Daring Bakers April 09 Cheesecake Centerpiece

The April 2009 challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes. She has chosen Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge.

Truth be told, I've struggled over the past few months with whether I should continue with Daring Bakers. Don't get me wrong--love the group and love the challenges. Ending up with outrageous amounts of dessert that never get eaten in this single girl's house, well it just seems so wasteful. I go back and forth on wanting to participate, and then finishing a challenge and having endless amounts of dessert. Then we'll do a savory challenge and I think I can't leave...and then, now, I have copious amounts of cheesecake in this house. I can take it to work, but that's just a lot of effort for something that goes to my coworkers 80% of the time.....

That being said, of course this challenge was fabulous: cheesecake. Many of us have made cheesecake a million times before, but this challenge was all in the flavors we added. With a short month because of my vacation, I brainstormed and decided based entirely upon what was in my refrigerator already, which just happened to be outrageous amounts of lemon. I cleaned out my fridge prior to leaving, but couldn't seem to bring myself to toss the 5 lb bag of lemons. I grabbed some of those Debbie Meyer green bags, and I don't know what's in them except magic pixie powder because 5 weeks after purchasing them, my lemons are still perfect. I'm so fascinated by this. I also happened to have most of the limoncello I'd made on whim last year as well as some leftover italian amarretti cookies for the crust. It's like this Italian coast inspired cheesecake was just destined to happen.


I only made half the recipe below and still ended up with four of these individual size cheesecakes...

Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake

crust:

2 cups / 180 g graham cracker crumbs I used amaretti cookie crumbs

1 stick / 4 oz butter, melted

2 tbsp. / 24 g sugar

1 tsp. vanilla extract

cheesecake:

3 sticks of cream cheese, 8 oz each (total of 24 oz) room temperature

1 cup / 210 g sugar3 large eggs

1 cup / 8 oz heavy cream1 tbsp. lemon juice

1 tbsp. vanilla extract (or the innards of a vanilla bean)

1 tbsp liqueur, optional, but choose what will work well with your cheesecake I used Limoncello
zest of 1 lemon

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (Gas Mark 4 = 180C = Moderate heat). Begin to boil a large pot of water for the water bath.
2. Mix together the crust ingredients and press into your preferred pan. You can press the crust just into the bottom, or up the sides of the pan too - baker's choice. Set crust aside.
3. Combine cream cheese and sugar in the bowl of a stand-mixer (or in a large bowl if using a hand-mixer) and cream together until smooth. Add eggs, one at a time, fully incorporating each before adding the next. Make sure to scrape down the bowl in between each egg. Add heavy cream, vanilla, lemon juice, lemon zest and alcohol and blend until smooth and creamy.
4. Pour batter into prepared crust and tap the pan on the counter a few times to bring all air bubbles to the surface. Place pan into a larger pan and pour boiling water into the larger pan until halfway up the side of the cheesecake pan. If cheesecake pan is not airtight, cover bottom securely with foil before adding water.
5. Bake 45 to 55 minutes, until it is almost done - this can be hard to judge, but you're looking for the cake to hold together, but still have a lot of jiggle to it in the center. You don't want it to be completely firm at this stage. Close the oven door, turn the heat off, and let rest in the cooling oven for one hour. This lets the cake finish cooking and cool down gently enough so that it won't crack on the top. After one hour, remove cheesecake from oven and lift carefully out of water bath. Let it finish cooling on the counter, and then cover and put in the fridge to chill. Once fully chilled, it is ready to serve.

6. To candy lemons I sliced a lemon in thin slices and added to a small saucepan that was half sugar and half water(simple syrup) and boiled gently for 10 mins.

Irish Car Bombs & Cooking Playlist

Cooking can be so relaxing with the soothing repetition of chopping or stirring and a little Michael Buble or Jack Johnson in the background. Or at least that's the image that inspires and motivates me to get in the kitchen. But when the knives and pans come out, the hips start to move all on their own. Could it be the music I actually choose? Indeed. I'd love for cooking to be this mellow time, but instead, I'm inspired by a faster tempo with a lots of old school and cheese thrown in. Sometimes, the cheesier the tuneage, the better the kitchen action. Today it looked a bit like this...

