A Quick No Bake Lemon Curd Cheesecake

No Bake Lemon Curd Cheesecake

I have been meaning to invite a number of friends old and new over for coffee or lunch but never really got round to it. It is easier to just arrange to meet and try out a new restaurant each time - or I have been so busy trying to settle down that I often do not have the mood to socialise.

Finally managed to get a few gals over for coffee one morning and there wasn't any need to prepare anything major since SW (Indonesian Chinese from Sydney) came along with her lovely pandan chiffon cake. I therefore just prepared a few egg sandwiches and a Quick No Bake Lemon Curd Cheesecake.

The motivating factor was actually this bottle of organic lemon curd that I found in the move when it finally arrived in Shanghai. I have bought it in Modena and never got round to using it. Since I have a tub of mascarpone (very expensive here), whipping cream and fresh limes, I figured it called for said cheesecake. To top it all, I have been meaning to try out the ready graham cracker pie crusts that we can find here at the supermarket.

The cheesecake was well-received and Hub actually finished it off for breakfast the next day.

Quick No Bake Lemon Curd Cheesecake :

9-inch graham cracker pie crust

250g mascarpone cheese

200g organic lemon curd

50ml cold milk

juice of half a lemon

200ml whipping cream (whipped)

zest of 1 lime (half in filling and half on top of filling)

Beat the mascarpone and lemon curd together till smooth and creamy. Add the milk and mix well.

Stir in the lemon juice and zest. Fold in the whipped cream.

There is usually no need to add any sugar as the lemon curd would already be sweet.

Spoon the filling onto the pie crust and sprinkle the remaining lime zest over it.

Refrigerate for at least 4 hours before serving.

Paper Portraits - Guess Who Is Who?

Our compound held a BBQ last Saturday and invited all tenants to it. One of the Chinese artisans displaying his art was a paper cutter. We were there early since we live just opposite the BBQ pit and I managed to get the whole family's profiles done before the rest of the world arrived.

For those who know us, do you think they resembled us?

For those who don't, guess qui est qui?

Banana and Oats Tea Loaf

Banana and Oats Tea Loaf

It has been a little hectic the past few weeks as the family's visit approaches and I found myself stuck to the computer playing travel agent. At the same time I have started planning for our own summer holidays so there is barely time left over to blog or to keep in touch with old friends on Facebook. Besides, the VPN doesn't work very well.

Then of course I have also gone around Pudong checking out different markets with a few of my neighbours (the cool, fun ones), lunched with a few new friends and done the usual grocery shopping (one never finds everything one needs here under the same roof). Added to that the kids will be having their final exams in less than 2 weeks and while we are not expecting any sudden revelation of genius, I am still hoping that they will manage to at least pass all of their subjects.

I suddenly realised in the afternoon yesterday that the Teenager's International Food Day was today. My fridge was almost empty though there were a few over-ripe bananas and still-green potatoes lying around. That meant Banana and Oats Tea Loaf and the usual baked curry puffs to represent France and Singapore - sort of. Well, better than nothing. I toyed with the idea of sending him off with a packet of French butter biscuits but thought better of it.

The Banana and Oats (no nuts allowed at school) Tea Loaf is very easy to make and if wrapped properly can keep for a few months in the freezer. The painter came yesterday to touch up the walls and the house stank really badly of paint - so a spot of baking was much needed. The kitchen smelt nicely of banana and sugar and almost lifted my inertia vis-à-vis baking and cooking - well, almost. It is too easy to eat out, take away or order a delivery - why bother to cook?

Banana and Oats Tea Loaf :

2 large very ripe bananas (mashed)

100g butter (softened)

140g organic cane or muscovado sugar

2 eggs (lightly beaten)

2 tbsp milk

225g self-raising flour

3-4 tbsp oats

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Oil and line a small loaf tin.

Cream the butter and sugar together, add the eggs.

Fold in the bananas and milk. Followed by the flour.

Pour into the loaf tin and sprinkle the oats over. Replace the oats with roughly crushed walnuts for a crunchier loaf.

Bake for 55 minutes until risen.

Stand for 10 minutes, remove from the tin, remove the lining paper and let it cool before serving.

