Maja Blanca Cheesecake with Mascarpone in Polenta

Fusion.  One of the things I find intriguing is fusion cuisine...especially with Filipino Cuisine.  So I have taken one of my favorite Filipino desserts, Maja Blanca, and fused it into one of my favorite things to make...cheesecake!  For those who aren't familiar with Maja Blanca, it is a pudding-jelly based dessert, flavored with coconut milk and corn.  I know, it sounds a little strange and unappealing, but it is really good!  And being not the biggest fan of anything coconut flavored, trust me--it is really good!

Besides fusing these two desserts together, I threw in a smidge of Italian in there just to make it more interesting by using Mascarpone and a polenta crust.  So, without further ado....



Crust Ingredients:

1/2 cup of polenta (dry)
1 1/2 cup of flour
1/3 teaspoon of salt
1/3 cup of sugar
14 tbps of chilled, unsweetened butter
1/3 cup ice water



Filling Ingredients:

6 oz softened cream cheese
4 oz mascarpone cheese
(You can use either of both cheese alone.  I chose to mix both since the cream cheese's acidity compensates for the silkiness and lightness in taste of the mascarpone.)
1/3 cup coconut milk
1/3 cup of creamed corn
1 cup of sugar
5 eggs
1 1/2 tbps of vanilla extract
3 tbsp of flour



Crust Prep:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

1.) Cut the cold butter into flour, salt, sugar and polenta.  This should produce a dry, clumpy and crumbly mixute
2.) Add iced water to the crumbly mixture and continue to cut until fully incorporated.  The mixture should be more moist and pasty.
3.) Spread mixture onto a 9 inch springform pan.  Spread polenta dough evenly.  Put pan and dough in the preheated oven, and slightly bake for 10 minutes.
4.) Remove pan from oven and let cool for 5 minutes.  The crust should be a little drier but workable to mold further along the springform pan.  Return the pan into the oven, and bake for another 15 minutes.  Remove the baked polenta dough crust, let cool and set aside.



Filling Prep:

1.) In a mixer, in low-speed, mix cream cheese, mascarpone, vanilla extract and sugar.  Continue to mix until smooth.
2.) Add eggs, coconut milk, and creamed corn.
3.) Mix until smooth.

• Take cooled polenta crust and fill with cheese/coconut/corn mixture.  Before baking, line bottom and sides of the springform pan with aluminum foil to prevent water from seeping in during baking.  
• As rule of thumb when making cheesecake, the springform pan must sit in a bath while baking to prevent cracks on the cheesecake surface.  The water bath will help keep the surface moist during baking.  Water bath baking requires a shallow pan with water, on which the cheesecake must sit.
• Bake cheesecake for 15-20 minutes, or until the sides of filling is firm, while the middle stays wet and jiggly.  
• Remove from oven and remove from water bath.  Let stand in room temperature for 10-15 minutes, and place in refrigerator for 1 hour until chilled and firm.

PORK ASADO SIOPAO (SWEET PORK BUNS)

Yesterday was the amazing Game 6, Giants vs Phillies, and I wanted to make some cinnamon rolls for the game.  But my mom prodded me to make pork asado siopao instead.  This was the first time I've ever made siopao (ala Auntie Lydia's dough recipe), and it was simple and laborious at the same time.  Any recipe that calls for dough and filling takes quite a bit of time to make, but a snap to cook.  My dough recipe went a little overboard, and my filling recipe was a little short.  So, left with extra dough, I made a simple mushroom pizza to save the excess dough.

INGREDIENTS:

DOUGH-

• 8 cups of shifted, all purpose flour
• 1 cup of sugar
• 2 tbsp baking powder
• 3 envelopes yeast (1 envelope = 1/4 oz.)
• 1 1/2  salt
• 4 cups LUKEWARM water (Important - lukewarm water activates yeast)
• Wax paper cut into 4x4 inch squares 

FILLING-

• 1 lb. pork shoulder (cut in small strips)
• 1 1/2 bulb of onion
• 5-6 cloves of garlic (minced)
• 1 1/2 tbsp cooking oil
• 3 tbsp soy sauce
• 3 1/2 tbsp oyster sauce
• 2 tbsp cornstach
• 1 cup granulated sugar or brown sugar
• salt & pepper (to taste)
• Hard-boiled eggs (halved or quartered by preference)

DOUGH PREP:

- Place 4 cups of lukewarm water into mixing bowl.  Lukewarm water will activate yeast.  Make sure not to use hot water or it will kill the yeast and the dough from rising.  Add yeast and sugar to water.  Sift flour, baking powder and salt.  Add flour 3/4 of the flour into mixture to bowl. Mix thoroughly until mixture attains wet, doughy consistency. Add leftover flour mixture into bowl.  

