Light Yogurt Cheese Cake

The other day one of my cheese loving friend made a remark that totally got me into a spin, she said that I might be decent on cooking pasta and stuff but how come I havent done any deserts ! I tried defending myself, claiming that I was trying so hard to watch my weight, of cause she scoff off my attempts with a leering smile haha ! Next thing you know I made this sexy beast of a cake and stuff it in her mouth !

500g Ricotta Cheese
200g Cream Cheese
1/2 cup of butter
2 table spoon of Lemon Zest
1 1/2 table spoon of Pure Vanilla extract
3 cups of sugar
4 cups of Fruit yogurt
5 egg whites
1 whole egg

First you let the cheese warm up to room temperature. Use a deep mixing bowl and put both of them into it and start whipping them together. Take care not to whip too fast. Now after the cheese are well into a milky and creamy texture, slowly add in 1 whole egg and then followed by the rest of the egg whites. Add them in 1 egg at a time too. the sugar to taste 1 cup of sugar at a time. The reason is you have to taste the mixture to make sure you like how sweet the end cheesecake would taste like. I myself stoppped at 1 1/2 cups only. Next pour in 1/2 cup of yogurt into the mixture, plus the 2 table spoon of Lemon Zest and 1 1/2 table spoon of Pure Vanilla Extracts.

Now it all depends if you like to have some kind of biscotti at the bottom layer of the cheesecake, I personally dont really like the change in texture, but if you like to make it rich then do it like me, I use Oreo Cookies minus the cream in the middle for any cheese cake biscotti. Just buy a packet of Oreo Cookies, divide them up and scrap off the cream and just crush em up in your hands to the bottom of the spring form pan. Of cos before you do that always prepare the spring form pan with a good brushing of butter.

After the spring form pan is ready, empty the cheese mixture into the spring form pan and bake it for 45 mins in an oven pre heated to 350 degrees F or about 175 degrees C. After that lower the temperature to 300 degrees F or about 150 degrees C and bake further for 15 mins or untill the center is set. I usually keep baking it till I can see the top part of the cake turns a little light brown.

Next prepare a mixture of the rest of the fruit yogurt in a bowl. Add sugar to it till taste of your choice. Next add in 1/2 cup of roasted almonds and mix it in well. After which pour the mixture on top of the cheese cake. Next we put the cake back into oven and bake it for 20 mins with the oven set by at 200 degrees F or 110 degrees C. After that let the cake cool to room temperature and put into a fridge over night.

Serve with a sharp knife dipped in hot water. Enjoy !!!

Gnocchi

I was going through some really old cook books and that's why i found this baby ! its an Old Australia recipe and its called Gnocchi, the unique thing about this pasta dish is that you get to make your own pasta ! And that my friend is where the real fun is !

500g of Minced meat ( for this time I picked chicken breast )
300g of potato
4 whole tomatoes
3 table spoon of Tomato paste
1 whole large yellow onion
2 cloves of finely chopped garlic
2 cups of self rising flour
1 egg
2 cubes of chicken stock
2 cups of white wine
1/2 tablespoon of dill
1/2 tablespoon of basil
2 teaspoon of pepper
2 teaspoon of red chili flakes
1 teaspoon of salt
1 cup of warm water
3 table spoon of unsalted butter
3 table spoon of powder Parmesan cheese

First melt the butter in a deep saucepan, once the butter is brought to a simmer, add in the garlic and finely diced onions. Stir fry the onions and garlic till you see some juices. Now add in the minced meat with with the minced tomatoes , tomato paste, the salt , chopped chicken cube stock , basil and dill. Next add in the White wine and bring all that to a nice steady boil. Boil it for about 20 mins on low medium heat and add in the pepper and red chili flakes to taste. Boil until its a nice thick sauce, you may add warm water if you like your sauce a bit more fluid.

