Strawberry & White Chocolate Cheesecake

The summer is drawing to an end (actually, what summer?) and so is my time in work as my contract is up in just over a week.  During one of our many lunchtime discussions about food, one of my colleagues was asking if I had ever made cheesecake as it was his favourite.  I felt really guilty because I've made it loads of times & brought it into the office - he just wasn't working there then.  So, Robbie, this one's for you!


The last of the strawberries are in store right now and I'm using gorgeous Irish Camarillo strawberries from Keelings in North Co. Dublin - they're bright red, very juicy and have a gorgeous ultra-intense perfume.  Oh, they taste pretty good as well! After taster feedback from the Baby Berry Cheesecakes, I'm making this base using 50/50 digestives and ginger nuts which I'm baking for 10 minutes for extra crunchiness.  It's still the same 2:1 biscuit butter ratio though and this makes your base perfectly crunchy and set.  I'm using white chocolate because it's what Robbie prefers - personally I'm a fan of "the darker the better" so feel free to change the chocolate to suit your own personal taste.  The chocolate acts as a setting agent, so you won't need gelatine.  It's also very sweet, so there's no need to add extra sugar.

These quantities make a very large 12 inch cheesecake so simply halve for a small group - I'm feeding a gang of 20 in work, so I always make more than the average person would eat in a week!  If you don't have a loose-bottomed cake tin, invest in one - they make baking things like this an absolute breeze, and mine gets used for all my cake baking, so they're very versatile too.


If you're a cheesecake novice, fear not because there's a list of handy tips in a previous post...

Strawberry & White Chocolate Cheesecake


125g Digestive Biscuits, crushed  
125g Ginger Biscuits, crushed  
125g Butter, melted
300g Full Fat Cream Cheese
250ml Cream
200g Strawberries, crushed
200g White Chocolate, melted and cooled

Preheat your oven to 180c/Gas Mark 4

Using brute force, or a food processor, bash the digestive biscuits until they disintegrate into a sandy mass.
Melt the butter in a pot & add the crushed biscuits.  Stir well until the butter has been absorbed by the crumbs.  Pour into your loose-bottomed cake tin & bake for 10 minutes.  Remove from the oven & allow to cool completely before adding the filling.


I was watching The Goddess That Is Ina make a Chocolate Espresso Cheesecake this morning & she definitely doesn't do her own clearing up - she melted the butter then added it to the food processor.  Two greasy items to wash up... not in this house!

Now melt your chocolate - either in a bain marie or a microwave.  I'm personally very comfortable using a microwave - break it up into squares, stick it in a glass bowl or jug & melt 1 minute at a time at 50% power.  Stir every time & it should take about 3 minutes.  Allow it to cool for 20 minutes while you crack on with the filling.

Whip the cream until it's between soft peak & very stiff as it needs to hold its shape.

Whisk the cream cheese (this breaks up any lumps) and fold in the cream.

Puree the strawberries and fold into the cream and cheese.

Finally, fold in the cooled melted white chocolate, mixing very well.

Pour the cheesecake on top of the biscuit base, level out* and chill for at least 4 hours.


*Yes, that is a scrupulously clean ice scraper you can see in the photo - it's small enough to get into the edges of the tin, unlike a palette knife.  Also, wrap a piece of kitchen paper around your finger & wipe the inside edge of the tin so you get a really clean finish.  It takes 2 seconds and makes the cheesecake look really professional

My Birthday Gift To You...

As some of you already know, it's my birthday this week.  Thursday 15th September to be precise.  And I shall be celebrating a significant birthday (no, Miss Like Mam Used To Bake, I am NOT 50... despite what you've been telling everybody on Twitter, cheeky maggot!). Seeing as I'm celebrating, I thought it was only fair to share the birthday love with all of you to say thanks for reading, commenting and being great fun along the way.

I've already had one birthday party with my friends which was wonderful and this week, I have not just one, but two meals out... one with lovely work colleagues (I'm hijacking it & claiming it as a birthday meal), and then a dinner with The Hubs at a restaurant I love, where I believe they will have Picpoul de Pinet on the wine list...

