Blueberry cheesecake

I had this tin of blueberry fruit filling. I wanted to use it for muffins. But when I saw the picture of a cheesecake topped with the fruit filling, I was tempted to try my hand on a cheesecake. The cheesecakes that I have eaten at various restaurants cafes, have a thick crust with a bite to it and the cheesecake was a spongy sometimes grainy textured so called 'cream cheese' filling. Was never a big fan of this kind. And so I thought it's about time I tried making what I wanted to taste (in my head, the cheesecake had to be smooth and creamy). So here is what I ended up with, and I must say I liked it. I can still improvise, but I did get pretty close.
Ingredients:
Crust:
5 nos. digestive biscuts
4 nos. marie biscuts
4 nos. glucose biscuts
2 tb sp butter (melted)
Filling:
2 cups hung curd (cream cheese)
1 cup thick fresh cream
3/4 cup sugar (powdered)
1 tsp vanilla
2 tb sp blueberry fruit filling
1 tsp gelatin
Method:
Run all the biscuts in the blender till it looks like sand. Tip in the butter and blitz some more. Now put this mix on your pie tin and press the bread crumbs to form a crust. Pop it into the freezer till you get your cream cheese filling. Whip the fresh cream till it forms soft peaks. Mix this into the cream cheese along with the rest of the ingredients.
Soak gelatin in 2 tsp cold water for 30 mins. Use a double boiler and melt the gelatin. Add this into the cream cheese mixture. Pour this mix into the pie tin lined with the biscut crust and let it chill for 5-6 hours or preferably overnight. Remove and top it with a generous amount of blueberry fruit filling. You could subsitute the blueberry filling with fresh mangoes or strawberries. This is a very refreshing dessert on a warm night.
Try to fight the urge of licking the bowl clean of the cream cheese filling ;-)

Savoury Crepes

...with mushroom and spinach cream cheese filling
After my blueberry cheesecake episode I had about 2 or 3 cups full of cream cheese left. Looking at my record I haven't been doing many savoury eats, I thought I'd give crepes a try. Savoury ones of course, with a nice light yet creamy veggie filling. You could substitute the veggies for chicken if you feel like it.

Ingredients for Crepes:
This makes about 4 average sized crepes
1/2 cup flour (I used 1/4 cup all purpose flour or maida and 1/4 cup of whole wheat flour)
3/4 cup milk
1 egg
1 tb sp oil
a pinch of salt

Method:
Mix all the ingredients in a and let it rest in the fridge while you make the filling.
Once the filling is ready get the batter out of the fridge and pour one ladel onto a hot nonstick pan. Immedietely swirl it around to let the batter spread. Do not be bothered about the shape :)
Once the top seems dry, in about 1 minute, flip it and let the other side cook till there are a few brown blisters.
Filling:
1 cup cream cheese (hung curd)
1 cup spinach
1/2 cup sliced mushrooms
1 tsp butter
salt and pepper for seasoning

Bring the cream cheese to room temperature. Saute the spinach in 1 tsp butter and keep aside. Saute the mushrooms in 1 tsp butter and keep aside. Now spread the cream cheese on half of a crepe and top it with the mushrooms and spinach. Fold the other half over the filling and pop it into the microwave for about 20 seconds. This is just because it tastes much better when served hot.

This can be served for breakfast, lunch or dinner. It's quite filling and I pretty much loved it. It definitely beats a bread and jam sandwich or cornflakes for that matter. ;-)

Cheese at Noir

Cafe Noir, UB city rooftop, Bangalore. Must visit. We had a few American friends in town and they asked for us to take them to a nice French/Italian place for lunch. I didnt think twice before I recommended Cafe Noir. Us girls had been there once for some quiche and coffee kind of thing, Loved it. It's not the snooty fine dining French restaurant you'd expect it to be. Extremely friendly staff, quick and efficient service even on a weekend, great view and to top it all great food!

I'm actually just back from lunch, a pretty long one mind you, considering our friends who were blown away and declared it the best food they've had in Bangalore (well, second best, Citrus buffet brunch being the first).We ordered the cheese platter to begin with and this was the highlight of the lunch, no, make that the entire weekend. Now I may not be able to tell my cheeses apart, but I knew what I ate today was an experience in my mouth.

It was a beautiful platter of all kinds of cheese, some I dont remember, some I can't pronounce. The ones I can articulate were the ones that turned out to be my favourites. Brie, goat cheese, mozzarella, blue cheese. Ah! dairy-heaven. All we needed was a bottle of Chardonay. Spread some of that blue cheeseon a piece of baguette and enjoy. Even try the brie with a piece of strawberry, feels like sin. We couldn't stop moaning afer every bite. We tried not to over do it and get ourselves thrown out. But there's no other way to describe the feeling. I think we stopped speaking for a bit.

I think wine and cheese is not over-rated. It's fun with your friends and a great expreience on it's own. Do try it. You'll make a day of it. Any restaurant, any city, good friends :)

Watch this space for desserts at Noir. Coming soon! ;)