Now peel all the potatoes and cut them up into cubes, boil them in salted water until well done. Now take note to leave them to cool down to room temperature before you mash them up. Best way is to do them a day ahead and put them in the fridge and thaw it while you were cooking the sauce. Now put all the mashed potato into a large mixing bowl and add in the flour and a lightly beaten egg. Mixed it all together and add a little bit of salt to taste. Now knit the mixture into a dough and leave it there for 15 mins to 20 mins

Now take a table spoon and start plucking 1 tablespoon of the dough and press it into a oval shaped mini pan cake shaped pasta. Repeat for the whole dough. Now boil some water in a deep pot with salt and a little bit of oil if you like. The uncooked Pasta would sink first to the bottom of the pot and the cooked once would float to the surface. Rinse the cooked ones and put them aside on a large plate to let them dry and cool off.

Now before serving, bring the sauce to a simmer again and add in the pasta and stir lightly. Make sure the sauce coat most of the pastas surfaces. Now before serving, sprinkle some of the cheese on top. There you have it , good old fashion Australian Gnocchi !!

Enjoy !! :D

Baked Salmon in Grape Fruit butter sauce

One night I came home feeling rather hungry :P didn't know what to eat outside so I thought to myself, whats fast and nice :) so I decided to cook off the other half of the Salmon I bought from my last cook out :)

The recipe is really very simple,

200g of Fresh Salmon with skin
5 table spoon of butter
3 table spoon of fine flour
1 cup of full cream milk
3 table spoon of grated Parmesan Cheese
1/4 cup of Extra Virgin olive oil
1/4 cup of Table white wine
1/2 table spoon of sea salt
1/2 table spoon of black pepper
1 teaspoon of Dill
1 teaspoon of Basil
1 whole Grape Fruit
Aluminum foil

Preheat the Oven to 200 degrees Celsius or 400 Faher

Place the aluminum foil over a baking pan, next sprinkle some olive oil over the foil, next sprinkle sea salt and pepper over it, not too much cos you don't want the Salmon to become to salty.

Next slice the whole piece of Salmon into 2 equal piece. Now place the 1st half on the foil with the skin facing down. Now season with Grape Fruit Zest ( the grated skin of the Grape Fruit ) then add seasoning of Dill & Basil. Now place the 2nd half over the side of the 1st half and start to do the same to that slice.

Now cut 2 slices of the Grape Fruit and place it over the top of the Salmon.

Once the Oven has been preheated, lower the temperature to 150 degrees Celsius or about 300 Faher. Put the baking pan with the foil and Salmon in it and bake it for about 30 mins.

Once the Salmon is done leave it a side to cool.

Now the Grape Fruit sauce is really simple, heat up a deep sauce pan and drop in the butter.
Use low medium heat to slowly melt the butter and once its all done just slowly add in the flour and stir it all together with a wooden ladle.

Once the flour is all in and well mixed with the butter, add in the warm milk ( you can microwave the milk first or boil it first ) all at once. Slowly continue stirring the now sauce. Once its well thicken add in Parmesan cheese, and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Once all that is done, juice that Grape Fruit for its juices into a cup and slowly pour the Grape Fruit juices into the sauce. You will be delightfully surprise as you slowly add in the juice from that Grape Fruit, the sauce turns from white to Pink !!!

Now continue stirring for about 2 mins and then leave the sauce to cool.

Now you may either serve the Salmon and the Sauce together on a large serving plate or separately with the Grape Fruit Pink Sauce in a serving bowl :D

Enjoy !!

Pasta Squared in Olive oil, herbs and Chili Flakes Dressing & Zucchini

This is my favourite pasta, I did some modifications to it and added some spicy red Chili Flakes to it :P, that way some of my friends would feel more at home with this dish as its has a unique flavour that is very fresh and clean tastes.

