You know you’ve made it as a home chef when you can produce the perfect soufflé.
Top Kiwi chef Michael Meredith has a few tricks up his sleeve that not only make attempting the hallmark of French culinary tradition less daunting, but also very much achievable in the home kitchen.
The Miele ambassador and owner of two Auckland restaurants, Mr Morris and the recently-opened Metita in Sky City, is committed to combining his personal values of sustainability and high quality in both the ingredients he chooses and the equipment he uses.
Consistent and even heat is the key to producing a soufflé with the perfect rise. Michael claims that you can achieve confidence when you have the right tools for the job and in this case he relies on his Miele oven.
“Soufflé is a very delicate recipe, which requires a lot of precision and skill. It can be very daunting, yet Miele gives you the ability to achieve these results at home. The key to a soufflé is temperature accuracy, it has to be cooked evenly to rise,” says Michael.
A soufflé can be sweet or savoury and one of Michael’s favourite recipes is a passionfruit soufflé with goat fromage frais, a dish he curated specifically for Miele. It’s a dish with star power that Michael says is boosted by using cheesemaker Anabelle David’s fromage frais. Anabelle combines French cheesemaking tradition with quality New Zealand ingredients, sourcing only the best dairy from local farmers, which gives it a unique and delicious flavour.
“It takes a lot of dedication and care, she knows where to source the best milk from and she knows how each season changes the grass. And you can really taste the difference. There is something special about produce that’s been made by hand. Because when it’s been created by an artisan, you know it’s been crafted with passion,” he says.
“The creamy texture and the savouriness of the goat’s cheese balances out the sweetness of the soufflé. It’s subtle but also complex.”
Without the right appliance, however, these incredible ingredients would go to waste. “I love the control and the accuracy that I get from my Miele oven. The FanPlus function distributes the heat more evenly all around the oven, which means that my passionfruit soufflé will rise perfectly”.
Just as a chef needs a sous chef, Miele aims to be your accomplice in the kitchen. Supporting your dinner parties, your Sunday roast and the humble midweek family dinners, quality comes in all forms at Miele. From the simple accuracy of temperature control to even heat distribution, or the savvy app enabled camera in the oven cavity, Miele makes the experience in the kitchen seamless, enjoyable and most importantly reliable.
Miele is committed to making the extraordinary easy, and that couldn’t be a more apt description for the way their ovens enable home cooks to create a dish as perfect as this light and airy soufflé.
When making this dish at home Miele recommends leaving no ingredient unused. Save any whey leftover from the fromage frais and add it to your sourdough starter. It boosts its fermentation and adds a lovely depth of flavour to your loaf.
You can also use whey in lieu of milk or water in a variety of savoury dishes.
If you love Michael’s recipe and want to explore what oven you need for your next upgrade visit one of the Miele Experience Centre’s in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. Offering complimentary product demonstrations and even private consultations, they’re open Monday – Saturday except for public holidays.