Anyway, enough about me - this is all for you.  I've bought four things I love and want you to have.

These are just cute - a set of recipe notecards with envelopes so you can give somebody one of your recipes.  They make me go "oooh" and then I instantly tell myself that I have to give them away & not keep it for myself...

Next up, a copy of Gino D'Acampo's book Fantastico!  Modern Italian Food.  Loads of recipes which anybody can make - and there's even a few cocktail recipes too.  What's not to like?

Third on the gift list is the prettiest set of mini tajines.  They're duck egg blue (one of my favourite colours and would make the most gorgeous little dip trays.

And last (but definitely not least) is a little icing set - it has an icing bag, a coupler and 6 stainless steel nozzles to give your baking an expert finish.

So, how can you win one of these beyoooootiful birthday gifts?  It's easy - leave me a lovely comment and I'll have a draw on Tuesday 20th September where 4 of you lucky people will be a winner!

Rules :
Only open to Republic of Ireland & UK  readers only (I know it's mean but them's the rules)
Competition closes on Tuesday 20th September at 18.00
I'll post the prizes immediately (once I get your address, of course)
* Random winner picking works like this.  Every comment is assigned a number in order.  I then ask Lulu to pick 4 numbers between the first & last.  They're the winners.  
Lulu's decision is final. No point in arguing with a 6 year old, she's always right...

Review : Catherine's Family Kitchen

Last week, a lovely envelope landed on my doormat - a copy of Catherine's Italian Kitchen by Catherine Fulvio.  I'm a big fan of Catherine, having done a one-day course at the lovely Ballyknocken House Cookery School with my friend Mrs T. (who inspired this blog).  I've a copy of her previous book, Catherine's Italian Kitchen which automatically opens to soup, potato bake and Saltimbocca, all of which are made on a regular basis in our house.

This time around, Catherine's recipes are family oriented with flavours to please even the fussiest of palates.  I've already made the Thai-Style Crab Cakes with a spicy Sesame Dipping Sauce (which I learned at Ballyknocken) and these feature in the first episode of the TV series on RTE, together with Oriental Style Roast Sirloin of Beef, Stirfried Green Beans and a decadent Raspberry and Chocolate Meringue Tower which looks very complicated but is surprisingly simple to make.

Catherine's writing is like her teaching : simple, uncomplicated and easy to understand.  She takes the time to explain how to chop food, highlights five useful kitchen gadgets (all of which I possess) and gives each recipe a variation or suggestion at the bottom.  What I really love about this book is the use of local ingredients - Wicklow is a county full of amazing food producers and it's fantastic to see them featured here.

Catherine's Family Kitchen is published by Gill & Macmillan and available in all good bookshops.  The accompanying TV series is on RTE1 on Fridays at 8.30pm from 9th September.

Lemon Yoghurt Cake

Like a lot of people I've been watching Donna Hay's Fast, Fresh, Simple on Good Food on my trusty Sky+ recently and have been really enjoying watching her cook. Mind you, The Hubs has been very pass-remarkable, voicing his shock "at the state of the cheap oven she has in that lovely house".  To be fair, she does manage to create some fantastic meals from it, so who are we to comment?

This cake is lovely, light and lemony - make sure you buy unwaxed lemons - 2 lemons will give you enough zest and juice for this cake.  Using yoghurt and oil instead of butter makes the cake really light and spongy, and it rises beautifully in the tin.  By the way, I doubled up on quantities because I made two cakes at the same time, so don't be afraid by the giant bowl of cake mixture!

Lemon Yoghurt Cake

180ml Vegetable Oil
2 Eggs
1 tbsp Lemon Zest, finely grated
2 tbsp Lemon Juice
280g Thick Natural Yoghurt
385g Caster Sugar
300g Self-Raising Flour

Lemon Icing
120g Granulated Sugar
60ml Lemon Juice

Preheat the oven to 180c/Gas Mark 4.  Grease your baking tin (I used a 9 inch springform ring tin, but any tin will work well for you)

Mix the oil, eggs, lemon zest, juice, yoghurt & sugar together.  Now fold in the flour, making sure everything is well combined and there's no pockets of flour hiding anywhere.

