yam » maameemoomoo

Oh dear… my digital weighing scale went bonkers and i can’t do any baking this week. It’s probably a sign.. a sign for me to stop eating so much.

Ever since i came back last Sunday, i have been eating quite a bit.. almost non-stop i’d say!

It’s scary… because i’m actually having this dreadful and very painful gum infection right now, caused by my wisdom tooth. The amount of food that i could chew despite the pain is amaaaaazzzing. I could even chew slices of hard sour dough multi grain bread, you know! *ouuucchiee*

Anyway, i received quite a number of emails regarding the Orh Nee Cheesecake for the past few weeks. And yes, you can halve the recipe if you like. Instead of baking the cheesecake in the boring springform tin, i halved the recipe and baked it in cupcake molds!

Personally, i like baking in cupcake molds a lot more…. because :

it’s less time consuming ; instead of baking it for 60-75 minutes, i only need 20-25 minutes!
it cools down waaaayyy faster.
small cakes are much more adorable!
i can halve the recipe or even quarter it if i want to (excellent when it’s just the husband who craves for it but very, very unlikely)
very presentable looking if you have guests coming.
i cannot sneakily slice a little bit off the cake again and again and again, after i finish my initial 1 big slice portion. hee!

So, there you go.. it’s quite impossible to say no to baking cheese cupcake now, isn’t it? :)

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Orh Nee Cheese Cupcake

** u might wanna read this if you are baking this for the first time ;)

(yields 20-22 cupcakes)

Crust

Oreo Cookies 70g, without the cream

Butter, melted 35g

Finely ground the biscuit. Pour warm butter over biscuit. Toss well to coat mixture with butter. Press firmly into an even layer on the bottom of the cupcake molds. Freeze for at least half an hour.

Filling

250g cream cheese

60g castor sugar

1 egg

75ml whipping cream

1/4 tsp salt

3/4 cup mashed yam, peeled, steamed, pureed

few drops of purple colour (optional)

Beat cream cheese and sugar until creamy. Add egg, mixing until just incorporated. Gradually add cream, alternate it with mashed yam and lastly, add salt. Be careful not to over mix because we want to incorporate as little air as possible (to prevent cracking).

Bake* at 150C for20-25 minutes or till the edge of filling is set. Cool on rack for 5 minutes.

Topping

1/2 cup sour cream

1 tbsp sugar

3/4 tbsp coconut milk

Using hand, whisk together (very gently to prevent air bubbles) sour cream, sugar, and coconut milk in a bowl, then spread on top of cheesecake and bake 3-5 minutes at 150C.

Cool cheesecake completely in pan on rack, about half hour to 1 hour.

Cover and chill until cold, for at least 4 hours.

Note :

* you can fill 1 or 2 out of 12 holes in the muffin pan with water if you like to prevent drying

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Have fun trying!

I love Orh Nee.

And i love cheesecake.

After my previous attempt on Yam Cheesecake, i decided to further tweak my recipe to turn it into Orh Nee Cheesecake. This is the best i could come out with after 2 tests and trials. My first trial on the topping wasn’t quite successful. The cream didn’t quite set even though gelatine was added in. Also, the coconut taste was a little overwhelming. In short, the coconut was the star and the yam was almost non-existent. Definitely a no-no. Furthermore, judging from how slow the slices of cake were wolfed down, i knew this version was a failure.

Then i decided to stick to sour cream topping. I hesitated quite a while to be honest, because i simply can’t imagine sour cream and coconut milk together. Won’t it taste like some expired coconut milk?!?

But guess what?

It did not!

The truth is, the combination blew me away!

I LOVE IT!

And the family LOVE it!

It was thumbs up from every one including Beep, my fussy 4 years old. I like how all the flavours blend so well together. Most importantly, i like how the yam is the star and how the coconut is just the icing on the cake – literally!

So yes, here you go…. My Orh Nee Cheesecake. :)

Hope you will love this precious recipe of mine as much as i do!

Orh-Nee (Taro) Cheesecake

(Ideal for 8″ cake)

Crust

Oreo Cookies 140g, without the cream

Butter, melted 70g

Finely ground the biscuit. Pour warm butter over biscuit. Toss well to coat mixture with butter. Press firmly into an even layer on the bottom of pan. Freeze for at least half an hour.

Filling

500g cream cheese

120g castor sugar

2 1/2 eggs

150ml whipping cream

1/2 tsp salt

1 3/4 cup mashed yam, peeled, steamed, pureed

few drops of purple colour (optional)

Beat cream cheese and sugar until creamy. Add eggs one at a time, mixing until just incorporated. Gradually add cream, alternate it with mashed yam and lastly, add salt. Be careful not to over mix because we want to incorporate as little air as possible (to prevent cracking).

