Cheesecake with Sour Cream Topping (Sort of!)

 

Cheesecake is not supposed to be complicated, 

even though it takes a couple days to finish it. 

But making it in France adds a bit of complication, as everyday grocery items 

are not always available here. 

So, come along for the adventure!

Please note: European measurements and exchanges in BLUE.

Ingredients:

Crust (Couche inférieure)

* 3 cups graham crackers crumbs

* (En France J'ai utilisé des cookies Lotus Biscoff, 1 paquet entier)

* 12 Tablespoons melted butter

* (170 grammes beurre)

* 3 Tablespoons sugar

* (38 grammes sucre)

Filling (Garniture de tarte)

* 32 ounces softened cream cheese

* (900 grammes Fromage à Tartiner Nature)

* 4 Large eggs

* (5  œufs)

* 1.5 cups sugar

* (300 grammes sucre)

* 3 Tablespoons flour

* (23 grammes ma farine de blé)

* 1 cup EACH, milk and heavy cream

* (250 ml de lait et 250 ml de crème fleurette entiere)

* 1 teaspoon vanilla

* (1 cuillère à café de vanille)

Topping (Couche supérieure)

3 cups sour cream & 6 Tablespoons sugar

* (750 ml de crème fleurette entiere

+ 60gr de lait

+ Jus de 2 citrons moyens, environ 90 ml

+ 4 sachets d'Agar-agar)

* (76 grams sucre)

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Instructions (Pour les instructions en français, voir ci-dessous):

Preheat oven to 325*F (163*C)

In the US, Crush your cookies and mix with sugar and melted butter, and press into the bottom of a buttered 9X13 rectangular baking pan. Set aside as you make your filling. 

Écrasez vos biscuits et mélangez-les avec le sucre et le beurre fondu, et pressez-les au fond d'un moule rectangulaire 28X36cm beurré. Réserver au fur et à mesure que vous préparez votre garniture. Les cookies peuvent être écrasés dans un sac très facilement.

 I tried using parchment paper, I wouldn't do that again. It got too wet and wasn't helpful. 

J'ai essayé d'utiliser du papier cuisson, je ne referai plus ça. C'était trop humide et ce n'était pas utile.

For your filling, in your mixer cream the cream cheese, adding eggs one at a time, then sugar, flour, vanilla, milk and cream. Adding ingredients slowly so they mix well but don't splatter out of the mixing bowl. Scrape down the bowl with a spatula as needed. 

The bowl will be very full, so move slowly. 

Pour votre garniture, dans votre grand saladier, mélangez le Fromage à Tartiner Nature en ajoutant un à un les œufs, puis le sucre, la farine, la vanille, le lait et la crème. Ajouter les ingrédients lentement pour qu'ils se mélangent bien, mais sans éclabousser du bol à mélanger. Racler le bol avec une spatule si besoin. 

Le bol sera très plein, alors déplacez-vous lentement.

Pour filling into your baking dish with unbaked crumb crust. 

Versez la garniture dans votre plat allant au four avec la couche inférieure non cuite.

Smooth evenly. 

Lissez uniformément.

Bake in 325*F preheated oven for about 50 minutes or until set. 

Cuisez au four préchauffé à 163*C pendant environ 50 minutes 

ou jusqu'à ce que le tout soit pris.

Cool and then refrigerate at least 4 hours. 

Laissez refroidir puis réfrigérer au moins 4 heures.

Combine the sour cream and sugar and spread over the top of the cold cheesecake. 

Allow to firm up overnight in the fridge. 

Mélangez la crème aigre et le sucre et étaler sur le dessus du cheesecake froid.

Laissez raffermir une nuit au réfrigérateur.

To serve, cut into squares with fresh fruit or preserves on top. 

The parchment paper was messy. Don't try it. 

Pour servir, coupez en carrés avec des fruits frais ou des conserves sur le dessus.

Le papier cuisson était salissant. N'essayez pas.

I used blueberry preserves and fresh blueberries. 

J'ai utilisé de la confiture de myrtilles et des myrtilles fraîches.

