Strawberry Swirl Cheesecake

One of my roommates just had a birthday, and I, looking for any excuse to make a dessert, asked him to pick something for me to make. His choice was a cheesecake. More specifically he asked for a strawberry swirl cheesecake, as opposed to a plain cheesecake with a strawberry topping.

Cheesecake and I don't always get along. Don't get me wrong, I love cheesecake. And sure, I can make 'em fine, but often times something goes amiss. But, the man made a request and I endeavored to fulfill it. So I went searching through the internets, and found a recipe that I liked. I liked it because it seemed fairly simple. I wasn't about to get cocky, however, because often times the simplest things to make are the simplest to get wrong. This would not be a cheesecake afflicted by hubris.

I gathered my ingredients together, which was easy enough. Cream cheese, strawberries. graham crackers, etc. I did depart from the recipe slightly in the crust. Nothing big, mind you. But I like my graham cracker crust to have some... character, I guess you'd call it. Rather than use pre-ground crumbs, I take whole crackers and crumble them up by hand in a plastic bag. It makes for a more rustic texture, and I really like it. (OK, I admit, it's also and AB thing)

Other than that, I followed along with the given method, and I didn't have any hiccups. I thought for sure the strawberry sauce wasn't going to work. After all, it's just frozen strawberries and a little cornstarch liquified in a blender and applied with heat. But it turned out well as a sauce, and it swirled into the cheesecake rather nicely.

I'm also happy to say that the waterbath worked correctly for once. I figured out the trick to it: you have to use large sized heavy-duty foil. Anything else will just tear. Yes, I know, it seems obvious doesn't it? But sometimes you learn that the things you miss are often the things that make the most sense. The point is: now I know, and I won't have a repeat of past mishaps. (Trust me, hot water plus graham cracker crust in a leaky springform pan is not fun.)

All said and done, it turned out pretty well, and was quite tasty, so I'll give you a few money-shots to ogle for a while:

Also, it has been pointed out to me that while I have plenty of cooking, I am lacking in shenanigans. Now, I don't want to do crazy just for its own sake (at least not all the time), but I do want to experiment more. So, If anybody has any suggestions on something I can try, let me know. Even if it's, "hey, what would happen if you (insert action here) with that mac and cheese recipe?" It can even be something simple with the challenge of making it more interesting.

Anyway, if you have any thoughts, please post them in the comments section. Thanks everyone!

Lasagna

Hey everyone,

Didn't get a chance to post anything last week, so I felt I'd make up for it with two posts for this one. So to start, I'm going to talk about the lasagna that I made over the weekend. It's my adaptation of a family recipe, so this time I'm going to lay out the whole process from start to finish, and y'all can tell me what you think.

THE INGREDIENTS!
tomato sauce (see recipe below)
1 lb lasagna noodles
1 16oz tub of ricotta cheese
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese, divided (1 cup + 1 cup)
1 package mozzarella (in natural ball form), sliced
Parmesan cheese, freshly grated, to taste/cover
10oz frozen spinach, thawed, drained, squeezed (need to ditch as much water as you can)
1 egg
2 lbs ground meat, browned (I used mild Italian sausage, but beef works too)

This is actually pretty straightforward. Warm up the sauce in a pot or saucepan, then stir in the cooked meat. Meanwhile, combine the ricotta, the spinach, 1 cup of mozza, the egg and the Parmesan (1/2 to 1 cup approx) together in a separate bowl. Boil the pasta according to the box's instructions, then drain.

In the bottom of a 9x13 baking pan, spread a little of the sauce, then add your first layer of pasta, Follow this with a layer of the cheese mixture, then more noodles. Next comes a proper layer of the sauce, and throw some of that sliced mozzarella cheese on as well. Repeat the pattern until you're done, but try to end with sauce on top. Spread the remaining shredded mozza on top, along with more Parm. Bake in a 350 degree oven for an hour, or until the cheese is bubbly and slightly browned.

For the sauce:
1 yellow onion, chopped
a few cloves of garlic, finely chopped (a few spoonfuls of the pre-chopped stuff works fine)
a good splash of olive oil (maybe a quarter cup)
1 28oz can crushed tomatoes
1 small can tomato paste (8oz I think)
white wine
balsamic vinegar to taste
Worcestershire sauce to taste
Italian seasoning blend to taste

In a medium bot or sauce pan, saute the onion and garlic in olive oil with a pinch of salt until the onion takes on a golden color. Add a good splash of wine to deglaze the pan (you're trying to get all the brown bits off the bottom to mix back in) then add the tomatoes in their crushed and paste forms.



