Cheese Cake from Yoghurt Quark

Yoghurt

Get  

1 liter organic full-cream milk
1 tbsp live yoghurt

do

Heat the milk in a small pot slowly until bubbles appear. Turn the stove off but allow the milk to stay hot for another hour or so. This can be automated with a timer on an electric stove to switch itself off after a given amount of time (e.g. 47 minutes on setting 4).
Cool to body temperature.
Mix in the yoghurt starter culture and whisk it.
Pour into a yoghurt maker and turn it on for about 10 hours.
Cool.
Cooking the milk produces milk solids and keeping it hot promotes more solids for a thick yoghurt. The amount of time in the yoghurt maker may influence this too. When in doubt leave it longer. 

 

Quark

Pour 1 liter of refrigerated yoghurt into a large fine sieve over a large bowl. Cover it. Allow the liquid to drain off into the bowl in the fridge for 24 hours. From time to time pour off the clear liquid (whey) into a cup and continue draining.
Tip the quark from the sieve into a bowl, cover and keep cool.
Eat it fresh or use to make a cheese cake.
 

Cheese cake without pastry

Get

2 portions of quark
4 eggs
8 tbsp agave nectar
sultanas soaked overnight in lime juice (or blueberries)
9-10 tbsp spelt flour 

 

do

Preheat the oven to 180°c.
Butter a baking dish.
Drain the quark and put it in a mixing bowl.
Separate eggs.
Add egg yolks and 4 tbsp agave nectar in the middle of the quark and mix well.
Lift the flour under.
Lift the sultanas under. 

Click to enlarge

Beat the egg whites in another bowl with 4 tbsp agave nectar. Lift under.
Put mixture into the baking dish and bake on the 2nd shelf for 50 minutes. Turn the oven down to 130° and bake for a further 25 minutes until lightly golden. Turn off the oven and cool in the oven without rapidly or suddenly cooling. The cake will rise when baking and sink again when cooling.
Let it settle down for a day in the fridge. Best on the 2nd and 3rd days. And the 4th if there is any left.
Serve with blueberries.

The above cheesecake variation was created by Ross. Quark made with lemon and topped with Davidson's plum jelly.

More cheesecakes: here, here and here

Cherry cheese cake

GET
200g wholemeal spelt flour
1 tbsp agave syrup
1 egg yolk
125g organic butter

1kg organic quark (curd cheese)
5 tbsp organic agave syrup
75g wholemeal spelt flour
3 organic free-range eggs, separated
1 egg white
 ½ untreated lemon
200g dark red cherries, pitted

DO
Grate lemon peel and press out the juice.
Put spelt flour into a large stainless steel bowl.
Mix in agave syrup and egg yolk.
Add butter in flakes and knead to a pastry. Add more flour if it is sticky.

Cool

Preheat oven to 175°c.
Roll out pastry into a 28cm buttered round baking form with sides about 3 cm high. Pierce the bottom with a fork in several places. Cover with baking paper and place light weights on it (e.g. tea spoons)
Bake pastry shell for 3 to 5 minutes. Remove from oven.

Beat quark, 3 egg yolks, 3 tbsp agave syrup, flour.
Add lemon and mix.

Beat 4 egg whites and add 2 tbsp agave syrup. Continue beating until stiff.
Fold in the egg white mixture.

Add a little filling to pastry shell to cover the bottom. Arrange cherries evenly on it. Add the remaining filling to pastry shell covering the cherries.
Bake at 175°c for 30 minutes. Then turn oven down to 140° and bake for a further 35 minutes.
Turn off oven and leave the cake in it for another 20 minutes.
Remove from form.

Best eaten when cool especially on the second day and thereafter.

Baked Rice Pudding with Pear Compote

GET
1 l milk
250 g rice, round/brown
1 cup of currants or raisins
Some lemon juice
1 vanilla bean
50 g agave syrup
1 pinch of salt
2 Tsp butter
A pinch of cinnamon

6 ripe pears
agave syrup as required
½ cup filtered water
all organic

DO
Rinse the raisins with hot water, then soak in lemon juice and some water.
Wash the rice, heat the milk and add the rice. When it boils, reduce the heat and simmer for 45 min. Take pot from stove and let it stand covered for 15 min.
Add the remaining butter, salt, scraped-out vanilla and the soaked and drained raisins and stir.
Coat the baking dish with some butter and preheat the oven to 200°
Place mixture in the baking dish, sprinkle with a bit of cinnamon and a some of butter. Cook until the crust is golden. Serve hot or cold with pear compote or apple compote.

No Spotted Dick Please, We're British
In England the Spotted Dick is a pudding containing suet and currants or raisins. But rice pudding is enjoyed by many other cultures around the world, even without the kidney fat.

Pear compote

Peel and core pears. Slice into a cooking pot. Add boiling water. Cover. Bring to boil and simmer for a few minutes. Mix in agave syrup while still warm.

Asparagus quiche

get

2 bunches asparagus
200g spelt flour
50g hard mild cheese
100g butter

4 Tbsp olive oil
6 eggs
4 heaped Tbsp spelt flour.
150g hard mild cheese (cheddar, Bergkäse) (grated finely)
2 Tbsp Parmesan cheese (grated finely)
boiling water
1 cup spelt-almond milk

do

Break the hard bottoms off the asparagus stems. Wash them well.
Steam asparagus until soft. Cool and drain well.

Preheat the oven to 190°c.

Put 200g flour in a bowl. Mix in 50g cheese. Cut in 80g butter. Mix together with hands. Add drops of water and continue kneading until the pastry holds together. Cool.

