Last weekend I had Mr Soul & City and Mr Bump for dinner. My friend, Mr Bump is exactly like the Roger Hargreaves’s character, always falling over/down, bumping into, tripping up…A good week for him is to have only 3 bruises. Mr B and I both have a malay/chinese food fetish and often drool over Rasa Malaysia’s delicious posts.

So Asian food was on the menu with dim sum to start off, a crunchy fresh pineapple, cucumber, bean sprout and mint salad. Followed by, what was supposed to be an Assam laksa but unfortunately I couldn’t find all the ingredients in Chinatown.

But I did find some fresh pandan leaves or screwpine leaves. I did a little jump for joy when I found them in the supermarket (I’ve found the essence before but that’s nothing in comparison). Sweet “vanillery” smell…their perfume brings back memories of me eating malay delicacies when I was back visiting my relatives. Pandan is what vanilla is for the western world. It flavours almost all desserts and plenty savoury dishes in South East Asia.

The idea of a chilled soufflé came from eating at La Gazetta (excellent restaurant in the 12th Arrondissement, make sure to book well in advance). I had a delicious dessert which I thought at first was a mousse, only to be told by my “chefy” friend that it was actually a soufflé baked and then chilled. Unfortunately I don’t have an oven in my kitchen so I had find another way to recreate the same sensation.
I came across quite a few recipes for “cold soufflés” while surfing. The idea is to create a “fake” soufflé head. Nice idea but I couldn’t really be bothered with all that faffing around so I used the pandan leaves as the “ramekins”.
Anyway my guests *hearted* their sweet little pandan gifts…and so will you.

For other “Sugar high” treats, check out the Sugar High Friday event hosted by Habaes Brulee.

Chilled pandan soufflé

Crème pâtissière

Egg white mixture

4x 3″metal rings

To make the pandan soufflé cases. Wrap a pandan leaf around a metal ring, cut to the right length. Place inside the ring. Cover a board or flat plate with plastic film and place all the pandan cases on the plate/board.

For a “soufflé” effect: Cut 4 strips of parchment paper about 1 inch longer than the circumference and at least 1 1/2 inches taller than a 6-ounce ramekin. Wrap a parchment-paper strip around each of 4 ramekins to form a collar, and secure with tape.

Crème pâtissière
Heat the milk, cream and the rest of the pandan leaves in a heavy-based pan. Bring to the boil and then simmer for 10 minutes (or until the leaves have softened). Take off the heat and leave to infuse for 30 minutes. Remove the leaves. Bring the cream mixture back to the boil. In a separate bowl, beat the egg yolks with half of the sugar, then gradually beat in the cornflour. Meanwhile soak the gelatin in cold water.
When the milk and cream begin to scald, remove from the heat and slowly trickle the hot liquid over the egg mixture, whisking thoroughly as you do so. Transfer the mixture back into the pan, add the pandan essence and stir over gentle heat for about 3-5 minutes until it is smooth and thick. Transfer the crème patissière to a bowl.

Whisk the egg whites to a stiff peak, add the rest of the sugar half way through. Squeeze the water out of the gelatin. Dissolve it in a pot over a gentle heat and mix into the crème patissière. Fold the egg whites into the crème patissière.

Spoon the mixture into the pandan cases. Refridgerate for at least 4 hours or overnight.