Pay de Queso (Mexican Cheesecake)

This week Friday cooking, my Mexican friend is working on desserts. He told me that he was making cheesecake, I wasn't very convinced that it was a cheesecake. In general, cheesecake has to be done a day in advance. I asked him the name in Mexican - Pay de Queso and google what is the correct terminology. Surprisingly, it is known as Mexican cheesecake. The ingredient used is a bit weird, but it ended up to be very delicious. The cheesecake was slightly burnt due to overbaking, there shouldn't be any brown crust formation as can be seen in the picture.

Preparation Time : 15 mins

Baking Time : 35 mins

Printable Recipe

Ingredients

1 stick (8 oz.) Philadelphia cream cheese

1 can evaporated milk

1 can condensed milk

3 eggs

1/2 cup unsalted butter

Graham or Maria cookies for cake base

Procedure

1. Preheat oven to 400F.

2. In a plastic bag, crush cookies with a rolling pin until it reaches crumb size.

3. In a saucepan, melt butter over low heat and stir in the cookie crumbs. Transfer mix into a 11'' x 7'' baking pan by pressing firmly over bottom and up side of the baking pan.

4. In a blender, combine cream cheese, eggs, condensed and evaporated milk.

5. Bake for 30-40 mins. Use a toothpick to check for doneness. Let it cool for 10-15 mins. Serve.

Stuffed Shells with Sun-dried Tomatoes and Prosciutto

Finally, my 50th post!!! I never thought I would reach this far in my blog. This blog was first intended for university students that do not know how to cook or that need some inspirations. It was also intended to show how great food can be cooked in a such little time. Now, it seems that people from different part of the world are checking my blog. I will keep updating as much as possible while I am still in school.

Looking through many food blogs, most of the blogs actually have at least one stuffed shells pasta recipe and wanted to have one of my own. In my recipe, I added prosciutto, I think I am becoming an addict to prosciutto. I also wanted to try to add some sun-dried tomatoes to it. Finally, I throw in some chives which is not as a strong flavor than green onions. Like in lasagna, ricotta cheese is a must.

Serves 6-8
Preparation Time : 15 mins
Baking Time : 30 mins
Printable Recipe

Ingredients

16 jumbo pasta shells
150g prosciutto, roughly chopped
2 tbsp snipped chives
2 large handful basil, roughly chopped
2 cups ricotta cheese
1 cup (150g) sun-dried tomatoes, cut into small pieces
1 1/2 cups mozzerella cheese
3 cups of your favorite bottled pasta sauce

Procedure

1. Cook pasta as directed in a large pot in boiling water until al dente. Drain and return to pot to keep warm.

2. Meanwhile, place prosciutto, chives and basil in a blender or food processor until chopped.

3. Heat oil over medium heat. Add prosciutto mix and cook for 5 mins.

4. Transfer to a medium bowl, add ricotta, sun-dried tomatoes. Stir well and season with salt and pepper if needed.

5. Pour sauce into a 13'' x 9'' baking pan. Spoon mix into shells and put it on top of the sauce. Sprinkle with mozzerella cheese. Bake for 25-30 mins or until golden. Spoon sauce over shells and serve.

Oven Roasted Potatoes

I always wanted to make oven roasted potatoes, I tasted a lot of this dish from school cafeteria, from my customers and from my friends. It all tasted differently. It really depends on what spices you put in it. There is no unique way to make them, so be creative.

Serves 4-6
Preparation Time : 15 mins
Baking Time : 30 mins
Printable Recipe

Ingredients

900 g Yukon potatoes, quartered
2 tbsp olive oil
2 cloves of garlic, minced (more if you love garlic)
2 tsp dill weed
1 tbsp Italian seasonings or Herbes de Provence (see Note)
Salt and Pepper

Procedure

1. Preheat oven to 475F

2. In a large ziploc bag, combine herbs, potatoes, garlic, oil, salt and pepper.

3. Transfer potatoes on an oiled 11'' x 7'' baking pan. Bake for 25-30 mins. Turn occasionally. Insert a toothpick to check for doneness, no resistance should be felt.

