Lime Soufflé

What do you do when you see a whole bag of slightly sad limes in a farm shop?  Why, make a lime soufflé, of course!  A tweak on my absolute favourite recipe, this lime soufflé went down a storm at a recent family lunch party.  Next time, I’ll add basil to the mix, but it tasted pretty damn good with limes:  there was a fabulous burst of sour smokiness in a silky soufflé….    This is a traditional recipe, and used to be served in a dish that was too small, with a collar of chopped nuts around the top part which was effected by wrapping greaseproof paper around the dish and letting the soufflé set before peeling off the collar and adding chopped nuts.  As far as I'm concerned, life's far too short, but don't let me stop you...

Lime Soufflé 

Cold Lime Soufflé 

3 large eggs
10oz/280g caster sugar
5 limes, zest and juice
15 floz/400ml cream
5 sheets gelatine, soaked then added to:

3 fl oz/85ml warm water

To finish: extra cream and basil tops

Separate the eggs and place the yolks, sugar and grated zest in a bowl and whisk until thick.  I usually do this in a Kenwood with the whisk.    Heat the lime juice, add, and continue whisking “to the ribbon” (ie, pale and very thick).    This takes ages!

Half-whip the cream (until you can see a trail from the mixer head, but the cream isn’t at all stiff) and fold into the mixture.  Dissolve the gelatine in the water over heat and stir into the mixture.  Whisk the egg white until stiff peaks but not dry.   Fold in the egg whites.  This is easier if you stir in a tablespoon of whisked egg white first to break the mix up a bit and then fold in the rest.   (It’s very hard to avoid little islands of egg white.) 

As the mixture begins to thicken, turn at once into a large bowl and put in the fridge to set.   When firm, decorate with cream and basil tops.