New York cheesecake - U.S.A.

This is a delicious cheesecake, the original recipe comes from HERE, I adjusted it to fit my 20 cm springform pan and changed the amounts of the ingredients.

It is a long time I wanted to try the famous "New York cheesecake" and last week I found a very interesting recipe on the Internet, it looked easy and quick to make. The result was a fantastic cheesecake, very soft with an perfectly smooth texture, it is not too sweet but just perfect. It is not one of those cakes that you cannot finish because after 2 bites it feels too thick and heavy but it is really light and you cannot stop eating it.

Maybe I should have covered it while in the oven because it got quite dark, so I suggest you to keep an eye on your cheesecake while it is cooking and cover it with tin foil if it begins to get too dark. Dispite of the color the taste was fantastic... so delicious!

Nowadays there are hundreds of different cheesecake recipes. The most essential ingredient is cheese, the most commonly used are cream cheese, Neufchatel but also cottage cheese, ricotta and mascarpone, depending on the country where you are.

Cheesecakes were already a popular dish in ancient Greece, with the Roman conquest of Greece, the secret fell into Roman hands. The New York cheesecake is the pure, unadulterated cheesecake with no fancy ingredients added either to the cheesecake or placed on top of it. It is made with pure cream cheese, cream, eggs and sugar. According to New Yorkers, only the great cheesecake makers are located in New York and the great cheesecake connoisseurs are also in New York. In the 1900s, cheesecakes were very popular in New York and every restaurant had their version. The name "New York Cheesecake" might have come from the fact that New Yorkers referred to the cheesecakes made in New York as "New York Cheesecake". New Yorkers say that cheesecake was not really cheesecake until it was cheesecake in New York.

Reference from Wikipedia.

There are a lot of different kinds of cheesecakes depending of the country where they are made:

Chicago-style cheesecake is a baked cream-cheese version that is firm outside and creamy inside. Pennsylvania Dutch-style cheesecake uses a slightly tangy type of cheese with larger curds and less water content, called pot or farmer's cheese. Philadelphia-style cheesecake is lighter in texture, yet creamier in flavor than New York style cheesecake. Farmer's cheese cheesecake is the contemporary implementation for the traditional use of baking to preserve fresh cheese and often is baked in a pie shell along with fresh fruit like a tart. Sour cream cheesecake is thought to have originated in the mid-20th century in the United States after the mass homogenization of milk and the loss of cream as a widely available ingredient. It still uses cream cheese but has no heavy cream. It can be frozen for short periods of time without ruining the texture. Many factory-made cheesecakes use this method because of this trait.

Polish Cheesecake country-style cheesecake uses buttermilk to produce a firm texture while decreasing the pH (increasing acidity) to extend shelf life. Lactose free cheesecake may be made either with lactose-free cream cheese or as an imitation using Vegan recipes combining non-dairy cream cheese alternatives with other lactose-free ingredients. Cottage cheese and lemon versions.

Canadian-Vancouver-style cheesecake is a light, airy style made without a crust, primarily in vanilla and chocolate and often served refrigerated with various local fruit toppings such as British Columbia strawberries, raspberries and cherries.

In the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand cheesecake is generally a cold dessert which is neither cooked nor baked. It is made with crumbled digestive biscuits mixed with butter and pressed into a dish to form a base layer. The topping or filling is a mixture of milk, sugar, cheese, cream and, sometimes, gelatin.

Italian-Roman-style cheesecake uses honey and ricotta-like cheese along with flour and is traditionally shaped into loaves. Some recipes call for bay leaves, which may have been used as a preservative. It is still baked in areas in Italy that kept culinary traditions alive after the fall of Rome. Italian-style cheesecake is a modern version of Roman cheesecake. It uses ricotta or mascarpone cheese, replaces the honey with sugar, omits the bay leaves, and adds other modern ingredients such as vanilla extract and barley flakes. This type of cheesecake is typically drier than American styles. Often, small bits of candied fruit are added.

French-style cheesecakes are very light, feature gelatin as a binding ingredient and are typically only 3 to 5 cm tall. This variety gets its light texture and flavor from Neufchâtel cheese.

