Another Lemon Goat Cheese Cheesecake

I made this recipe again for a dinner party last night, and it was better than ever. This time, I made the crust out of gingersnaps (two cups crushed up and 4 T melted butter). I also added another cream cheese package because I used a bigger (9") springform pan. (So, 12 ounces of goat cheese and 16 ounces of cream cheese.) It was very fluffy and delicious. The cat was obsessed with trying to get some for herself.

Lemon Goat Cheese Cheesecake

This is a modified version of a recipe from your Luscious Lemon Desserts book by Lori Longbotham, Mom. It was super tasty even on Day 1; I imagine Day 3 would be excellent. Not too sweet.

The original recipe would have made a very tall cheesecake; I split it more or less in half to make it more reasonable. It served about 12.

Crust:

• 1.5 cups graham cracker crumbs
• 6 tablespoons melted butter

Preheat oven to 350. Mix together butter and crumbs. Press into pan. (I used a regular nonstick deep cake pan, which worked fine. Springform would be good too.) Bake for 10 minutes an set aside to cool.

Put a dry deep pan in the oven and turn it down to 325.

Filling:

• 1 cup sugar
• 1/8 cup or more lemon zest (I used the zest from 3 lemons.)

Mix together, or pulse in food processor. Set aside.

• 11 ounces goat cheese
• 1 package cream cheese
• ½ teaspoon vanilla
• ¼ cup fresh lemon juice
• 4 eggs

Beat the cheese together until fluffy. Add the sugar mixture, vanilla and lemon juice and beat until smooth. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each. Scrape into pan. Pour boiling water into pan to come halfway up the side of the cheesecake pan. Bake for an hour and a half.

My regular New York cheesecake recipe doesn’t use a water bath, and I may try this without one next time, reducing the heat accordingly.

Sweet and Sour Eggplant Salad

This is from Claudia Roden. It's simple enough to let the flavor of the eggplant come through.

Sweet and Sour Eggplant

Olive oil

1 large Spanish onion, coarsely chopped

1 pound eggplant, partially peeled and cut in 3/4-inch cubes

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1-pound can diced tomatoes

4 tablespoons chopped parsley

3 tablespoons wine vinegar

1 teaspoon sugar

1/2 teaspoon ground red chili

Cover bottom of a large skillet with oil and heat. Saute onion until soft and golden. Add eggplant and cook, stirring, for about five minutes. Then add garlic and cook until colored.

Add remaining ingredients and cook over very low heat for 20 minutes. Serve cold (we had it warm last night and cold today--delicious).

And here's the Sidecar recipe. Russell made these for us.

Sidecar

1 part lemon juice

1 part Cointreau

2 parts cognac

Shake with ice.

And our version:

Poor Man's Sidecar

1 part lemon juice

1 part Triple Sec

2 parts bourbon

Lemon-Chocolate Chip Pancakes

I had an idea this morning. I looked up recipes for chocolate chip pancakes and lemon pancakes and made up this combination of the two.

Lawson put syrup on his, but I think all they need is plain yogurt. Sliced bananas would also be good.

Bowl 1:
1 1/2 c self-rising flour (or all purpose flour + 1 t salt and 1 T baking powder)
2 T sugar
zest of one lemon

Bowl 2:
3 T melted butter
1 egg
1 cup milk
1 t or more lemon juice

Mix well separately, then briefly together.

Sprinkle 4-10 semisweet or bittersweet chocolate chips on each pancake as soon as you pour the batter.

Lemon-Basil Daiquiris

Our beach trip a few weeks ago was somewhat marred by cold weather, but was otherwise beautiful. You can see in this picture I am holding a daiquiri in my long pants and wool jacket.

Sharon had heard about this drink somewhere, so she and Annie set about trying to re-create it. Here is the recipe for a blenderful, as perfected over several days.

• 4 ounces light rum
• 1.5 ounces lemon juice
• 1/8 cup or more sugar
• 4 basil leaves
• ice to fill

It sounds almost too minimalistic. It is very light and crisp, like a mojito. But all the ingredients come through just right, assertive but not too strong.

They experimented with using lemonade, lemon zest, and freshly squeezed lemon juice, but in the end settled on high quality bottled lemon juice. I would probably juice a lemon just because that's what we usually have around.

I think you should make one with your homegrown Meyer lemons and garden basil, Mom.

Lemon Meringue Pie

Sorry about the hiatus here. Other things got in the way of cooking and picture-taking.

Here's a lemon meringue pie I made before the break. I always make one for Christmas, and we usually leave it with Lawson's brother, who is a big fan. This year we felt like we needed a little more lemon meringue pie in our lives, so I made one for us to brighten up the late February gloom.

