easycooking

japanese fluffy cheesecake [bites]

food

I have to admit… I didn’t come up with this recipe all on my own, hehe. I saw a Tasty Japan video on Facebook and used it for reference. By posting this article, I tried to simplify the directions because their website is entirely in Japanese and the video goes SUUUPER fast, (so I hope this helps!) I even added my own twist to this dessert by making my own fresh whipped cream with a tint of caramel and let me tell you…

It’s the perfect amount of sweetness with all that fluffy goodness.

So what makes this different than American cheesecake? It kind of looks like jello because it’s jiggly. The texture is more airy than dense like a regular cheesecake. Before this I never had Japanese cheesecake, but I’m definitely a huge fan now!!

The key to making this correctly is the meringue. This is when egg whites are mixed with sugar and it becomes this stiff, yet fluffy consistency. Reference my photos!

I knew this was going to be a challenge, so it definitely takes time and patience! P.S. I used a food scale to weigh out the ingredients because I didn’t know how to convert them :/ As always, the outcome is ALWAYS WORTH IT 💕

RECIPE YIELDS 6 CHEESECAKE TARTS.

Ingredients for the cheesecake:

  • 1 egg
  • 30g sugar
  • Cream cheese (room temperature) 100g
  • 50 ml fresh cream
  • 1 teaspoon lemon juice
  • 6 tart crusts
  • 1 egg yolk
  • 1 tbsp melted butter
from left to right: cream cheese, fresh cream, 1 bowl of 15 g sugar, bowl with egg yolk + 15 g sugar, egg white.
$2.99 at Safeway/Vons

Directions:

(1): Crack the egg, but separate the yolk and the egg whites into 2 separate bowls.

Take the bowl with the egg whites. Begin whisking using a hand mixer. Take 15 grams of sugar (half of what you measured) and pour it slowly into the bowl. The goal is to get STIFF PEAKS. This means when you lift the whisk, it stands up (like pointy nipples). This is called the meringue.

Tip: The easiest way to mix effectively is to use small mixing bowls. See my photo. If you use a large mixing bowl, it’s going to be extremely difficult to to whisk.

(2): Put cream cheese and the other half of the sugar you have (15 grams) in a separate bowl. Add the egg yolk, fresh cream and lemon juice. Mix well with hand mixer.

(3): Put the meringue into the cream cheese mix. Using a rubber spatula, FOLD the mixture together. Click this link to see my video or you can always reference the Tasty video.

(4): Before pouring the batter into each tart crust, I melted some butter and brushed it onto the bottom of each tart. THEN I poured the batter in– I just think cheesecake tastes better with a buttery crust.

Use a brush to paint egg yolk on the top.

(5): Bake at 380° F for 15 minutes. When the 15 minutes is up, the tarts will look like muffins, but don’t worry! Once cooled, they flatten down. Adding the yolk to the top before baking gives it the pretty brown color 🙂

Here’s the Tasty video that I used for reference:

If you’re interested in making a caramel whipped cream… read on! This is my own creation 😍

Directions for the fresh caramel whipped cream:

(1): Pour 1 cup of fresh whipping cream into small mixing bowl.

(2): Add 1.5 tbsp white sugar. Use a hand mixer and whisk for about 2 minutes. It will start to thicken. Once you see it thickening, add 2 tbsp of caramel sauce and continue mixing for 30 more seconds.

beginning to thicken, so add caramel sauce here.
final product will look thick and fluffy like this!

(3): Use a piping bag (for cupcakes) and a cupcake decorating tip (I’m using Wilton 1M) to decorate the tops of the tarts.

(4): Drizzle some more caramel sauce on top of the whipped cream.

with love and blessings! @tbh_xtina

Chicken wings and Tomato Jeow (Laotian dipping sauce)

food

Ahhhhhh, chicken wings and a spicy dipping sauce. A Laotian staple. This is one of those meals that you eat like once a week with your family with a side of steaming hot sticky rice. Pair it with spicy papaya salad and there’s no other meal like it.

This spicy dipping sauce is called “jeow” and it’s a pretty universal name used for most sauces. The one I made here is the tomato version, “jeow mak-len“. My mom was always the go-to person to make a large batch of these and then she’ll put it in Tupperware and it can be refrigerated for up to 2 weeks! I don’t have the luxury of making large batches since there’s only 2 people in this household, so making it fresh each time is perfectly fine with me 🤓

Ingredients for the chicken wings:

  • 12 large chicken wings, with the drum and tail attached
  • 1 tbsp sugar
  • 5 tbsp oyster sauce
  • 1 tbsp dark soy sauce
  • 1 tbsp chicken seasoning
  • 3/4 tbsp yellow curry powder
  • 1 tbsp fish sauce
  • black pepper
  • 1 tbsp chopped lemon grass
  • 1 tbsp garlic powder or 2-3 cloves chopped garlic

Directions for chicken wings: Very straight forward– just combine all of the ingredients and let it marinate for 20 minutes or overnight. Then I cooked it on broil at 425 F for a total of 45 minutes, flipping the wings to the other side after about 20 minutes. Tip: I lay the wings out on a tray upside down on purpose. So when it’s time to flip it, the top part of it will be nice and crispy (cause’ that’s the best part).

