Cheese-Cake, Salad, Pi(e) and a Review

Quesadilla Salvadoreña

NOT your madre's quesadilla!! No tortillas were harmed in the creation of this delectable treat. This isn't a cheesy Mexican snack, it's a Salvadoran dessert/coffee cake made with two cheeses. If you love cheese, and you love cake, you're gonna love this!

1 stick (8 tbs.) unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup Parmesan cheese, grated (use the cheap generic stuff in a can)

3/4 cup Ricotta or fine curd cottage cheese, drained
3 eggs, separated
1 cup sugar
1 cup all purpose flour*, sifted
1 tsp. baking powder*

3/4 cup Milk, room temperature
1 - 2 Tbsp sesame seeds for garnish

* Or substitute 1 cup of Bisquicktm baking mix, sifted.

Combine sugar, flour and baking powder in a bowl. Reserve.

In another bowl combine the cheeses and butter; then add the milk. Reserve.

In a large bowl, with a mixer, beat the egg whites until soft peaks form. Fold in the beaten yolks with a spatula, then fold in the cheese mixture. Lastly, fold in the dry mixture, until just combined.

Pour the batter into a greased or parchmented 9" or 10" springform or pie pan. Sprinkle the top lightly with sesame seeds.

Bake at 325F for 30 to 40 minutes or until golden brown. It goes from yellow/unbaked to golden brown to burnt pretty quickly! Start checking done-ness at 30 minutes.

Cool slightly before removing from pan. Serve wedges with good strong coffee. This is real CHEESE-CAKE. It's slightly sweet, wonderfully cheesy, and has the texture of a dense poundcake!

Yellow Tomato, Mint and Feta Salad

I found the basic idea somewhere on the net, and of course modified it into my own recipe. The tuna salad that I made used tuna, celery, mayo, and Ras al Hanut, the Moroccan seasoning.

1 head Red Leaf Lettuce (or Romaine if you prefer) chopped

1 large Yellow Tomato cut into 8 wedges

1 large Red Bell Pepper

1/4 cup of minced Mint

1 batch of Tuna Salad (see below)

4 oz Feta Cheese, cubed

2 oz Mozzarella Cheese

Oil & Vinegar for dressing

Core and de-vein the pepper, and broil it skin-side-up for about 6 minutes, until you get some nice black spots. Cool and sliced into 3/4" squares.

Make the tuna salad -- 1 can of Solid White Albacore Tuna, 1 stick of celery chopped fine, 3-4 Tbsp of Mayo, and a couple healthy shakes of Ras al Hanut, the Moroccan spice blend. Combine with a fork until everything is well distributed.

Combine some EVOO and vinegar (say 3 Tbsp oil and 1/4 cup vinegar) for a dressing. You really don't want a dressing with a distinctive flavor here -- let the tasty salad ingredients shine through!

Lay down a bed of lettuce, then put tomato wedges at the cardinal points. Sprinkle the mint over all. Then lay down the red pepper pieces, cubes of feta, and mozzarella. Add a scoop of tuna salad, and drizzle the dressing all around.

Low-cal Pi Day Offering

The other day we celebrated Pi Day - 3/14/16 - which is the constant Pi rounded up from 3.14159. Every year has Pi Day (3/14) but this one was significant to another decimal point.

To celebrate, you of course need to make and eat Pi(e). This year's Pi Day was celebrated with a low-cal berry pie, using a recipe from the American Diabetes Association. The original recipe (below) called for three berries (straw, red rasp and blue), but my megamart had blackberries on sale alongside the locally grown strawberries, so what the heck! Notice there is no added sugar, and the only fat comes from the cooking spray. That's what makes this diabetic friendly. See the nutrition facts below.

10 sheets 9 × 14-inch frozen phyllo dough

Nonstick cooking spray

1 quart fresh strawberries, washed and cut into raspberry-sized pieces

2 cups fresh blueberries

1 pint fresh raspberries

Defrost the phyllo according to package directions.

Preheat oven to 425°.

Divide the phyllo into two stacks. One stack will be the bottom crust, the rest forms the top crust

Spray a 9-inch pie pan with nonstick cooking spray. Place a leaf of phyllo in the pie plate and spray it. Top with another sheet of phyllo and spray. Repeat with the first half of the phyllo to form the bottom crust.

Mix all the berries together and place in the crust.

Cut the remaining phyllo into 1-inch pieces and toss together. Place on top

of fruit. Spray with nonstick cooking spray.

Bake for 20–25 minutes until crust is golden. If crust gets too brown before 20 minutes, you can cover with aluminum foil.

Nutrition

CALORIES 105 | CALORIES FROM FAT 20

TOTAL FAT 2.0 g | SATURATED FAT 0.3 g

TRANS FAT 0.0 g | CHOLESTEROL 0 mg

SODIUM 70 mg | POTASSIUM 195 mg

TOTAL CARBOHYDRATE 22 g

DIETARY FIBER 5 g | SUGARS 9 g

PROTEIN 2 g | PHOSPHORUS 40 mg

Sorry to say this is one of those "fooler" recipes... you know the "healthy" ones with the name of something really good, that only vaguely resembles the original.

Yes this has berries, and yes there is a crust of sorts. But frankly, I'd rather just have a bowl of warm fruit than go to all the expense (phyllo dough isn't cheap) and time consuming hassle of making that "crust", prepping the fruit, and baking this recipe.

Nathan's Famoustm  Review

Nathan's Coney Island Hotdogs may be famous, but you'd think after being in the hot dog business a hundred years (yep 100 years) that they would have partnered with a bakery to solve the Too Long problem. You know -- either the dog is too long or the bun is. Here, the dogs are 'way to long for the bun.  Just not aesthetically pleasing!

I must say I was not impressed. First off, I hate dining in a warehouse -- too high ceilings without sound baffles that reflect every clatter and clash of the kitchen and all the babble from the guests, and subject the diners to the resulting high volume cacophony. Granted, it was a bright, clean and neat warehouse, but still a warehouse.

Second, the hot dogs weren't anything to write home about. I ordered the Nathan's Regular Hot Dog. A skinny naked signature hotdog on a bun.  Not a nice plump dog worth nearly $4 -- a long thin dog cooked on a roller table, but not browned to bring out any flavor. This is a famous hot dog?? Not to me. If I want a brand name hotdog, I'll take Sabrettstm -- better flavor and more eye-appealing -- and grill them at home.

The tiny order of signature crinkle-cut fries that I didn't want to pay for were more soggy than crispy. Sad, really. The 6 Fried Shrimp for $1.99 were barely worth $1.99, and I had to pay extra, not substitute them for the fries, which is what I wanted. They were sort of shrimp-flavored coins of crispy breading with a tail. The crispy breading was done right, I will say.  But the shrimp were so flattened they were almost non-existent. That's what you get when you buy undersized shrimp and smash them flat to make them look bigger. Still they were an interesting "loss leader", and better, IMHO than the hot dog or fries. Next time I'll get two orders of the shrimp and skip the hotdog.

Yeah, I'll go back -- to sample the co-brands offerings -- Arthur Treacher's Fish & Chipstm, and Kenny Rogers Roasters Chickentm.  Read the history of those two restaurant chains, on Wikipedia, for yourself.   I'm not holding my breath for great fast food here, but one can hope...