I use the 1997 Joy of Cooking recipe exactly as written (so I won't reproduce it here), and it's perfect every time. My favorite thing about it is that the yolks go in the filling and the whites in the meringue, so I don't have to figure out what to do with leftover egg components.



The second photo is very instructive in terms of the contents of my kitchen. Clockwise from top left we have: a kitchen scale, some Abuelita brand Mexican hot chocolate, a jar of homemade Tabasco sauce, a roll of yellow duct tape, a homemade shelf built from plywood and glue with the aid of the 1970s book Furniture Without Tools, which houses my collection of David Wade cookbooks and leaflets (possibly the world's most extensive private collection of Wadiana -- much larger than that of the Library of Congress), a bread machine, a wire rack with a pie on it, the edge of the dog's wet food bowl, a tin of anchovies, the lid of a small, yard-sale-sourced Coleman cooler (generally used for transporting beer to private social events), 4 lemons picked off the Moore family Lisbon lemon tree in Tucson, a dish towel, a box with a Paypal address label, and an iron.

I did not put these things on my kitchen table. Things just end up there.

Lemon Pudding, and More Salad Musings

I wanted to make a salad to go with tonight's pizza, but my vegetable bin looked very sad.

I did have apples and celery, so I made a Waldorf Salad which contained apples, finely sliced celery, a green onion, chopped pecans, lemon zest and juice, and mayonnaise. It was fresh and good, a sort of anti-lettuce affair.

But, I promised Grandma's Lemon Pudding recipe, and here it is:

1/4 cup flour
1 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup lemon juice
Grated rind of 1 lemon
2 egg yoks, well beaten
1 cup milk
2 egg whites, stiffly beaten

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Blend flour, sugar, salt in mixing bowl. Stir in lemon rind and juice, egg yolks, and milk. Fold in egg whites. Pour into 1-quart baking dish and bake for about 50 minutes.

Cooking Miscellany

I made preserved lemons earlier this week—the quick kind, which involved quartering five lemons, tossing them with ½ cup kosher salt, putting them in a quart jar, and adding ½ cup lemon juice. The jar sits at room temperature for three days, then is refrigerated for two days, and they’re ready.

I used some of the preserved lemons in a fish recipe from the Roden Middle Eastern foods book, and I had never guessed how they would taste—more like a green olive, sour and salty, and unlike anything else. A wonderful discovery.

The Roden book has so many fish recipes! I plan to try every one.

We had Dad’s bok choy with it.

I’ve felt guilty about our food waste since our compost pile is out of commission at present, so I have tried keeping a stock pot going. That’s not an option here in the summer, but it’s quite pleasant to have it adding to the warmth of the house in the winter. My stock tends to be rather dark and murky because of using it as a compost substitute, but it has enriched a few soups and sauces.

Roman Food

Last night I made:

- pork chops marinated in rosemary, vermouth, and vinegar and then grilled
- roasted beets with lemon juice and olive oil
- piadina stuffed with sauteed beet greens and garlic
- lemon pudding souffle

Piadina is a Roman flatbread made with a small bit of lard and cooked in a dry pan, like a flour tortilla. You can cook it flat and plain, or make crimped half moons around a bit of sauteed greens and cook it that way, empanada style. This is a Marcella Hazan recipe that I make regularly. I like that there's no cheese or sauce and it still tastes full and rich.

This was the first time I'd ever made beets. I didn't use a recipe other than reading about how to roast them. Lawson was dubious -- he hadn't had beets in years, and wasn't very excited, and I didn't know what to expect either, but they were wonderful. He had several servings, and we both peed pink all night.

Did you know that beets and chard are the same species? Beta vulgaris. It's just that chard is bred for better and more leaves, and beets are bred for tastier and bigger roots.

The lemon pudding souffle is actually called Lemon Pudding Cake in the 2000 Joy of Cooking. It's very odd and light and fluffy -- very delicious. Try it next time you need something new to do with all your lemons.

My giant months-long project at work got cancelled, so I have been enjoying a brief vacation. Tonight we're having hamburgers, because I recorded all day and am starved.

The Tilapia File

Grandma cooked some tilapia last week and raved about it. She had first bought it in Mazatlan, and Dad had tried it in Saipan where it was fished in lagoons.