1. Mama Said Knock You Out-LL Cool J
2. The Other Side-Aerosmith
3. The Seed-The Roots
4. Gold Digger-Kanye West
5. Don't Go Away Mad-Motley Crue
6. Go Girl-Pitbull
7. All Summer Long-Kid Rock
8. Hips Don't Lie-Shakira
9. Let's Go Crazy-Prince
10. It's My Life-Jon Bon Jovi
11. Sweet Child O'Mine-Guns N' Roses
12. Beast of Burden- Rolling Stones
13. Stronger-Kanye
14. U Can't Touch This--because any song that can instaneously take you back to high school and softball season, deserves respect

The results of hours in the kitchen with this playlist is a bit of cardio and a recipe experiment. I'd made Nigella Lawson's Chocolate Guinness cake many, many times by request. In fact, when I pick up the cookbook "Feast," it falls open to this recipe. The balance of chocolate and Guinness makes a cake that is actually only slightly sweet which is perfect as the frosting quickly sends one into sugar shock.

Making a cake I've made numerous times before is not the experiment. My friend is having a "beer party" next week, with instructions to bring anything but PBR, Coors, Miller, or Bud. Not being a beer/lager/ale fan, and knowing that bringing my Guinness AGAIN was not really thinking outside the box, I asked if Irish Car Bombs counted as beer. Seemingly they don't, but that got my mind wondering about topping off a Guinness cake with a bit of Bailey's. I substituted Baileys for the heavy cream in the frosting and had a sort of Irish Car Bomb Cake. I know it's missing Jamesons and Car Bombs don't have chocolate. It's more Irish Car Bomb in spirit, but what a wee fine Irish spirit it is.




Chocolate Guinness Cake
Adapted from Nigella Lawson Feast

1 cup Guinness stout
1 stick unsalted butter, sliced
¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1.5 cups sugar
¾ cup sour cream
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
2.5 teaspoons baking soda

Baileys frosting
-8 ounce cream cheese
-1 cup confectioners’ sugar
½ cup Baileys

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9-inch springform pan and line bottom with parchment paper.
2. Pour Guinness into a large saucepan, add butter and heat until melted. Whisk in cocoa powder and sugar. In a small bowl, beat sour cream with eggs and vanilla and then pour into brown, buttery, beery mixture and finally whisk in flour and baking soda.
3. Pour cake batter into greased and line pan and bake for 45 minutes to an hour Leave to cool completely in the pan on a cooling rack.
4. When cake is cold, gently peel off parchment paper and transfer to a platter or cake stand.
5. Place cream cheese and confectioners’ sugar in a mixing bowl, and whip with an electric beater, until smooth
6. Add cream and beat again until you have a spreadable consistency.
7. Ice top of cake, starting at middle and fanning out, so that it resembles the frothy top of the famous pint.

Tom Kha Gai

Tom Ka Gai can be ordered in just about any Thai restaurant. Seemingly, its blend of tropical coconut, lemongrass and galangal flavors is universally appealing. For some its the new and exotic that is appealing, and to some like me, its a comfort food that invokes childhood memories. When offered the opportunity to make it Thailand, where strong flavors rule the day, well that wasn't an opportunity I was going to pass on.

I learned that galangal, a cousin to the ginger root, is the defining factor of this soup, and in fact the second word "kha," is Thai for galangal. I always thought the more defining flavors in the soup were the kaffir lime leaves and lemongrass flavors. Shows what I know. I learned even more along the way. We were going Thai country village style, where the kitchen sits outside the house, to make this batch.

First you start with your protein.

Not really, or at least not for this particular meal that I helped prepare. While I posted about my particular dislike of the vocal habits of the roosters running around, I have to admit that after seeing one or two run across the property with those itty bitty legs...well, it was pretty cute. I couldn't eat them after that. And far be it from me to break up a "Big Love" style chicken family...a girl needs all her baby daddy. Check it out Ash--white meat will come from the light chickies and dark meat will come from the little dark chickies... ;)

Cooking at my aunt's house was that kind of cooking that I can only dream of. The kind where you run out to your garden and dig up some galangal, cut some lemongrass from the bush next to it, pick some kaffir lime leaves off of the tree: the kind of cooking where the menu is defined by what's outside in the yard.

