Pesto Cheesecake

I chopped up a bunch of basil and parsley with pecan nuts the other night to make pesto - what a delicious good way to preserving vegetables before they wilt. Cover it with enough olive oil and it just basically sit, fresh as it is, in the corner of refrigerator for a long enough time till I need it again. Usually I would leave out salt and lemon juice until just before using the pesto.

I scaled the recipe down to a 4" x 7" casserole dish, good enough for two persons. You may triple the volume and bake it in a 8" springform pan as you would with ordinary cheesecake. The recipe I found uses breadcrumbs as crust. I used the wheat biscuits left from whatever dessert I last made with. The crust was a tad to the sweet side, which turned out to be an interesting compliment to the savory cream cheese pesto layer. I also threw in some sun dried tomatoes because I was thinking they had been sitting in the fridge for a wee bit too long.

Adrian enjoyed this very much. Initially he was going to save a piece for next day. Then he kept picking at the crumbs. Eventually he devoured what's left of the picking with a cup of coffee.

I guess this dish is meant to be some Italian appetizer to serve over garlic bread or cracker. But why limit my imagination? I just happened to fry up some sunny-side up to supplement the nutritive profile of our Sunday breakfast. OH! Not the forget a bed of fresh from the farm organic lettuces, courtesy of my lovely friend, Pinnada :)

Ingredients:

• 4 pieces wheat biscuits, crushed
• 1 Tablespoon Parmesan cheese, grated
• 1 Tablespoon butter, room temperature
• 4oz cream cheese, soften
• 1/3 homemade ricotta cheese
• pinch of salt and cayenne pepper
• sun dried tomatoes, chopped
  
• 1/3 cup homemade pesto
• Pecan nuts

1. Preheat oven at 160C. Lightly grease a 4"x7" casserole dish.
2. Roll together biscuits, Parmesan and butter. Press to the bottom of prepared dish. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes, until the crust is lightly browned.
3. Blend together cream cheese and ricotta until smooth and fluffy. Fold in sun dried tomatoes and pesto. Season with salt and cayenne pepper to taste.
   
4. Pour evenly over biscuit crust. Sprinkle with pecan nuts. Bake for 45 - 60 minutes - center should move just slightly when shaken.
5. Cover and refrigerate overnight. Loosen the edges with knife and transfer to individual serving plates.
   

Baked Herbed Blintz

I tried a blintz recipe few days ago and somehow managed to turn it into a crepe: I poured all the batter into one big frying pan - the crepe was too thick to be folded into envelope. This time I used a 8.5" pan and was patient enough to divide the batter into 4 portions. Instead of frying the blintz again, I baked them until the top was nicely browned.

We were both very happy with this. There's so much possibilities with the filling, and sauce to serve. I may make it a sweet blintz next.

Ingredients:
(serve 2)

Filling

For some reason I roasted two bell peppers for no reason a few days ago, not to mention the left over Ricotta. This cut down the preparation time considerably. I prepared the filling the night before knowing that Adrian was leaving home early the next morning. It always helps to have plan.

• Red and yellow bell pepper
  
• 1 clove garlic, minced
  
• Homemade ricotta cheese
• Parmesan cheese, grated

1. Rub bell pepper with olive oil and sea salt. Bake at 180C until bell peppers collapsed. Peel the skin, remove seeds and juices. Sliced into wedges. Take just enough of what you need and chopped into cubes.
2. Mix roasted bell peppers with the rest of the ingredients. Taste and adjust with sea salt if necessary.
3. Cover and store in refrigerator until ready for use.

Crepes

The crepe batter too was prepared the night before. It's quick an easy. Besides basil and parsley, coriander and tarragon would be a good mix too. You may want to add the chopped herbs just before frying: some of the basil leaves were browned the next morning.

• 1/2 cup unbleached all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup miso soup
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• 1 tablespoon pure sesame oil
• 1 tablespoon fresh parsley and basil, chopped

Whisk the ingredients together to mix. Taste and adjust with sea salt if necessary.

The Assembly

Here's another ingredient good to have handy: pesto. Alternately a herby tomato sauce may do the trick.

• Parmesan cheese, grated
• Rocket pesto
  

1. Preheat oven to 200C.
2. Brush a 8.5" skillet with just enough butter to coat the pan. When the pan is well heated, remove from heat and pour about half of 1/4 cup of batter into pan. Tilt and swirl the pan to coat the bottom with a thin even layer of batter. Return to heat.
3. Fry the bottom till browned and the top set. Remove to a plate with cooked site up. Repeat to make 4 more crepes.
4. Lightly coat a baking tray with butter. Take 3 - 4 spoonful of ricotta filling and place it to the center of each crepes. Fold the edges into the middle to make blintzes. Place blintzes seam site down, in one layer, onto the prepared tray. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and bake for 20 minutes.
5. Drizzle with pesto and garnish with basil leaves to serve.
   

Ricotta and Sun-dried Tomatoes Crepe

For three days in a row I was making the same omelet for breakfast: sun-dried tomatoes, rocket leaves and Gruyere cheese. Although Adrian was very happy with the omelet, and claimed to never get bored, I did. So I decided to make something different with the same ingredients - savory crepe.

