This Cottage Cheesecake recipe originated from my great-grandmother and was a cheesecake my dad and Springfield Creamery co-founder, Chuck Kesey, loved to make. Delicious crust, easy to put together and the cottage cheese gives it a richer texture. The crystalized ginger on top is a favorite, but we have often topped with fresh berries as well - perfect!
Chef Jiho Kim, of Joomak in New York City, makes highly technical, Korean-inspired fine dining at work. But at home in the summer, he loves to relax with a casual chilled “salad” of daikon radish shaved into “noodles” with a spiralizer, topped with raw marinated fish, kimchi, and a broth made from steeping buckwheat in dashi, a quick broth that’s key in Japanese cuisine.
Make as many or as few of the components below; as long as you have the broth and the radish noodles and a savory topping, you’ll have a light, refreshing, deeply flavored dish.
A Basque cheesecake is traditionally served crustless and with no berry adornments, but I promise you’re going to fall in love with this rebellious version. I layer it with a cookie crust; I really like the spice in the Speculoos (Biscoff-ish) cookie and bright berries, which just make the mahogany top and lusciously smooth texture sing. You’ll notice the ingredients— like the cream cheese— are cold rather than at room temperature, so it won’t overbake in the hot oven as the top browns.
Made with a gingerbread-spiced dough tucked around a bright, tart fresh cranberry filling, this galette is an unexpected way to bring classic holiday flavors to life, like a pie-shaped mash-up between gingerbread cookies and cranberry sauce, in the best possible way. Just be sure to serve the galette slightly warm, with big scoops of cool vanilla ice cream. If you can’t find fresh cranberries, fresh blueberries make a good substitute; just reduce the sugar in the filling by ½ cup.
INGREDIENTS
This is a playful twist on a classic recipe that pulls you back to childhood. I like cooking and pairing spicy, hearty dishes with Torpedo Extra IPA because the punch of the spice and sharp cheddar stand up to the hop forward, bitter notes of the beer.
Florentines are pretty little lacy cookies, studded with sliced almonds and dipped in chocolate. These were in my childhood cookbook and I could not make enough of them. They are so simple to make and yet so elegant. Give these to close friends and loved ones.
Rosewater, one of my favorite flavors, is delicately fragrant, and I suggest buying a bottle or two for your pantry. Whenever I am roasting rhubarb I add a few dashes of rosewater, but it’s also delicious added to whipped cream, sponge cakes, raspberries, strawberries—I could go on…
I found this recipe written in pencil on a 3 x 5 card tucked inside my Grandmother Schwyhart's old, worn cookbook. The apples are particularly nice in this dish; they puff up as they cook, and they really soak up the other flavors.