Vanilla Cheesecake

2012 will the past in a few more days. So for those of you having a New Years Eve party, this rich and creamy cheesecake will make a delight addition. It is very simple to make and ingredients are easily available. Although it takes an hour to bake in the oven, it takes only a few minutes to whip up all the ingredients so there is minimum stress. The star to this cheesecake is really the vanilla. So use the best vanilla pod you have. I used the vanilla pod my friend brought back from his Madagascar trip so I was lucky. Remember to store your quality vanilla pod in an air tight container cause the last thing you need is a dried out vanilla pod.

Little work for maximum pleasure. It melts in the mouth and tastes like vanilla heaven.

Vanilla Cheesecake

adapted from Foodbeam
serves 8 

Base Ingredients:

• 150g digestive biscuits
• 90g butter, melted
• 20g dark muscovado sugar

Cheesecake Ingredients:

• 300g cream cheese
• 250g mascarpone
• 150g sugar
• 2 eggs
• seeds of 1 vanilla pod

Decorate:

• Raspberries
• Mint leaves

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 140°C . (Depending on the heat of your oven, never have it higher than 170°C)
2. Crush the digestive biscuits and mix in the melted butter and dark muscovado sugar until well combine.
3. Gently press the biscuits with the back of a spoon onto the lined 18cm cake tin.
4. Refrigerate the base.
5. Whisk the cream cheese, mascarpone, sugar, eggs and vanilla pod until consistent.
6. Pour the mixture onto the biscuit base and bake in a bain-marie for an hour or until just set.
7. Allow to cool and chill in the fridge for at least four hours.
8. Run a hot spatula or knife round the edges of the cheesecake to remove from its tin.
9. To serve, cut and decorate the cheesecake with raspberries and mint leaves.

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Baked Camembert Pasta

I was not a big cheese fan but camembert, I love! Since I moved to England, I am starting to like cheese a lot more than I used to. But of course, anything mature is still too over powering for my liking. Although, I might change my mind as I mature myself as I used to hate goats cheese but now, I like it especially with watermelon. My rare craving for cheese this particular night was pretty specific. Baked camembert! So instead of having it with some baguette, I decided to make pasta!

This is really quick and simple with every piece of fusili coated with camembert.

BAKED CAMEMBERT PASTA RECIPE

Ingredients:

• Camembert
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 stalk rosemary

• Fusili (or any other pasta)
• 1 courgette (ribbon & cubed)
• 1 red capsicum (cubed)
• 6 mushrooms (quartered)
• 1 onion
• 1/2 chilli (optional)
• Sea salt & ground black pepper to taste

To bake camembert:

1. Remove the plastic wrapping of the camembert and place it back into the wooden case.
2. Stuff cut pieces of garlic and rosemary into the camembert as pictured above.
3. Bake camembert for 10 minutes or until soft.

To cook pasta:

1. Boil fresh fusili in salted water with olive oil until al dante. Drain and leave aside.
2. On a separate pan, heat some olive oil and saute the onions, garlic and chilli until soft an fragrant.
3. Add the cubed courgette and red capsicum into the pan.
4. Cook until the vegetables are slightly soft but still have some bite to them.
5. Toss in the cooked pasta and soft gooey baked camembert until well mixed.
6. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

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Watermelon & Goats Cheese

Whoever combined watermelon and goats cheese together is a genius!! Who would have thought the two would be match made in heaven. I vaguely remember seeing watermelon and goats cheese somewhere on the web and thought what crazy person would put those two together in their mouth?! I am now one of those crazy person.

To be frank, it was just a coincidence that I made this appetizer. One day after my third Bokwa class on my way to the tube station, I passed by Sainsbury's and thought I will buy some food back. And out of the ordinary, I bought goats cheese for the second time. The first time I had it, I did not like it at all but after so many years, I thought it is about time for me try it again to make sure I really hate it so I will never go near that thing again. Of course I was being quite a coward by getting the milder version, ranked number 2 on its maturity level.

When I got home to stock my refrigerator with food, I saw that quarter of a watermelon and thought this is the perfect time to try the food I never thought tastes good on its own and together. I meant goats cheese and, combination of goats cheese and watermelon. I love watermelon!! I had one bite with the two together and man, they are really meant for each other. I think they are the perfect couple.



I have shared the version I made in the recipe below. Hope you like it too. And if you have not tried this before, open up and try this at least once.

This is such a simple and healthy food.

WATERMELON & GOATS CHEESE RECIPE

• Watermelon


• Goats cheese
  
  
  
  • for vegetarians, please use a substitute cheese
  
  
  
  


• Alfalfa sprouts


• Mint

Method:

1. For the more casual style, cut the watermelon in cubes. De-seed them if needed. Crumble the goats cheese on to the bowl of cubed watermelons. Add some chopped mint and alfalfa sprouts. Mix them all together and eat to your hearts content.


