Wednesday 19 August 2020

Ricotta cheesecake

 


Ricotta cheesecake. Lighter than the usual version, due to the addition of beaten egg-white just before baking. 

Ingredients 500g ricotta; 5eggs (4 of them separated); 90g sugar; 40g flour; 80g candied peel, chopped; 40g sultanas; 4 tbs rum.

 Method:

1. Heat oven to 190 degrees C.

2. Beat together the whole egg plus the egg yolks, along with the sugar and ricotta. Once it is uniformly smooth, beat in the rum, and then fold in the peel and the sultanas.

3. Separately, beat the egg whites until stiff, and then fold them into the mixture.

4. Pour the mixture into a 22cm spring-form tin (greased, and with the base lined) and bake for thirty five minutes.

5. Allow to cool for twenty minutes or so, before removing from the tin. Serve either warm or cold.


Tuesday 18 August 2020

Champignons à la grecque

 


Another splendid cold starter, for summer. I love the complicated, earthy flavours which this treatment gives to the mushrooms. 

For two servings.

 Ingredients: 500g field mushrooms; ¾ pint water; ¼ pint olive oil; 1 tsp celery salt; bouquet garni; ½ tsp fennel seed; ½ tsp crushed coriander seed; 1 shallot, finely minced; juice of 1 lemon; 6 black peppercorns. 

Method:

  1. Put everything apart from the mushrooms into a pan, bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce heat and simmer, covered, for 10 minutes.
  2. Add mushrooms to the pan, trimmed as necessary, and simmer, covered, for a further 10 minutes.
  3. Remove the mushrooms to a bowl, raise the heat and reduce the liquid in the pan until only about 1/8 pint remains. Pour this over the mushrooms, allow to cool, and then refrigerate. (You can sieve the liquid before you add it to the mushrooms, but frankly I think this is a bit prissy and risks losing flavour.)

 Serve, and savour.