Gluten-Free Cheese Souffle

I know that going gluten free seems to be a fad , but I really believe that there is something seriously amiss with wheat these days. I discovered I needed to give up gluten 5 years ago when I had (wrongly) come to the conclusion that I had possibly developed a allergy to feathers. Now to most of you that’s not such a big deal, but I happen to work primarily with feathers, and am pretty intimate with them on a daily basis! Not a good thing!

I should have known, maybe I was in denial! I had discovered several years previously that my daughter is seriously gluten intolerant. That diagnosis made originally by my old friend Rita the Reader who was a psychic reader at Scarborough fair in Texas. Rita said ” I don’t know anything about gluten allergies, but tell her to have it checked it out” My daughter had been experiencing several unrelated health issues, that as it turned out, all stemmed from gluten.

So here I am talkin’ the talk , and yes walkin’ the walk! And actually having some fun with the challenges of G F cooking.
I have found that wheat flour is highly overrated , and that in this country we are just used to using it as our default flour, there are other options that might just sometimes work better.

This is a favorite of mine for a quick , easy , (looks like it was hard) elegant dish! cheese souffle!

Debra’s G F Cheese Souffle
for 2-3 people

ingredients:

• 8 eggs separated
• 3 tbsp. butter
• 3-tbsp. tapioca flour
• 1 cup warm milk
• 2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese
• 1 teas Worcestershire sauce
• 1 teas (or 3 good shakes of ) McCormick Montreal Steak seasoning, ( we call it crack in my family! its addictive!)

instructions:

1. preheat the oven to 425 %
2. prepare a medium or 4 quart baking dish by coating the bottom and sides with oil, then cover with a liberal dusting of tapioca flour.
3. In a thick bottomed sauce pan, or double boiler, add butter and cook under medium heat until it is melted.
4. Add the tapioca flour to butter and stir constantly with a rubber spatula for about 5 min.
5. Add milk gradually while whisking, until mixture starts to thicken, ( if it becomes super thick add a little more milk)
6. Add cheese and keep mixing until the cheese is melted, ( consistency should be about like a pancake batter, or wallpaper paste 🙂
7. add seasoning and Worcestershire sauce
8. let cool to lukewarm
9. Now if you wanted to stop here and have a nice fondue with G F bread and veggies , this is it! However if your moving ahead to a souffle, we are almost there!
10. Add lightly beaten egg yolks to cheese mixture
11. whip up the whites until they form soft peaks
12. fold the 2 together and pour into the prepared baking dish
13. stick in the oven at the preset temp for 15 min. then turn down the temp to 350% leaving it (unmolested) no peaking! or jumping! for another 30 min.

note: don’t forget to take the top rack out and lower the remaining rack. I forgot once, when it was a epic souffle that ended up stuck to the top of the oven!
note: make sure everyone sees it when it first comes out of the oven, as its Majesty will eventually deflate!
enjoy!