Mr and Mrs Bund Revisited

Mr and Mrs Bund - the entrance

Hub touched down at Hongqiao airport after a tiring week away and ordered his driver to bring him to Mr and Mrs Bund for lunch - with me. The diet I was supposed to start (9 years ago) was once again to be postponed, though I did try to burn a few calories walking round Xintiandi before the meal. Until I chanced upon this Japanese supermarket and bought 2 boxes of dark chocolate macadamia nuts from Meiji...Yummy.

Staircase of the historical building

Anyway this was the first time we went to the restaurant in daytime, the other 2 occasions having been for dinner. View of the Bund at night was breathtaking for there is often a certain haziness in Shanghai's daytime weather. But nothing beats natural daylight when it comes to food photography.

The last time we dined in the restaurant our table of 9 ate up all the lobsters they had. I must say that they were absolutely delicious, skewered on a lemongrass stalk and steamed in a jar to preserve all their natural goodness, moist, very tasty - one of the best that I've ever eaten. We were invited to dinner on that occasion by a former supplier of Hub's. Former - for Hub never accepted such invitations from business connections when he had direct dealings with them. Now that he has nothing to do with the guy, we could privately enjoy his company and delightful company he was.

View from our table

Back to lunch, we had a table with a view of the river and of Liujiazui on the opposite bank. The lunch menu was a bargain compared to the dinner one - I must return with the girlfriends another day.

Bacon caesar salad

Foie gras crumble - savoury, sweet and slightly acidic

Hub and I shared all our courses so that we could taste more of the menu. We started with the foie gras crumble and a very good bacon caesar salad, followed by grilled scallops on a bed of truffled mashed potatoes served with truffle cream sauce on the side. I had steamed black cod with cantonese sauce and it was very perfumed, delicate, flesh firm and fresh. I would love to try the meat courses, but it was always difficult to resist fish when you see it on the menu of a reputable restaurant. We had a glass of house wine each and both wines were quite decent.

Grilled scallops, truffles, mashed potatoes

Steamed black cod with cantonese sauce

Service was fast and efficient as usual, one can see that the service staff takes pride in their work. On the way to the bathroom you can see the kitchen in action and I liked to do just that, it was fascinating. MMBund is run by French Chef Paul Pairet who used to work at Jade on 36 in Shangri-La Pudong. He is known for his pairing of local and foreign ingredients in original and surprising ways and is on the verge of opening a new restaurant in Shanghai known as Ultraviolet where a group of diners will sit together around a table and share a tasting menu.

Molten chocolate cake, vanilla ice cream, strawberry sauce

Strawberries, strawberry sorbet and cream

We are really happy to have found a good French restaurant so quickly into our stay in Shanghai. Now we need to work on the Italian and Chinese ones...

View of next building from terrace

Finally, the restaurant has a terrace for smokers and/or admirers of the Bund. Lovely to take a break from the meal to take in some (not-so-fresh) air and admire the busy world outside. The Bund normally has crowds of tourists, being able to admire the views without being jostled or rolled over by mobile photography carts was a pleasure.

View of Liujiazui from Mr and Mrs Bund

Basic Pork Won Tons (云吞)

云吞

I have been asked by a number of non-Asian friends how one makes won tons and realised that it was one of those things that appears complicated to people who hadn't spent a part of their lives eating wrapping them.

Since I regularly make Pork Won Tons 云吞 for my children (the Babies do not eat seafood), I have taken the opportunity to take a few pictures during my last dumpling-making session.

When I said basic, I really meant basic. No coriander, onion, ginger, garlic or water chestnut to help improve the fare - though I do use them when the babies are not in the picture. Just fill your dumplings the way you want them.

Both fresh and frozen won ton wrappers are available here in Shanghai and for some reason I have only bought the ones imported from Singapore. Back in Europe, most Chinese grocery stores will carry them - and for some reason too they would usually be imported from Singapore.

Basic Pork Dumplings :

fresh won ton wrappers

minced pork

salt

pepper

dark soy sauce

chinese cooking wine

sesame oil

egg

cornstarch

Dipping sauce :

fresh bird's eye chilli

light soy sauce

dark chinese vinegar

I always prepare the filling at least a few hours in advance so that it has the time to absorb all of its seasonings. It is also easier to wrap this way.

Marinate the minced pork with the salt, pepper, soy sauce, wine and sesame oil. Mix well.

