Raspberry Swirl Cheesecake

Yumm! Cheesecakes are my favorite desserts. If I were skinny I would have one each day. But when I am having a cheesecake, the melting creamy moment in the mouth is totally worth having those extra pounds and I do feel a lot lighter in my head. I tried out raspberry swirl cheesecake and it did come out amazing. I will share with you the regular as well as an eggless cheesecake recipe. The reason being we have friends who are vegetarians and do not eat eggs, and we also have sinner friends like me, who eat eggs. But they all love cheesecakes and I love sharing mine with them... well sometimes;)

The base is a classic NY style cheesecake and this cheesecake can be modified as per your preference to any flavors. You can add any puree as toppings, swirl or just top with fresh fruits and whipped cream. It always comes out to please. I made the regular cheesecake filling using Chantal's NY Cheesecake recipe, which is simple and quick to put together.

Regular Raspberry Swirl Cheesecake

Ingredients:
Crust

• 1-1/2 cups crushed graham crackers
• 4 tbsp melted butter

Raspberry Sauce

• 6 oz raspberries
• 2-3 tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp cornstarch

Filling

• 4 (8 ounce) packs cream cheese
• 1-1/2 cups sugar
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 4 eggs, at room temperature
• 1/4 cup all purpose flour

Directions:
Crust

• Preheat oven to 350 degree F
• Crush the graham crackers, using a ziploc bag or a blender/ food processor, whatever you prefer.
• Mix the crushed crackers with melted butter
• Press the mixture to the bottom of a springform pan using a cup or bowl with flat bottom.
• Bake for around 10 minutes.
• Remove and let it cool
• Reduce the oven temperature to 325 degree F

Raspberry Sauce

• Puree raspberries, adding sugar and cornstarch in a blender
• Pass the puree through a sieve to remove all seeds from it.
• In a small saucepan, heat the puree for few minutes till lightly thickened.
• Cool it

Filling

• Cream together cream cheese and sugar using a mixer.
• Add milk, flour, vanilla extract and lemon juice, and blend together.
• Add eggs one at a time. Do not overbeat, just barely till it is well incorporated.
• Add sour cream and just blend till the batter is smooth.
• Grease the sides of the prepared pan with crust and pour half of the filling on the crust.
• Pour half teaspoon of raspberry sauce in dots over the filling
• Pour the remaining batter and again top with raspberry sauce 1/2 tsp dots. It batter will look like having red polka dots on it.
• Take a knife or a skewer and run through the dots to create swirls. You will have a marbled effect on the top. 
• Bake for around 1 hour 5-10 minutes (depends on your oven).
• Turn off the oven and leave the door open for 2-3 hours without removing the cheesecake from it.
• When fully cooled put it in the refrigerator and cool overnight or at least 6 hours.
• Enjoy the cheesecake of your labor.

Eggless Raspberry Swirl Cheesecake

Crust

• 1-1/2 cups crushed graham crackers
• 4 tbsp melted butter

Raspberry Sauce

• 6 oz raspberries
• 2-3 tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp cornstarch

Filling

• 4 (8 ounce) packs cream cheese
• 1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 1 cup sour cream

Directions:

• Follow the directions for the crust and raspberry sauce in the regular cheesecake recipe.

Filling:

• Cream together cream cheese, sweetened condensed milk and sugar.
• Add vanilla extract, lemon juice, cornstarch, baking soda, baking powder and mix together.
• Add sour cream and blend well till batter is smooth
• Bake in the prepared pan for 1 hour 15-20 minutes.
• Turn off the oven and let the cheesecake cool in it with door open for 2-3 hours.
• Chill the cooled cheesecake in the refrigerator overnight or for at least 6 hours.
• Like I said, enjoy the cheesecake of your labor.

Tip:

• I find that greasing the sides really well helps to prevent cracking in the cheesecake.
• You can give a water bath to your cheesecakes for clean even topped, creamy cheesecakes. You will have to seal the bottom of the spring form pan with aluminium foil to do this.