2. If you are making this for a dinner party or just want to make pretty appetizer, cut the watermelon with a circle food ring so it looks neat round. Top it up with a bunch of alfalfa sprouts stacked neatly on top of the watermelon. Scoop the goats cheese on top and add a few leaves of mint.

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Popette D'uova

It has been a busy week but the weekend was pretty chilled out and lovely. It all started off great with friday night of non stop salsa and bachata, followed by thick hot chocolate the next morning. What's even better, we went to Borough Market! You cannot imagine how happy I was when M suggested we go to the market for lunch. It has been a pain trying to drag him to the market and finally, we went there together! It would have been much more fun if I could eat those fresh and succulent scallops, and ostrich steak burger with cranberry sauce. Not long and I will be able to eat anything I want again. Only two more days!! Coming back to the chilled weekend, we went for a swim, sauna and hot shower. When we came out, it started snowing!! The tropical kid in me was pretty excited for it finally snowed!

Snow in London

The very excited me in the snow

Now that it is sunday night and the final weekend of me being a vegetarian, I shall share this delicious and simple to make cheese balls. This will keep you smiling for whenever you need to be a temporary vegetarian, missing your meatballs ever so badly. Popette D'uova is the closest you could get to meatballs. Even the meat eater liked these 'vegetarian meatballs'!

Freshly fried cheese balls.

Popette D'uova a success!

POPETTE D'OUVA RECIPE

adapted from Massimo Bruno's recipe via Eat Live Travel Write

Ingredients:

• 6 eggs
• 140g freshly grated Pecorino Romano cheese
  
  • for vegetarians, please use an alternative cheese
• 115g breadcrumbs
• 1 tsp bicarbonate soda
• parsley (they were out of parsley while I was shopping for ingredients so it was omitted)

• olive oil
• garlic cloves
• 1 can chopped tomatoes
• basil
• black pepper (to taste)

Method:

1. Beat the eggs, add in the grated cheese and breadcrumbs. Add in the bicarbonate soda and mix well.
2. Heat the oil in a saucepan while you divide the mixture into balls. This recipe yields about 14 balls.
3. Make sure the oil is hot. Check the temperature by putting a chopstick through the oil and on the base of the pan. There will be bubbles when the temperature is right. Another way of checking is by tossing some flour on to the oil and it sizzles.
4. Fry the balls until golden brown. When ready, let them sit on some kitchen towels to soak the oil.
5. On another pan, stir fry the garlic until fragrant.
6. Pour in the can of chopped tomatoes and basil. Add some water and stir.
7. Cook the sauce with the cheese balls for 30 minutes until they soak in the tomato juice.

Tips:

• No salt was added in this recipe as the Romano cheese was salty enough for my liking. Please add a little seasalt to your taste if preferred.
• According to 'Eat.Live.Travel.Write', it tastes better the next day, and I agree with her.

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Kaya cream pie with love

The first time I heard about Mikey Perillo is a news feed from Tastespotting facebook page inviting all food bloggers to commemorate him by making Peanut butter pie. It was his favourite. Jennifer Perillo, a food writer, editor and a mother, lost her husband to a heart attack. I cannot imagine losing someone I love so dearly in such an unexpected way. It is devastating and I wish Jennie well.

Let us take this opportunity to reflect. Think about our loved ones and let them know how you feel when you are able to, before it is all too late. The last thing you want to do is take them for granted and regret it later. So to all my friends and family, although I don't say this very often, every single one of you have touched my lives and enhanced it in many different ways. I really appreciate having you by me all this while.  You are always close to my heart.

I hope you enjoy this Kaya Cream Pie, inspired by peanut butter pie. I would like to dedicate this pie to all my friends and family and to everyone that I have encountered with, including you, the very few readers of my post.

Kaya cream pie slice

Kaya Cream Pie

For the Pie Base:

• 150g digestive
• 90g butter (melted)
• 40g instant white coffee powder (I used 1 instant packet of the Old Town white coffee)

For the Kaya Cream Filling:

• 250ml double cream
• 50g butter
• 200g homemade kaya
• 200g cream cheese

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Add the digestive biscuits into a food processor and pulse it until finely crushed.
2. Mix the crushed digestive, white coffee powder and butter until well blended.
3. Compress the base mixture on to a 9" pie base.
4. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes. When ready, cool and refrigerate.
5. Next, whip the double cream until soft peak. Refrigerate to keep cool.
6. Cream the butter and sugar. Blend in kaya until well mixed.
7. Then mix in the cream cheese until soft and creamy.
8. Fold in the cream cheese mixture onto the whipped double cream.
9. Pour the mixture into the pie base and chill for 4 hours or over night to set.

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