So—I bought some. It was firm and nice. I looked in my first fish cookbook: “I avoid this fish and you should, too.” The new white Joy of Cooking: “Poor quality fish.” Not very encouraging, so I did what any rational cook would do in the circumstances, and made a really hot green curry with it. We enjoyed it, although I had the sensation of looking over my shoulder at the likes of Elizabeth David and Irma Rombauer while I ate it. It was as firm as many Mexican snappers and groupers, and did not have the muddy taste I’d been warned of. I’ll experiment again. It’s only about $6 per pound while our beloved swordfish and halibut swim ever higher.

We had dinner at Grandma’s tonight. She made scalloped oysters and Italian scalloped potatoes with garlic, tomato, and onion. I made sweet and sour leeks and lemon curd bars. The lemon bars are somewhat like last week’s Classic Lemon Bars, but with a thicker pie-like lemon custard layer. You can find them in the new Joy of Cooking.

I was feeling sorry about your not being able to cook this week because of your hellish work schedule, and musing about why it’s so important. First, it’s a positive use of energy, the polar opposite of sitting in front of the television eating a doughnut or a frozen dinner, which is negative piled upon negative. We have to eat, so why not make it an adventure, healthy, intellectually satisfying? For me it’s such an important creative outlet. I absolutely get a buzz from making the best possible meal with what I have on hand. And don’t forget Grandma’s maxim: “Cooking is a way to show someone that you love them.”

Bad Cooking

I made dinner last night for the first time in almost a week, and it was pretty bad! I had a bunch of broccoli rabe that I needed to use up, and looking through cookbooks and online I found several mentions of a traditional recipe involving broccoli rabe, orecchiette, red chiles, garlic, anchovies, olive oil, and sometimes sausage. And lo, I had all those things, including a small amount of Italian sausage I also needed to use up.

The problem wasn't in the recipe; it was in the execution. I added way too many anchovies and red chiles-- I didn't know such a thing was possible, but the dish was far too salty, and the chiles blocked the other flavors. I think sweet Italian sausage would have been better, too -- broccoli rabe is so intense and bitter that it needed something else for balance. The broccoli rabe soaked up all the anchovy salt and was almost inedibly bitter and salty. I managed to finish off the dish at lunch today, but it was not very good.

Fortunately, I made your lemon bars to go with it, and they were phenomenal. That is a perfect recipe. I used up the last two Meyer lemons you sent, and tried to use one off our sad little indoor tree, but it was large and bitter, not at all sweet.

The proposal I'm helping write at work has gotten huge and scary, and today I found out I might not have any weekends off for the next month -- just Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. That means I won't be cooking much. That makes me sad.

Italian Cravings

We planned to take Grandma to our favorite Italian restaurant on Sunday night, but it wasn’t open! The yen for Italian food didn’t go away over the weekend, so I tried to make up for it a home. First we sat outside around the chiminea and had a margarita—okay, that’s all Southwestern so far—but when it got dark, we came in for our first course of prosciutto and melon. It’s rare to get a great honeydew melon, but we were lucky. “Monica’s Pride” from Mexico, the label said. There must be something wrong with me, because that label always makes me think of boobs. With it we had whole wheat focaccia with walnuts, sage, and parmesan.

Our main course was chicken breasts stuffed with goat cheese and sun-dried tomatoes; penne with pesto; and broccoli. Dessert was Meyer lemon bars. I have tried to make a lemon tart with this recipe, but the 9x9 Pyrex works better.

Here are Classic Lemon Bars:

1 cup flour
¼ cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons finely grated lemon zest
Pinch of salt

1/2 cup butter, cut in cubes

Butter a 9-inch square baking pan. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Process first four ingredients to mix. Add butter and process until mixture resembles coarse crumbs, then begins to come together into a dough.

Press into baking pan. Bake for about 25 minutes, or until light golden brown. Set aside to cool slightly while making filling.

1 ½ cups powdered sugar
2 tablespoons flour
½ teaspoon baking powder

3 eggs

3 ½ ounces lemon juice
(7 tablespoons, about 2 large lemons)

Mix dry ingredients and set aside.

In a large bowl, beat eggs at high speed for about 2 minutes. Add dry ingredients, mixing just until combined, and then stir in lemon juice.

Pour over crust and return to oven for about 20 minutes, or until the filling is just set in the center.

You may sprinkle with more powdered sugar before cutting into squares to serve.

Tarrrrrrte au Citron

I love Thanksgiving leftovers, especially when they involve giant vats of collards, but it's a little sad not to cook for days on end, and anything gets boring after five days. Fortunately, I think tonight we might finally finish up the Thanksgiving food.