I prepared the pesto and filling a night before. I'm getting more comfortable with my cooking instinct, i.e. less precise measurement.

Ingredients:
(one big crepe)

Rocket Pesto:

• Rocket leaves
• Garlic cloves
• Parmesan cheese, grated
• Extra virgin olive oil

Start with chopping one clove of garlic. Throw in a big handful of rocket leaves and some grated parmesan cheese to chop. Continue until you get the amount you need. Press it into cake and cover with extra-virgin olive oil. Store in refrigerator.

For the filling:

• Homemade Ricotta cheese
• Water
  
• 5 pieces Sun-dried tomatoes, chopped
• Parmesan cheese, grated

I started thinning about 1/2 cup ricotta cheese with 2 tablespoons of water. Stir in sun-dried tomatoes and parmesan cheese to mix. Taste and adjust with sea salt if necessary. Add more ricotta to increase volume.

For the crepe:

• 2 tablespoons flour
• 1 tablespoon milk
• 4 eggs, slightly beaten
  
• pinch of salt

Option: Gruyere cheese

Mix flour and milk thoroughly. Fold in beaten eggs and salt. Melt enough butter cover a 9" skillet. Pour the batter over and swirl the pan to cover the bottom. Fry until the bottom is nicely browned and top sets. Transfer to serving plate.
Spread top with ricotta filling and slices of Gruyere cheese. Fold crepe into half. Serve with ground black pepper and pesto sauce.

Lemony Ricotta Pancake with Balsamic Fig Jam

I used to do all the cooking by myself. Sometimes I thought it would be nice if Adrian could help me instead of just sitting in front of the computer, then I rationalized I wouldn't have liked it because I would be very bossy about how things should be done - MY WAY -. Ever since he cooked for my birthday, he found new meaning in cooking: there's something satisfying about making your own foods that he enjoys. It, too, surprises me how much I enjoy having my husband, with me, in the kitchen. I am working to suppress my bossiness and express my dominating nature in the least oblivious way possible. It has worked for two months so far.

This was another lazy morning. We woke up rehearsing the languages that we each learning: he spoke to me in Mandarin, I replied in Japanese. It's one of the exercises we vouched to keep in order to develop our brain map. Adrian's Mandarin lesson has covered the verbs for "eat" and "drink", plus a bonus "hungry" from me, and that took us from bed to kitchen.

We had a bit of ricotta left from yesterday's French toast, and there's a jar of self-raising Farina flour that came from a absentminded mistake while I was making pizza dough: it's Farina flour with baking powder and salt. So I decided to make do with the two ingredients: Ricotta Pancake.

I can tell I'm becoming more intuitive with my cooking: I don't have to be looking at recipe as much as I used to; I'm able to concoct dishes based on what I cooked before. This Balsamic Fig Jam, for instance, is a spin-off of Balsamic reduction that I have tried a few times with different fruits and really like.

The jam turned out to be extraordinary, - not your ordinary pancake jam - especially so with sour cream. The pancake too was excellent. I was going to announce the best pancake I've made but Adrian said he got instant ecstasy from the sourdough pancake. It's a close call. This pancake was soft and fluffy while the sourdough pancake was tangy and had a cake-like texture. If I may give them attributes: this one was happy and bouncy; the sourdough pancake was mature and acquired. I found myself nodding my head to a symphony of happy tunes in my head with the fluffy Ricotta pancake.

Note: There was only 1/2 cup ricotta left and so I made up the 1 cup volume with sour cream. Adrian thought fresh strawberries would go very well with the fig jam; you can use other berries or non at all.

Ingredients:(makes two 8" pancakes)

Balsamic Fig Jam:

• Dried figs, chopped
• natural brown sugar
• balsamic vinegar
• ground black pepper
• fresh lemon juice
• sea salt to taste

1. In a saucepan, heat and cook dried figs with just enough boiling water until soft and thick.
   
2. Start adding sugar and balsamic vinegar, one tablespoon at a time, to desired taste.
3. Add a generous pinch of black pepper.
4. Adjust taste with lemon juice and salt. More balsamic or sugar if needed.
5. Set aside or chill in refrigerator until ready to serve.
   

Dry Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup Farina flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 1 TB natural brown sugar
• Zest of one lemon

Wet Ingredients:

• Homemade ricotta cheese + sour cream - 1 cup
• 1 egg (lightly beaten)
• 2 TB virgin coconut oil
• Pure vanilla extract

Optional:

• Fresh strawberries, sliced
• Sour cream to serve

1. Combine all the dry ingredients, except lemon zest, in a large mixing bowl. Set aside.
2. Whisk together wet ingredients in a separate mixing bowl.
3. Stir wet mixture into dry mixture. Add lemon zest and strawberries.
4. Heat a tablespoon of coconut oil over medium heat. Drop half the batter into the pan. Cook until the bottom is set and the top begins to form bubbles.
5. Flip and cook for another 5 minutes or until it's nicely browned.
6. Repeat with the other half batter.
7. Serve with Balsamic fig jam and sour cream.