Burnt Cheesecake (Large - 625g Cream Cheese)

The craze in town is the Burnt Cheesecake. It is very smooth and delicious to the palate. It is very expensive if we were to buy it from the bakery. As it is the simplest cake to bake, it would be better to bake it ourselves. The process involves only mixing and baking. We can vary the quantity of the ingredients to bake the cake of the size we desire. We can also any way that we want.

Ingredients:

• 625 g cream cheese
• 160 g sugar
• 5 eggs
• 310 g whipping cream
• 30 g all-purpose flour (or even 50 g to prevent cake from sinking)

Method:

• Line a 9-inch round pan (with removable base) with non-stick parchment paper.

• Pre-heat oven to 200 deg C.

• Add cream cheese and sugar into the bowl of a stand mixer. (You may also use a hand mixer or a hand whisk.)

• Start the mixer and mix till sugar is dissolved. Scrape down at least once to ensure that all the cream cheese and sugar are well mixed.

• Add the eggs, one at a time. Scrape down after each addition to ensure ingredients are well mixed.

• Add the whipping cream.

• Add the flour. Use a whisk to mix the flour with the other ingredients till the batter is smooth.

• Pour the batter into the prepared pan.

• Bake the batter at 200 degrees Centigrade for 1 hour or until a wooden skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean.

• Let the cake cool down in the oven for about 20 minutes with the oven door slightly ajar.

• Transfer the cake pan to a metal rack.

• Remove the cake from the pan and discard the parchment paper.

• Let it cool down completely before decorating it.

• Transfer the cake to the refrigerator till it is to be served.

Yam Rice

Sometimes we or our family may be tired of eating plain rice with our usual dishes. Or, we ourselves may be tired of cooking so many dishes to go with rice and would like to have an easier time with a 1-pot meal. Yam Rice is one of the best options available. It is savoury and delicious and is definitely a good change for us and our family once in a while. So far, I have not seen it being sold outside and the only way to enjoy it is to cook it myself.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup rice
• 1 big piece of Shiitake mushroom (May add more.)
• 100 g chicken breast
• 30 g dried prawns
• 400 g yam
• Cooking oil
• 3 pieces of shallots, sliced thinly
• 3 cloves of garlic, chopped 
• Seasonings - sesame oil, salt, light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, pepper powder (white and black)...to taste

Method:

• Wash 1 cup of rice. Set aside.

• Soak Shiitake mushroom till it is soft. Slice it thinly and set aside.

• Cube the chicken breast. Marinate it for at least 30 minutes with:
• 1 tbsp light soy sauce
• 1/2 tbsp dark soy sauce
• 1 tbsp sesame oil
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp white pepper powder
• 1/2 tsp black pepper powder

• Wash and soak the dried prawns for about 15 minutes. Pound them and set them aside.

• Wash and skin the yam. Cut it into cubes of about 1/2 inch x 1/2 inch.

• Heat cooking oil in kuali.

• When the oil is hot, add the yam cubes. Fry them lightly (to prevent them from breaking up during cooking). Remove them from the kuali and set aside.

• Remove the oil from the kuali leaving about 2 tablespoon behind. Add in shallots and garlic. Saute till they are fragrant.

• Add the Shiitake mushroom slices and saute them till fragrant.

• Add the pounded dried prawns. Saute them till fragrant.

• Add the marinated chicken cubes. Fry till they are half cooked.

• Return the yam cubes to the kuali.

• Add the rice to the kuali and stir to mix it up with all the ingredients.

• Add salt (to taste), light soy sauce (to taste), dark soy sauce (according to how dark you want your rice to be) and white and black pepper powder (to taste).

• Transfer the rice and all ingredients to your rice cooker.

• Add enough water to cover the rice and the ingredients.

• Serve while the rice is hot, garnished with green onions and red chilies.

Prawn Fritters

Prawn fritters are very tasty and appeal to many people. They are usually made for snacks and eaten with chili sauce, tomato sauce or mayonnaise. The best prawn fritters would be those which are very crunchy. And the crunchiness should last for at least 2 to 3 hours. So the mixing of the batter is very important. One can add any vegetables to the batter although the common ones would be green onion, carrots and chilies. Besides these, we can add bean sprout, pea spout and fried shallots.

Ingredients:

• 150 g small prawns
• 2 stalks green onions (about 45 g after cutting up them)
• 40 g carrot
• 1 red chili
• 100 g rice flour
• 50 g wheat flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp black pepper powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 200 g water
• Cooking oil

Method:

• Wash the prawns and discard any heads which have been dislodged from the body. Also remove all feelers. Set aside.

• Wash and cut up the green onions into 0.5 cm long. (You can always add more if you wish.)

• Peel and wash the carrot. Then chop it up to get roughly 45 g. (Feel free to add more.)

• Wash and de-seed the red chili. Then chop it up to as tiny pieces as possible. (It is okay to add more. After all, red chili is not very spicy.)

• Add rice flour, wheat flour, baking powder, black pepper powder and salt into a mixing bowl.

• Add the water slowly to the bowl, stirring the flours as you are adding it until you reach a smooth consistency which is neither too thick nor too water. A thick batter will not give you a crunchy fritter. If too runny, you may find it too difficult to fry.

• Heat up a non-stick (if possible) pan with cooking oil (about 1 cm). I pan-fry instead of deep-fry my batter.

•  Scoop a small ladle of batter into the pan. Use the bottom of the ladle to thin the batter and make it round.

• Put a few prawns on the batter.

• Once the bottom is golden brown, flip the batter over and cook the prawns.

• Remove the fritter from the pan once the prawns are cooked onto a kitchen towel to soak out any excess oil.

• Serve with chili sauce, tomato sauce or mayonnaise.