Greek-style cheesecake commonly uses Mizithra cheese, and Mascarpone cheese.

Swedish-style cheesecake differs greatly from other cheese cakes. A Swedish cheesecake is not layered and is traditionally produced by adding rennet to milk and letting the casein coagulate. It is then baked in an oven and served warm. Since the process of curdling milk is somewhat complicated, alternative recipes intended for home cooking instead use cottage cheese as a base to simulate the texture of the dessert. Swedish-style cheesecake is traditionally served with jam and whipped cream or ice cream. There are two different types of Swedish cheesecake, from different regions in Sweden. To avoid confusion with other cheesecakes the Swedish cheesecake is usually called "ostkaka" (in Swedish.

German-style cheesecake (Käsekuchen, Quarkkuchen, Matzkuchen) uses quark cheese. Germany is famous for its unique cheesecake recipes that adds a bit of sweet and sour taste that melts in your mouth.

Dutch/Belgian-style cheesecakes are typically flavored with melted bittersweet chocolate. Belgian cheesecake includes also a speculaas crust (speculaas is a traditional Dutch-Belgian biscuit).

Brazilian-style cheesecake usually has a layer of goiabada (guava marmalade).

Asian-style cheesecake flavours include matcha and mango.

Japanese-style cheesecake relies upon the emulsification of cornstarch and eggs to make a smooth flan-like texture and almost plasticine appearance.

I have travelled to many placse but I have never been to U.S. or better I landed several times in New York but never had the chance to stop and visit the city. I will do that soon... one week vacation in New York, I am looking forward to visit the city that never sleeps and for sure I will stop by Junior's Deli and try their famous NY cheesecake.

NEW YORK CHEESECAKE

(8 servings)

Ingredients for the crust: 100 g graham crackers (or Digestive biscuits), 2 Tbsp butter.
Ingredients for the filling: 250 g cream cheese (like Phildelphia), 300 g sugar, 150 ml milk, 4 large eggs, 250 g sour cream, vanilla pod, 30 g all-purpose flour.

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Preheat oven to 180ºC. Grease a 20 cm springform pan. In a bowl, mix graham cracker crumbs with melted butter. Press onto the bottom of a springform pan. With an electric mixer, mix cream cheese with sugar until smooth. Blend in milk, then mix in one egg at a time, mixing just enough to incorporate. Mix in sour cream, vanilla and flour, mix until smooth. Pour the filling into the prepared crust and bake in preheated oven at 180ºC for 1 hour. Turn off the oven and let the cake cool inside the oven with the door closed for 6 hours (this prevents cracking). Put the cheesecake in the fridge until ready to serve.

Kaya... crema di noci di cocco - Singapore

My friend Christina from Singapore sent me this jar of Kaya some time ago. This is one of my favorite things that I discovered when I lived in Singapore.

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Kaya is a coconut jam, perfect spread for bread, and it is composed of: coconut milk, eggs, sugar and pandan leaves extract and it is 100% natural (no preservatives and no coloring). There are different kinds of kaya, when I was in Singapore I tasted NONYA KAYA, with its yellow-green color is very sweet and very good. This one I received from my friend is HAINANESE KAYA, it is of a nice brown color and it is thicker then the Nonya, less sweet and with a much more delicate taste. Hainanese kaya is definitely my favorite one between the two.

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The brand of my kaya is Sing Kee "Kaya House" and according to my friends from Singapore it is one of the best quality kaya.

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Kaya is very good spread on toasts for breakfast or for an afternoon break, and with jasmine green tea is just perfect. HERE you can find one of my first recipes that shows another way of eating kaya... ricotta pancakes with Nonya kaya.

Mezzelune di mais con ripieno di prosciutto crudo e ceci

I was very trilled to take part of this challenge as soon as I saw it. I did not know much about cooking without gluten but I made some research and realized you can do a lot of things.
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I was thinking what I could make... a cake or a main course... pasta maybe. Then I thought about sweet corn and immediately remember a friend of mine who has a child who is celiac tried corn pasta. I looked on the Internet but I could not find any recipe of corn pasta... so I came up with this simple recipe... corn "mezzelune", which means "half moons" for their shape, and filled them with a mixture of chickpeas and ham.