– featured: frozen chopped lemongrass

Ingredients for the tomato jeow:

  • (serving for 2 people, with leftovers)
  • 5 grape tomatoes
  • 3 shallots
  • 3 Thai chili peppers (or more, but mine are very spicy so 3 is a good medium spice for me)
  • 1.5 tbsp chopped cilantro
  • 2.5-3 tsp fish sauce
  • 1.5 tsp sugar
  • 1 lime slice
  • mortar and pestle, OR something to smash the ingredients with i.e., rolling pin and ziplock bag

Directions for the tomato jeow:

Step 1: Slice the grape tomatoes and shallots into halves. Lay out the chili peppers with the stems removed. I cooked this in my air fryer for 5 minutes, but you can do this in anything (i.e., toaster oven, large oven).

But if you’re going to do this in an air fryer like me, you must do it BELOW the basket cover. This is to prevent any vegetables from rising and getting stuck in the heat source, thus causing a fire. Please see photo below! Cook at 400 F for 7 minutes.

– we want to cover the veggies from floating up in the air fryer to PREVENT a FIRE

Step 2: After 7 minutes, your vegetables should look charred a bit. This is exactly how you want it! Remove from foil and throw them into your mortar and pestle. Smash it until you get a thick consistency and everything looks well mixed.

a. charred and beautiful
b. thicccccness

Step 3: Squeeze a lime slice. Add in fish sauce, sugar and cilantro. Mix thoroughly. The consistency of this sauce is supposed to be on the thicker side, but if you like it more liquidy, feel free to add in a tsp of h2o.

Step 4: Finished product!!! I like to dip the chicken into it and scoop some into my rice.

– enjoy!

Instant Pot (Pressure Cooker) Vietnamese Beef Stew “Bo Kho”

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Happy self-quarantine recipe #2! Twas’ another rainy day in LA and ya girl was werkin’ that instant pot. This dish is extremely soothing and warms my soul. You can serve it with vermicelli noodles or dip it with baguettes as I did– either way, I love slurping up the broth!

Servings: ~6 bowls Prep time: 10 minutes Cook time: 35 minutes

Ingredients

  • 1 lb of beef flank (I bought beef that was already cubed for stew from the grocery store)
  • 5 tbsp bo kho powder ($3.99 at Asian mart and there were some left over for another time)
  • 3 tbsp fish sauce
  • 1/2 tsp chicken powder
  • 1/2 tsp mushroom powder
  • 1 tsp brown sugar
  • 1.5 tsp white sugar
  • 1 tbsp beef paste
  • 1 tsp sweet soy sauce

Veggies/Herbs

  • 1 tomato, chopped into medium size
  • 3-4 carrots, chopped
  • sliced onions
  • minced shallots (5)
  • minced garlic (2 cloves)
  • 2 pieces of sliced ginger
  • 1-2 stalk lemongrass OR 1 tbsp frozen lemongrass

Directions

Step 1: Time to prep! Chop up all the vegetables. See photo above ^ Note: The COVID outrage has left my grocery store empty! So I couldn’t get my hands on actual fresh lemongrass, but was able to pick up a jar of frozen lemongrass. I used about 1 tbsp– it’s the middle bowl with the green stuff in it.

Step 2: Get your instant pot, click “saute” and set for 4 minutes. Drizzle 1 tbsp oil and add in onions, garlic, ginger, and lemongrass and shallots. Stir occasionally. Fun fact: I set my instant pot on top of my stove so that I can simultaneously turn on my kitchen vent in efforts to suck up all the steam and aromatics that’s rising from the pot.

*this is the bo kho powder I used. and featured here is my instant pot sitting in the middle of my stove top… #innovative

Step 3: Add in the beef. Set to “saute” mode for another 3 minutes. Salt and pepper the beef as you are stirring. Once the timer is up, fill the pot with water to the 1/2 mark that is right below the 2/3 max line. *we need to leave space for the tomatoes and carrots. Next, add in the carrots + tomatoes and the water should rise to the max line.

Step 4: Add in everything that is listed in the ingredients list above. Click “stew” mode and set your instant pot for 35 minutes and close the lid. Once it is complete, you can choose your form of release; I don’t think it makes a difference here.

