Grandmama's Crustless Super Fluffy Ricotta Cheesecake Even a Hater Will Enjoy.

Mmmmm cheesecake, a dieter's delight. Luckily, I've engaged in a diet that allows cheesecake. It's called the "be a pig and then get your arse to the gym/pool/jog" diet.  I can't recommend this diet highly enough.

Cheesecake seems to be a huge fan favorite for sweet tooth(s) everywhere, but I never opt for it, given a dessert selection (then again, I don't have much of a sweet tooth). The consistency is often too brick-like and the cake itself I find overly sweet.  I'd rather have ice cream if I'm going to put myself into a dairy sugar coma.

That's where Grandma comes in to save the day.  In my likeness, Grandma isn't too fond of overly sugared desserts either (relatedly, an immigrant friend of mine with the baking acumen of a Taiwanese Betty Crocker says that whenever she follows an American recipe, she always cuts the amount of sugar called for in half...apparently, American baking recipes double as diabetes how-tos).  Grandma's cheesecake recipe saves the day through delicate, subtle sweetness and puffed fluffy like air-in-a-cloud consistency, thanks to a ricotta base.

This is obviously not a CSA-inspired recipe, BUT, as I've been away all week at a conference and most of the veggies were depleted in my absence, I figured I'd put up what I'm a-cookin' in the meantime. My disclaimer is since this is baking, the basic ingredient accuracy is somewhat important (ie, annoying), however, I will say this recipe is pretty flexible with respect to add-ons. I've added pumpkin and pumpkin pie spices for a Thanksgiving cheesecake, and I think chocolate/nuts/cinnamon would also work. Some folks probably like a crust on their cheesecake, but this one works pretty well without it. I'm considering throwing together a fresh fig compote as a topping this time....

                                                   Ingredients*

All the fatness one cheesecake can hold.

-Ricotta cheese, 1 Lb
-Cream cheese, 1/2 Lbs
-4 eggs
-Sugar, 1.25 cups
-Sour cream - 1 pint
-Lemon juice - 3 tbsp plus zest
-Flour - 3 tbsp
-Corn starch - 3 tbsp
-Butter, melted, 1/2 lb (ie, 2 sticks)
-Vanilla extract, 2 tbsp


*I've used fat free/low fat/full fat combinations on all of the dairy items, and it comes out a little differently each time, but always delicious, so feel free to sub wherever you see fit. This time I'm going light on cream cheese, because that's what Trader Joe's had yesterday...

Procedure

1. Pre-heat oven to 325F.

Mmmmm...I'm getting hungry...

2. Beat eggs until thick and lemon colored, add sugar and lemon juice.
3. In a large bowl, combine ricotta and cream cheese. Slowly mix in egg mixture and some zest.
4. Add flour and corn starch and mix. I don't have an electric mixer, so I have to beat out the lumps with some extra elbow grease. A few dry mix lumps doesn't mess it up, I promise.
5. Stir in melted butter and vanilla, and then finally the sour cream.

6. Pour into an ungreased 9" springform pan and bake 40 min to 1 hour, or whenever the top-middle looks cooked through (can check with the toothpick test).

7. After the cooking has finished, turn off the oven and let the cheesecake equilibrate in the (off) oven for 1 hour. Then place in fridge overnight (can remove the springform rim after one hour in the fridge).

Betty Crockerowitz in the hiz-ouse.

Final product + Cool Whip + Fig Compote

Afterthoughts

So I threw together some fig compote (fresh figs chopped up, sugar, a cup of water, cinnamon, and two lemon slices (skin included) into a saucepan, reduced to a hot syrupy delight), and served that atop the cheesecake with a spoonful of cool whip. The cheesecake was a hit amongst friends, and though the level of sweet was spot on mild, the consistency of the cake was still a bit heavy for my taste. I think this was the first time I made it with mostly full-fat products (I usually go no fat on the sour cream and low to no fat on the ricotta), and that may have contributed to its heft.

Remaining Greens Soup

It's Friday, and we've done a pretty good job of clearing out the whopping pile of greens that arrived in Monday's CSA bundle. The chard and spinach went to a delicious pie, the remaining spinach and mustard greens were thrown into a frittata, and the (lettuces, arugula, and some mizuna) were all used up in side salads. That left over pretty much all of the Chinese Cabbage and some Mizuna.

What to do... Luckily (err or not...), I seem to have come down with some kind of sinus-cold that I am boldly fighting with vitamins, water, rest, and the following healthalicious-get-better soup I threw together. Nothing too innovative here, just a good way to get those greens down deliciously* and not wasted!
*Deliciousness not guaranteed, my taste buds are off.

Ingredients

almost done soup!

-Bouillon/stock/soup base - I use Better than Bouillon for quick throw-together soups, especially when I'm sick and can't be bothered fussing with real-er broth bases or making my own.  If the butler were here today, I'd be forcing him to make me some broth from scratch. This time it was chicken base.
-Carrots - chopped up so they cook reasonably fast
-Greens - this time, Chinese Cabbage,  Mizuna, and Cilantro
-Garlic - used up the remaining garlic scapes

 

Ready, set, cook

1. Dilute broth as indicated in a saucepan, throw in chopped carrots and garlic scapes.
2. Bring to just under a boil, toss in the greens, and turn off the heat. The greens will cook in about 1 minute (and not turn to complete mush...yuck, mushy veggies are the bane of my existence!)
2. Enjoy in on the 3rd hottest day of the summer (yet) and kick the crap out of any cold trying to get the best of you!

please let me be able to breath through my nose again.

