Mrs Kirkham's Lancashire cheese soufflés

Method

1. Bring the milk, onion and peppercorns to scalding point, then strain off the bits.

2. Meanwhile, melt the butter in a sauce pan, addd the flour and cook 1 min. Now slowly add the milk a little at a time (let the flour begin to bubble before adding more milk, this means the flour has cooked out) until you get a nice smoothe sauce.

3. Take it off the heat and beat in the yolks and thyme, then 75g of the cheese.

4. Whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks, then add a small spoonful to the whites to the egg mix and mix well (this loosens the mix, so the rest of the whites will fold in easily).

5. Now add a good spoonful of the whites and gently fold in, do this until it’s all combined.

6. Butter and flour 4 x 150g ramekins, then divide the mixture between them. If you’re going to serve immediately sprinkle with the rest of the cheese, if not keep it until you ready to reheat. Now put into a baking dish, fill with water to about 1/3 up the ramekins and cook at 180c for 15 mins.

7. If serving straight away I like to serve with a little watercress, with maybe a few sun-blush tomatoes and dressing. If you’re saving them, let them cool, turn them out and chill and/or freeze, then reheat for about 8 minutes, topped with the rest of the cheese.