For the filling I used dry chickpeas that I let rest in water for some hours and then cooked in a pot with water, a piece of prosciutto crudo (raw dry-cured ham), Parmigiano Reggiano, one garlic clove and rosemary. When everything was cooked I put the mixture in a blender and added extra-virgin olive oil, salt and pepper.

The dough was made with of corn flour (200 g), potato flour (50 g), salt and warm water. This type of dough gets dry very easily so I suggest you to keep it under a moist cloth while you are making mezzelune. Another problem with corn dough is that it is quite difficult to work, it is not an elastic dough but rather crumbly. With this amount of dough you can make 24 mezzelune, which are perfect for 3 people.

Take a small piece of dough in you hand, make it flat and put the filling in the middle, close as "mezzeluna" shape. I realized the best way to cook mezzelune was to fry them for few minutes in a pan with some extra-virgin olive oil and then prepare the tomato sauce.

The sauce I chose was a basic tomato sauce made with fresh tomatoes, garlic, extra-virgin olive oil, bay leaves, salt and pepper. This has to be cooked for at least 40 minutes. When the sauce is ready add the mezzelune and sprinkle with Parmigiano Reggiano. This dish is really tasty and it reminds me of polenta.

Kefta d'agnello con yogurt alla menta - MAROCCO

The weather is still great here in Stockholm. Yesterday was so nice, sunny and warm with 30 degrees. Yesterday was also the Swedish National Day and a public holiday, I spent the whole afternoon in the city center by the water with some friends (and everybody else in Stockholm) having lunch outside, walking and eating ice-cream...

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Today I am jus relaxing at home and doing one of my favorite hobbies... cooking. I have made lamb keftas with mint yoghurt and cous-cous, this is my favorite of all dishes we prepared at the Moroccan cooking course last winter. Keftas are Moroccan meatballs and they can be prepared in many different ways, stuffed or plain like these ones and with different kinds of meat.
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This morning the sun rose at 3:39 (and it will go down at 21:56). It is a chock every year when summer comes because there is SO much light... you kind of forget during winter when it is so dark. This morning I got up VERY early... at 8:30, this is unusual for me because I love sleeping, I went to the nearest supermarket and both all ingredients for this dish.
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Between all the aromatic herbs I could smell the mint with its pungent perfume... so nice and fresh. Mint reminds me of the summers spent up on the Alps with my family, taking long walks to get to the mountain dew and looking at flowers, plants and smelling all the perfumes of the wild herbs... wild mint was one of them.
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I bought so much of each ingredient that I actually produced an industrial amount of keftas... well, it is ok, I have my Monday packet lunch and I will freeze the rest (see picture below). It will be so easy and fast to use them in a critical situation... when I do not have time to cook or my fridge is empty.
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I prepared some cous-cous that was perfect with keftas. This dish is very easy and quick to make. Most important of all it is really DELICIOUS... the mint gives it a very fresh and summery taste.

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Tagliatelle verdi al basilico

Spring has finally arrived in Stockholm... 26 degrees, maybe 30 degrees this coming Sunday. With the warm season you can take a city tour on a balloon, I would really like to do that...

Few evenings ago I looked outside the window and saw a balloon in the sky... beautiful... I was so excited admiring it that I almost missed the chance to take some photos, but I was quick enough to get my camera and took some great shots. The red balloon was just over my head, I could almost touch it...

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I was so concentrated on my red balloon that I almost did not notice the sky was full of them... I managed to take one nice shot before they were too far away.

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But let's go back to what I was cooking that evening. Now with the nice and warm weather the aromatic herbs like fresh basil are so beautiful and they have even stronger perfume... I could not resist when I saw this beautiful fresh basil in the shop... I just had to buy it.

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Well, after few days when I put basil everywhere I still had quite a lot but I got an idea... why not making a fresh perfumed summer pasta... so I decided to put basil into the egg pasta dough and make tagliatelle.