The filling

Make a well in the meat and break an egg into it. Stir with a pair of chopsticks to mix it well. Mix in the cornstarch (about 2 tsp for 250g of meat). Cover the bowl with clingwrap and leave in the fridge for a few hours.

Won ton wrappers

I only use cold water to seal my won ton wrappers as they are usually well-floured. What is important is not to put in too much filling, and to use your fingers to press out any air pockets so that the won ton doesn't burst/tear during the cooking. This applies to making raviolis and tortellonis too, for example.

Basically put a small spoonful of the filling in the middle of the wrapper. Dip one finger in a bowl of cold water and wet 2 sides of the wrapper so that it could be folded and firmly sealed into a triangle or rectangle. Other shapes could of course be used, I usually stick to triangles especially when I fry my won tons because I prefer to shallow-fry.

relatively calm surface

If boiling them, bring a pot of lightly salted water to boil, then lower the heat to medium. Place a few won tons into the water at a time so that they do not stick together. I use medium heat so that the wrapper will not break and the meat will have the time to be cooked through.

The won tons are usually ready when they start to float and the skins turn transparent. Fish them out and set aside. One can eat them just like that with a dipping sauce, use them in a soup or accompany them with noodles. For some reason my children adore them.

Carrot and Coriander Soup

Carrot and Coriander Soup

It is not easy making the children eat vegetables. I have to resort to hiding them in soups and for that European-style soups where normally everything is mashed up serve the purpose.

I was invited to lunch at a Singaporean girl's place the other day and she made this carrot soup that was very nice. There was a slightly acidic bite to it which had been achieved with the use of orange juice and red wine vinegar and once home I decided to make my own version which has since become very popular with the family. I like my soup rather spicy so omit the dried chilli if you do not like yours so.

Carrot and Coriander Soup :

500g carrots

500g potatoes

1 medium onion

olive oil

2 tsp whole cumin seeds

1 dried chilli

a bunch of fresh coriander leaves

salt and pepper to taste

1,5l water

0,5l orange juice

red wine vinegar to taste

Peel carrots, potatoes and onion and chop them roughly into pieces.

Heat some olive oil in a big soup pot and fry the onions and cumin seeds till fragrant. Add the potatoes followed by the carrots and coat them with the oil.

Crush the dried chilli and add to the vegetables. Salt and pepper to taste. Add in the fresh coriander.

I like to start out by covering the vegetables with 2 glasses of hot water. Once everything starts to boil, pour in the rest of the water (room temperature), cover the pot and lower the heat to medium-low. Simmer the soup for at least 30 minutes.

About 10 minutes before serving, pour in the orange juice. Simmer.

Mix everything with a hand mixer till smooth. Taste the soup and adjust the seasoning (e.g. salt and pepper), add red wine vinegar to taste. Serve hot with some cream and a few slices of crusty bread.

Lost Heaven, Shanghai

Lost Heaven

I am, you've heard it before, fatter than ever. I thought that it was bad enough eating pasta and pizza in Italy for nearly 4 years, but coming to Shanghai means being tempted to try out the endless number of different cuisines on offer and I have not even started to eat Shanghainese yet.

The dining area

Having been away from Asia for 15 years, I was quite delighted to find myself surrounded by Chinese food again. I wouldn't pretend that I have been eating local since my stomach is still very foreign and I have no intention of testing out the limits of its resistance. But I have been to a few nice restaurants serving savvy locals and careful expats and Lost Heaven specialising in Yunnan and Burmese Folk cuisines was a good address.

Dry beef curry

The restaurant is situated in a small street in Puxi in what is known as the Former French Concession and is housed in a lovely early 20th century villa. On the ground floor is the bar and lounge and on the 1st floor you find the restaurant.

Potent stuff

The decoration is quite hip, with high ceilings, wooden floors, warm colours and a big Buddha statue in the middle of the hall. The menu features cuisines of the Dai, Bai and Miao ethnic minority groups which are pretty similar to Thai and Vietnamese cuisines, with Sichuan spices thrown in.

Hub had travelled in IndoChina more than 2 decades ago and hadn't been impressed with Burmese food, for example. So he was doubtful about how good cuisines from poor regions could be. Either he hadn't tried the right dishes then, or economic improvement helped - since everything we tried in this restaurant had been very good.