Pour mes lecteurs français :

Il y a une complication, la crème aigre n'est pas disponible ici. Alors, nous allons fabriquer la nôtre. Je n'ai essayé qu'une seule fois et je n'ai pas été très impressionnée par les résultats, alors je continue à perfectionner cette étape. Juste pour que vous le sachiez, le gâteau au fromage est délicieux même sans la garniture de crème dessus. N'hésitez pas à le servir avec des fruits frais sur le dessus.

Voir ci-dessous, comment j'ai fait la crème aigre. Pour que la creme ait le temps de devenir "aigrer" commencez de la veille de commencer quoi que ce soit d'autre.

Ingrédients:

* (750 ml de crème fleurette entiere

+ 60gr de lait

+ Jus de 2 citrons moyens, environ 90 ml

+ 4 sachets d'Agar-agar)

***lorsque vous mettez la crème aigre  sur le dessus du gâteau, vous ajouterez du sucre. 

Ne l'ajoutez pas maintenant.

Ajoutez le jus de citron fraîchement pressé à la crème.

Ajoutez le lait.

Incorporez l'agar-agar. Mélangez ensemble.

Versez dans un récipient que vous pouvez fermer complètement et secouez bien.

Après l'avoir secoué, il aura l'air un peu mousseux.

Couvrez avec une serviette en papier, pas avec du plastique ou un couvercle scellé. L'air doit pouvoir pénétrer à l'intérieur.

Laissez reposer sur le comptoir de la cuisine pendant au moins 24 h pour la crème devienne "aigrer". Tout comme le pain au levain, il faut du temps aux microbes pour faire leur magie.

Comme je l'ai dit plus tôt, l'expérimentation continue. J'essaie de faire devenir aigre d'autres produits laitiers, de la crème fraîche et aussi de la ricotta. Je pense que je vais aussi essayer le marscarpone. Il doit être un peu plus épais que ma première tentative.

Savourez!! 

Merci Corinne et Thibaut pour la relecture et les NOMBREUSES corrections grammaticales !

Flounder à la Meunière with Capers

Much simpler than it sounds

Flounder Fillets

milk to dip

flour to dip

one stick butter

1/3 cup capers

lime juice

***********************

In a small pan, melt butter and add capers, cooking over medium heat. The butter will need to brown and the capers will pop open. I always start this first.

Dip fish fillets in milk, then flour, and pan fry in hot oil until nicely browned.

To serve, sprinkle fish with lime juice and spoon over a bit of the caper and butter sauce.

I usually serve this with broccoli, as I like the caper butter on the broccoli as well. :)

********************

I was unable to find flounder this day, so I chose a thin white fish.

This is not as thin as flounder, but I would not want to go any thicker than this. 

Get your coating ingredients ready. 

Sauce ingredients at the ready. 

A small pan with capers and butter, set on low heat. You don't want to burn the butter. I start the butter and capers before starting the fish. 

Dip fish into milk and then coat with flour.

Then coat with egg wash. 

Then into bread crumbs. 

Place in hot pan in a single layer.

Butter is melted and capers are heating. Butter is starting to bubble. Low heat, don't burn the butter. Keep an eye on it.

I used Panko crumbs here, it's what I had on hand. Standard bread crumbs are just fine.

Sorry this is out of focus, checking the capers, they are not popping yet, keep going...

Check them frequently. 

Butter is browning, can you see? 

I remove the fish as it is finished. 

Keep peeking at the capers. 

Ah, here we go. The capers are popping and browning. That is when they are finished!

The butter is nicely browned, the capers are popped and crispy. It smells so good!

I lightly sprinkle the fish fillets with lime juice. 

Spoon the caper sauce over the top. I like the sauce on the broccoli as well. A nice touch! 

A very tasty dinner that everyone loves! 

One last thing... Cooking fish can stink up the house for days. Put on a small pan with water and cinnamon. Simmer it slowly and the cinnamon will counteract the fish smell in the house. I start this as I finish the fish and let it simmer while we eat. 

Duck à l’Orange

Not as difficult as it sounds, just time consuming. Allow 3 hours, minimum total elapsed time.

One 5-6lb duck

S&P

1/4 cup Frozen orange juice concentrate or marmalade

2 Tablespoons Butter

2 Tablespoons Soy sauce

************************

Thaw duck if frozen. I leave it in the fridge for a couple days on the bottom where it's out of the way.

