Lemon Crumble Cheesecake

Yesterday was my brother's birthday. He's not a big fan of cheesecake, but my mom had already ordered a durian cake for him. That cake, however, has eggs, which means not everyone could eat it. So as usual, I took it upon myself to make a cake.

My mom's first suggestion was "a banana cake," to which my first thoughts were "I have only made one before in my life, and it's not something I see as a birthday cake." Then after some thought, she added "what about that really good lemon cheesecake you made before?" I knew it was her favorite of all cheesecakes I'd made (and that she had eaten), so I thought "why not?"

The recipe is the same as this one, except I used 2 whole lemons in zest and in juice. I used about 185 g of cream cheese, and 500 g of sour cream. For the egg replacer, I used my usual Orgran ones, since I had it on hand (instead of making my own like that time I made this cheesecake).

I thought the topping being crumble mix would make it kind of boring. Decorating the cake makes it much more interesting, but the challenge was to decorate it without making the crumble topping soggy. I went for an arrangement of 3 candied lemon slices. Easy enough to make: slice lemon, boil in a sugar syrup (2 parts of water for 1 part of sugar), then let cool. After putting them on, I sprinkled some granulated sugar for extra prettiness.

Last Christmas, one of my brothers gave me a decorating pen, with which I could write things on cake. I thought I'd test it out on this cake, using some chocolate.

I tested it out a bit on some spare baking paper, to make sure I could control it well enough. Surprisingly, it is easy to use. Just squeeze the barrel a bit while writing.

Melted some chocolate chips over a bain-marie. Then I got to writing. I tried to copy the Brock Script typeface for the capital letters, the rest being my own (neatified and fancified) handwriting.

"Bon Annif" is short for "Bon Anniversaire," which means "Happy Birthday" ~

Mango Rose Cheesecake

Since my mom brought a cake yesterday for my birthday party, we didn't use the one I baked. So I thought I would provide it for hallway dinner today!

The crust is made of spéculoos cookies with some melted butter. The filling is cream cheese and greek yogurt with a hint of cinnamon and some lemon (no rose flavor, the appellation comes from the shape). Topped with mango, strawberries, and whipped cream.

The whole cheesecake:

And rose details:

Mini Peach tarts

I wanted to bake a cheesecake, but some of my friends are slightly lactose intolerant. Since I had some remaining dough from the mini apple tarts, I thought I'd do something with them. To make it quick, I picked canned peaches.

I rolled out the dough and baked it, as usual. Then I layered on sliced peaches. Having some leftover dough, I decided to try for a lattice on top. Which eventually became a partial lattice and a heart. I made a total of 3 mini tarts, but this was the prettiest! (The other two had broken lattices...)

Apple tarts

Had dinner with some friends last weekend, and since my cousin L finally has an oven, I thought I'd inaugurate our first group dinner after this acquisition with some mini apple tarts!

I made 6 of them (since I only have 6 tins):

The first four weren't very pretty. The apples I was dealing with had a great aversion to softening, which made me have a hard time arranging them in my now habitual rose shape. After a while, I managed with the last two.

Comfort Food

From what I can glean from the Internet, many typical American comfort foods include mac and cheese, spaghetti, and chicken soup...

If I were to pick, I think I would chose banh canh. It's a Vietnamese-style udon soup that I used to make with my godmother when I was little. We even made the noodles ourselves! Why would I chose this particular dish? I think thinking of having it for lunch when I was sick may be a strong factor. When sick, I usually long certain easy to make and warm meals of my childhood. With a package of instant udon, all I needed to do was make a soup (chop carrots, celery, broccoli, tofu, mushrooms, and a bit of ginger, cook in lightly salted water), add in udon, cook some more, then season. Nothing beats it when I feel down.

Hashbrown Waffles

Lots of potatoes to use... So I thought I would try those waffle iron hashbrowns I saw once online. I haven't had hashbrowns since last November, so it was high time to have some.