Crunchy beans with a spicy shrimp sauce - yummy

Most of the dishes were indeed spicy, and they use ingredients like shrimp paste plus herbs and vegetables I have never seen. I cannot claim to be an authority on Yunnan cuisine, but I certainly will want to taste more of it in the near future.

Lost Heaven

38 Gao You Rd (near Fuxing Xi Lu)

Shanghai

Tel : +86 (21) 6433 5126

Taiwanese 3 Cup Chicken (三杯鸡)

三杯鸡

I must have mentioned that we have a Chinese State-run 5* hotel in our compound. In it there is a "model" 5* Chinese restaurant. And for a few Thursdays now I have been learning how to cook with one of its top Chefs, a certain Wang shifu. The cookery lessons were included in our rent.

One of the dishes we learnt recently was Taiwanese 3 Cup Chicken 三杯鸡. It supposedly originated from China but has since become very popular in Taiwan. As a matter of fact we have a few Taiwanese ladies in our group and they were protesting as the Chef finished his lesson - that in Taiwan they didn't cook this dish the way he just did!

I therefore decided that I needn't follow his recipe to the letter, me too I will cook it my own way. The important thing is to respect the use of 3 basic ingredients : dark soy sauce, toasted sesame oil and Chinese cooking wine and to eventually cook the dish in some earthenware. From what I've understood after hearing out the Taiwanese present, garlic, chilli and basil leaves also feature importantly in the dish.

San Bei Ji :

boneless chicken drumstick meat (cubed largely)

salt

pepper

chinese cooking wine

egg white

cornstarch

fresh ginger

red onion

garlic cloves

red, green and yellow peppers

fresh basil leaves

bird's eye chilli (for decoration)

The Sauce :

oyster sauce

chinese cooking wine

sugar

dried hot chillies (crushed) or chilli sauce

dark soy sauce

toasted sesame oil

dark chinese vinegar

fresh basil leaves

water

cornstarch

Wang shifu never provided measures when he taught us how to cook. Cooking is about personal taste. He would show us the "standard" method to cook a dish, telling us for example if the dish would be better off sweet, sour, bland etc - and why, but how much of anything we should add is really up to us. His favourite word is "估计" or estimate.

One thing for sure is that one should marinate the chicken for a few hours with some salt, pepper, wine, egg white and cornstarch to prepare the meat for cooking.

Chinese restaurant cooking uses a lot of oil and 5* restaurant or not, the Chef uses quite a bit of msg in his cooking. We would give him the ugly look whenever he started to reach out for the latter and he has learnt to say, "We will use just a tiny bit of msg for this dish..."

I have therefore adapted the recipe for home cooking and also to suit my personal taste.

After the chicken has been seasoned, prepare the sauce by mixing all the ingredients (except the water and corn starch) together in a bowl. Steep some fresh basil leaves in the sauce.

Cut the onion and peppers into medium pieces. The garlic can be used whole and crushed, or sliced. The ginger can be just sliced or julienned.

The dish can be prepared directly in an earthenware e.g. claypot or cooked in a frying pan or wok and then finished in an earthenware. I used the second method.

Add about 2 tbsps of toasted sesame oil to a medium-hot frying pan and fry the ginger, followed by the onions, garlic and fresh basil leaves. It is best not to overheat sesame oil, by the way.

Add 2 tbsps of canola or peanut oil to the pan and fry the peppers. Add the marinated chicken pieces and brown them on both sides.

Now stir in the prepared sauce and coat the chicken thoroughly in it. After about 5 minutes, pour in some water and let the chicken simmer in it over low heat till half the water is absorbed by the meat. Stir in some cornstarch-water solution to thicken the sauce.

I poured the meat and sauce into a Spanish clay dish at this point and placed it under the grill in my oven to finish cooking. Parts of the chicken would be caramelised (this is basically a sweet dish so be generous with the sugar).

Take the dish out of the oven, mix the chicken properly with the sauce, drizzle more toasted sesame oil over the chicken and serve it hot with steamed jasmine rice or rice congee.