Step 5: Toast your baguettes! If you know me by now, I use my air fryer for everything and just to be EXTRA, I brushed butter onto the top and sprinkled some parsley before toasting. I put it in the air fryer at 300 F for 2 minutes.

*bougie af

Step 6: Serve in a bowl and share it with your loved ones! Or not… your choice 😉

with love and blessings, @tbh_xtina ❤

EASY Pressure Cooker Pho Bo (beef pho!)

food

Hi friends! I’m super excited to share my recipe for beef pho… using the amazing instant pot! Yes, two weeks ago I finally hopped on the pressure cooker train and convinced my bf to purchase it at Costco :3 ($89.99 for anyone interested in getting one).

I can’t put in words how fortunate I am to have a local 99 Ranch close to me where I can pick up the following very helpful ingredients: the beef pho powder mix and the Pho Hoa star anise spice satchel. This saves you SOOO much time and still gives you a very authentic taste. I don’t always agree to short-cutting… but for this recipe, we can! I mean… aren’t we already taking a short cut if we’re using a pressure cooker to make our broth?? Sheesh, I can’t complain there.

Instead of the usual 4+ hours needed to get a rich broth, with an instant pot, we can make it in under 1 hour.

| So go on, invite some guests over and trick them into thinking you spent all day making this with your blood, sweat and tears. I dare ya! |

Servings: 4-5 bowls. Prep time: 15 minutes. Cook time: 45 minutes.

Ingredients for the broth…

  • beef bones of your choice, you can use oxtail. I used 4 beef neck bones.
  • 2 tbsp beef pho mix
  • 1 can of beef broth (inside asian marts for $0.69)
  • 1.5-2 tbsp fish sauce
  • 1 Pho Hoa star anise spice satchel (see below)
  • 1 tsp salt
  • ginger
  • 1 tsp beef paste (optional, it’s what made my broth more dark)
  • 1 pack of beef meatballs

Ingredients for your bowl…

  • 1 pack of fresh rice stick noodles (16 oz) — good for 4 or 5 bowls
  • hoisin sauce
  • sriracha sauce
  • chili oil
  • jalapenos
  • bean sprouts
  • chopped green onions
  • chopped cilantro

Directions:

Step 1: Before actually cooking in your instant pot (or pressure cooker), put the bones in a small pot and boil it with water on your stove for about 10 minutes. This is to get all the gunk off the bones and helps to get a very clear broth. See photo below 🙂

– see how dark the water is? we want all that nasty stuff extracted from the bones.

Step 2: Remove bones from the pot. Rinse in cold water before adding it to your instant pot. Cut half an onion and 2 pieces of ginger. Click saute mode and set to 5 minutes. Mix everything around the bottom of the pot with 1 tbsp oil. The goal is to blacken the onion and char the meat that’s on the bones.

Step 3: Fill the pot with water to about 3/4 full. Add in fish sauce, one pho hoa satchel (the star anise packet– DO NOT CUT OPEN. *It will float and release its contents to the broth like a tea bag), and instant beef broth powder (*DO NOT pour entire packet).

Click “soup/broth” button and set instant pot timer for 45 minutes. While the pressure cooker is working its magic, this is when I slice the additional brisket, tripe, onions, green onions and cilantro. Or you can always buy packaged slices of brisket/beef. Make sure to thinly slice everything! Nobody likes choking on onions, okuuuuur.

– don’t forget to wash the bean sprouts and chop some jalapenos and limes

Once the timer is up, you can choose to either do quick release or natural release to alleviate the pressure inside. I like natural release because I’m impatient, hehe. When the broth is done cooking and you’re able to remove the lid, you will notice the meat on the bones are extremely tender and falling off the bones 😀

– okay, not sure if you can tell here but I assure you it’s falling off the bones!

Step 4: Add in your meatballs at the end, while the broth is still scorching hot. I made the mistake of cooking the meatballs with the broth and they came out super mushy and lost its flavor 😦

– see how the beef balls are cracked? I don’t recommend cooking it with the broth, but rather adding them at the end.

Step 5: Get your rice noodles and cut them in half so it’s easier to remove from the bag. I used a metal basket to cook the noodles in the broth before placing them into my actual bowl. I know some people boil their noodles in a separate pot ahead of time, but this is my way of trying to save everyone some time so we can get to grubbin’!

Step 6: Pour broth into large bowl, add in green onion, cilantro and jalapeno. Don’t forget your meatballs and brisket! I personally don’t like tripe, so it’s not featured in this photo lol. Serve with sriracha, hoisin sauce and chili oil!

– note: this photo is filtered to show details of the soup 😉
with love, @tbh_xtina ❤