New York Cheesecake

This recipe is based on one published in the 1990 edition of The Serendipity Cookbook. The recipe as it was published then included enough ingredients to make at least two very large cheesecakes. I've also changed the recipe for the crust to be a graham cracker crust rather than the original ground walnut crust because unless you have really, really fresh walnuts, they always taste a bit stale to me.

So here is my recipe for one deep nine inch cheesecake.

First, you need a twelve inch springform pan, the straight sided sort of pan with a clippy hinge that spreads the sides out when you open it and with a removable bottom. I've made cheesecakes in regular deep sided pie tins too, but pie tins are not usually deep enough, so if you are using those you should make crust enough for two pies and be okay with two smaller, less deep cheesecakes that you are happy to cut slices straight out of the pan (because you won't be able to remove their sides as you can do with springform pans).

Ingredients: The Filling

2 pounds cream cheese, softened at room temperature (yup, unbutton the top button of those blue jeans right now)
2 cups white sugar
6 large free range eggs
2 tablespoons vanilla
2 cups sour cream
1/3 cup lemon juice (from fresh squeezed lemons is best)

Ingredients: The Crust

14-16 double Nabisco Sugar Honey Graham Crackers
4 tablespoons dark brown sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 stick/4 oz melted butter

Crush graham crackers in a bowl, add sugar, and cinnamon and mix well.
Add the melted butter and mix thoroughly.
The mixture should hold together when squeezed in the hand, but crumble easily.
With fingertips, press the mixture into the bottom and sides of a buttered springform pan as evenly as possible.

Prepare filling: in a large bowl, beat together cream cheese and sugar until mixture is really soft.
Add eggs and vanilla and keep beating.
Add the sour cream and beat thoroughly.
Whisk in the lemon juice.

Fill a shallow pan with boiling water and place at the bottom of the oven to humidify the air and keep the cake from cracking.

Pour the batter over the crust.
Bake at 300F/150C for one hour. Turn off the oven and let the cake set in the oven for a further hour.
Cool, at room temperature, wrap in plastic and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Garnish with fresh fruit of the season, or with sliced curls of lemon or orange peel.

This cheesecake freezes very well.

Meatloaf

1 lb mince/lean hamburger
1 onion
mushrooms
four or five slices bread, stale bread is fine
1 or 2 eggs
worcestershire sauce
BBQ sauce or ketchup
olive oil or vegetable oil
1 or 2 cloves of garlic

Chop onions, mushrooms and garlic and sautee in oil. Leave on side to cool.
Toast the bread, place in a large mixing bowl and with your hands or a potato masher crush into fine crumbs.
Add the mince/lean hamburger. 
Add egg(s).
Add a generous splash of worcestershire sauce and a good squeeze of your favourite BBQ sauce or ketchup.
Add the sauteed onion, mushroom and garlic.

With your hands or if you are squeamish use a wooden spoon and mix all the ingredients together well.

Place the mixture in a small greased bread tin, or else shape into a sort of flattened ball and place on a greased baking tray.

Bake in oven at 150C/300F for about 45 minutes.

Serve with mashed potatoes and peas. A classic.

Thin Crepe-like Pancakes

These thin pancakes are really yummy scrummy and can be made for savoury or sweet. My measurements aren't very exact, so you might have to experiment a bit to get the right proportions, but basically all you need is:

1 heaping mugful flour
1 or 2 eggs
1 mugful milk
3 tablespoons melted butter/margarine

Place flour in a large bowl. Add eggs and milk and beat until smooth. The mixture should be fairly runny, about the consistency of a smoothie. Add a little water if the batter needs thinning. Stir in the melted butter. The melted butter not only adds flavour, it also helps the batter not stick in the pan.

Melt a small pat of butter in a frying pan and get it nice and hot, nearly smoking. Pour a ladle-ful of the batter into a hot frying pan and and turn the pan around to spread the batter all around. Turn the pancake with a spatula when the edges of the pancake begin to curl a little. The pancake only needs cooking on the flip side for just a few seconds and then it can be turned out onto a large plate.

Cook the rest of the batter until you have a pile of pancakes. Pancakes can be served with a sprinkling of sugar and lemon, or maple syrup, or you can roll each one up like a wrap with any of the following:

grated cheese
cubed ham
cream cheese and strawberry jam
sour cream and chives/spring onion
hummus
sauteed mushrooms
or anything else