The Cheesecake

Dinner's at 6!

Dinner's at 6!

This past easter, I put on a dinner party. Main reason (we're not religious in the slightest): I wanted turkey. So I cooked a 14lbs turkey with all the fixings and had some friends come to enjoy cocktails and appies and, what turned out to honestly be the main attraction, a Spumoni Cheesecake.

I'd made this cheesecake recipe before, back when I was working in the test kitchen at the Blue Flame Kitchen in Edmonton. All I really remembered about it though was that it was mind blowingly good. And for someone that's lactose-intolerant to want to eat a cheesecake, it is a big thing. 

Below is the recipe, adapted from the BFK website. But really, the pictures and smiles speak for themselves. 

Spumoni Cheesecake

Crust
6 shortcake biscuits, coarsely broken (about 1 cup)
1 cup shelled roasted pistachios
1/4 cup butter, chilled and cubed
1 tbsp sugar

Filling
24 oz cream cheese, cubed and softened
1 cup red candied cherries
3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup whipping cream
3 eggs
2 tsp vanilla

1 cup chopped candied mixed fruit

Topping
1 1/2 cups sour cream
1/4 cup sugar
2 squares bittersweet chocolate, chopped, melted and cooled (~4 mins in microwave on low)
1 tsp vanilla

  1. Preheat oven to 350F. Grease a 10 inch springform pan.
  2. To prepare crust, place biscuits, pistachios, butter and sugar in a food processor. Process, using an on/off motion, until mixture is crumbly. Press mixture evenly onto bottom of the prepared pan. Bake crust for 10 minutes. Cool crust completely in pan on a rack. 
  3. Reduce oven temperature to 325F. 
  4. To prepare filling, place filling ingredients (cream cheese through vanilla) in a food processor. Process, using an on/off motion, until combined. Continue blending until mixture is smooth and pale pink. Transfer to a bowl and stir in candied mixed fruit. Pour filling into prepared pan, over crust.
  5. Bake cheesecake for 1 hour or until centre of cheesecake is puffed and jiggles slightly when shaken. 
  6. While cheesecake is baking, take sour cream out of the fridge, measure it into a bowl, and let sit on the counter to come to room temperature. 
  7. Start preparing the topping about 10 minutes before cheesecake is done. To make topping,  combine sour cream, sugar, cooled melted chocolate and vanilla. Remove cheesecake from oven and spread topping evenly over cheesecake. 
  8. Continue baking for 10 minutes. Remove cheesecake from oven and cool completely on a rack. Cover and refrigerate cake for 8 hours or up to 24 hours. 
  9. To serve, remove sides of springform pan. Decorate top of cake with pistachios and cherries. Cut cake with a warm knife. 

So if you're in the mood for a crazy good dessert that will make you fight your inner glutton (so you stop eating cheesecake for breakfast for the rest of the week), defs try making this cheesecake. 

Much recommended.

-Andrea (and inner glutton)

The Half-Assed Hobbyist

Dinner Party. Roulade Out!

It's been a while since a dinner party has been had but this past May we had an epicly meat filled one. It started with an idea. Stuffing. So, with the help of my Co-Dinner Planner Brett (and Katie, by proxy), we planned a dinner to feed all the peoples lots of stuffed meat. 

Stuffed Pork Roulade

Makes enough for 2 X ~2kg (~4 lbs) pork loin roasts

1 lb bacon, thick cut, chopped (I used smoked applewood!)
7 small onions, chopped (I used yellow)
4 stalks celery, chopped
4 tsp garlic, minced
1 cup fresh parsley, stems removed, chopped
2 tsp ground thyme 
2 tsp ground sage
2 tsp fresh coarse ground pepper
1 tsp salt
1 lb artisan bread loaf, cut into 1 cm cubes (I used garlic peppercorn)
1/2 cup apple juice

2 X ~2 kg pork loins, filleted by your local butcher

Twine

  1. Chop all the veggie things. Onion, celery, (garlic if its not pre-minced).
  2. In a large dutch oven, fry bacon over medium heat until fat renders and bacon is crisp and cooked. Remove bacon with a slotted spoon leaving fat in dutch oven. Set aside. (Try not to eat them all! They smell so goood.)
  3. Increase heat to med-high. Add onion and celery to hot bacon fat. Cook, stirring, until onion is clear, about 15 minutes. Be careful not to brown veg or it will stick to the pan.
  4. Add garlic. Stir. Cook until garlic is fragrant.
  5. Add parsley, thyme, sage, pepper and salt. You can add more sage and thyme depending on your tastes. Mix well.
  6. Cube bread. Reduce heat to low. Add bread cubes to dutch oven. Mix together carefully. Pour apple juice over bread. Stir together until bread is evenly mix in. 
  7. Remove from heat. Let cool before using. (If cooling in the fridge, stir every 10-ish minutes to ensure the centre cools too.)
IMG_5782.jpg

Filling the roasts: Lay pre-filleted pork loin flat, fat side down, on a raw-meat only surface. Make sure the fat is face down on the left or else the fat will end up rolled in your roast instead of on top of it. Divide stuffing in half and place one half mountained on top of laid out roast. Using your hands or a wooden spoon, spread out stuffing in an even layer, leaving about an inch of room from the inside and outside rolling edges. 

Carefully roll meat and stuffing, starting from the right side. Roll as tightly as you can without squeezing stuffing out. After it's rolled, take twine and slip it underneath the roast. Retighten roll and then tie twine around the centre. Repeat for both ends. The pork roulade should now be secure enough to move!

Cooking the roasts: Pre-heat the oven to 500F. Place roast in a roasting pan, fat side up. Season the roast with salt and pepper. Place roasting pan in oven, uncovered. Reduce oven temperature to 300F. Cook for 1 1/2 to 2 hours (~30 min/lb or ~1 hour/kg) or until a meat thermometer in the thickest part of the meat reads between 150F-155F (check at the 1 hour mark!). Remove from the oven and the pan. Tent with foil and let sit for at least 10 minutes before cutting. Then it's slicing time!!

I am definitely going to miss all the lovely dinner parties. I'll have to cook for strangers in T.O.! I'm sure the BF would Love that! Haha.

Bon Appetit! 

-Andrea

The Half-Assed Hobbyist