New York cheesecake

We made and we have many recipes of baked cheesecakes but I think this one is the one we like the most, for the balance and flavor. From what I know, in New York they like the cheesecake rich, soft and creamy light with a crunchy crust. For an everyday dessert I would opt to make a cold gelatin-set cheesecake just because I consider this one to be special and I will keep this for special treats and occasions. To avoid lumps and ensure mixing without over-beating, is essential to have all the ingredients to a room temperature.
The way you are beating the ingredients is very important: under beating make a lumpy mixture and over beating can incorporate too much air and the result is a bubble, cracking and uneven cooking. Accompaniments to this cheesecake can be all nice fresh fruits but for winter you can use some compotes as well. This recipe is for 12 large portions or 16 medium like mine and I used a 30 cm cake spring-form tin.
Ingredients:
Crust:
- 400 gr crushed graham crackers or digestive biscuits
- 150 gr melted butter
- 100 gr sugar
Cake:
- 6 eggs
- 350 gr sugar
- 900 gr cream cheese, preferably Philadelphia
- 400 gr sour cream
- 1 large lemon ( juice and zest)
- 1 tablespoon vanilla essence or 1 vanilla bean
- 3 tablespoons flour
Sour cream topping:
- 300 gr sour cream
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C.
For the crust, melt the butter and stir in the biscuits and sugar. Press the mixture in a 30 cm cake form and bake for 10 minutes. Cool while preparing the filling.

With a hand mixer beat the cream cheese and sugar, gradually add the flour, vanilla, sour cream, lemon zest and juice.

Whisk in the eggs, one at the time and until blended, but don’t over-beat. Brush the side of the spring-form with melted butter and pour in the filling. Bake for 20 minutes.

Reduce oven temperature to 120 degrees C and bake for 20 minutes more. Turn off the oven and let cool in the oven for 2 hours. If you prefer a creamy texture, for the 2 hours of cooling time leave the oven door open.

For the topping combine the sour cream with honey and lemon juice and spread over the cheesecake. Refrigerate for at least 4 hour or overnight before serving.

To garnish -  like you can see in the pictures - I used fresh strawberries with balsamic vinegar cream, fresh fruits or caramelized peaches, from compote, with fresh basil but you can use what you wish. Try with fresh passion fruits or serve it with grilled pineapple with mint sugar.

This is a fantastic dessert and not easy to find in restaurants because it needs care.

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Mission Impossible

After so many years of cooking I never thought it will come a day when I'm not able to roast some....carrots. Yes, it happened today. On my way home I bought some fresh nice looking  carrots. I wanted to make roast cumin carrots puree for dinner with some meat. So, I peeled, chopped in bigger pieces and placed them in a tray, covered with aluminium foil and start baking at 200 degrees C. After 1/2 hour, when I knew it supposed to be quite ready, they were still hard like stone. I checked again the temperature, just in case I didn't set it right (a very slim chance) and it was okay. I put the tray back in the oven for another 1/2 hour. After that....surprise, same stones with the same colour, nothing changed. At this point I got a bit frustrated, saying that's not possible. After another 2 hours in the oven, the carrots from edge of tray were burned and chewy outside and hard in the middle, and the ones from the middle of the tray were hard as a rock and white colored.
I don't know how they grow them, how they keep them, but I can't cook them, nor to eat them with my family. I'm going to dig into this problem to see what I will found out.

Here are the carrots after more that 3 hours in the oven:

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Chili Chicken & White Beans Salad

This lovely salad, easy to make, low in calories and high in fibers it's a very nice option for summer. If you don't like spices, you can leave the chili out. Zucchini and celery give this chicken-and-bean salad a nice crunch. We like serving it with lucerne salad on top or over a bed of any type of green salad. This recipe is for 4 servings, about 500 gr each.
Ingredients:
Orange Dressing 1 medium clove garlic
1/4 teaspoon salt 
50 ml extra-virgin olive oil
200 ml fresh orange juice, plus more to taste
50 ml white-wine vinegar or red-wine vinegar
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard,
1 teaspoon honeySalad
2/400 gr can cannellini or other white beans, rinsed and drained
400 gr slice cooked chicken breast
2 diced red bird eye chili
200 gr diced zucchini
200 gr diced celery
200 gr diced feta cheese
200 gr chopped halved tomatoes
½ pots chopped fresh basil, plus whole basil leaves for garnish
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
50 gr pack lucerne sprouts (alfalfa)

To prepare vinaigrette: With a hand blender puree the garlic with olive oil and salt in a small bowl to form a paste. Whisk in ½ orange juice, vinegar, honey and mustard; whisk until well blended. Taste and whisk in more juice to mellow the flavor; season with more salt, if desired. Set aside at room temperature.
To prepare salad: Combine beans, chicken, zucchini, celery, chili, cheese and tomatoes in a large bowl until well blended. Add chopped basil and 3/4 cup vinaigrette; toss until combined. Taste and season with salt and/or pepper, if desired.
Serve the salad with the lucerne sprouts on top and garnished with fresh basil leaves.

Tip: To poach chicken breasts, place about 1/2 kg boneless, skinless chicken breasts in a medium skillet or saucepan. Add lightly salted water to cover and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat and simmer gently until chicken is cooked through and no longer pink in the middle, 10 to 15 minutes. Pin It Now!

Traditional Romanian ''MICI'', with chickpeas salad

In Romania, these are served with mustard and fresh baked rolls, but today I chose to garnish them with one very refreshing salad, perfect for a summer day. Every day in Romania millions of these patties are cooked and sold across the country, in all the bars and pubs. We grew up with those and we love them.

The recipe is very similar with ćevapčići - they are considered a national dish in Balkan countries , though under different names - or with kofta from Middle East . The Middle Eastern countries use cumin, curry powder, garlic and coriander to season the lamb or beef minced meats and the Balkans are using minced pork in the mix along with lamb and beef .


For 20 ''MICI'' you need (along with the salad, will feed about 6 pers. ):

- 1,5 kg mix of  lamb, pork and beef minced meat, about 500 gr each
- 4-5 cloves of minced garlic 
- 2 tablespoons of chopped thyme
- 1 teaspoon of allspice powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- salt and black pepper to taste
- 250 ml cold water

Why soda? Because soda is keeping the water in the sausages and won't let them dry.

Mix the meat with garlic, thyme, allspice powder, soda, salt and pepper and then mix strongly. Add water slowly, mix and kick the mixture until you incorporate the all water and the miced meat is turned into a paste. Leave to rest for 10-15 min. With oiled hands form little sausages shape and grill them or fry them in a pan, like I did. Serve them hot with flat bread and salad or mustard or tzaziki.We served them with a very easy to make chickpeas and yogurt salad.

Ingredients for chickpeas salad:

- 2 cans of ready cooked chickpeas (400 gr each)
- 500 ml natural yogurt
- 1-2 cloves of minced garlic
- 2 tablespoons chopped coriander
- 1 teaspoon masala powder
- juice from 1/2 lemon 
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1 teaspoon chopped fresh chili (if you wish)

Mix all the ingredients and chill for at least 1 hour to let the flavors to came together.

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