Easy lemon cheese cake with yummy lemon sauce

I really love to make this cheese cake. The combination of freshly squeezed lemon juice, zest makes it more enticing. Since it cannot be indulged frequently so I really look for a occasion where I can make this lovely cake and have plenty of people to bite the cheesy slice. Recently we had a get together of few families, and we needed to get one dish each. I raised my hands straightway for the Dessert. This lemon cheese cake came to my mind with out a second thought.

The lemon sauce and freshly sliced strawberry and kiwi gives it a very tropical look with a festive bent of mind. I go the easy way of making the base with crushed digestive biscuits.


Biscuit base

1 packet (200grams) digestive biscuits,
1/3 cup butter, melted

Bliz the biscuits using a blender. Add butter to the crushed biscuits and gently press the mixture to spring foam baking tin. Place the tin in the refrigerator for 30 mins.

Lemon Cheese cake

Ingredients

2/3 cup Sugar
¼ cup Plain flour
1teaspoon fresh lemon zest
2tablebspoon lemon juice
1tablespoon Butter
3 Eggs
8 oz Cream cheese
½ Cup milk

Method

1 Preheat the oven to 180 'C.

2 Meanwhile in a mixing bowl combine sugar, flour and salt.

3 Stir in lemon zest, lemon juice and Butter.
4 In another bowl beat egg yolks thoroughly with a beater, beat in cream cheese and milk.. Fold into to the lemon mixture
5 Beat egg whites till stiff peaks forms and fold to the batter. Pour batter into biscuit base.
6 Place baking pan on a rack and pour hot water into larger pan to a depth on 1 inch.

7 Bake in the 180 ‘C oven for about 40 min or till set.

lemon sauce

3 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon cornflour
1 tablespoon lemon juice
½ teaspoon lemon zest
3 drops lemon essence
a drop of lemon yellow colour (optional)
1 teaspoon butter

For the lemon sauce
1. Combine the sugar with ½ cup of water in a saucepan and heat till the sugar is dissolved
2. Dissolve the cornflour in 1 tablespoons of water and add it to the sugar syrup.
3. stir continuously till the mixture thickens and gets into thick consistency. Add the butter and mix well.
4. Cool and add the lemon juice, lemon zest, lemon essence and lemon yellow colour. Mix well and keep aside. Cool completely while stirring continuously.


Cool the cake and pour the lemon sauce gently spreading it with a spatula. Arrange strawberry, kiwi slices before serving.

Tricolour Pulao

Wish u all Happy Republic day.

A very warm welcome to my viewers. It is indeed a very joyous occasion for every Indians as we are celebrating 59th Republic day . I feel so proud to see India emerging as superpower after getting Independence from clutches of British regime.

Last month I had a splendid vacation of 6 weeks traveling in India I saw the two metros(Mumbai , Delhi) just burgeoning .

Since it is a very special day for Indians I am actually hosting a dinner party for my friends. I thought of making this tricolor pulao . I have combined sweet zesty orange rice with spicy coriander rice with plain rice to have a festive feel.

Spicy Coriander rice.

1 cup basmati rice washed
1cup chopped coriander
2 green chillies
1 small onion diced
2tbslp ginger garlic paste
1tbslp cumin seeds
1tbslp whole Garam masala( clove, cinnamon, cardamom, black pepper)
1tbslp oil
salt to taste
1cup water

Method.

Grind coriander , chilles to a paste. Heat oil and add cumin seeds and whole garam masala. Fry onions till golden brown ,add ginger garlic paste and sauté. Add the coriander paste and sauté for 3 to 4 min . Finally add rice and water and salt to taste.
Cook and let cool.

Sweet zesty orange pulao

Ingredients
1 cup rice
1tsp ginger minced
1tbslp whole garam masala (cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, nutmeg)
1tsp tumeric
½ orange juice
1tsp orange zest
2tbspl of sugar
pinch of salt
nuts (pista, cashew ) to garnish
few saffron strands soaked in 1tbslp of warm milk
1 tsp of Ghee
bay leaves

method

Heat ghee add garam masala, minced ginger and bay leaf. Add tumeric and sauté rice for 2 mins. Switch of the stove and add orange zest, raisins, orange juice , sugar , saffron milk, water and salt . Tranfer them to rice cooker and cook.

Garnish them with nuts before serving them.