Stir to combine, then add a splash of wine, balsamic vinegar, and Worcestershire sauce to taste, along with some black pepper and a generous pinch of Italian seasoning. Honestly, you just add the bits in until it tastes like how you want it too. No, really, it's just a matter of experimentation!

So have fun!

Stir Fry

I've been working on a stir fry technique for some time now, and I'm sad to say it still needs some work. Oh, it's tasty enough, but there's always something... missing. I made it last night for dinner and, though it was good, it still seemed to be lacking something. Maybe someone out there reading this can suggest an idea or three?

My basic ingredients:

- 1 block extra firm tofu
- two bags frozen stirfry veggie mix
- sauce (this time I used a teriyaki sauce, though I've made a peanut sauce from scratch before)
- a pot of rice

Simple, right? Well, that was the idea: simple and delicious. And cheap. And healthy. Seriously, you can get away with this meal for under $10 easy. And, if you skip the rice or use brown instead of white, it's actually pretty good for you on top of everything else.

So first the tofu. Yes, tofu. Come on, it's not that bad. And it's pure protein, so just go with me, OK? If the tofu comes in a liquid, the first thing you do is prep the tofu by wringing it out. This is accomplished through the cunnning use of cutting boards and weight:

Slice the tofu into two or four pieces of equal size. Wrap the tofu in paper towels and set it between two cutting boards. Place something of moderate weight (you don't want to squish the curd, after all) to provide pressure. After 15-20 minutes, all the excess moisture will be gone.

Once that's done, you can marinate the tofu as shown below. I used a premade teriyaki sauce this time, but soy sauce with some spices works equally well. The best thing to do is to marinate the tofu overnight; that gives it plenty of time to absorb the flavors (I did mine for about an hour, and I've decided that is not enough time by any stretch). Turn it over now and then if it isn't completely submerged so you get full coverage.

When it comes time to cook, I like to use an electric griddle over medium heat, but you can chop it up in a wok or a skillet just as easily. The trick is to treat it like meat. No, really, it works, so don't look at me like that. Cook it until it's Golden, Brown & Delicious on all sides, and you're done.

Once that's ready, the rest is pretty straightforward. I thaw my veggies a bit and throw them in a hot wok with a little oil and heat them though. Sometimes I drain the melted water that tends to accumulate near the bottom. Once it's all hot, I chop the tofu and toss it in. Then I add my sauce, which in this case was teriyaki, as I've said. Then I serve it over rice:

Eaten with chop-sabers from ThinkGeek; 'cause why not?

Looks good, yes? I did have a couple of issues though: for starters, I'm not sure I like this teriyaki sauce I've been using. It's not the cheap stuff, so it tastes pretty good, but it's still fairly... liquidy. As such, nothing can coat the veggies the way I'd really prefer. When I make my peanut sauce, I start with peanut butter, so that's not really an issue. Maybe I should try making a teriyaki sauce from scratch....

Second, the tofu turned out bland. And don't say, "Well, it is tofu after all." Had I marinated the curd overnight like I'm supposed to do, it would have absorbed much more flavor and been far from bland. Trust me; I have witnesses.

On the plus side, I think I've gotten my rice technique down (no more burnt crunchy bits!). For anyone who's interested to know:

Put one cup rice in a pot, add 2 1/4 cups liquid (I did 2 cups water, 1/4 cup low sodium soy sauce). Add any spices (ginger, ground red pepper, garlic, etc.) you prefer and a tablespoon of butter. Heat over medium high until boiling, stirring occasionally, then drop the heat to low. Simmer, covered, for about 15 minutes or until all the liquid is gone. Now and then, give it a quick stir and then reapply the lid to conserve heat. I find that this works for me, but part of my success may relate to how I watch the rice cook.

From here, I guess I just need to keep practicing. Next time, I'm going to make my own sauce, either teriyaki or peanut, and use that. I'll also marinate the tofu overnight to achieve maximum flavor infusion. So I will pose a question: does anybody have any suggestions? I'd really like it if part of this blog was about sharing ideas and knowledge. I want to document my own experiences as a means to improve my cooking skills, but if I could help others achieve the same, I'd feel pretty good about that.

So! Thoughts, ideas, experiences! Let's have at 'em!

Blueberry pancakes

Y'know what's fun? Breakfast for dinner. There's a reason places like Ihop stay open 24 hours a day: because food like eggs and pancakes are always tasty no matter what time of day you eat them.

I bring this up because we decided to make pancakes, eggs and ham for dinner tonite. Nothing fancy, just a quick, easy meal.

For the ham and eggs: I cut up some left over ham into chunks and warmed it up in a skillet. After that, I beat about nine eggs together (three people in my apartment, remember) and added them and some shredded cheese to the meat. Scramble. Done.