Tom Kha Gai

1 med chicken breast diced

1 cup of coconut milk

2 cups of chicken stock

1 inch piece of galangal, thinly sliced

10-12 cloves are garlic left whole, but cut into to release flavor

2-3 stalks of lemongrass cut into chunks

½ cup of red shallot, peeled and cut in half

2-3 kaffir lime leaves, torn to release flavors

2-6 Thai chilies smashed

4-5 tbsp lime juice

2 cups mushrooms (or one can straw mushrooms)

fish sauce

½ cup of cilantro, roughly chopped

Directions:

1. Heat a large saucepan over medium- and add chicken. Add a few tablespoons coconut milk to prevent chicken from sticking. Cook for 4-5 minutes

2. Add remainder of coconut milk, bring to the boil

3. Add lemongrass, galangal, kaffir lime leaves, mushrooms, garlice and red shallot and cook additional 5 mins

4. Add chicken stock, lime juice, chilies and fish sauce to taste

5. Remove to serving bowl and sprinkle with cilantro

6. Serve with steamed rice

Chang

Somewhere outside the city of Chiang Mai

sits one of the absolute coolest places to visit...

The Elephant Conservation Center was a special request stop. When asked what I wanted to do in Thailand, I was pretty open to letting my family show me around. The only special request I had was to see the "changs." Anyone who asks me about what my ethnic background is, will hear the story about how I was born on an elephant, in a rice paddy in Thailand. I remember it vividly of course. And heading back to Thailand was the perfect opportunity to visit my old friend.

The Conservation Center was everything it was hyped to be. It is a combination elephant hospital, training facility, and retirement ground. Old elephants are brought here to live out their days roaming free. There are daily shows in which the elephants walk on logs, bow to the group, play music and paint pictures. Seriously, you put a paintbrush in their trunk and they paint real pictures of flowers and elephants.

And the best part is being right there with the elephants. They are not always separated by fences or walls....when it's bath time, you can go down to the water and walk amongst them. Move or be trampled. And of course, there's nothing like riding an elephant through the Thai forests.

When elephants are told to sleep.

Why wouldn't the elephant take you straight into the water?

The Many Foods of Thailand

That title was tad misleading...a bit of bait and switch you may say. If I had titled it eat, "Eating Som Tum Every Single Day" it might not sound as appealing.

Having grown up with Thai food almost always in the house, I have to admit that I was still pretty excited at the potential of trying new foods during my travel there.

Some foods were not so new...though this larb made my larb look ultra vanilla. I'll need to try again. It seems I missed the 400 Thai bird chilies in mine to give it the schmancy red flair of this one.

Some were truly new...and most often wrapped in banana leaves. I'll give this one a shot eventually as well.

Some were fabulous tasting like this fish smothered in Thai basil and chilies--but would I ever bring myself to cook a while fish? Probably not.

Some were not cooking at all but new fruits that were a bit painful to extract. Have no idea what it was but it was tasty.

Some were infamous...there are no words to describe the aroma.

And well, some were just incredibly familiar, and still destined for daily consumption. Minus one day. That's a whole lot of som tum.

Did I really need to have som tum just about every day I was in Thailand? Probably not, especially in light of the fact that I can actually make this one myself. But I did because I could. What struck me as most surprising about Thailand is that you really don't have to prepare any meals--it all goes back to that communal village thing. For breakfast you walk over a few houses and buy your choice of freshly cooked breakfasts. Same for lunch and for dinner. In fact, why would you cook when someone is selling an entire meal for 30-40 cents? You can choose when you want som tum and you can eat it regardless of what anyone else in your family is eating. It's probably a good thing actually, because if people were forced to turn on their stoves and cook in that heat, there would probably a sharp increase in violence.

But alas back here in the good 'ole US of A, I cannot buy som tum for 30 cents and am forced to slave over hot stove for hours. Or a grater and mortar and pestle for 10 mins. Same difference.

Som Tum or Green Papaya Salad

Ingredients:
3 garlic cloves, peeled

Pinch of salt

3-6 Thai chilies

1 tablespoon roasted peanuts, chopped

1 small tomato sliced into wedges

2 cups shredded green papaya (about 1 medium papaya)

1-2 tablespoons palm sugar

1-2 limes, cut into wedges

1-2 tablespoon fish sauce

1. Peel papaya and grate. Growing up my mom often did it old school: smack the green papaya with a heavy and sharp knife repeatedly in one direction until there are long shreds. Cut the shreds off. My aunt did it this way as well. Place in bowl on side.