Luke warm water 

Add yeast

Add flour, salt and sugar

- Remove dough mixture into a floured surface and slightly knead dough into a round form.  Place slightly kneaded dough into a large bowl, and set aside for 20-30 minutes.  Cover bowl with a damp towel.  Dough will rise, as picture below.

FILLING PREP:

- In a large pan, heat cooking oil and sautee garlic and onions until onions are translucent.  Add chopped up pork shoulder.  Add  salt and pepper to taste.

-Add 2-3 tbsp of water and simmer pork pieces.

- Add soy sauce, oyster sauce and sugar.  Simmer in low heat until fluid is reduced.  

- Dilute cornstarch in water and add into pot.  Simmer until pork mixture thickens.  Sauce should be sweet. Set aside to cool.

- Boil eggs until they harden.  Set aside to cool.  When cooled, peel and cut into quarters.

FILLING DOUGH and COOKING INSTRUCTIONS:

- Take risen dough and punch in the middle to remove excess air in dough.  

- Flour kneading surface and knead dough for about 5-7 minutes.  Add flour to prevent from sticking.  Roll dough into a log, and cut into dough into small balls.

- Take small balls and roll out flat.  When flattened take a spoonful of the chilled pork filling and a quartered piece of hard-boiled egg and place in the middle of the flatted dough  ball.

- Gather ends of the dough and pull over filling, and pinch corners together, to purse and close dough.

- Place wax paper square over pursed end of dough and set aside on a cookie sheet.  Repeat.

- Let tray of uncooked buns sit for 10-15 mins for buns to expand. 

- Meanwhile, boil water in steamer in medium-high heat.

- Place expanded buns into steamer tray.  Steam buns for 15 mins. Remove, cool and serve. 

PIZZA - LOADED MUSHROOM PIZZA!

A quick pizza dough recipe.  Toppings...endless options!  In my case, I made my favorite pizza selection.

INGREDIENTS:

DOUGH-

• 8 cups of shifted, all purpose flour
• 1 cup of sugar
• 2 tbsp baking powder
• 3 envelopes yeast (1 envelope = 1/4 oz.)
• 1 1/2  salt
• 4 cups LUKEWARM water (Important - lukewarm water activates yeast)

DOUGH PREP:

- Place 4 cups of lukewarm water into mixing bowl.  Lukewarm water will activate yeast.  Make sure not to use hot water or it will kill the yeast and the dough from rising.  Add yeast and sugar to water.  Sift flour, baking powder and salt.  Add flour 3/4 of the flour into mixture to bowl. Mix thoroughly until mixture attains wet, doughy consistency. Add leftover flour mixture into bowl.  

- Remove dough mixture into a floured surface and slightly knead dough into a round form.  Place slightly kneaded dough into a large bowl, and set aside for 20-30 minutes.  Cover bowl with a damp towel.  Dough will rise, as picture below.

 Roll out pizza and add favorite toppings:

Mango & Avocado Ceviche

We bought some sweet, green mangoes today at the farmer's market, and I happened to stock up on some avocados earlier this week. And what do you do when you have some tomatoes, cilantro and seafood on-hand?  You make ceviche of course!  This recipe is quite versatile.  It's serves as a wonderful side dish, a great relish on any broiled white fish, a refreshing dip with some tortilla chips, or (the way I usually enjoy it) great filling for pita bread! 

Ingredients:

- Three large tomatoes

- Two avocados

- One large mango

- One large white onion (minced) 

- 1/2 cup of shrimp (cleaned, de-veined, cut in half)

-1/2 cup of squid or cuttle fish steaks (cubed)

- 1/3 cup cilantro (or according to taste preference)

- 4 ounces lime/lemon juice (preferably lime for the aroma)

- salt

Prep & Instructions:

-Clean and chop shrimp and squid into small pieces.  In a small pan, add seafood into 2 cups of boiling water.  Add 3 tbsp of lime juice.  Bring to a simmer until seafood is cooked.  Once cooked, strain and set aside to cool.

- In a food processor, finely chop onions, and set aside.  Do the same for the cilantro and set aside. Chopping these two ingredients with a food processor is recommended for the fine texture, which subdues their strong flavors.

- Chop tomatoes by removing seeds and pit.  Chop diced.

- Chop and dice mangoes and avocados into small pieces.

- Combine diced tomatoes, cooled seafood, cilantro, and onions.  Add lime juice and salt to taste.  Add avocados and mangoes.

- Stir until ingredients are mixed well.  Refrigerate.  Best served when chilled.