Baked Falafel Wrap

Falafel is a worldwide known middle-eastern dish. I became aware about Falafel only when we moved to New Jersey that is closer to New York city.You have street vendors selling Falafel as lunch to the all the city working crowd and the tourists from all over the world. New York can truly be called the melting pot of all the cultures from the world. You have good restaurants from all ethnicities of the world in the city. It is fun being there and just sitting at a nice spot and watching all the hustle and bustle happening around you. And while you are relaxing and taking in the city, never forget to munch on a yummy falafel.

Falafel are basically deep fried balls of chickpeas/ garbanzo beans. I just made small patties instead of balls and baked it in the oven. Came out good and when I put it in a pita with the other good stuff, it just tasted like those falafels you get in the city.

Ingredients:

For  Falafel

• 1 cup chickpeas/ garbanzo beans (soaked overnight, cooked and drained)
• 1/2 cup semolina (not the flour)
• 3-4 green chillies (depending upon taste)
• 1/2 cup cilantro (wash and chop it)
• 1/2 cup parsley (wash and chop it)
• 4 cloves garlic
• 2 tsp cumin powder
• 2 tsp crushed coriander seeds
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 2 tbsp oil
• salt to taste

For the Wrap:

• Whole wheat pita bread or any pita, flat or pocket ones.
• Shredded lettuce
• Tomatoes chopped
• Onions Chopped
• Cucumbers chopped
• Hummus (I used home made hummus will put recipe in separate post)
• Hot Sauce ( I just thinned tomato ketchup with water and added some chili powder, until it tasted right)

Directions:

For Falafel

• In a blender, put green chillies, parsley, cilantro, garlic, some cooked garbanzo beans and blend well.Remove from blender in to a bowl.
• Now put the remaining garbanzo beans and blend. If you have few beans or pieces left that is alright. Just ensure that most of it is well mashed.
• Transfer the mashed beans into the same bowl. Mix both the pastes well. Add semolina, cumin powder, crushed coriander seeds, salt and baking powder. Mix well. The mixture will become dough like. Knead it and form small golf sized balls and just flatten it and place on a greased baking sheet. Spray top with cooking oil spray.

• Put it in a preheated oven at 400 degree F and bake for around 20-30 minutes. Just flip the patties halfway so that both sides get evenly browned.

For the Wrap

• Lightly warm the pita bread on a griddle on both sides or in a oven.
• Spread hummus on the pita bread and drizzle hot sauce.

• Top with lettuce, tomatoes, onions and cucumber.

• Now add as many falafels as you like or depending on the size of pita.

• Add a dollop of hummus on top and drizzle with hot sauce.

• Tightly roll the pita and wrap it with aluminium foil to make eating it easier.

• Enjoy your yummy wrap.

The falafels can be enjoyed in a wrap like above or can be had as appetizers with hummus, tahini and hot sauce. For special occasions you can also deep fry the balls of falafel.

Vegetable Frankie with Egg Wrap

Frankie is a fast food that people in Mumbai must be familiar with. It is yummy and very filling. I remember my college days when I had it outside my college with friends from the stalls set up by street food vendors. Street food has it's own charm in Mumbai just like all the falafel and hot dog stalls in New York city. Mumbai is known for its fast food stalls.  With it's wide array of fast food ranging from vada pau, all chaats, sandwich, frankies, pav bhaji to dosa stalls you have streets famous for the food it has to offer.

Frankie is basically a tortilla wrapped with savory filling. Fillings can range from potatoes, paneer to keema, chicken, etc.

Ingredients:

• 6 whole wheat tortillas
• 3 eggs
• 4 potatoes cooked and mashed
• 1 green bell pepper chopped
• 1/2 cup cooked green peas
• 1/2 cup grated paneer/ cheese (optional)
• 1 onion chopped
• 1/2 cup cilantro leaves chopped
• 1 tsp red chilli powder (you can adjust this as per taste)
• 1/2 tsp amchur/ dry mango powder
• 1 tsp chat masala
• 1 tsp cumin powder
• 1 tbsp lime juice
• 2 tbsp cooking oil
• salt to taste

Directions:

• In a deep pan heat oil. Add chopped bell pepper. Saute well.
• Add red chili powder, amchur powder, chat masala, cumin powder and mix well. 
• Add potatoes, paneer/ cheese, green peas, chopped onion, cilantro, lime juice and salt to taste. Remove from heat and mix everything well. You can add any other filling like scrambled eggs, cooked minced chicken, etc. Get creative with the filling.
• Keep this filling aside.
• Heat tortilla on a griddle, on both sides. Add beaten eggs, 1-2 tablespoon on one side of the tortilla. Spread it all over and flip it. Let the eggs get cooked. Then flip and let brown spots appear on the other side.
• Take this tortilla fill it with the prepared filling, roll it and serve with tomato ketchup.
• Enjoy

Tip:

• If you don't get ready tortillas then make large rotis out of whole wheat flour. Just knead it with milk and add little oil to help the kneading process. Roll out and make regular rotis, lightly cooking on both sides.

Methi Dhebra

Methi dhebra is a gujarati flavored roti. My husband is Gujarati and before I married him I was not aware of all snacks like handvo, thepla, muthiya and I knew about khaman dhokla but not about khatta dhokla. I love all these snacks plus I discovered something called as dhebra. It is not made at my in laws place but it is a gujarati dish which is full of flavor plus it is made of whole wheat flour and bajra/ millet flour so it is nutritious too. It has the added value of methi/ fenugreek leaves so it is actually a balanced food.

Usually it is had with pickle but one bite and I will tell you you will never have enough of it. You frankly do not need any accompaniments with it. You can keep devouring dhebra after dhebra without missing out on anything. 

I went through lot of recipes for making this delectable snack but show me the curry had the easiest or maybe the best presented version. So I used their recipe as a base and made just little modifications from my side.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup whole wheat flour 
• 1/3 cup millet flour/ bajra 
• 1/2 cup yogurt 
• 1 tbsp lime juice (if the yogurt is not sour)
• 1 tbsp jaggery or brown sugar 
• 2 tsp minced ginger
• 2 tsp minced garlic 
• 1 tbsp sesame seeds
• 1 tsp cumin powder 
• 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
• 1/2 tsp red chili powder
• minced green chillies to taste
• 1 tsp salt or to taste
• 1 cup fresh methi leaves  chopped or 3 tbsp kasoori methi (dried fenugreek leaves)
• 1/4 cup cilantro chopped if you do not have fresh methi leaves
• 2 tbsp oil
• Oil for pan frying

Directions:

• In a bowl take yogurt and add all the ingredients from lime juice to methi leaves or cilantro leaves. Mix all the ingredients well.
• In a large mixing bowl whisk together whole wheat and bajra flour. Add 2 tbsp oil to the flour and mix well.
• Add the yogurt mixture (if using jaggery just ensure that it has dissolved completely in it) to the flour and mix. Start kneading and knead it into a dough. You can use a tsp or 2 of oil to help you knead well. If you feel your dough is too soft add a tbsp of whole wheat flour at a time and too dry add a tsp of yogurt at a time and knead. The dough should be not too hard and not too soft, then it will be easier to roll it.
• Let the dough rest for around 15-30 minutes.
• Heat a griddle on stove top.
• Divide the dough into lemon sized balls.
• Start rolling one ball at time using a rolling pin and flat surface. Use whole wheat flour to dust the flattened balls from time to time when they get sticky while rolling. Roll it into flat rounds as thin as a tortilla.
• Put the rolled dhebra on griddle and when light bubbles start appearing on top flip it on the griddle.
• Put oil on the top surface of dhebra using spoon. Just dip the spoon in oil and run it over the surface.
• Flip it once again and you will see brown spots on this surface. Run oiled spoon on this surface too.
• When both sides are cooked well with some brown spots your dhebra is ready.
• Put it in a metal or insulated container. 
• Follow the same process with rest of the balls and stack dhebras in the container. Cover it only it has cooled off a bit or your dhebras will be moist with all the heat inside.
• Serve warm or when ready to eat.
• These rotis have long shelf life and are ideal for carrying along on your trips.