Weekend In The Country

We've just come home from a really relaxing weekend staying with my partner's parents in Waipu. Their house has the most glorious garden with an orchard, lots of vegetables and lovely trees everywhere. It's such a lovely, inspiring place to spend a weekend and we always come home feeling very lucky it's only a two hour drive away. The weather on Sunday was diabolical and we spent the day reading in front of the fire while my daughter hung out with her grandparents. The rain was torrential all day so we didn't feel guilty about doing nothing much at all. As so often seems to happen in Northland, at 5 o'clock, the clouds cleared, the rain stopped and the sun made a mighty appearance. We took the opportunity to wander around the property at this gorgeous time of day.

Luke's mum is a great cook. We are always very well fed while we're staying with them. We arrived at 7.30 on Friday night. A yummy cheese souffle was waiting for us along with a glass of wine.

She's been making this recipe for 30 years. It comes from a book called: Not Just A Load Of Old Lentils. Such a great title. The recipe is below. The soufflé didn't last long enough for a photograph but trust me it's delicious.

Cheese Souffle 

85 grams butter

2 heaped Tbsp flour

1 cup milk

6 heaped Tbsp grated cheese

4 eggs separated

1/2 tsp mustard powder

salt and pepper

Melt butter and add flour to the saucepan. When the mixture froths remove from heat and stir in the milk. Return to the heat and stir until mixture thickens.

Remove from heat and add grated cheese. Allow to cool slightly and mix in the egg yolks, mustard powder, salt and pepper.

Whisk egg whites until very stiff and fold into the mixture gently.

Pour mixture into a 2 pint soufflé dish and bake at 180 for about 45 minutes. Serve immediately.