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Matcha Cheesecake

Also known as “Yushan’s Birthday Cake”, this recipe was adapted from this website.

Ingredients

Graham Cracker Crust

NOTE: “Graham cracker” is what Americans call “digestive buscuits”.

• 225g graham cracker crumbs 15 whole crackers
• 100g unsalted butter melted, plus extra for greasing.
• 30g light brown sugar packed (you can halve this)
• 15g granulated sugar
• 0.5tsp sea salt

Cheesecake

• 900g cream cheese, preferably marscapone. Any cheese will do.
• 100g sugar.
• 125g sour cream.
• 1tbsp lemon juice.
• 2tsp vanilla extract.
• 0.5tsp salt.
• 3tbsp sifted matcha powder.
• 4 large eggs.

Method

Graham Cracker Crust

• Grease the cake tin with butter.
• Pulverise the graham crackers, using a blender or rolling pin (any means).
• Combine the sugars and graham cracker crumbs.
• Add in the melted butter an mix thoroughly until combined.
• Scoop the mix into a greased cake pan. Press firmly for a flat, even layer. Use a flat bottomed glass or measuring cup to make an even flat layer.

Cheesecake

• Preheat the oven to 160 degrees celcius (325°F).
• Whisk the cream cheese until smooth and creamy. Room temperature or slightly warm cheese works best.
• Gradually add the sugar until combined.
• Add sour cream, vanilla, lemon juice and salt, mix until comibined.
• Sift in the matcha powder, mix until comibined.
• Lightly whisk the eggs in a separate bowl. THen, incorporate the eggs into the main bowl and mix until combined. Room temperature eggs work best.
• Assemble the cheesecake. Pour the matcha cheesecake batter into the prepared springform pan and smooth out the top with a spatula. Tap the pan on your work surface a few times to release any air bubbles.
• Place your cake pan into a large roasting pan or large sheet cake pan. Pour boiling water into the roasting pan to come up about 1-inch along the side of the cake pan. Place the cake and water bath in the center rack of your oven. Bake at 325°F for about 1 hour or until the cake has a slight wobble in the center 2-3 inches of the cake. The edges will have likely puffed and turned a very pale golden brown.
• Turn off the oven, and let the cheesecake rest in oven and water bath for 3-5 minutes with the oven door cracked. Then run a thin knife around the edge of the cake to make sure the cake doesn’t stick to the sides of the cake and crack when it cools. Next, remove the cheesecake from the water bath and aluminum foil and set it on a wire rack to cool completely.
• Cover with plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for at least 6 hours but preferably overnight to set before slicing and serving. Enjoy!

Tips for Baking

• Use a lot of aluminum foil to protect the springform pan. This is the one step that may ruin your cheesecake if water seeps into the pan. You have 2 options. 1) use at least 5-6 layers of aluminum foil to protect the base of the springform pan or 2) a 10-inch regular cake pan that is not springform to prevent any water leakage into the cake pan.
• Do not open the oven while baking. Do not open the oven door until the cheesecake has been in the oven for a minimum of 60 minutes. Opening the oven door can cause the cheesecake to deflate and shrink. The Japanese matcha cheesecake may seem underdone. The Japanese matcha cheesecake will 100% be wobbly in the center and seem underdone. Do not worry! It will firm up when it cools and chills in the refrigerator.
• Chill the cheesecake. After you cool the green tea cheesecake on the counter, you MUST chill the cheesecake in the refrigerator for a minimum of 6 hours. If you cut the cheesecake immediately after it cools, it may be soft and soupy in the center.

Alenka

My mother’s art exhibition.

Tiramisu

Dad’s tiramisu recipe.

Ingredients

• Large mug of coffee.
• Granulated sugar (around 6 tsp).
• 2 shots of amaretto.
• 4 Fresh eggs.
• 500g Mascarpone cheese.
• Savoiarde biscuits.
• 1/2 tsp lemon juice.
• Coco powder.

Method

• Combine the coffe, amaretto, and two teaspoons of sugar. Mix together then set aside to cool completely.

• Separate the egg yolks and whites into two separate bowls.

• Whisk the egg whites together until soft peaks form, adding two teaspoons of sugar towards the end of the whisking process.

  Chicken in a Red Sweet Pepper Sauce

  This is a recipe my dad taught me when I was 15. It is adapted from Madhur Jaffrey’s Indian Cookery recipe collection. The peppers give the curry a natural sweetness, and the flavours between the ingredients of the curry paste are very well balanced. It is both delicious and healthy, and I enjoy cooking it often.

  Ingredients

  • 1kg chicken parts. Boneless and skinless thighs work best.
  • 110g onions. Peeled and coaresly chopped.
  • 1 inch cube of ginger. Peeled and coarsely chopped.
  • 3 cloves of garlic. Peeled.
  • 25g blanched almonds. Slivered or as a powder.
  • 350g red sweet peppers. Trimmed, seeded and coarsely chopped.
  • 1tbsp ground cumin seeds.
  • 1tbsp ground corriander seeds.
  • 1/2tsp ground tumeric.
  • 1/2tsp cayenne pepper.
  • 1/2tsp coarsely ground black pepper.
  • 2tsp salt
  • Cooking oil.
  • 2tbsp lemon juice.

  Method

  1. Cut the chicken into bite-sized pieces.
  2. Combine the onions, ginger, garlic, almonds and peppers in a food processor or blender. Blend, pushing down with a spoon until you have a paste.
  3. Heat the cooking oil in a large non-stick frying pan over a medium flame. When hot, add the paste from the blender, cumin seeds, corriander seeds, tumeric, cayenne pepper and salt, then fry for 10-12 minutes.
  4. Add the chicken and black pepper. Cook for 15-25 minutes or until the chicken is cooked.
  5. Add the lemon juice.

  Sour Chickpeas

  A tasty, hearty and healthy chickpea recipe. It is adapted from Madhur Jaffrey’s Indian Cookery recipe collection.

  Ingredients

  • 400g canned chickpeas.
  • 400g canned tomatoes.
  • 275-300g onions. Peeled and very finely chopped.
  • 2 fresh green chillis. Finely chopped.
  • 4tbsp lemon juice.
  • 1tbsp ginger. Peeled and very finely chopped.
  • 1tbsp ground corirander seeds.
  • 1tbsp ground cumin seeds.
  • 2tsp garam masala.
  • 1/2tsp cayenne pepper
  • 1/2tsp ground tumeric.
  • 2.5tsp salt.
  • Cooking oil.

  Method

  1. Set a aside 2tbsp chopped onions, 1/2tsp of salt, green chilli, ginger, and lemon juice in a small bowl or teacup.
  2. Heat the cooking oil in a pan and add the remaining onions. Fry over a medium-high flame until the onion bits develop reddish-brown spots.
  3. Add the tomatoes, cumin, corriander and tumeric. Mix to combine.
  4. Add 2tsp salt, chickpeas. Mix to combine. Cook for 20 minutes on a simmer.
  5. Add the garam masala, cayenne pepper. Add the mixture set aside in step one. Mix to combine, then serve.

  Installing Arch Linux on the “Le Potato” (AML-S905X-CC) Single-Board Computer

  This article will explain how to install Arch Liunx onto the popular single baord computer known as “Le Potato”.

  What is “Le Potato”

  

  “Le Potato” is a Raspberry PI clone developed by a company called “Shenzhen Libre Technology Co” also known as “Libre Computer”.

  Assumptions and Requirements

  This tutorial assumes you are using Arch Linux to format the SD card. If you are familiar with Linux you can probably use a different distro to follow along with this tutorial, but the tutorial will use Arch specific terminology such as pacman, and Arch linux package names.