Ingredients :

200 grams of Fresh Zucchinis

400 grams of any type of Pasta

1 table spoon of Red Chili Flakes

2 table spoon of finely chopped garlic

2 table spoon of coarsely chopped Fresh Basil Leaves

1 tea spoon of table salt

1/2 cup of Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1 table spoon of black pepper

1 teaspoon of Dill finely chopped

1 teaspoon of thymes finely chopped

1 teaspoon of parsley finely chopped

If anyone is asking where I got my fresh herbs and spices, you can find all of them at COLD STORAGE supermarket at IKANO the CURVE.

First clean the Zucchinis with running water. I bought the combo set which has both the Yellow and the Green Zucchinis. Next chop off both ends. Next slice along the whole Zucchini so that the thickness of each strips of skin is deep enough to have some of the crunchy parts with as much skin as possible. Try to cut as long as fine strips as you can manage but not cutting too deep till you see the seeds. This is to ensure that some times the seeds makes a bitter after taste to the strips. If you done it right, you should be left with just the body of the Zucchini with almost all the seed packed center parts to dispose off.

Now season the strips of Zucchini with salt and pepper and steam all the strips for 2 mins or so. This is just to make them crunchy.

Bring a deep bowl of water to a boil with a bit of table salt and olive oil. Once the water is boiling just add all the pasta in. Cook for 10 mins and rinse in cold water and drain. Next store it aside.

Now pour all the olive oil into a deep sauce pan, next bring it to a simmer and add in the garlics. Turn down the heat to medium low and bring the garlics to a golden brown. Once that is done, add in the chili flakes and the finely chopped herbs first. Immediately turn off the heat and add in the Basil Leaves and all the Zucchinis and the Pastas.

Toss the whole mixture of Zucchinis , Pastas , herbs and spices nicely, while the sauce pan and the oil is still warm. Then add salt , pepper and more Chili Flakes to taste of your choice.

Serve them up warm ! Enjoy it hehehe its lovely and easy to cook !

Oven Baked Lemon Zest Salmon with herbs & Spices

Hi ya guys and gurls, hoped you had a wonderful weekend :), before last weekend, a friend of mine made a request to me. She had been dying for some salmon :) and some Pasta in French dressing. Therefore I set out to cook for them :) after they heard that I was cooking, they recommended to come to my place to swim first then eat hearty hehe..

Ingredients :

400 grams of fresh Salmon with skin,
1/2 Table Spoon of Sea Salt
1/2 Cup of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 Table spoon of grated Black Pepper
3/4 pounds of Coarsely Chopped Basil Leaves.
1/2 Table spoon of Lemon Zest
1 teaspoon of Dill
1 teaspoon of Sage
1 teaspoon of Parsley
2 large 5 mm thick slices of lemon
Aluminum foils for baking.

First you need to spread out the Aluminum foil over a flat wide surface. Make sure you got lots of room to work with. Then sprinkle the surface of the foil sparingly with Olive oil , pepper and sea salt shaken on top. Dont need to coat it all inch by inch, just a 2 to 3 good shakes of pepper and salt will do just fine.

Next cut the Salmon in to 4 thick long slices of 5 cm to 6 cm thickness. Make sure its across the grin with one end is thicker then the other. Now lay piece by piece on 1 side first.

Next again 2 t 3 shakes of Sea salt again with pepper over the pieces, next take a few pinches of all the spices like the parsley, dill , sage and thyme leaves and sprinkle over them. Now take a Lemon Zest and also sprinkle over that side of the salmon. Repeat for all the other 2 slices.
Note not to over sprinkle the Sea Salt, else the meat becomes a little bit too salty hehe.

Now make sure you place the salmon with the skin under them touching the aluminum foil, the skin is better as it will not burn and stick to the foil while baking. Finally sprinkle a little of olive oil again over their tops.

Now place the 2 large slices of Lemon over the meat top, and fold the aluminum foil over them .

Preheat the oven to 150 degree celcius or about 300 degree Fahrenheit. Next place the whole aluminum package into the oven and bake for 20 mins.

Remove and serve on a warm plate.

Salmon has the highest level of sources for Omega oil which is great for health :) Bon Appetit !