Feral Cooks

Good food shouldn't be tame

Creamy Pumpkin Cheesecake

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Here’s a cool recipe for a crustless cheesecake. Note that it’s quick to make, but needs to set up for about 24 hours in the fridge. It also is formatted as bars, not a traditional pie shape, so there’s that, too.

I got the recipe from the local grocery store that I despise. They put out a magazine of sorts, which is generally a giant advertisement. This recipe was included.

I wouldn’t necessarily make this again, but it is good. I just think cheesecake is better with a crust.

One important and infuriating note: make sure the cream cheese is at room temperature and really soft. Otherwise it will be a complete disaster trying to beat it. ‘Nuff said. You can guess the rest.

What you’ll need:

  • 24 oz cream cheese (you could really mess with the recipe and use jalapeno cream cheese)
  • 0.25 cups sour cream
  • 0.25 cups cornstarch
  • 3 extra large eggs (or 4 medium eggs, I’d guess)
  • 1 15-oz can pumpkin puree
  • 1.5 cups sugar
  • 1.5t cinnamon
  • 1t ground ginger
  • 2t vanilla extract
  • Butter for greasing the pan

Optional toppings include

  • Chopped pecans or walnuts
  • White chocolate chips
  • Candied ginger, minced

What to do:

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

With an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese, sour cream and cornstarch until smooth. Add the eggs, pumpkin, sugar, cinnamon, ginger and vanilla. Mix well until smooth.

Heavily butter a 10-inch cake pan (removable bottom is best) and pour in the batter. Cook for 30 minutes.

After the 30 minutes, top with the toppings you choose and make for 40 more minutes, until it’s firm.

Remove from oven and let completely cool to room temperature. Cover and refrigerate for about 24 hours. If not using toppings, sprinkle some sugar over the top before serving.

Smoked Gouda Carbonara

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Time is tight this week, so I’ll say just this: try this dish. It’s really really good and easy to make. And it’s from the April 2017 Food & Wine issue.

What you’ll need:

  • 1 lb spaghetti
  • 5 large egg yolks
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 cup (4 oz) finely shredded smoked Gouda + some for serving
  • 1T extra-virgin olive oil
  • 6 oz thick bacon, diced
  • 0.75t crushed red pepper

What to do:

Cook the pasta in a large pot of salted boiling water until al dente. Reserve 1 cup of the cooking water before draining. 

Beat the egg yolks, whole egg, 1 cup of shredded Gouda, 0.5t salt and 2t pepper in a large bowl—yes, a large one. You’ll see why in a couple of steps. Gradually whisk in 0.5 cups of the reserved cooking water. This will temper the eggs.

In a large heavy pot or fry pan (I used a cast iron pan), heat the olive oil and add the bacon, cooking over medium heat until the fat is rendered—not crisp (about 5 mins). Add the cooked pasta, crushed red pepper and 0.25 cups of the reserved cooking water. Cook, tossing often until the pasta is coated.

Now, scrape the pasta/bacon into the large bowl with the egg, and toss until creamy and the cheese melts. Add more cooking water if it’s too dry.

Season to your liking with salt and pepper, then divide into serving bowls, providing more shredded pasta at the table for topping.

Ayam Limau Purut

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This Indonesian chicken recipe, best described as chicken in lime and lemongrass sauce, is a delicious, aromatic dish that’s easy to make and requires no “exotic” ingredients.

I’ve been a long-time fan of Indonesian food—and really any savory dish cooked with coconut milk—and this dish does not disappoint. Too bad Indonesia’s luscious cuisine doesn’t make up for their government’s egregious human-rights abuses—but that’s a conversation for a different-focused blog. And we have to first fix that problem in our own country.

Anyway, if you’re at all familiar with Indonesian food, this lime and lemongrass chicken fits right in with the county’s fragrant coconut-simmered dishes, in that the cooking method renders the meat very tender, it cooks fairly slowly, and it’s really easy to make.

Note that this post is really two recipes: the sauce, and cooking the chicken in the sauce.

What you’ll need for the sauce:

  • 2 red chilies, stemmed, seeded and roughly chopped
  • 2 garlic cloves, peeled and sliced
  • 2 red onions, peeled and chopped
  • 1 stalk of lemongrass, tough outer layer removed, and very finely chopped
  • 1-inch piece of ginger or *galangal, peeled and finely chopped
  • 2T oil—peanut is best
  • 1t ground turmeric
  • 1 cup good-quality coconut milk, or even better, coconut cream
  • Juice from 1 lime (about 2T of juice, if you don’t have a lime on hand)

*I know this may fit into the exotic ingredient category for some, but it’s fairly easy to find at your local Asian supermarket. It’s a rhizome common to SE Asian food, and it has a somewhat sharp flavor that mellows with cooking. It’s a relative of ginger, but they are not interchangeable in most recipes—this one, excepted—because of their different flavor profiles. Last, galangal is really tough, so it can’t be grated like ginger. It must be peeled and sliced with a very sharp knife.

What to do for the sauce:

Add the chilies, garlic, onions, lemongrass and ginger or galangal to a food-processor vessel and cover with half the oil. Process into a paste. Add the turmeric and mix it in.

Heat the remaining oil in a saucepan and fry the paste over medium heat for 6-7 minutes or until it is aromatic and no longer raw. Gradually stir in the coconut milk, followed by the lime juice.

At this point you could use the sauce for this chicken recipe or another dish, or refrigerate for later.

What you’ll need for the chicken:

  • The entire batch of lime and lemongrass sauce you just made
  • 0.66 cups chicken stock (I think you could get away with vegetable stock without drastically altering the flavor)
  • 1-1.25 lbs boneless chicken thighs, each cut into about four pieces
  • 2 lime leaves (optional, if you can’t find them), or a dash of lime juice—but not too much!
  • Salt to taste

What to do for the chicken:

If the sauce isn’t still in the saucepan you made it in, add it to one.

Heat the sauce to a gentle simmer, and add the chicken and lime leaves, if using. Cook at a low simmer for 20-25 minutes until the chicken is cooked through. If you overcook the chicken, though, it will be dry. Be careful.

Season with salt—or not—to taste, and serve hot with rice or Asian egg noodles.