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.
   

Japanese Egg Custard - Chawan Mushi

I always like chawan mushi. Unfortunately they almost always come with pork or chicken. And because they are usually pre-mixed in advance, it makes it "impossible" to serve without meat. But now that I know the inside-out of chawan mushi, I could probably tell the waiter to inform the cook to simply pick out the meat before it's put to steamed.

I found the recipe from New York Times. True-hearted Japanese may jump and call foul but believe me this Japanese recipe by the American called Mark Bittman does work. I got a "the best chawan mushi" from Adrian. The original recipe uses watercress of which I omitted. I also added stir-fry shiitake mushroom with garlic. I found myself having little guilty pleasure with the garlic - as though I had found a secret staved away in a treasure trove.

Ingredients

(makes 2)

• 2 sea scallops, quartered
  
• 1 tablespoon of chopped shallot
  
• Salt and pepper
• 1/4 cup shiitake mushroom (caps only), sliced
  
• 1 teaspoon garlic, minced
  
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
  
• 3/4 cups dashi soup
  
• 1/2 tablespoon soy sauce
  

1. Bring a pot of water to boil. Divide scallops and shallots among 2 ramekins. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Beat eggs lightly, and combine with dashi soup, and soy sauce.
2. Sautee mushroom and garlic. Stir into eggs mixture.
3. Put ramekins in flameproof baking pan or skillet, and fill with egg mixture. Add boiling water to pan to about halfway up sides of ramekins, and turn heat to high. When water returns to boil, turn heat to low and cover pan tightly.
4. Simmer 15 minutes, then check. Custards are done when set and no longer watery but still quite jiggly. Remove ramekins from water immediately. Serve hot or at room temperature.

Breakfast Salad that could be put on dinner table, too

The original recipe calls for cubed cucumber, diced red bell pepper, and halved cherry tomatoes tossed together in olive oil vinaigrette dressing. I decided to use whatever there was in the refrigerator instead: diced green bell pepper, cubed beef tomatoes, parsley, chopped green beans, and frozen corn kernels.
Instead of serving over shredded lettuces, I served it over arugula leaves, sun dried tomatoes and topped with pine nuts. I over cooked the egg - instead of soft boiled (that would give a beautifully oozing yellow yolk), I got hard boiled eggs. Sprinkle with some crumbled goat cheese and you are ready to serve.
It's a delicious way to bring more vegetables to breakfast table. I bet it could just as well be served on dinner table, too.

Viva La Vida Breakfast!

Poached Eggs with Tomato and Banana Sauce & New Potato Wedge Omelette

There's no question how much of a breakfast person I am. I can skip lunch, and sleep on an empty stomach but NO ONE, absolutely NO ONE can take my breakfast away. I almost never skip breakfast. I would intentionally wake up early enough so that I can have a simple breakfast before I head out for Yoga. On days when I have the luxury of having long breakfast at home, I'd plan the menu a night before. Yes, that's how obssessed I am with my breakfast. I literally can have breakfast for morning, lunch and dinner. I'm sure Pee Wee would approve.

Poached Egg with Tomato and Banana Sauce

Kind of bizarre, isn't it? At the same time I couldn't resist to find out what it taste like. I'm always hesistant when it comes to poaching eggs. I'm intimidated by having to scoop the egg while the yolk is still runny. Actually I did a rather good job this time; without knowing what I did right..... I wish I had taken a picture before they were smothered by the sauce. Poached eggs are typically served over toasted bread. I didn't. I served it with a side of mixed greens with sun-dried tomatoes and blue cheese. I have to say that the taste of melted butter, sweetness of bananas and sourness of tomatoes blend very well together. The recipe uses water. But I like cream. It gives a sort of volume and creaminess to the texture. Yum~

Ingredients:
4 eggs
1 banana, chopped
1 tomato, chopped
cream (adjust)

1. Boil a pan of water with two tablespoon of vinegar (I used apple cider vinigar) to simmer. Break egg into a bowl and tip it over simmering water. Repeat with the other eggs. When the eggs are set, remove from pan with slotted spoon and let dry on paper towel.
2. Melt a tablespoon of butter. Add chopped tomatoes and bananas. Fry for a minute. Stir in cream (or water if you don't like to use cream) and let simmer. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
   
3. Pour the sauce over poached eggs to serve.
   

One of the things I like about writing this food blog is instead of just following the recipes, I now spend more time researching for nutrition information and the "how, why, where, when, what" of cooking. For instance, many times I come across recipes that use different varieties of potatoes: Russel, fingerling, new potatoes, etc. Are they that much different? So I found this Potato Council website from British.

Apparently there are thousands of different varieties of potatoes grown around the world. Potatoes are often categorized according to season. For instance, new potatoes are planted in the winter, ready for harvesting in spring or early summer. They are sometimes called early potatoes. Potatoes harvested in the late summer or early autumn, instead of being called "late" or "old", are known as maincrop potatoes.

They also differ in texture- some are firm and set, while others are fluffy, waxy, or floury. If you want to make a mash, you want a floury potato that has higher dry matter and brighter and more granular in appearance. On the other hand, waxy potatoes are good for salad because they are good at staying firm and keeping their shape.

So there's my homework. Nevertheless, when it comes to shopping for potatoes, there really isn't much to be sophisticated about. Regardless of the shape, size, colour, they are all labeled "potatoes". I guess if I wanted to, I could probably learn to distiguish them from the appearance. But I digress.

New Potato Wedge Omelette

I didn't bother to investigate if the potato I used was new potato or otherwise. It's just one of those washed potatoes in the supermarket vegetable corner. Don't be too excited by its name (as I did): it's very much a frittata made with potato. Or Spanish tortilla. I made a few adjustment to the recipe:

1. I added chopped fresh herbs - tarragon, parsley, oregano and thyme.
2. I used a mix of Cheddar and Romano cheese
3. Cream instead of milk
4. It was served with chili mayonaise on a bed of vinaigrette arugula and fresh cherry tomatoes with pine nuts.
5. I top the omelette with more quartered tomatoes before baking.
   

Ingredients

• 350g new potatoes, scrubbed and cut into wedges
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 100g sweetcorn
• 4 medium eggs, beaten
• Dash of milk
• Salt and black pepper
• 75g Cheshire cheese, grated

1. Place the new potatoes in a pan of lightly salted boiling water. Cover and simmer until tender. Drain.
2. Heat the oil in a frying pan. (Add mixed herbs here if you are using). Add the sweetcorn and potatoes and fry for 1 minute.
3. Lightly beat the eggs, milk (or cream), salt, pepper and half the cheese (cheddar). Add to the pan and cook gently for 3-4 minutes until almost set.
4. Sprinkle over the remaining cheese (Romano) and place under a preheated oven until golden.
5. Cut into 8 wedges and serve with tomato ketchup and crisps of the flavour of your choice.