Pour into the cake tin & bake for 40 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.

Allow to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before turning out onto a plate.

Make the lemon icing by mixing the sugar & lemon juice together, stirring well, and then pour over the warm cake.  Allow to set and then eat!

 

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Melting Middle Pork Burgers - Best of Irish Cookalong

I've skipped quite a few of the Irish Foodies Cookalongs this summer, generally due to being out or away when they happened... you'd think I had a glittering social life!  This one really interested me though because it's all about the Best of Irish.  It would be so easy to throw together a plate of bacon and cabbage or an Irish Stew (although not a coddle, please not a coddle) but I wanted to make something that brought together fantastic Irish ingredients to make a dish that anybody could make and eat.

So, I had some gorgeous minced pork from James Whelan Butchers in Clonmel, some vintage cheddar from Newmarket in Co. Cork, a red onion from my parent's garden, marjoram and sage from my windowsill and some Donegal Rapeseed Oil.  It doesn't sound much when you put it like that, but it all came together to make the most succulent, aromatic burgers which then reveal a molten cheese centre when you cut into them.  I fry them first to get some colour on them, then bake them in the oven for 15 minutes to make sure they're cooked through.

You'll love them, your kids will love them, your friends will love them...

Melting Middle Pork Burgers (makes 6)

400g Pork Mince
2 tsp Marjoram, finely chopped
1 tsp Sage, finely chopped
1 tsp ground black pepper
1 tsp salt
50g Cheddar, cut into 6 x 2cm square cubes
2 tbsp Rapeseed Oil

Preheat your oven to 180c/Gas Mark 5.

In a large bowl, mix the pork, herbs & seasoning together.  I am very lazy & use disposable gloves - it's cleaner & tidier!

Form the pork mix into 6 evenly sized portions, flatten out slightly and place a square of cheese in the middle.

Gather the pork around the cheese and form into a patty shape.

Heat the oil in a pan and fry the burgers on a medium heat until browned on both sides (this will take about 4 minutes).

Now put the browned burgers into an ovenproof dish and bake for 15 minutes.

Serve with whatever your heart desires.  We had them with panfried gnocchi and a sour cream dip, but they're fabulous with salad, vegetable mash, as canapes... whatever makes you happy.

It's Time To Face... The Chef Factor

Louis, Tulisa, Kelly & Gary may be passing judgement on the freaks and the foolish on a Saturday night but the real competition is about to start and it's not on the TV my friends, because...

CHEF FACTOR IS BACK!!!!

Last year, clever blokes Cully & Sully launched the most amazing competition for anybody who is interested in food - the chance to win a place on the coveted 12-week Ballymaloe Cookery School course worth a whopping €12,000.  It includes residential accommodation and two weeks work experience with Cully and Sully.  So, why should you enter the competition?  Well, if you want to learn to cook and develop a career in food, this is the competition to beat all competitions.  You don't need to be a good cook, because the course at Ballymaloe will teach you how to cook just like the professionals... not like me!

Here's Sully, Christine (the 2010 WINNER), Rachel & Cully

So, how do you enter?  It's actually really easy.  Click on Chef Factor & upload a simple photo of a dish with the words “Cully & Sully” somewhere in the image and submit this along with a brief explanation of the dish and the reason why you deserve to win!  Chef Factor is not all about online votes, because while three finalists will be determined by public vote, two wildcards will be handpicked by Cully and Sully to go through irrespective of votes and all finalists will be on an equal footing at the final - this means that everybody stands a great chance of winning the top prize!  Entrants are accepted from September 5th, 2011 and the winner is expected to be chosen in Ballymaloe on Saturday the 26th of November.


p.s Christine (last year's winner) was a Wild Card entrant... so it COULD be you.