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It is very quick to roll out pasta if you use a "Nonna Papera", which literally means "Grandma Duck", this is how we call the machine to roll out pasta in Italy. If you have time it is good to let tagliatelle dry for some hours or even days.

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The result was a delicious dish of basil tagliatelle, perfect with a cherry tomatoes sauce... so fresh and summery and there was no need to add basil.

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Maggio... il mese dei matrimoni in Italia

May is the month of the weddings in Italy, and I suppose in many other country it is the same. Few weeks ago I went South of Italy to participate to my cousin's wedding, the location was the gorgeous town of Sermoneta (http://www.sermoneta.it/), Latina province in the region Lazio, just 1 hour from Rome. The town is settled on a hill and all around there are olive trees... what a beautiful view!

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It is so nice to walk through the narrow streets of this little town on the top of the hill... there no rush here... no stress... life is slow and calm. You can see old ladies that sit outside their houses, on the front door and talking, knitting... Every time I go back there it feels like going back in time, so nice!
.I love mountain and I love walking... and here you have both. It was so beautiful to walk in the countryside, on the hills and in the woods... here you can see amazing plants and flowers... like the beautiful wild cyclamens in the picture above.

The day of the wedding was just perfect... sunny and nice with its 26 degrees. The bride had a beautiful dress that her grandma sewed for her and a very unique one... the tail was of a dark red color and only red roses were decorating the church and of course the bouquet.
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The wedding lunch was at a beautiful villa... the antipasti were composed of a huge buffet and there you could find anything you liked, from oysters to moussels, from cous-cous to buffalo mozzarella, from SUSHI to bean soup... Yes, the antipasti were really exotic...
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You could find a form of Parmigiano Reggiano and many other different kinds of cheese, salame and ham.
The tables were on a terrace with gorgeous view over the lake Albano... and if you are lucky you can see the Pope's summer residence on the other side of the lake.
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But let's start with the wedding lunch... in Italy lunch at a wedding is usually VERY good, the couple usually visits and tries different restaurants during the year before the wedding to find the one suitable for the occasion and most important of all... the FOOD is GOOD!
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Lunch was just great... the first "primo piato" was gnocchetti sardi pasta with walnuts, pears, Roqueford cheese sauce. This was absolutely delicious, one of my favorite dishes that day. To the right in the above picture you can see the second "primo piatto": tonnarelli pasta with lobster and frutti di mare sauce... so good!
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The first "secondo piatto" was branzino (sea bass) with frutti di mare sauce and grilled vegetables, this was absolutely my favorite dish of the whole lunch... I can still remember the taste of that branzino... mmmmm...
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A lemon sorbet was perfect to clean your mouth after the fish and go to the next dish. The second "secondo piatto" was a black pepper steak with artichokes pudding and a wonderful melted cheese on top.
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After lunch there was time for some fun... and the bride launches her bouquet to a group of anxious girls. Actually everybody was trying to escape this but... no choice..

Here above are the "bomboniere", a presents that the coupple usually give to the guests as a memory of the day and to thank for the participation.
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Of course there was a full buffet with desserts... and here too you could find just anything... from Tiramisù to pannacotta, from pastiera napoletana to chocolate mousse.
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From an ice-cream cake to a chocolate cake... and more... even crepe with Nutella.
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And some fresh fruit was just perfect at this point... fruit skewers...

I thought the couple on the wedding cake was so cute and just perfect!

PINZA di Dignano... della nonna Margherita

Pinza is a typical sweet bread from Istria and it is often home made al Easter time. There are a lot different variant of the basic recipe and this one is from my grandma Margherita, who is from Dignano d'Istria (today called Vodnjan in Croatian). Istria used to be part of Italy before but after the Second World War returned to Yugoslavia, it was at the time that my grandparents decided to move to Italy and after several relocations they finally settled in the north part of the country.

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My grandma has been making this cake since I was little... I remember so well the long hours she was working the dough with her hands and let it rise, and work it again and let it rise several times... the smell of the yeast was so intense and nice.