I just made a lemon tart. Ever since you gave me that tart ring last year I've been searching for the perfect lemon tart recipe. Julia Child's is too difficult, involving a layer on top of paper-thin lemon slices boiled in sugar syrup, and too little filling underneath to skip that step. The Joy of Cooking's uses 8 eggs, which I think is too many. Gourmet insists on using two 8-inch tart shells instead of one regular 10-inch one, and the tarts are too puffy. Other recipes I've seen call for only egg yolks, and I would like to avoid the waste. So tonight's recipe is from the old Silver Palate cookbook, one of Lawson's favorites. It called for 6 eggs, which made too much filling. It also called for butter...we'll see if I like how that tastes. The tart is beautiful -- quite brown around the edges, and fairly firm for what is basically a big custard. I think it'll chill nicely. I buried a few thin lemon slices in sugar and will put them on top tomorrow.

The tart is for my coworker's birthday tomorrow...she likes good food.

Update: The tart was a bit tart, but it was lovely. Next time, less lemon juice and one less egg.

And here it is.

Panic!

Panic!—I couldn’t find my Lemon Curd recipe—which I got from Raymond, who got it from the back of a sugar box. What’s important about this recipe is that it’s incredibly simple, made in the microwave instead of a double boiler. I want to make some today with our abundant Meyer lemon crop.

I did finally find it filed under Sauces in my recipe box, printed out from an old e-mail (“old” as in “before the last computer crash”). This illustrates how badly I need to organize my precious recipe collection. I have a large card file—I use 5x8 cards so that I can tape clippings to them instead of copying; a computer file with many subfolders; a five-foot shelf of cookbooks; and a binder of typed recipes from twenty years ago. And a messy pile of magazine and clippings that are “current.”

How do you organize your recipes? I have a kind of system. If someone asks for a recipe I write my own version on the computer and save it there, and a couple of times a year I back the file up to a writeable CD. If a recipe from a magazine or newspaper clipping is a keeper, I tape it to an index card and file it in the card file. I have written little cookbooks for you and Russell and Grandma, but they’re from older computers and I don’t have copies. Besides, my cooking has evolved so much over the years that many ten-year-old recipe versions don’t reflect how I cook now.

But enough organizational talk! Here’s that Lemon Curd recipe for posterity:

Lemon Curd

½ cup butter
Microwave 45 to 60 seconds to melt.

1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon finely grated lemon peel
1/3 cup lemon juice
Whisk into melted butter.

1 egg
Add to butter mixture and whisk again.
Microwave 2 to 4 minutes longer, stirring twice during cooking, until sauce thickens slightly.


Also, you can find that Chicken Tagine recipe from Parade Magazine here:
http://www.parade.com/articles/editions/2006/edition_11-19-2006/Whats_Cookin
Dad made this, using the last few tiny eggplants from this year’s plants and two zucchinis, and leaving out the almonds. It was wonderful, and even better the next day.

Traditional Food

Last night I made meatloaf using Grandma's recipe, plus baked buttercup squash (I'm really excited about squash right now) and steamed green beans tossed with olive oil and zest from those Meyer lemons you and Dad sent me. The lemons are wonderful! I'm going to make lemon meringue pie with some later today.

We're having Thanksgiving on Friday with Lawson's family, including a lot of older extended family -- a very conservative, unsmiling bunch who ignore us for the most part, though there are some fun younger cousins. Like last year, Lawson and I have been delegated the task of preparing everything but the turkey and dessert. Right now we're in the middle of menu negotiations. I would happily forgo stuffing and white potatoes and such, but we have to keep it pretty traditional.

So far we've decided on: mashed sweet potatoes (butter, orange zest, rum); some kind of stuffing with pecans and sausage; cranberry-orange relish (I can't have Thanksgiving without it...don't know if anyone else likes it); scalloped potatoes; and collards cooked for many hours with a ham hock. We want to make green beans...Lawson was looking at a green bean casserole recipe with added sausage, and I suggested we find a simpler, fresher recipe, but he didn't think that would fly. So we're still working on that one. I just want one dish without cream, butter, sugar, or meat.

I think cooking and eating this meal will break me out of the traditional American food phase I've been in lately. I didn't grow up eating things like meatloaf and pot roast very often -- I remember some Kraft dinner and hamburger hash early on, but for the most part you always cooked homemade breads and garden vegetables and wonderful light ethnic foods. Also, being a vegetarian from ages 11 to 25 meant I never ate things like sloppy joes or corn dogs. I think it's been partly living in the South, partly eating meat again, and partly curiosity, but for the last year I've been making and eating very classic American foods. Lawson excels at making Thai and Vietnamese and Chinese and Indian stuff, so I've been making pies and hamburgers. But after tomorrow's looming cholesterolfest I will probably be done with traditional foods for a while.