Week 18: Aubergine soufflé

This week (I actually prepared the recipe in advance this week for once but sssshhh) one of my friends said I couldn't make a soufflé. Obviously I was left with no other choice than to prove him wrong which I did almost straight away.
You start by taking one fairly small aubergine (about 250 to 300 grams is perfect) and peeling and dicing it. Bring one liter of water to a boil with a tablespoon of vinegar and boil the aubergine cubes for one to two minutes. Drain and rinse in cold water.
Try to squeeze most of the water out and quickly sauté the aubergine. Add a large tablespoon of flour and make sure the aubergine is well coated with it (you're actually making a roux here but because the butter was absorbed by the aubergine you have to form it around the aubergine). You probably guessed it already but next we need to add some milk until we have a sauce of nice thickness. Season with pepper, salt and nutmeg and add around 25 grams of grated cheese. Remove your saucepan from the fire and let the mixture cool a bit. Beat two egg whites with a pinch of salt. Your aubergine mixture should have cooled enough by now for you to stir in two egg yolks and after that gently folding in the egg white (the less stirring the better).
Preheat your oven to 200°C and put your soufflé in ramekins (or teacups like I did) and put them in a large oven dish halfway filled with boiling water (au bain-marie) and bake for 25 minutes.
I don't know why it is considered a very difficult dish. It is definitely true that you need to eat it straight away because as it cools you can see it getting less and less puffy but that is fairly logical. This was the first ever time that I tried to make it and as you can see it worked like a charm. It puffed up perfectly and the taste and texture were great. Definitely worth a try!