2. Pound garlic, salt and chilies in a pestle and mortar until they make a paste.

3. Squeeze lime juice into the paste and drop in lime peels as well and smash with pestle a few times. Add tomato wedges, sugar, fish sauce and smash again, using a big spoon to scoop mixture up and toss before smashing again. Remove lime wedges.

4. Add shredded green papaya and peanuts and smash until coated. Taste and adjust seasoning. Serve with cabbage and string beans or long beans.

All the som tum I had in Thailand had those little dried shrimpy things. I hate shrimpy things so omitted them...but if you like them and want it truly authentic, add a couple of teaspoons in with the lime.

Wat Phra That Suthon Mongkhon Khiri and Doi Suthep

It's difficult to picture Thailand without seeing images of the the wats that seemingly cover the country; the gold spires and rich jewel tones seem almost synonymous with Thailand at times. And deep down, I knew these were sacred religious sites for many, but it never truly struck me like it did when I was standing within my first one.

Wat Phra That Suthon Mongkhon Khiri appears to be the wat with the longest name ever, apparently to match the ginormous reclining buddha out front.

That's a big buddha--89 meters to be exact. Being a Yank, I find that trying to visualize distance in meters is not as easy as yards or more specificially, football fields. Sadly, I actually do think of smaller distances in terms of football fields. Eighty-nine meters happens to be 97.3 yards...that's almost an entire football field. Like I said, that's a big buddha. Vance Johnson could have run from one end of the statue to the other in like 10 seconds. On his best day and if he never got tired I'm thinking.

That being said, we did head to another wat later in the week--Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep. This buddhist temple sits a little way outside Chiang Mai, high up on Doi Suthep (the mountain). While I stayed outside the inner temple as my family went inside, it was still worth the 304 stair climb to the top. There are fabulous views of the city from this site high above the city(somewhat obscured by smog), historical info as well as that stunning wat architecture and detail.

Family Ties

I mentioned in an earlier post that my family put a lot of effort into finding my missing backpack and I am incredibly grateful. But really, who is this mysterious group of sleuths?

I love, love, love this picture. Yes, it's a photo of a picture...scanners were few and far between in little villages in northern Thailand. I took a pic of this photo that my aunt had from my grandparents and took it through a bit of photo editing. Not perfect but I removed the major rips and tears. Now I just look at it and smile...my mom and all but one of her siblings.

When I hear stories about how sad my grandparents were when we left Thailand I am sad that I never really knew them. Hearing that another one of my uncles had passed away recently was like an instant catalyst to book my trip. I couldn't imagine looking back and having any more regrets about not knowing my own family. While it was more wonderful than I expected, communication was hard. As much as I tried, I couldn't seem to draw forth from my innermost memory, that Thai I spoke during my younger years. Shocker. And really, how could someone who studied French, Spanish and even Japanese in school, never learn the first language she ever spoke? I was a bit embarassed.

As the photo shows, and my family told me often, I look more like my father than my mother. "You face like papa, sister like mama." It's all about the nose apparently, and my nose is 100% anglo-saxon, 0% thai. I know because even perfect strangers asked if I was a falang (westerner) while pointing at their nose. In fact, if I had a dollar for each time the word falang came up I could have paid for this entire trip...

Bang Bao

Bang Bao is a little fishing village on the southern tip of Koh Chang, with boat access to the many smaller islands surrounding Koh Chang. The sand is the softest, the locals are friendly, and you can buy a fresh coconut shake for the escalated tourist price of 30 baht or approximately 85 cents. Yep, and things would only get cheaper when we left the island and traveled north. Access to the beach however was a little sketchy...

The water was perfect for swimming but the hot sun fried this half-white girl's skin. My skin actually turned a dark shade of brown that dried up, and peeled completely off in just a few pieces. And then I was white again. Yummy description, I know. I spared you the photo.

I learned that I am not good at bargaining and was to leave all negotiations to my Thai relatives. This "falang" is apparently very gullible. My aunt negotiated a great price on some fabulous pearls for me.

Blissfully unaware of the molting that would result...