Directions: |
Directions:Pre-heat oven to 350° Butter and flour a large baking dish. Prepare your basic roux. (Ie. melt butter in a pan, add flour and cook—whisking constantly—until it just begins to turn a light brown color.) Heat milk (in microwave) until hot, but not boiling. Add a small amount of roux into the milk and mix, then add the milk mixture back into the roux. Surprise! You now have the basic foundation to a simple white-sauce. Reduce heat. Whisk a small amount of this hot sauce mixture into the egg yolks, then add the yolks back into the sauce, whisking well. Warning #1: Once you have mixed in the egg yolk, you must be very carefull to keep the overall mixture at a low temperature! Otherwise the egg yolks will temper and your sause will either have a mottled texture or the consistency of a mysterious plastic petrolium product. Reduce heat to the lowest setting and keep the sause only warm enough to continue melting cheesese or other items. Slowly add cheese and mix until it is melted into the sauce. Surprise! You now have a basic cheese sauce! Warning #2: Before the next step (beating the egg whites) it is worthwhile to note how important it is that you didn't accidentally get any egg yolk into the whites. SERIOUSLY! A couple drops of the yellow stuff with screw your egg whites badly. If you accidentally get a drop of a broken yolk into the whites, carefully and surgically remove it with a spoon. Consider the egg yolk to be KRYPTONITE at this stage! Now use a mixer at medium or high speed to beat the egg whites with the cream of tartar until they are "stiff but not dry". (Once they peak, they're done. If you don't stop immediately they'll resemble a merange.) Add 1/4 of the egg white to the sauce and mix. FOLD the sauce into the egg whites. FOLD does not mean mix! This is important: you just barely mix the two together. It is perfectly okay that you see bits of white. The mixture does not need to be homogenous. Place mixture in baking dish and bake for 30-35 minutes. |