Restaurant La Gloire Montargis, France

The dessert trolley at La Gloire Montargis

From Stuttgart we rented a car and drove to Reutlingen where Hub had to attend a few meetings over 2 days at his new company (which actually was his former company before Ferrari). While Hub was working I drove the kids to Metzingen for a spot of shopping and to Sindelfingen for 2 hours of fun at Jolos Kinderwelt - like in the old days when we were living in Germany. Then it was back to Stuttgart to catch another train and this time to Paris.

We travelled first class on the TGV and it was a wonderful experience for the kids who have always wanted to ride on one. Once at Gare du Nord we rented another car and drove to MIL's place - to wait for a part of our move from Modena. Since we couldn't bring everything to China and have nowhere to store them in Italy, we had to move them to MIL's cellar. At the same time, it gave us an opportunity to visit her before we leave Europe. In any case, our Chinese visas were not ready at that time so we couldn't board our flights to Shanghai.

The movers arrived with part of our wine cellar - and a broken LCD

Hub had a meeting to attend in St Julien du Sault in Burgundy so we drove there one evening and spent the night in Montargis. Our comfortable hotel ran a 1* Michelin restaurant named La Gloire Montargis - so we decided to try it out.

Our eyes were often larger than our stomachs. We opted for the full menu - having forgotten that dessert comprised of whatever you could eat out of a 3-tier dessert trolley. So we had foie gras to start followed by a fish and meat dish - and cheeses from a huge cheese trolley.

The food was very good, portions generous. There was nothing fancy about the dishes, but they were fresh, tasty and accompanied by the right sauces and vegetables. The owners drove regularly overnight to Rungis in Paris to buy their fresh ingredients, in fact we left the hotel very early the next morning and bumped into them as they returned from Paris.

Their desserts were to die for. I wished now that I had eaten lesser before and could do more justice to the dessert trolley. Or truth was I did - and suffered for it the whole night in our hotel room.

I actually ate all of that!

Hotel-Restaurant La Gloire Montargis

74 av. Gen. de Gaulle

45200 Montargis

Tel : 0238850469

www.lagloire-montargis.com

Leaving Modena

The movers were here!

The packing took longer than the movers themselves expected. Thankfully we decided to leave Modena later than we were supposed to, as such we didn't miss our overnight train to Stuttgart.

At one stage during the move I was actually very nervous as the truck was already full, very full - and we still had a whole floor of stuff to load. Some of the movers drove the full truck back to Rome - leaving another 3 movers behind to stay another night in order to load a smaller truck that wasn't supposed to be packed full.

Packing material : each of those white rolls is worth 100 euros

This second truck was packed so full the movers had to abandon their packing material (very costly stuff - they were quite upset actually). The final count was 364 boxes or more than 70 cubic metres. That took a good 3 months to arrive in Shanghai.

We were fortunate that the French Bs offered to look after our children during the move as well as accommodate us after our beds had been dismantled. CB even cooked dinner and threw us a farewell party with the German Bs - so that we could drink a few more good bottles of wine together before we left. We really miss those occasions...

In fact, I was telling myself that in the past 15 or more years I have left behind so many friends because of my nomadic lifestyle - first my kakis in Singapore and then friends I have made in France, USA, Spain, Germany and now Italy...Of course I wasn't always the one who left first, but the result is still the same - though with email and Skype nowadays the separation is not as painful/final as it would have been in the past.

A last lunch with friends at Da Pasticcino

On our last day, LS, KF, CS and Mu invited us to lunch at Il Ristorante Da Pasticcino - a fitting farewell to very good Modenese pasta and meat for us. It was very kind and lovely of this group of crazy, wonderful girls whom I've had the honour of spending time with and I would like to thank them once again for this lovely gesture.

My favourite fresh pasta with porcini

The Chateaubriand was excellent

That evening, we took a train from Bologna to Stuttgart via Munich. It was a 6-seater cabin and we were 5 fiesty passengers who dashed into it - where a poor lone German guy was sleeping. He had to endure our incessant chatting as we tried to settle down, not to forget smell our feet as we climbed into our beds (above his). But the rest of the night went quite well and we did manage to catch a few winks before pulling into Munich.

It was lovely being in Germany again after all this while and we had a quick breakfast at the train station before catching another train to Stuttgart - and to the start of a 2-week wait for the visas that would allow us to fly into China to begin our new lives in Shanghai.