Savory souffles

Souffles are pretty easy to do once you've got the hang of separating eggs and whipping them into stiff peaks and folding them in (MAFC I 157). Once you have the trick of this, it's possible to vary this infinitely by adding leftovers to the bottom of the dish before turning in the souffle mixture, or putting half the mixture in and then the leftovers, and then the rest.

And of course you can vary the condensed cream soups many, many ways. Campbell's Cream of Celery is a good base for fish souffles, as is Cream of Shrimp (MAFC I pp. 166-171). The Campbell's Cream of Chicken and Herbs is a good base for poultry souffles. Cream of Mushroom with Roasted Garlic is good too. These taste less like, well, canned soups!

Serves 4 as a starter

Preheat the oven to 425

1 10oz can cream of mushroom soup (or cream of chicken, cream of broccoli, etc.)
4 egg yolks
4 egg whites
OPTIONAL: grated cheddar cheese

In bowl combine soup and yolks.
Beat egg whites until stiff.
Fold into soup mixture.
Turn into a buttered one-liter souffle or casserole dish (olive oil spray is fine) or individual souffle dishes. The mixture should fill just over half of the dish.
Sprinkle with grated Parmesan cheese if desired.
Bake at 425 for 25 minutes (15 minutes for individual ones).
Serve immediately.

http://www.grouprecipes.com/94083/simple-spinach-souffle.html
2 eggs
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 small onion, chopped
1/8 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1-10 oz. pkg. frozen spinach, thawed and drained
1/8 tsp. nutmeg

1. Heat oven to 350
2. Put eggs, soup, onion, garlic powder and salt into blender and blend for 30 seconds
3. Add spinach and nutmeg and blend for 30 seconds
4. Pour into an ungreased casserole dish
5. Bake 50-60 minutes

Sauteed liver: Abats 101

There are all kinds of 'abats'--organ meats. (French for slaughterhouse is abattoir.) But liver is the easiest and fastest and healthiest and, well, easiest to take for many people.

Julia has liver exactly right when she says it "cooks hardly more than a minute on each side. Overcooked liver is gray, dry, and disappointing—perfectly sautéed, it is a rosy pink when you cut into it."

The photo shows pork liver, my favorite, cut by the Meat Lab into lamelles, a little thicker than the usual. So it took about two minutes a side.

A lot of paper towels or newspaper will help--to blot the liver and dredge it. If you put it on the counter it makes a huge mess.

• 4 slices (about 1 pound) calf's or pork liver sliced about ½ inch thick
• Salt and freshly ground pepper
• ½ cup or more seasoned breadcrumbs or flour in a plate
• 3 tablespoons butter and olive oil combined, or clarified butter

1. Heat the butter and/or oil over high heat. Season the liver on one side with salt and pepper.
2. Dredge the liver in the bread crumbs or flour. Knock the excess of each slice and put each in the skillet.
3. Cook about a minute on each side, or until it's springy to the touch, golden on the outside and pink on the inside (poke and peek until you can feel the doneness). Be sure to remove the slices in the same order you placed them, so they cook evenly.

Julia has some nice variations. But the best for me is the simplest: plain with Dijon mustard. But it takes only a couple of minutes to chop a bit of that precooked bacon that's always in the frig, adding some scallion and stock or wine and mustard to the drippings to make a sauce (which thicken quickly with the crumbs or flour).