Later arrange them on a serving plate

Rasabali (Deep fried cottage cheese balls served with thickened milk)

Indian dessert definitely requires an elaborate procedure, but results are worth trying. I really love to make those elaborate desserts when there is a festival or a dinner party. Rasabali is one of my favorite dessert and all time hit with my friends and folks. It belongs to my native place Orissa and is loved and adored immensely.

This recipe was shared by my Mother in law who is a fabulous cook. On our son’s naming ceremony we had a gathering of few families at our place. We decided to go for a caterer. My mother in law who is always in high spirits when it comes to festive cooking insisted to make at least the dessert of our own. Hands up! I had nothing else to say. Desserts ! but why, when it is so easily available in the market. Anyway I decided not to object her decision and rather help her as instructed. Believe me the rasabali's she made were amazing no where comparable to what we get from the halwais (sweet vendor). As a result I got to know the process of this delicious and very tempting dessert.

On last Diwali I decided to make this dessert and shared it with my friends.

Here goes the recipe

Ingredients

1 cup chenna ( cottage cheese)

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoon semolina

2 teaspoon sugar

1/4 teaspoon cardamon powder

For thickened milk

1 1 /2 litre full fat milk

1/3 - 1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup milk powder

few strands of saffron

nuts and cardamon for garnishing

Oil for deep frying.


Method.

Boil the milk and simmer on a medium fire in a heavy bottom vessel. Make a paste of milk powder with few tablespoons of milk and add to the above milk. keep stirring on a low fire. Add sugar to the boiling milk. Stir continuously on a low fire so that it doesn't stick to the bottom of vessel. Cook until the milk is reduced to half the amount. It takes approxmately 45 mintues to hour.

Meanwhile drain and mash chenna, add semolina, baking soda, sugar and, cardamom powder. knead gently, make small balls and slightly flattened them. (Alternatively you can blend all of them together in the grinder).

Heat oil in a wok and deep fry them on a low fire. Drain excess oil from the chenna balls on a absorbent paper. Care should be taken not to over fry them.
Add them to the boiling milk. Simmer for 2 minutes and switch of the fire. Let it cool down . Garnish it with Cardamon powder and nuts.




Serve warm. It is soft and really delectable.

Chennapoda (Cheese Cake from Orissa)

When it comes to having feast, we Oriyas are highly enterprising in cooking. We are very elaborate and simple daily menu would consist of plenty of side dishes. Mustard, posto, panch puton are special ingredients are exclusively to Oriya cooking .

When it come sweet dishes, fresh Chenna (Paneer or Ricotta cheese) plays a very significant role. Many yummy dessert are made from chenna as their main ingredient. The most famous one needs no introduction to many sweet lovers. Rasagulla is very much loved by Oriya people and also admired world wide. The delicious warm Rasagullas melts in the mouth. Another very special and native to Oriya dessert is Chena poda pitha (cottage cheese cake) which is slowly baked in earthen fire for few hours and then cooled down for hours before serving.These cakes are very famous through out Orissa. The cakes are purely made of chenna with small amount suji (semolina) to bind. This is said to be the favorite dessert of Lord Jaganath.

I was also curious to make this wonderful dessert. On tete o tete with a vendor who specialize in making these cakes, I tried to make this lip smacking dessert following his recipe, the results were baffling. Since I was holidaying in my home town I had plenty of people to taste it and relish it.

It is so simple, easy and absolutely delicious.

Here is the recipe

Chenna poda

Chenna squeezed (freshly curdled) – 1 kg
Suji ( semolina) – ½ cup
Castor Sugar - 2 cups
Cardamom powder - 1 teaspoon
Raisins - 1/2 cup
Broken pieces of Cashew nuts (optional)

In a big bowl mash Chenna thoroughly. Add Suji and sugar and rest of the ingredients. Mix it well using hands.

To get a caramelized effect on the top. Apply a tablespoon of ghee to the baking tin. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of sugar on the tin. Hold the tin slightly above gas stove for few mins to melt the sugar. Spread the melted sugar evenly.

Then pour the chenna mix over the caramelized sugar. Bake on preheat oven of 180 ' C for one hour. Insert a toothpick to check. It is cooked well if the tooth comes out clean.

Cool it for 2 to 3 hours and then turn it upside down. Slice and serve. It stays fresh for a week in the refrigerator.