Sacre Beurre and Souffle

My spinach souffles--after they'd fallen.  The content of  other small ramekin is in my tummy!

We are in the middle of a national crisis here in France. No, it's nothing like threat of nuclear incineration, but it's just as bad--there is a butter shortage.  

I did not know about this until just recently, as I have always been able to get as much of my favorite, unsalted spread as I need. But my Facebook page is flooded with stories of empty shelves.  One of my friends has even taken to hoarding the precious yellow delight.

Like any frenzy, I guess it feeds upon itself, because my favorite brand was sold out today in Monopriz--luckily there were other brands available.  I haven't felt it necessary to buy extra barquettes and put them into the freezer, but the holidays are nearly upon us and I certainly want butter for Christmas baking.  So perhaps tomorrow a trip to the "big" grocery store is on the to do list.

I did get 50 cents worth of spinach, and combined it with some fresh cream, and, yes-- a little butter and farm fresh eggs and made my first souffle in France.  I used to make spinach souffle all the time back in the 70's, when I was spattering my beloved Joy of Cooking.  It's one of the few cookbooks I brought with me and it never lets me down.  But here's the funny thing about memory--there is no recipe for spinach souffle in the Joy of Cooking. I wonder what recipe I used.

Back then I was never been able to cook with such wonderful  ingredients--these egg whites whipped nearly instantly and two of these eggs would probably have been enough, rather than the three called for in the recipe.

Fresh spinach, butter, cream, eggs, a little fresh Parmesan

I made a large souffle and two small ramekin-sized ones to boot.  The apartment was redolent with baking spinach and eggs and nutmeg.  They rose and browned beautifully and indeed, are nearly a meal in themselves.  What a difference fresh ingredients make.  How lucky I am to be able to get them.  All told, with the eggs and the spinach and the milk, the souffle cost probably less than $3 to make and I have enough for 3 or 4 meals.....and today I spent 5 Euros for the ingredients for vegetable soup and grilled eggplant,  Oh yes, and another 1 Euro 50 for a slab of pumpkin that I will use to make a practice pie.  How lucky I am to have access to such good ingredients!  If only hope the butter supply holds out.