Note

Italian seasoning and herbes de Provence are a combination of many spices. If you are not a spice person and feel that they take too much space in your drawer, these mixes of spices are a space saver.

Italian seasoning is a blend of dried basil, marjoram, oregano, thyme and sage. There are variations some include coriander and red pepper flakes.

Herbes de Provence is a mix of dried marjoram, thyme, rosemary, basil, savory, sage and fennel seeds.

Gourmet Vegetable Soup

This warm hearty vegetable soup is really comforting during cold winter days or even for very cold condition during the summer such as here in Montreal. This recipe is very simple to make and all you need to do is to add ingredients into the pot. This is more than your regular vegetable soup (or canned soup), adding garlic tomato paste gives a kink to the soup.

Serves 6
Preparation Time : 10 mins
Cooking Time : 20-25 mins

Printable Recipe

Ingredients

3 medium tomatoes

2 medium zucchinis

1 large carrot

2 celery stalks

1 medium onion

1 small can kidney beans, drained and washed (optional)

1 L vegetable stock

Salt and pepper

Garlic tomato paste 

6 oz. can tomato paste

6 cloves of garlic

2-3 tbsp of olive oil

Dash of salt

Procedure

1. Remove tomato seeds with fingers and then, cube. Slice zucchinis, celery, carrot, and chop onion.

2. In a large pot, boil vegetable stock over medium-high heat. Meanwhile, in a skillet, cook onions until brown.

3. Add cooked onions, tomatoes, zucchinis, carrot, celery to the pot. Cover and bring it to a boil for 10 mins. Add kidney beans to the pot.

4. Meanwhile, prepare garlic tomato paste. In a blender or food processor, add whole cloves of garlic and tomato paste. Since paste is thick, add a little bit of water (2-3 oz.) just enough to start blending, you might need to shake it up to make it run. Gradually add olive oil and then, salt. The paste is ready once the garlic are "invisible".

5. Mix in paste to the soup and bring it to a simmer. Leave it for about 5 minutes. Taste, and add salt and pepper if necessary.

Mediterranean Bread

This week Friday cooking, my Mexican friend baked Mediterranean bread with a touch of sun-dried tomatoes. Everyone loved these breads and it is my pleasure to share her recipe. To be warned, this is a long process.

Preparation Time : 2 hours
Baking Time : 45 mins
Printable Recipe

Ingredients

3+1 cups all-purpose flour
1 envelope Rapid Rise Yeast
1 tsp salt
1 cup of mozzarella cheese
3/4 cup chopped black olives
1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes, cut into small pieces
3 tbsp olive oil
1 1/4 cups lukewarm water
3 tbsp coriander
1 tbsp cornmeal

Procedure

1. In a large bowl, mix together 3 cups of flour, yeast, salt, black olives, cheese, olive and water. Add the last cup of flour little by little until it reaches a smooth consistency.
2. Turn out dough onto a floured board. Knead until smooth and elastic, 5 to 10 minutes. If necessary, add more flour. Set aside in a bowl and cover with a warm towel. Let it rise in the oven with light on for 45 minutes, until double in size.
3. Punch down. Add coriander and knead well again, for about 5 to 10 minutes. Let it rise for about 30 minutes, until double in size.

4. Again, knead for 5 to 10 minutes and finish kneading with a coating olive oil. Let it rise until double in size.

5. While it is rising, put a pan of water in the bottom of the oven.

6. Preheat oven to 475F. Cut the dough into 2-3 pieces and shape it into your favorite geometry.

7. Bake dough for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 400F and bake for 30 more minutes, or until done.

Butterscotch-Glazed Brownies

Another Friday cooking, this week should have been the egg theme, but it didn't happen due to the lack of guests, it will be postponed for next week. This week, I'm working on main dish and desserts. For main dish, I redid my signature dish, Meatballs à la crème. For desserts, one of my friend was craving for brownies today. So, I found a brownie recipe from Southern Living. I was impressioned on the method for glazing the brownies.