Heat the olive oil with 20g butter in a small saucepan. When melted mix in 4 Tbsp flour and allow it to cook a little. Add boiling water bit by bit while mixing. The Flour mixture will absorb the water. Continue adding water until the mixture is a thick paste, then gradually stir in the spelt-almond milk. Add enough to make a very thick sauce. Stir occasionally while cooking for about 10 minutes. Then turn of the heat and continue stirring occasionally as it cools.

Roll out the pastry on a cloth. Form it to a pie shell in a 28cm round baking form. Sprinkle a little cheese on the bottom.

Beat the eggs well until foamy. Gradually add the warmish spelt sauce while beating, starting with a small amount. When it is all mixed in, spoon some into the pastry shell to cover the bottom.
Using scissors cut small pieces of asparagus into the pie shell. Discard any woody bottoms. Save the tips for later. Use half the asparagus. Sprinkle some cheese on top and then add more spelt sauce covering the asparagus.
Cut the remaining asparagus on top as before. Sprinkle with Parmesan and then add the remaining spelt sauce evenly on top. Arrange the asparagus tips on top and sprinkle the remaining cheese evenly on them.

Bake the quiche at 190°C on the second shelf from the bottom for 30 minutes.
When you are ready to serve the quiche, bake it for another 60 minutes at 180°C and serve it hot. Test it with a skewer. It can also be eaten cold later.

Baked penne with tomatoes

This dish is a favourite with leftover pasta and tomato sauce from the day before, but can be done from scratch too.

GET
500 g Penne
1 cup of tomato sauce
1 cup of cherry tomatoes
Some basil leaves

Optional
2 cups of cream
1/2 cup Parmigiano-Reggiano
1/4 cup rennet-free cooking cheese 
1/4 cup Gorgonzola cheese
1/4 Mozzarella cheese


DO
A)  The leftover option:
The pasta and tomato sauce have been already mixed the day before. Now add the small tomatoes and if you like the cream and cheese mixture. Heat the oven. Grate some of the cooking cheese over the dish and cook till the pasta is hot and the cheese has melted. Decorate with basil.

B)  Without the leftovers
Boil the pasta al dente and drain. Mix all cheeses, cream in a bowl. Mix pasta, dairy and the small tomatoes and place on shallow baking dish. Grate some of the cooking cheese over the dish. Cook till the cheese has melted. Decorate with shredded basil leaves.
   

Cheese cake

GET
300g wholemeal spelt flour
1 tbsp agave syrup
1 egg yolk
125g organic butter

1kg organic quark
5 tbsp organic agave syrup
75g wholemeal spelt flour
3 organic free-range eggs, separated
1 egg white
1 untreated lemon
1 organic vanilla pod
100g washed organic sultanas

DO
Soak sultanas in lemon juice with grated lemon peel (zest).
Put spelt flour into a large stainless steel bowl.
Mix in agave syrup and egg yolk.
Add butter in flakes and knead to a pastry.
Cool

Preheat oven to 180°c.
Roll out pastry into a 28cm buttered round baking form with sides about 3 cm high. Pierce the bottom with a fork in several places.
Bake pastry shell for 8 to 10 minutes. Remove from oven.

Beat quark, 3 egg yolks, 3 tbsp agave syrup, flour.
Add sultanas and lemon and mix.
Scratch out the inside of the vanilla pod and mix it in.
Beat 4 egg whites and add 2 tbsp agave syrup. Continue beating until stiff.
Lift the egg white mixture under.

Add filling to pastry shell.
Bake at 180°c for 30 minutes. Then turn oven down to 160° and bake for a further 15 minutes.
Turn off oven and let the cake cool in it.
Remove from form.

Best eaten when cool especially on the second day. And thereafter

This cake can also be baked with just a pastry base, no side.
This cheese cake is a further development of a previous cheese cake recipe.

Honey or syrup?
This recipe uses agave syrup rather than honey. According to some sources, heating honey over 40°c is unhealthy. Generally, where honey is used in these recipes it can be substituted with agave syrup or maple syrup depending on the disired flavour.

The cake is immersed in a wildflower meadow. Visible are Bellis perennis. The air is abuzz with honey bees and various bumblebees feeding on the sea of wild flowers. Lawn fanatics erase with the help of fossil fuel the food source of these pollinators regularly and eagerly work on their extinction.

Feta and Figs Variations

Some alternative ways to combine feta cheese with figs with optional nuts and herbs:

Get some of these resources:
Feta, organic, non animal rennet preferred
Oil: olive or macadamia & vinegar
Herbs: parsley/basil/mint leaves/dried oregano
Nuts: macadamia, hazelnuts or raw pistachios
flour, honey, fresh cinnamon

Choose and Do

Cold platter
Drain and wash feta. Cut feta into slices, sprinkle oil over it. Arrange fresh figs Optional: sprinkle with lightly roasted macadamia, hazelnuts or raw chopped pistachios.

If dressing is desired
1 tsp organic mustard
6 tsp macadamia oil
1 tsp rice vinegar
scatter over arranged feta fig platter

Toast nuts of your choice in frying pan, stirring frequently. Do not burn nuts. Add last minute with fresh herbs
Fried feta variation
Drain and wash feta. Cut feta into matchbox size chunks. Put whole grain flour on plate, mix in some oregano. Roll feta pieces gently in flour. Heat olive oil, fry cheese gently, turning it till golden. Decorate with fresh figs and parsley/basil/mint leaves

Cook the Figs
Add a small cup of honey and ¼ tsp of fresh cinnamon into a frying pan, cook gently for a few minutes. Add the cleaned figs and toss in this mixture for 1 minute. Place figs on feta platter. Decorate with nuts and herbs

These dishes go well with Okra in Tomato Sauce
Coriander pesto is also an accompaniment with the above dishes
More feta recipes here and here