Monday, September 25, 2006

Lemon Cheese Cake Virgin No More, and Duck Pasta

When I got a request from now 8 year old friend, and recent baker, to make a lemon cheese cake for her birthday I was hesitant because, 1. lemon is not a universally adored fruit, unlike its rounder sibling, the orange, 2. I have never attempted a lemon cheese cake, 3. now that I am getting paid for these things, there's a whole lot more stressed involved.

Fortunately, I have like 200 cookbooks at my disposal, so finding a recipe for lemon cheesecake was as easy as looking for news on snatch thieves in the local papers. But I think we all gravitate to our roots eventually, and I found myself using Catherine Lau's recipe from Cheese cake seduction. What I like about her recipes is that they are quite easy to follow.


Fortunately, it turned out quite well. It was fairly light, not too sour, just the right amount of zest, and well, a few of my friends had seconds, and since they were paying for it, I guess I could have relied on them for brutal honesty if the cake stank.

I originally wanted to add a layer of chocolate in between the biscuit base and the cheese filling, but completely forgot. Last Friday, I was doing some "market research" and had a slice of lemon cheesecake in Chinoz on the Park, which had chocolate glaze. But that was a baked cheese cake. This particular one, as you can see, is the chilled variety.


The other thing I tried over the weekend, which was inspired by the Duck Pasta in Delicious, was Roast Duck Pasta. Too lazy to cook the duck myself, I bought some roast duck.

Although none of my guest raved about this, I personally liked it very much, and even had the leftovers for lunch the next day. This is how I went about it.

Some diced raw garlic (about 1 bulb, I guess)
Oyster Mushrooms, sliced finely (about 300gms)
Half a Roast Duck, deboned, and sliced finely
Generous amount of coriander, finely chopped
10 basil leaves, finely chopped
250ml olive oil
4 red chillies, diced

500gms vermicelli pasta

1. Heat a little bit of the olive oil, or grapeseed oil, fry a small portion of the garlic until fragrant, and fry the roast duck together with the oyster mushrooms, to impart a lovely garlicky ducky flavour to the mushrooms. Set aside

2. Using rest of olive oil, slowly fry the garlic, and diced chilli. It should give a lovely aroma.

3. Boil the pasta to al dente.

4. Toss all the ingredients together, and sprinkle chopped herbs to incorporate.

5. Serve with parmesan if desired.

SERVES 14.

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

yum! i love roast duck pasta! yalar, no point cooking your own roast duck when it's more easily available (and fuss-free) buying it from outside - and then the rest of the cooking is such a cinch!

boo_licious said...

Thxs! Will give it a try and pass it to a friend who was complaining abt the price of the pasta in Delicious.

fatboybakes said...

boo, this recipe sendiri bikin punya ya, so disclaimer okay. couldn't place one of the ingredients in the delicious one, so substituted it with the oyster mushroom.

hl, yar, actually i love red curry or green curry duck oso. aiya, just love roast duck la, in whatever form.

Anonymous said...

can roast duck be used in red/green curry?

they sell fresh duck here, but i have no idea how to prepare or cook it. these attempts always end up with my wringing my hands at the jawbreaking results.

so how is roast goose compared to roast duck?

cookies_cream said...

Your soo good in baking man~! :) Love lemon cheese cake. It's such a long time since I last bake...miss those baking utensils so much. :P Mind asking where you're from? M'sia? cause wanna link you up. ;)

fatboybakes said...

cookies cream, yes, i am from malaysia, based in KL. please link away.

fatboybakes said...

hl, yar wat, roast duck very versatile. when need a quick imitation of peking duck, serve roast duck with hoi sin sauce in tortillas...and avocado, cucumber. yummy. roast goose a bit too gourmet hor no!!!

somehow, the thought of cooking duck is more intimidating than .... taking out my specs and speaking in public.

Spot said...

Eeer...did I read wrong? Serves FOURTEEN? Aiya, so paiseh - a 500gm pack usually makes abt maximum 9 servings for me!!

That sounds like an excellent copy of the Delicious punya Duck Confit, I must try. But I thought there might be sundried tomato in the original version wor.

fatboybakes said...

spot, you are indeed a discerning gourmet. I did forget the sundried tomatoes, although I had it on hand on the day. This is why it's vital for old folks like me to actually write it down before hand, which i neglected to do, as i am very bad at following instructions.

oh, i should mention that it feeds 14 if it is the carbo supplement of the night. if main course alone, aiyo, maybe you're right la, feeds nine. but as i said, the pasta was the least popular dish that night. sigh....

Anonymous said...

ooh, if pasta was main course, 500g would only serve 5...

eh i suddenly have visions of delicately arranged (mini) portions of vermicelli pasta on large plates with them duck.

were sundried tomatoes the missing ingredient you couldn't place?

fatboybakes said...

hl, really ah? 500gm is two packets wor....your guests must be real farn tongs. (rice pots).
no, sundried tomatoes weren't the ingredient i couldnt place. it was a saurkrautish texture of softish cabbage, which is no big deal, in fact, replacing it with oyster mushrooms was a stroke of genius if i may ahem, say so myself.

Anonymous said...

eh 500g is one typical packet of pasta shapes or spaghetti.. 100g per person is the usually-recommended serving size of pasta as a main course. then again, maybe that's why italians aren't known to be skinny...

oh i love sauerkraut.. know how to make aar?

btw, save some space for taipan 'bing pei' mooncake in HK. apparently they're the first to produce 'bing pei' mooncakes.. and they truly taste sensational.. unlike the rubbery stuff i seem to come across back home :P mango is a good flavour ;)

fatboybakes said...

hl, u love saurkraut??? i'm partial to it. hangon, or is it impartial. dont care for it much. in small doses okay lah. btw ah, who supose to pay for clever cake?

eh, got some pingpei here that are quite good leh, esp from hotels. i love the soft, smooth, velvety ping pei...

Anonymous said...

hello! no more testing tuesday updates? :(

fatboybakes said...

allo snowdrop, have been overseas lar...so no update. back now.

Spot said...

fatboyyyyyyy....

very hungryyyyyy.....faster faster....more pics/posts pleeeease! :)

Ha! I was just telling snowdrop that "maybe fatboy went holiday", as she clicked and clicked about, missing you. Err, your posts I mean.

Rarebeet said...

Hey it was fun meeting you last night! Did I mention that duck pasta is my piece de resistance? Fated to be friends!