Bake* at 150C for 60-75 minutes or till the edge of filling is set and center is slightly wobbly. Cool on rack for 5 minutes.

Topping

1 cup sour cream

2 tbsp sugar

1 1/2 tbsp coconut milk

Using hand, whisk together (very gently to prevent air bubbles) sour cream, sugar, and coconut milk in a bowl, then spread on top of cheesecake and bake 5 minutes at 150C.

Cool cheesecake completely in pan on rack, about 1-2 hours.

Cover and chill until cold, for at least 4 hours.

Note :

* feel free to bake the cake in water bath but if you are using spring form pan, be sure to wrap the bottom of the pan in 2 layers of foil to prevent any water from seeping into the cheesecake. alternately, you can just slide in a tray filled with water just beneath the rack.

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Yup, that’s me! :D

On Singapore’s newspaper – The Straits Times – today (Sunday)!

Thank you Rebecca Lynne Tan, from The Straits Times for the feature :)

Note : if you are following the recipe from the newspaper, please read this.

I sometimes fail too on baking and cooking :(

Like this attempt on Yam Bread which i love…

Perhaps i got too greedy. Too much yam … which resulted a cannot-rise-bread. LOL~

Or perhaps the yam puree was a little too wet. *shrugs* Not sure which, but i’m gonna try again and again till i get it right.

Do you have any particular food that you’ve been wanting to make, cook or bake but never realizes?

Yam cake or better known as ‘wu tao gou’, ‘yu tou gao’ is one of those foods that falls right into the category above for me. You know.. no sense of urgency to make it, because it is readily available everywhere… Until one fine day, when i tasted the homemade version given to me by the boy’s teacher.

That was when i went, ‘whoaaaaaaaa!’

Needless to say, i was blown away!

Homemade version tasted so darn good!!!

So good that i actually finished up the whole box while driving, picking the yam cake up pieces by pieces by hand(!) – something which i never do while driving because i do not like to dirty my steering wheel and my car. (me no like baby roaches “shopping around” when i’m driving halfway, WHICH, had happened before… not once, not twice but many times!)

Of course i managed to get hold of the recipe from the dear teacher, die die must get it ah! :P

Yam Cake

Makes 1 round metal container (diameter : 27cm)

300g rice flour – soak in 900ml water for 30 minutes before cooking
700g yam – shave off skin, dice into 1 cm cube and soak in a basin of water
50-100g lean meat – diced finely
1 no chinese sausage – skinned, steamed and diced finely (i skipped this)
6 nos dried mushrooms – soak in water until soft, wash thoroughly and dice finely
8 tbsp dried prawns – washed, soak in water till soft and pound roughly (i’d pounded 5 tbsp and cut up the other 3 tbsp)
5 tbsp sesame oil
salt & pepper to taste

Garnish
10 nos shallots, fried
1 spring onion, cut finely
2 red chilies, cut finely

Method
1. Using a wok, stir fry pounded dried prawns in sesame oil for 3 mins till fragrant
2. Add diced meat and mushrooms and fry for another 2 – 3 mins
3. Drain diced yam and add to the fried ingredients and fry
4. Fry well for 2-3 mins till yam changes colour
5. Stir rice water mixture till well blended and pour into wok
6. Combine all ingredients and stir vigorously to prevent clumping at the base
7. Add seasoning to taste
8. When mixture thickens, turn off fire
9. Transfer half cooked mixture to a container for steaming
10. Steam for 30-40 mins. Test for doneness when diced yam breaks easily
11. Sprinkle garnishing and ready to serve!

Tip : choose yam that is light weight to get the ‘melt in the mouth’ effect. leftover yam cake can be lightly fried or steam the following day

Note : i would halve this recipe the next time. way too much for my family of 6 :)

Note 2 : homemade version doesn’t have smooth, clean-looking surface like the ones outside. don’t be upset by its ugly appearance yeah even though i did, for a while .. thinking i had done something wrong! alas, i found out home made ones with tonsss of yam cubes are all like that! ;)

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That evening, i gave boxes away to friends and family.

To my surprise, one of my friends i gave the yam cake to, made me some dried prawn chili sambal that day as well! The sambal went swimmingly well with the yam cake.

“Dried prawns + sambal + yam cake which also contains traces of dried prawns….”

Life cannot be better!! *grin*

On a serious note, because of this homemade yam cake version, i have sorta stopped eating the ones sold out side. They may look prettier yes, but taste wise… this one wins hands down!!!