Emily Rookwood takes a lesson from Frederick Forster of Terence Conran’s Boundary in how to make the perfect mandarin soufflé
A few weeks ago, I went to visit Boundary in Shoreditch and their rather dapper head chef Frederick Forster. Frederick has worked in some of the country’s best kitchens including Le Manoir and L’Aubergine, has won the Roux Scholarship and was awarded the National Chef of the Year Award in 2012. Simply put, he is a bit of a whizz in the kitchen.
He has now brought his own take on modern French cuisine to the too often overlooked Boundary restaurant in the basement of Terence Conran’s Boundary hotel.
The purpose of my visit was to make a sequel to my video with Wolfgang Puck (who showed us how to make the perfect omelette) and for this we stuck with the egg theme but took it to new heights (excuse the pun) with a rather elegant soufflé.
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What a momentous soufflé it was. Halfway through incorporating the beaten egg whites we discovered Margaret Thatcher had died. The soufflé had nothing to do with it, it is just a good anecdote for one of those ‘where were you when’ moments.
So, for your viewing pleasure and your dinner parties of the future you can find the recipe with accompanying video below. You might notice that due to Frederick’s immense height, his head doesn’t make an appearance in the video, which is why we have supplied the lovely picture above. You can thank me later.
MANDARIN SOUFFLE
INGREDIENTS
Content from our partners
1KG BOIRON FRUIT PUREE (MANDARIN IN THIS CASE) – you can buy this online
200G CASTER SUGAR
80G CORNFLOUR (MADE INTO PASTE WITH WATER/ABOUT 20 ML)
200G EGG WHITES
50G CASTER SUGAR
METHOD
(1) Boil the puree and sugar for 2 minutes.
(2) Add the cornflower mixture to the puree and boilk for a further 2- 3 minutes until smooth.
(3) Tae 360g of the hot base – and it really must be hot – and put it into a mixing bowl.
(4) In another bowl make a soft meringue with the egg whites and caster sugar
(5) Add one third of the meringue to the hot base:
(6) Gently fold in the remaining egg whites:
(7) Once everything has been properly incorporated put the mixture into a piping bag and pipe into 6 buttered and sugared ramekin. Pipe half full and if you want to add some extra manadrin do so now before covering with more mix and piping up over the top of the ramekin:
(8) Finally smooth off with a palate knife and then run your thumb around the edge to create a dip.
(9) Bake at 180c for 7-8 minutes, dust with icing sugar and serve.
Voilà! You have the perfect soufflé that holds its height and will impress all of your friends. Foolproof. Hopefully.
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