Baked Rhubarb and Ginger Cheesecake.

This is the third and final post from the meal I cooked my Mum for her birthday the other week. This is the dessert element. Mum had a vast amount of rhubarb growing in the jungle that is her veggie patch so we wanted to use that up. 

Coincidentally my mum is also completely obsessed with ginger (seriously, she must spend an absolute fortune on the ginger cordial she is hooked on) therefore I thought a rubarby-gingery dessert would be just the ticket and a perfect marriage of flavors. 

I decided on a cheesecake, having made a few over the last few months for various events, I’m a bit of a baked cheesecake wiz currently and therefore thought considering how much food prep I had to do that day it would be a safe bet.

I used the recipe I found here - http://www.waitrose.com/home/recipes/recipe_directory/b/baked_rhubarb_and_ginger_cheesecake.html

It was really refreshing to use the mascarpone instead of cream cheese as a change. I found it really gave a lightness and fluffyness to the cake.  I also chose to reduce the syrup created through poaching the rhubarb down much further than the recipe suggests to. This created a very intense, sticky syrup that I drizzled over the cake before serving it which really gave a zingy-spicy tang to cut through the creamy rich cake. 

It was all around just awesome if I say so myself, and potentially one of the most grown up deserts I’ve made in a long time. Definitely recommended.

Mum's Birthday Meal (Part 1)

It was my mum’s birthday on Thursday and she was having a crowd of friends over for dinner. Being the thrifty (and admittedly broke) student that I am I offered to cook the dinner so she could just relax and have a nice evening with a friends and I could give her a gift which I didn’t have to pay for.

I opted for a Greek vibed meal, well, ‘feast’ might be the more accurate term. We were hosting a vegetarian so there had to be enough of a veggie option meaning that the meat I did cook was more token than a centerpiece but nonetheless it all went down a storm. I’m gonna split the recipes between a couple of posts since otherwise the size of this could get a little out of hand.

The token piece of meat present for the carnivores was a small, slow roasted leg of lamb. The recipe can be found here: http://www.ocado.com/webshop/recipe/slow-cooked-greek-lamb/1490

The combination of the slow cooking with the spice rub created a really sumptuous piece of meat which was really worth the time and effort of cooking and basting it for so long. I got overexcited with eating/serving it so forgot to take a picture of the carved meat but trust. It was goood.

Next on the agenda were two salads, firstly a green bean mint and garlic salad. For this I simply lightly steamed the beans, and fried off some slithers of garlic in a tbsp of olive oil then added some more oil and balsamic vinegar to taste and then lots of chopped mint. I tossed the beans in this and scattered the dish with some toasted pine nuts. Simple but again, good. 

Secondly I made Nigella Lawson’s Ultimate Greek Salad: http://www.nigella.com/recipes/view/the-ultimate-greek-salad-220 

If you have never made this before. I implore you, do it. It has completely changed my perception of the world of Greek salads. The marinating of the red onions creating the chemical-reaction-type thing is inspired and it could almost be a meal in its self with some nice bread. Seriously. It’s the business. Big style. I'd even go so far as to say it might be my favorite salad ever. Yes, I went there. 

Right, that’s all for today, I’m feeling a condiment post tomorrow with the tzatziki, sweet potato and aubergine dips. So watch this space.