Yield 18 brownies
Preparation Time : 40 mins
Baking Time : 30 mins
Printable Recipe

Ingredients

3/4 cup sugar
2/3 cup butter
1/4 cup water
2 cups of semisweet chocolate chips
2 cups of butterscotch chips
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
4 large eggs

Procedure

1. In a large saucepan, cook sugar, butter and water over high heat, until sugar dissolved.

2. Add semisweet chocolate chips and vanilla extract. Stir until mixture is smooth. Cool for 15 mins.

3. Meanwhile, mix flour, baking soda and salt. Pour cooled chocolate into flour mix. Stir until blended.

4. Add eggs to mixture until blended.

5. Preheat oven at 325F.

6. In a 13'' x 9'' baking pan, grease with butter and lightly floured the pan. Spread brownie batter into pan.

7. Bake for 30 mins. Sprinkle evenly 2 cups of butterscotch chips over warm brownies. Cover with aluminium foil and let it stand for 5 mins until soften.

8. Spread butterscotch to cover brownies.

Alambre

The word alambre means wire in Spanish. When you think of wires, the food has to be skewed. For Mexican, the food does not come off the skewer. The word 'al' has some Arabic origin influencing this dish. In Mexico city, a typical alambre is made of green peppers, onions, meat and sometimes bacon.

This is a wonderful dish from my Mexican friend and would like to cook it for my family.

Serves 6

Preparation Time : 10 mins

Cooking Time : 35 mins

Printable Recipe

Ingredients

600g stew beef

4 italian tomatoes, seeded

1 green pepper
6 white mushrooms

1/4 medium onion

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1 1/2 (15 g) Knorr beef cube (no water)

3 stripes of bacon, cut into small pieces (optional)

1 cup of grated mozzarella cheese

Procedure

1. Cut stew beef into smaller pieces. Cut tomatoes, onions, green pepper into cubes. Thinly slice mushrooms.

2. Heat oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add garlic and onions, cook until transparent.

3. Add beef and bacon, cook until browned.

4. Add the rest of the ingredients except for the cheese. Cover and cook for 30 minutes

5. Turn off heat and top with mozzarella. Let it melt for 1-2 minutes.

6. Serve on tacos or tortillas and top with guacamole.

Creole Beef Soup

In this Friday collective cooking, my Peruvian friend has finally cooked a dish for us. At the beginning, when we invited him for cooking a few months ago, he didn't know how to cook simple dishes. Watching us cooking for months, he decided now that this is his time to shine. Here is his first succesful dish. It seems that creole soups are popular in South America and there are wide variations depending in which country you live. I hope I got this recipe correct.

Serves 6

Preparation Time : 10 mins

Cooking Time : 40 mins

Printable Recipe

Ingredients

300g sirloin tip steak

5 medium carrots

4 medium yellow potatoes, peeled

2 celery stalks

250 g capellini (angel hair) (preferably those that cooks in less than 3 mins such as De Cecco)

2L water + 1 Knorr beef cube (2L beef stock)

3 large eggs

300 mL milk

1 tbsp paprika

1 1/2 tsp salt

1 clove of garlic

1 tsp oregano

Procedure

1. Cut beef, carrots, potatoes and celery into small cubes.

2. Heat oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add garlic and cook until browned.

3. Add beef, carrots, potatoes, celery, salt and paprika. Stir for 5 mins.

4. Add beef stock and cover. Cook until potatoes softened about 20-25 mins. Stir time to time.

5. Add capellini and cook for 2-3 minutes or as instructed.

6. Turn heat off and add beaten eggs, milk and oregano. Constantly stir for 1-2 minutes. Serve.