Dinner at Jamie Oliver and The Dreamy Cheesecake

The other evening I was invited together with other friendly bloggers to a dinner at Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen in London. The evening  was organised by Jamie Oliver editorial crew and aimed to showcase Jamie’s web recipes and new collaboration with some of their handpicked food bloggers. It was great to meet Danny again, who I have met before at Jamie’s upstairs kitchens, where the charity supperclubs are held as well as some of Jamie’s TV shows are filmed. On arrival we had a demo from Jonathan Rotheram, newly appointed head chef at the newly refurbished Fifteen Old Street, London. Jon showed us how to trim and cook lambs kidney on toast, it was so tender and tasty. Offal is usually overlooked and they are a cheap alternative to the more expensive cuts of meat and full of flavour. After the demo we seat down for dinner.  Starter was of massive plate of fresh and gleaming prawns, a beautiful goats cheese salad sprinkled with red chillies (I love it), fresh Keralan veggie curry, a gorgeous Southern Indian crab curry, fragrant and colourful lemon rice and to finish a delectable bloomin’ easy vanilla cheesecake. It was served with delicious boozy sweet sour cherry compote and I still dreaming about it…

upstairs kitchen

Jon’s demo under Jim’s watchful eyes

Lamb’s kidney

  

we were also given fleur de sel by Slovely (Joe)

 

very good wines by St Patrignamo UK charity

mouthwatering curries and fragrant lemon rice

cheesecake time!

I was so impressed by Merlin’s cheesecake that I decided to look for other cheesecake recipes on Jamie Oliver’s website and adapt using some red guava marmalade I had at home.  The guava emerged in Brazil when it was used by Portuguese settlers in colonial times as a substitute for making the quince marmalade. Keeping  fruit conserved as  sweet dates back from the Roman times. Guava marmalade accompanied by cheese, especially white cheese from Minas,  the “Romeo and Juliet”, is traditional Brazilian dessert.
As part of the collaboration, mentioned above,  I was also given a Jamie Oliver’s spring form cake pan from the Jme collection to make the cheesecake. The very good quality springform cake pan is coated to prevent sticking. Nonstick coating and easy removable ring makes it ideal  for heavy cheesecakes. The watertight their bottom seal was perfect for my water bath approach to baking the cheesecake this way avoiding cracks. Nice overall design.

Red Guava Cheesecake, adapted from Jamie’s New York vanilla cheesecake recipe
Yield: 12 portions

equipment:  24cms spring form cake tin, blender and a mixer, 2x bowls, 1 medium pan, spoons

Ingredients:

• 150 g unsalted butter, melted, plus extra for greasing
• 200 g digestive biscuits, crushed
• 50gr of Brazil nuts crushed
• 115 g caster sugar
• 3 tablespoons cornflour
• 900 g full-fat cream cheese, at room temperature
• 2 large free-range eggs
• 115 ml double cream
• 1 vanilla pod, scored length ways and seeds removed, or ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
• zest of 1 lemon
• zest of 1 orange
•  300 gr of red guava marmalade
• 2 tbsp
  unflavoured gelatin powder
• 1 can of red guava ( If you can get hold of fresh ones- great, if not used whole canned, I buy mine at Waitrose in the UK) 
• 1 tablespoon of maple syrup

• Method :

  Preheat the oven to 180ºC/350ºF/gas 4, and grease
  and line the bottom and sides of a 24cm spring form cake tin. Mix the
  crushed biscuits, nuts and butter in a bowl, press into the base of the prepared tin
  and cook for 10 minutes. Then remove from the oven and allow to cool.Turn the oven down to 175ºC.  Combine the sugar and cornflour
  in a bowl. Add the cream cheese and beat, ideally with an electric
  whisk, until creamy. Gradually add the
  cream, beating until smooth, then beat in the vanilla seeds or extract
  and lemon and orange zest.

  

  

  Lastly, add the eggs until incorporated, make sure you don’t over beat or the cheesecake will crack. Further precaution  against cracked top is to wrap the bottom of the pan with foil and place the pan over a tray with water half way up the outside of the cake pan.

  Tip the cheesecake mixture on to baked biscuit base, and gently shake it to level out the surface. Put the cheesecake in the water tray and place in the centre of the oven. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes until the top is golden brown and the filling has set around the edges.  The center will be a bit wobbly.  Switch off the oven and let the cheesecake to cool inside the oven for another hour. In a pan melt the red guava paste with 100ml of mineral water till smooth. Prepare the gelatin according to package. Add to the guava paste. Smooth over the cheesecake. Let it set in the fridge for about 4 hours. Place the guava (peel and quartered if fresh) in a ovenproof dish pour the maple syrup over them and roast for about 20 mins.

• To serve: cut the cheesecake into portions and
  place on plates. Garnish with guava.

 

Looking forward to trying more of Jamie’s recipes soon!

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