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Wednesday, 29 April 2015

Amazingly Delicious Lemon Cheesecake Recipe

This cheesecake will taste absolutely divine! It is so dense and decadent and it'll make any tea party proud!! You're sure to impress your guests with this cheesecake ;) Don't be discouraged by the fact that you have to bake it; it's relatively easy to follow and once you make it for the first time; they'll beg you to make it again :D




Ingredients:
Crust:
200g of your preferred plain biscuit crumbs

50g granulated white sugar

114g unsalted butter, melted

Filling:

400g full fat cream cheese at room temperature

125g Mascarpone cheese

100 grams granulated white sugar

18g all purpose flour

2 large eggs, room temperature

Zest of 1 lemon

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Method
Preheat oven to 180°C with the rack in centre of oven.

Use a disposable aluminium round  pan and grease it liberally with butter. This will aid in proper cheesecake removal as you will see at the end of this post ;)

For the Crust  use a food processor with the chopping blade to finely chop the biscuits along with the sugar. After doing so; add the melted butter and process until you obtain the consistency of wet sand. Press the crumbs evenly over the bottom and up the sides of the greased pan. Refrigerate the biscuit base whilst you make the filling.

For the Filling use the food processor with the chopping blade. Place the cream cheese, mascarpone, sugar, and flour and beat on medium speed until smooth for about 2 minutes. Make sure that you scrape down the bowl as required. Crack the eggs in a separate bowl (in case of bad eggs and shell pieces) and add them one at a time beating well until incorporated after each addition. Add the lemon zest and the pure vanilla extract and beat until incorporated. If you have a beater option in your food processor; remove the blade attachment right before pouring the mixture into the pan and beat for a final 15-30 seconds. Retrieve the biscuit base from the fridge and pour in the filling. Place the cheesecake pan on a larger baking pan so that you'll have catchment in the case of spillage.

Place in the oven and bake for 15 minutes and then lower the oven temperature to 120°C and continue to bake for about another 25 to 40 minutes or until the cheesecake is firm and only the centre of the cheesecake looks a little wet and wobbly. Remove the cheesecake from the oven and place it on a wire rack to cool. Let it cool completely before covering with plastic wrap and refrigerating it for several hours, preferably overnight.

When you come to dig in all you need to do is carefully use a knife to cut the foil and peel it back to reveal the set cheesecake. Slice away and enjoy!!


Note: If you have leftover filling make mini cheesecakes like the ones below (following the normal instructions with reduced cooking time)!


Monday, 13 April 2015

‎Chinese‬ ‎Stir‬-fried ‎Noodles‬ with ‪‎Shrimp‬ :)

Want a very hearty meal in approx 15 mins? Then this is the one for you!!



Ingredients (for 1 person as a main meal for 2 as a smaller meal/starter)

  • 12 peeled and deveined large shrimps
  • 1 small onion cut into lengthwise strips
  • 2 spring onions cut into slices
  • 1 medium-sized shredded carrot
  • 4 peeled cloves of garlic sliced
  • 1 Xg packet of instant noodles
  • 1-2 tbsp of soy sauce
  • Salt
  • Sunflower oil (do not use olive oil) 


Take the peeled and deveined shrimps and after rinsing them salt them with approx 1 tsp of salt. Bring a pot of salted water to the boil and cook the noodles for 1 minute only. Drain the cooked noodles and run under cold water; after doing so put a little sunflower oil in the noodles and mix so as to prevent them from sticking to each other.
Heat a deep saucepan/wok and put in 2 tbsp of sunflower oil and after heating sufficiently (1-2 mins) stir fry the shrimps for 1 minute only and after doing so remove them from the pan and put them to the side. After adding a little more oil; stir fry the onion strips until they become translucent (1 min) and then add half the spring onions along with the garlic and the shredded carrot cooking for another minute. Season the vegetables with salt to taste. At the end; add the noodles along with the 1-2 tbsp of soy sauce and the cooked shrimp. Stir fry for another minute and serve.

Notes:
If you are cooking for e.g. 4 people multiply all of the ingredients by 4. If you're really hungry consider this recipe enough for one person but if you're serving as a starter this recipe should be enough for 2 people.