees with some wicked looking berries on them – a quick iphone search revealed them to be mulberries. We went to town on them and went on a picking frenzy.
After a while we’d decided to try to stash a few for later consumption. That meant that we started depleting the tree’s lovely bounty quite quickly. So I had to hop over a fence to get me hands on more berries. Of course that meant I had a park keeper give me shit for acting the maggot. After the second reprimanding he just looked at me like I was some kind of spoiled five year old.
“I’m sorry fella, but they’re so good!”
Thankfully he appeared to agree and gave me an agreeable smile. When I got home I decided to add them to what was left of my stash of my wild Irish blueberries (frockens/bilberries) that I picked in Wicklow. Everybody’s a sucker for a soufflé, so I made a few out of the berries. You can replace the mulberries and frockens with raspberries and blueberries.
The mulberries mixed with the frockens. A fucking wicked combo, delighted that I resisted the initial temptation to mix them into a cocktail.
INGREDIENTS:
100 grams of stolen or preferably not stolen Mulberries
100 grams of wild Irish blueberries (frockens)
4 egg whites
3 tablespoons of sugar for egg whites
2 teaspoons of sugar for the berries
1 teaspoon of butter to grease the ramekins
METHOD:
Preheat oven to 200 degrees.
Butter the insides of six 1/2 cup ramekins
Lash all the berries in a blender, then strain through a fine mesh sieve to remove the seeds. Lots can get stuck on the under side of the sieve, be sure to brush them into bowl from there. You should get about 1/2 cup after straining.
Add 2 teaspoons sugar to the strained puree and set aside.
In a mixer, beat four egg whites until they begin to thicken. Continue to beat the whites while you slowly add 1/4 cup sugar. Mix until egg whites form stiff peaks and are glossy.
Add 1/3 of the egg whites to the puree and slowly fold in. Continue by adding the remaining egg whites, folding in until no white streaks remain. Don’t over do it though, keeping those air bubbles is crucial.
Spoon the soufflé batter into the ramekins, filling to the top and leveling off with the back of a spatula.
Put about an inch or so of hot warm water into a baking tray. Place filled ramekins into the baking tray and bake on a rack positioned in the bottom 1/3 of the oven.
Bake for 12 – 15 minutes or until the souffle rises a few cm above the rim.
Serve immediately with a sprinkle of powdered sugar and some frockens sprinkled on top.
The prepped ramekins, I fucked up a little by not keeping them neat on top. Neatness is not my forté.
The finished soufflé. Worth breaking public park by laws for.
Don’t forget that I’ll be down at The Leccie Piccie on Saturday at 6pm in The Theatre of Food. Myself and the good folk from The Ticket will be hosting a burger cook off between Phantom FM’s Michelle Doherty vs the Kiwi comedian Danny Dowling. I will be joined by my auld pal Clint Velour, it’s gonna be gas – come join us!
Give Michelle some support by mailing the station on live@phantom.ie
Send Danny Dowling a tweet on @dannydowling