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This is the first time I have made Pinza and I am quite satisfied, it came out very good, almost like my grandma Margherita, but I need a lot of practice to obtain her result. Pinza gets better after 2-3 days... it is a quite dry cake and it is perfect with tea or coffee. I like to eat it in the morning for breakfast together with some tea but it can be a very good afternoon snack.

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Istria (Istra in Croatian, Istria in Italian), formerly Histria in Latin, is the largest peninsula in the Adriatic Sea. The peninsula is located at the head of the Adriatic between the Gulf of Trieste and the Bay of Kvarner.

After World War I Istria returned to the Italy. After the advent of Fascism, the indigenous Croatian and Slovene population were exposed to a policy of forced Italianization and cultural suppression. They lost their right to education and religious practice in their maternal language.

After the end of World War II, Istria was included into the Social Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, except for a small part in the northwest corner that formed Zone B of the provisionally independent Free Territory of Trieste. In the postwar years fear of communism and strong post-war ethnic tension resulted in almost all Italians leaving Istria. By 1956 the last migrations were coming to an end, Istria had lost a significant segment of its population (80%) and part of its social and cultural identity.

Today Istria is mainly part of Croatia. It is a beautiful place and when I was little I used to spend there the summer holidays every year with my family. I have so many nice memories of that time but unfortunately it has been many years now that I have not been there... I will have to go back soon.

Check the Official Web Site for Istria is http://www.istra.hr/

Salsa bolzanina con asparagi

This is a very easy sauce from the city Bolzano (in the region Trentino Alto Adige), that is why it is called "Bolzanina". I saw the recipe on TV at my favorite cooking program "La prova del cuoco" on the Italian channel RAI 1.

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It was one the chef from the beautiful Italian region Trentino Alto Adige (North of Italy, near the border with Austria...Trentino Official Website) that gave this recipe during the cooking competition and showed how to make it, he also said that salsa bolzanina is a perfect accompaniment to asparagus.

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Above you can see the beautiful asparagus I found yesterday at the supermarket... I immediately thought about salsa bolzanina because it sounded very interesting and since I saw the program (last week) I wanted to try it. This dish is absolutely delicious!
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BOLZANINA SAUCE WITH ASPARAGUS

(1 person)

Ingredients: 2 eggs, 1/2 tsp mustard, 1/2 lemon, extra-virgin olive oil, salt and pepper, asparagus.
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Wash the asparagus and boil them in salted water. Boil the eggs. With an handblender blend mustard, the boiled yolks, salt, pepper and add extra-vingin olive oil a bit at the time (like when you make mayonnaise), add lemon juice and the boiled whites cut in small cubes. Mix well and you this sauce on top of boiled asparagus.

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Un fiore per ogni mamma!

Today in Italy it is Mother's Day (in Sweden Mother's Day is the last Sunday of May)... I send my best wishes to all moms and a different flower to each one of them!

Last week I was in Italy, where it is already middle spring, and I found a lot of flowers everywhere... the one above it is a beautifil black tulip from my parents garden.
. Here below to the left you can see an iris and to the right beautiful calla lilies from our garden.
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The one down here is a tiny little cactus with a huge flower... I was really chocked when I saw the dimention of that flower.

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Last week I also travelled towards South of Italy and found those beautiful wild cyclamen in the wood... you cannot imagine how many there were!
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And what about a blooming olive tree on the hills in the countryside of region Lazio...
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Frollini con marmellata di fichi

In the last few weeks in the morning I got woken up by the birds singing outside my window... and I live in the city centre... incredibly nice. I also get a sun ray coming directly into my face at 5 a.m., the sun is already high in the sky at that time... I am surprised every year when spring comes become the changes are so radical and quick.

Spring has finally arrived in Stockholm and this week has been fabulous, blue sky and sun and 18 degrees. Outside you can begin to see green colors on the trees and flowers are coming out.

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These cookies are really simple and quick to make... very fresh and lemony taste.

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The jam I used is figs jam that my parents made last summer with the white figs from the plants in our garden, it is really good and sweet... natural sweet. It finished really fast but I got just in time to save one jar... it is so delicious!