I didn't grate enough potatotes, so mine were too thin and thus more crisp than anything. Accompanied by salad.

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HASHWAFFLES RECIPE

  Ingredients

• Potatoes, grated
• Salt, pepper, to taste

  Procedure

1. Squeeze grated potatoes between your hands to remove water.
2. Mix in salt and pepper and whatever other seasonings as desired.
3. Put between paper towels and squeeze out water. The less water there is, the crispier the hashbrown.
4. Heat waffle iron. If it's not nonstick, brush some oil on.
5. Put in potatoes and cook for around 10 mins.

Candied Lemon-Orange Zest

A few days ago, I made these candied lemon and orange zest. I was making a fruit salad, and thought it would be a waste to throw away these nice zests, so after scrubbing them, I separated them from the bitter white parts.

After cutting into strips, I blanched them a bit in boiling water, removed them and drained them, and then dunked them and simmered in a bit of sugar syrup (sugar to water ratio 1:1).

The water from blanching and the leftover syrup were good, so I mixed them and made tea.

I tried making steamed cheesecake, but seeing how I didn't have any cream cheese, and not enough quark to make a full recipe, I kind of eyeballed the amounts and mixed some quark, cornstarch, and baking powder together. Then I threw in the candied zests, and steamed it. Guess I went a bit overboard on heat (or on baking powder)....

After cooling and refrigeration, it was ok... but the texture wasn't really great. Instead of nice creamy cheesecake, it was something closer to cheese, like some mozzarella or something, except less smooth. This would be something to experiment some more with.

The finished cheesecakes were pretty though. They tasted nice, just the texture was horrible for a cheesecake.

Sushi dinner~

Whenever there's avocado, cucumber, carrots, and mozzarella, somehow, it leads to a sushi night. This time, I did a little more than just prepare for sushi.

First, I steamed carrots and green beans for the sushi. I also cut avocado, cucumber, apples (soaked in saltwater afterwards to avoid browning), and mozzarella.

After that, while the rice was cooking, I thought I would make it more special, and prepared a Japanese-style omelet for my cousin L to put in her sushi. That's done by lightly beating the eggs to mix the yolk and white, adding a bit of sugar and a pinch of salt, then frying it like an omelette. When half done, the egg is folded in half. It's then allowed to cook a bit more before being removed from heat and cut into strips.

Then I steamed a sweet potato, diced into bite-sized pieces. I then fried it lightly in a pan, before adding a mix of soy sauce (3 tsp), sugar (3 tsp), water (1 tbs), and rice vinegar (1 tbs), and kept it over the heat until the water evaporated, resulting in candied sweet potato. I then mixed in some roasted sesame seeds.

While we ate, we rolled our own sushi, so here are a few I rolled:

Dessert was simply diced mango.

I packed some leftovers into a lidded bowl for lunch between classes tomorrow. I made a small packet out of cellophane, in which I put little nori squares to eat with the rice and veggies tomorrow. If I put it in the bowl, it'll get soft and soggy.

Casserole (step-by-step)

Remember the Lazy Student Casserole? I suddenly had an urge to eat it again today, so I did.

First, I looked at what I had in the fridge. Quite a few vegetables, so I selected a few and sliced them. In my assortment: zucchini, bellpepper, mushroom, eggplant, potato, and ripped-up iceberg lettuce. I also chopped tofu into thin strands, as I didn't fell like putting cheese on top this time.

First heat up a small pot, then take it off the heat and coat the bottom and a bit of the sides with some plain oil. Then layer your ingredients, making sure the potatoes are not the bottom-most. I think most casseroles have cheese, but not this time. I opted for some cilantro over the top of everything. You can season in the middle, wherever you wish. I put some Provincial herbs, salt, pepper, and dried chili flakes.

Cook on medium-low heat 15-20 minutes until veggies are tender. I had some troubles and put the heat too high, resulting in a burned the bottom layer, but it was good nevertheless. Portion out and serve!