yikes

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okay, didn’t realise that I have sorta neglected this blog for 2 months. I mean, with Twitter and Facebook..abit hard to get into the hang of posting an entry, with a photo.

but here’s my latest product from the oven – raspberry marble cheesecake

Raspberry Marble Cheesecake

got the recipe courtesy of my cousin, Elaine, who posted me a cookbook for my birthday last year, Martha Stewart’s Cupcakes. It was an entire book on cupcakes! Made the ‘mistake’ of taking the book to work and then had my boss flip through it, only to start marking the pages of cupcakes that I should be bringing to work. LOL.

Cooking is such a therapeutic exercise for me. Doesn’t do justice for my waistline but at least it allows me to forget about everything else and focus on the task at hand. Just bake, cook, puree, dice, chop, grind etc. Just yesterday, I spent the whole day preparing the ingredients to make rempah (paste). Just prepare and freeze it for further use. I’m getting the hang. =)

Have been venturing into more interesting cuisines. I’m a Nonya, yet I sorta know nuts about cooking the dishes that my grandma cooks. Lately, I’ve been testing a couple of dishes (i.e., sambal udang, ayam masak merah). Good lord..I’m never just say that they are delicious and end it at there. The amount of preparation that goes into it! I had to soak the dried chillies, then deseed it. I had to soak the shallots, and peel them (bucketloads of shallots!!!).  And then I had to fry the belacan (shrimp paste), and it stunk up my whole kitchen. My small food processor was put to the limit.

To think, all that preparation, just gone so quickly for each dish prepared. Hours of work gone in an hour. Phew. Now I know why my grandma keeps heaps of containers of processed spices in the freezer.

which reminds me..I gotta get down to frying those ikan bilis (anchovies) to make those sambal ikan bilis. 

even the hubby was put to the test when ‘milking’ the grated coconut. trying to get 250ml of fresh coconut milk from 100ml of water added to freshly grated coconut. yikes. but nothing beats fresh coconut milk. =)

weekend marketing for meats and veggies have taken an interesting turn. *laugh* the vendors are more familiar with me and have been dishing out advice on how to cook the meats and herbs. Veggie vendor will tell you how to fully utilize a stalk of lemongrass (green tip for tea, bottom white part for curries), and how to enable the flavours to come out. Pork vendor would tell me which cut of the meat is best for stirfry, and how to cook a decent pork spare rib with salted black beans. Chicken vendor would tell me which type of chicken should be used for soups, and how I should boil the herbs firs before putting the whole chicken in. Seafood vendor would tell me how I should go for the cheaper prawns cos they weren’t any different from the more expensive ones.

Just yesterday, I had the pork vendor arguing with the aquarium guy next door on how to cook pork spare ribs with salted black beans, whilst I just stood there awkwardly. haha. which also reminds me, crap..I forgot to take a picture of tonight’s dinner. MEH.

Gonna be attempting to try more dishes. Maybe Indian next? =)

Recipe for Raspberry Marble Cheesecake

BASE
1.5 cups graham crackers
3 tbsp unsalted butter
3 tbsp sugar

Preheat oven to 160⁰. Mix all together, put about 1 tbsp of the base in cupcake liners, and press down firmly. Bake them for 5 minutes, then take out to cool.

FILLING
2 lbs cream cheese (about 4 packs of Kraft Philly’s, I think 3 packs is sufficient)
1.5 cup sugar
pinch of salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 large eggs

Using an electric mixer on low, beat the cream cheese till light and fluffy. Add the sugar gradually and make sure it’s combined. Add pinch of salt, and vanilla extract. Mix. Add one egg at a time, making sure that it’s mixed well before adding the other.

RASPBERRY PUREE
6 oz fresh raspberry (i used frozen which worked fine)
1 tbsp sugar

Puree the raspberry till fine, and put it through a fine sieve to remove the seeds. Stir in the sugar and mix.

Spoon the filling into the cases, and drop some of the puree ontop of  the filling. Using a skewer, stir through to make the marbling effect. Place tray into a water bath with hot water, and bake for 30 mins. Cool the cheesake and put in the fridge to chill further till firm.

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One comment on “yikes

  1. That looks like a great recipe. I love the pictures on top of your blog too!