Dinner Moments!

I'm so sorry this took so long. I was going on about on Friday la la la manila time. But its still friday somewhere in the world so i hope this finds you as a suggestion for dinner. 3 Dishes and i must say very tasty! The eggplant dish that i promised was not photographed so i will make a separate post on that maybe a vegetarian  post soon? So here it goes..
First up a salmon salad!

I am guilty of using the canned salmon but hey if you can get quality salmon for a good price, please do! There are a lot of ingredients that are not available here in the Philippines that wont hurt your pocket like pecorino cheese or creme fraiche. So this version can be vamped up by miles!

You'll be needing:

Half a can (230g) Salmon, flaked

1 Soft Boiled Egg

1 Med Sized Red Bell Pepper, diced

1 small onion chopped 

Lettuce 

4 tbsps olive oil

1 tsp honey

Pinch of pepper 

Salt to taste

Procedure:

Boil your egg for 4-5 minutes. Then let it cool.

Combine your bell pepper and onions with the salmon in a bowl.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the olive oil, honey and season with salt and the pepper.

Mix the salmon with the lettuce leaves then on top add the soft boiled egg. Cut it in half so the yolk will ooze! 

Drizzle the oil emulsion all over and sprinkle half a pinch of salt and pepper for more flavor.

And thats it!!! Easy!

Love the hard boiled egg!

Wish we can get more fresh veggies not only in weekend markets! But mixed salads are an easy way to get your green fix.

Next up! Asparagus with pig blankets or simply asparagus wrapped with bacon!

Love this dish because its so fast and simple and really fulfilling.

We only get the thin asparagus in the shops, i think SnR has those a bit chubby, nothing like english asparagus. So you might want to consider that. But whats good about these thin asparagus is you dont get that stringy fibre a lot so no need to shave it off also you don't need to steam it to soften it up a bit immediately just pan fry or grill it.  I used:

Around 15-20 pcs. Thin Asparagus

4-5 slices of Bacon

Lemon wedge

Pepper to taste.

Take about 4 pieces of asparagus and wrap the bacon around it.

Pan fry or grill for about 5-8 minutes. Turning the sides every 3 minutes. Then take about 2 minutes and just cover the pan or griddle with a lid on low heat so you can thoroughly cook the asparagus. Turn off the heat then take the lemon wedge and squeeze the juice in the pan while hot. Serve immediately.

Super easy right? Love how the asparagus' nutty flavor goes with the bacons' smokiness. Great when you have company over, an easy thing to whip up.

I used a non stick pan so while cooking, the fat in the bacon was being rendered and thats whats giving its shine. No need to add more fat.

See how thin our asparagus is? But still, no matter how thin it is the flavor still is the same so cant complain that much.

DESSERT!!!! My favorite! And one of my best sellers, that is the oreo cheese cake! Its a no water bath cheesecake. It also has no flour and there is maybe a 70 percent chance it wont crack on you and tastes delicious!

The key to a great cheesecake is simply when its cooked it should rest at least for 2 hours. 1 hour in room temperature and 1 hour in the fridge. Its like in baking, some recipes marinade when they are finished baking. So for that vanilla extract and lemon zest to pop out you need those flavors to blend together, and thats the resting part.

Okay, you'll be needing.

2 packets (around 180g) of oreo cookies (take the creams off), crushed

2 tbsps butter, melted

450g (2cartons) of cream cheese (i'm using the brand american heritage. Elle & vire is good and philadelphia), room temperature

85g white Sugar

1 egg

2 egg yolks

1/2 tsp lemon zest

1tsp vanilla extract

125ml sour cream

Procedure:

Preheat oven to 300deg F

Cover the outside of a 8" springform pan with foil just if your crust has a loose end no cheese batter will ooze through (word of the day, ooze!)

Take the oreo cookies that are crushed and add the melted butter. In the springform cake pan add the oreo cookies, it should appear like moist sand but press-able. So press down the cookies until they are all leveled, intact and nothing seems to seap through it.

Place this in the freezer and just take it out once we pour in the cheesecake batter.

So now in your mixer, add the cream cheese and with a paddle attachment mix until smooth. No lumps. Add the sugar, then the egg and egg yolks, lemon zest,  than the sour cream. 

Once everything's combined, add the vanilla extract. Scrape down the bowl from time to time.

Take out your spring form with your crust and now add the cheesecake batter. Tap about three times so the bubbles can escape. 

Crank up the oven to 325deg F and and bake for 30-45 minutes.

Check around 30 minutes if the center is the only one jiggling you can take it out if not just bake it more and check every five minutes.

Let it cool on a cooling rack for an hour. You should get something like this.

See no cracks! But if you do have a crack no worries its not less flavor if it has a crack! So dont be depressed!

Once everything is cool you can decorate the cheesecake as for me i couldnt be more bothered to go all fancy so i had some oreos left and the creams so thats what i used!

See how creamy it looks and its really light yet with the integrity of the cheese, not that sweet.

So i hope you guys enjoyed the post! Let me know if you tried these recipes! Don't be scared even my nephew could make this! And he's been frosting cupcakes now!

Thank you all for reading! Happy eating!

Sayonara for now!

xx