About three weeks ago, I finally crossed off an item on my to do list that has been following me for several months — buying ramekins. If only I could adequately describe how much effort and nervous energy I put into this project — it would be quite a story to tell, but in order to properly describe it, I'd have to become a much better writer. So to quickly recap my ramekin journey, the first issue was that it seems that many of the standard kitchen stores in town just didn't have any individual-size ramekins, which pushed my search onto the Internet. On the Internet, I was quickly (and predictably) overwhelmed by the options available, including the ridiculous number of sizes available for "individual" serving ramekins. That question of size really threw me for a loop, so I of course had to consult ALL of the souffle and custard recipes in my cookbooks to find out the most common individual size called for, and then back to researching this question on the Internet where, of course, I couldn't find an answer that really satisfied my question (the answer doesn't exist of course because chefs seem to actually use all of the different available sizes of ramekins!).
I then decided that maybe I should just focus on price, which led to more online research about common prices for ramekins, online store reviews to find the most reliable store, and then of course, while price-comparison shopping for ramekins, I found that that there are different types — metal, porcelain, ceramic, etc. (I had always just assumed they were some sort of ceramic-y-porcelain-y type material). It seemed the search would never end!
Eventually I made myself just find a store that had them in stock — a Williams-Sonoma not too far — and took myself there just to get whatever individual size ramekins they had in stock, no matter the price. I ended up with 4 6-oz. individual porcelain ramekins that just look fantastic and that I am determined to use many times to get my money's worth out of them because I definitely paid way more than I should have.
My first ramekin project: individual chocolate souffles.
As you can tell from the title of this post, this project was definitely a success — such that I decided to call myself a "master". In reality, the recipe truly was dummy-proof and for that all thanks go to Mark Bittman, the true cooking master that I hope to be 1% as good as someday (crossing my fingers). I would encourage everyone to check out his simple recipe at: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/11/dining/111mrex.html?ref=dining. The only change I think I will attempt the next time I make them (and there will absolutely be a next time!) is to prepare some sort of sauce to accompany them — perhaps a Grand Marnier sauce to complete the experience!
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