Afterthoughts

This soup definitely could have benefited from some kind of dumpling or matzoh ball. Hopefully it just makes me better and then I can just stick my foot in my mouth and munch on that.

Moroccan-y Leafy Green Savory-Sweet Pie

Bright Lights Swiss Chard + Garlic Scapes

I'm a complete sucker for savory-sweet combinations. Sea salt + (insert sweet thing here, but especially dark chocolate) is like kryptonite for my waist line. I've also had a recent fling with chutneys as the condiment of choice in a savory dinner. Mrs. Ball's, despite her unfortunate moniker, makes a mean chutney of sweetness that sends any lamb dish into OMGYUM land.

I've been using chutneys and other tricks (apples and blue cheese in salad FTW) to try to incorporate savory-sweetness wherever possible, and veggie-based dishes are no exception. This week's CSA delivered a whopping 6 types of leafy greens, a volume my Oompa Loompa-sized mini fridge is unequipped to hold.  Here is a snapshot of about 1/100000th of these greens:

To accommodate mini-fridge, I decided de-volumize those greens by turning some of them into a savory-sweet pie.  Cali's blog features a great recipe for Swiss Chard, Raisin, and Pine Nut Tart which she adapted from Gourmet. I have doubly adapted her adaptation to suit my own gluttonous savory-sweet (and recipe ADD) ways. My adaptation of an adaptation draws on some Moroccan influence with the cinnamon and cumin flavors a la Tagine.

Since this is the first recipe I'm posting, my disclaimer is extreme flexibility in anything I cook...This recipe can have so many substitutions I don't know where to begin. Meat, no meat. Cheese, no cheese. Garlic/Onions, or not. Zest, no zest. Do whatever suits your taste. Or whatever you have lying around that needs cooking.

Swiss Chard knows neon is tres chic in 2012

Ingredients

- Choose your own adventure Leafy Greens. This time I used a  bundle of Swiss Chard and half a bundle of big leaf Spinach. 
- Raisins - up to one cup or whatever suits your taste. Dried cherries would probably work.
- Pine nuts - about a half a cup, toasted.
- 2 Pie Crusts, store bought is just fine. When you have a NYC-sized kitchen, making dough and rolling it out is pretty ambitious if you aren't June Cleaver or Martha Stewart.
- Ground lamb / lamb meatballs / lamb sausage
- Feta cheese  - I recommend French Feta.
- Garlic - This time I used garlic scapes.
- Onions/Shallots - I omitted this time around, didn't have any in the kitchen.
- Olive Oil
- Cinnamon, Cumin, Fennel seeds, salt, pepper
- Heavy cream - I used a spoonful of Trader Joe's Soy Creamer

Prep the filling

1. Pre-heat oven to 375F.
2. Hydrate the raisins: bring the raisins in a cup of water to a boil, reduce heat and let simmer 10 min.
3. Saute the greens in olive oil / garlic / onion / shallot mixture. Drain the water out once sauteed (I press mine with a paper towel in a colander).
4. Lightly saute any meat products - I made little lamb meatballs full of toasted pine nuts, parsley, fennel seeds, cumin, and broke them up into a ragout style.

Ready, set, cook

1. Mix the greens, raisins (drained), meat in a bowl.
2. Fold in the feta.
3. Add in to your taste cumin and cinnamon. I do about a spoonful each.
4. Mix in heavy cream
5. Line a 9-inch pie pan with one of the pie crusts, and fold in the filling.

 

almost done. damn this looks yummy already.

5. Use the other pie crust to cover up the pie. I use a fork to seal the edges, then slice a few pretty vents in the top.
6. Bake at 375F for 45 min or until that top crust looks crusty delicious. I pull the pie out 10 min before done time and add a little earth balance (fake butter) to the top for that golden crusty look.
7. Eat up! For some extra sweet-savory oomph, I enjoyed this with Trader Joe's Fig Butter.

time to feast.

CSA Goodness.

For the first time, I was able to join a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) this year. For those not in the artisanal-organic-local-chic know, CSAs link farmers to consumers by delivering their produce in bulk directly to their neighborhood. There are numerous crunchy and economic benefits to CSA membership, but rather than bemoan the consumption of apples in NYC grown in Chile (guilty) when NY state itself produces some of the best apples in the world, I'll let you do that on your own.

I have toyed with the idea of joining for several years, but living a solo, itinerant lifestyle (with poor organization with respect to CSAs requiring on the ball early sign up) precluded all previous attempts. Luckily, cohabitation and a CSA with a very-last-minute sign up has allowed me to partake this year!

The CSA is now in week 2 of the season, and I'm completely jazzed by the plethora of leafy green delights we've been getting (see photo of week 1 below). I'm going to dedicate this blog to my CSA creations, which inspire me to harness those ingenuity fibers to make sure I maximize and eat all that I get.*

Mizuna, Napa Cabbage, Bok Choy, Red Leaf Lettuce, Mustard Greens, Green Leaf Lettuce OH MY!

*And I only have a small cube fridge in my kitchenette, which means storing 6 heads of greens in their raw, ripe form is not possible.