Preheat oven to 350*

Remove from wrapper and remove the goodies from inside, usually livers, heart, neck and sauce mix. I never use the sauce mix. It's filled with all kinds of extraneous ingredients. Yuk.

Rinse the duck, inside and out. Pull off any extra fat you find. Prick the skin thoroughly with a fork. Place on a rack in a roasting pan, and pour a couple cups of boiling water over it. This help tighten the skin. Let it sit for a minute to cook again. Lift the duck to drain water out of cavity, leaving the water in the pan. Dry the duck, inside and out. S&P inside and out and return to rack, folding neck skin underneath.

Bake for 45 minutes and remove from oven so you can flip the bird, er, I mean, turn the duck over. This way you give all the skin a chance to crisp up. So, at the end of 45 minutes, take the pan out, with your tongs lift the duck up to drain liquid from cavity into pan. Turn over, back side up. Feel free to poke it a bit more with the fork, if you'd like. It helps to release the fat from under the skin. Duck is very fatty, if you want crisp skin, the fat needs to melt away.

Put it back into the oven, bake another 45 minutes.

After the second 45 minutes, take out, flip again, poke again and back in it goes for yet, a third 45 minute baking session.

You now have about 45 minutes. Start your side dishes and get ready to finish the duck. Mix your orange sauce: 1/4 cup OJ concentrate or orange marmalade, 2T soy sauce, 2T butter. Melt in a pan and baste over duck the last 10 minutes, at which time I switch the oven from bake to broil. This just concentrates the cooking to the top, where it'll crisp up the skin and glaze the duck with the orange sauce.

My family doesn't care for stuffing so much. So, I roast without stuffing. You can stuff yours. Just realize that it will add to the baking time and you must check internal stuffing temperature to reach 165F*.

Pull off extra fat.

Poke well with a fork.

Can you see the fork holes?

Don't run out and buy one of these, but if you find a rack that is built with a V shape, it's great for keeping your bird, or meat, from rolling around in the roasting pan.

Pour the boiling water over.

Remove from rack, and dry off nicely.

Salt and Pepper, inside and out.

This is where you practice your massage techniques and no one will whine that it's too rough or too soft. ;)

Really... inside too.

I guess I shoulda put a picture in before this, but you DID remove the goodies, right?? I won't mention names, but someone I love cooked a whole Thanksgiving feast and found the giblet package at carving time. :) Hey, that only happens once! 

Please don't use the orange sauce packet that comes with the bird. For comparison's sake. I've looked at the orange sauce mix that came included with the duck. Ingredients: OJ from concentrate, water, sugar, modified corn starch, dextrose, citric acid, salt, natural flavor (of what? orange?), torula yeast, xanthan gum, sodium benzoate, caramel color, spice, extracts of paprika, onion powder.

Ok, our duck is all massaged and relaxed, warmed up with the boiling water bath and now, time to hit the sauna, er, oven. Shh, when I invited him to dinner he had no idea he WAS dinner!

350* for 45 minutes

First 45 minutes is done.

Drain out liquids.

Flipped over, breast side down. Now, back into the oven for the next 45 minutes.

Second 45 minute baking session complete. Starting to look browned and crispy. :)

Turn the duck back over, breast side up, allowing the juices to drain from the cavity, as you turn it. Feel free to poke some more. I always give extra attention to the area around the legs where there are fatty deposits. Bake in for the last 45 minutes. This is when you start your side dishes. Tonight, we are having French Bread, Wild Rice and Broccoli.

Orange sauce ingredients to melt together.

Sauce ready to baste with.

10 or 15 minutes before the end, I take the duck out and cut it in half. Turn cut side facing down. 

I don't change the temperature, but I change oven from bake to broil. 5 minutes under the broiler and then it's ready to baste with sauce which is just finishing.

Baste with orange sauce. Back under the broiler for 10 minutes. Keep watch, you don't want it to burn.

10 minutes under the broiler. Look how nice and crispy and brown! Baste it again when it comes out. :D

Use a serrated knife or kitchen scissors to cut into quarters. Some people are hungry enough to eat a half. That looks nice to serve. We just don't eat that much.

For a holiday meal, I'd add a nice healthy green salad too. But we've been nibbling dips and veggies all afternoon! :)

Broccoli, wild rice and fresh hot bread to go with. Yum!