As for the pancakes: I was going to get some pancake mix, just to be quick, but I realized its just as easy to make them from scratch. Y'know, with flour and baking powder and the like. I'd planned to follow a basic recipe, until I decided I really wanted that tangy buttermilk flavor. Except I didn't have any buttermilk. I could've run down the street to the store, but this was supposed to be quick and easy, remember? Plus, whenever I get buttermilk for something like this, I inevitably end up having to throw half of if down the drain a few weeks later.

I looked up my options. I knew that if you added some acid to regular milk (specific data: 1 tablespoon vinegar/lemon juice with enough milk to equal 1 cup, then rest five minutes) you could get a passable substitute. Hmm... well, what else could I do? So I checked. Yogurt! Or even sour cream. It makes sense if you think about it. So I took a six-ounce blueberry Greek yogurt I had, added two tablespoons of sour cream, and finish off the rest of the liquid with regular milk. The result? Oddly blue-ish pancakes:

They were definitely tasty, but a little underdone in the middle. My guess would be I should have cooked them a little longer at not quite as hot a temperature (I did 300 degrees on an electric griddle). I assume it's because the batter was heavier than if I hadn't included the yogurt/sour cream mixture. So now I'll know for next time.

Like I said, quick and easy. I made the whole thing in about 30-40 minutes, from pulling out all the ingredients to sitting down with a fork in hand. And it was actually fairly cheap too. Most of the ingredients are of the keep-on-hand variety, like eggs, milk, butter, flour, etc. The ham was all leftovers, but we've done bacon or sausage before for only a few bucks. I'd have to go check my math, but I'd wager the whole meal was under $10, and that's not bad.

Chocolate Chip Goodness

The other night I made chocolate chip cookies, a personal favorite of mine. And for most people I reckon. I mean, they're cookies -- with a warm, golden-brown, bready exterior and soft chewy center -- filled with little chunks of chocolate -- sensuous and sweet, wonderfully rich but with a slight tang of perfect bitterness for balance. What's not to love?

But a lot of folks, if they bother to make them from scratch, just follow the recipe on the back of the chocolate chip bag and leave it at that. Don't get me wrong, it's a fine method, and it'll produce a fine cookie. But the heart of cooking is trying new things. So, since I like soft and chewy cookies, I follow Alton Brown's advice from his recipe, The Chewy, whenever I bake cookies.

A quick aside: yes, this is the second time I've mentioned AB in two posts. No, I am not obsessed; yes, I am a fanboy. Because he focused so much on imparting food knowledge to his viewers, his show Good Eats has taught me a lot of what I know. Don't get me wrong: I've learned plenty from other cooks, my own experimentation, and especially my family. But until I start culinary classes (hopefully this autumn!), I need a go-to resource as a baseline. For me, that's AB. Ok, record set straight. Let's move on!

Rather than go through everything step by step, I just want to talk about a few of the changes you can make when baking cookies, if you want to get them to be soft and chewy and delicious.

The Butter: melt the butter before incorporating it with the sugar. If you do, the liquid will combine with the flour to produce more gluten, which is chewy. Think about good French bread. That's gluten. Delicious, chewy gluten.

The Sugar: use a combination of brown and white sugars. The brown sugar has molasses, which grabs hold of moisture and doesn't let go. For soft cookies, moisture is a must.

The Flour: remember a second ago when I said you wanted gluten for chewy cookies? Well bread flour has more protein than regular AP flour, so it can absorb more water and thus make more gluten. Oh, and sifting the dry goods together helps them to absorb more moisture. If you have a food processor, it takes about three seconds to do. Neat, huh?

The Eggs: chocolate chip cookies call for two eggs. Well, those egg whites help to dry out the baked goods. If you remove one of the egg whites and sub in an ounce of milk, you get more moisture. Are we noticing a pattern yet?

The Batter: once your batter is made, portion it out and stick it in the fridge to chill for a few hours. If the dough is cold when it hits the oven, it won't spread out as much. As a result, the cookies stay soft and chewy in the middle, because they have more of a middle than they would if allowed to spread out.

The Extras: I enjoy playing around a bit, as I've said, so I usually add something a little extra to each batch I make. Sometimes I add Bailey's Irish Cream, or else throw some mint chips to the mix. This time, I tried something new and added about a cup each of walnuts and coconut flakes. I toasted each for a few minutes in a dry skillet over medium-low to medium heat, just to add a little color. I didn't want to over cook them (especially the nuts), since they would be spending some time in the oven as well. The coconut turned out perfectly, but I probably could have afforded to give the walnuts a minute or two more. Even still they turned out delicious, as you can clearly see:
 

That's all for now, but if anyone has any requests for me to make something, let me know!