A belated party post...

So, way back around a month ago, Chloé hosted a party at hers, just before I left Paris. It was a fantastic evening, and well, me being me, I offered to cook some things, including my oft-requested (but alas rarely made -- you try making a baked cheesecake in a toaster oven!) cheesecake. And well, seeing as I had access to not only a decent-sized oven whilst staying at Chloé's mum's place, but also a fantastic mixer, I decided that I'd give in to the repeated requests and make my baked cheesecake. And then go all out and make a fruit topping for it all. Amazingly, I managed to find all the ingredients in Paris, even if it did involve a wander down to Le Grande Epicerie for sour cream (and really rather amusing to see things that are classed as everyday essentials in the UK going for premium prices in Paris... ;) ), and so set about making cheesecake, with my own twists.

I'd decided to make two cheesecakes, for the party and one for the night before, and so, of course, tripled the recipe... However, events the day before being what they were, meant that I didn't get chance to make the cheesecake the night before, and me being the oh so highly organised astrophysicist I am, and not scatterbrained at all completely forgot about this when I went to pick up the ingredients on Saturday morning. And so ended up with enough mix for three cheesecakes but only enough biscuits for the bases for two. Which led to the experimental cheesecake pictured which has no base (but was yummy anyway!). Its got a blackcurrant sauce swirled into it, courtesy of Lil, (one of the others had a raspberry sauce with raspberries in it on top and the other had the rest of this blackcurrant sauce together with blackcurrants)...

Anyway, all three cheesecakes were really rather well received, and the party was an absolute blast and involved such antics as the boys (well Guilleme and Arnold) dressing up as Mario and Luigi and doing quite silly things like well, see for yourself... Its not like the Wii was on at this point... ;-)


And for those of you who've read this far and who are probably going "come on woman! give us the cheesecake recipe damnit!", here's the cheesecake recipe. Scaled back down for one single cheesecake... ;-)

Baked Cheesecake:

for the base:

• About 3/4 of a large packet of ginger nut biscuits
• 25-50 g of butter (maybe more)

for the cheesecake itself

• 450 g cream cheese (like Philadelphia)
• 110 g fresh sour cream
• 170 g caster sugar
• 3 eggs
• grated rind and juice of a lemon
• good teaspoon vanilla extract

for the topping:

• 2 punnets of blackberries/raspberries/strawberries/soft berries of your choice
• 2 - 3 tablespoons of sugar
• 50 ml water

Method

• Make the base first
• Pound the biscuits to a medium-ish crumb, some larger bits are fine in it though.
• In a saucepan, melt the butter over a low heat
• Add the biscuits to the melted butter and coat the biscuit crumbs thoroughly in the butter
• Place the mixture into the bottom of a greased, non-loose bottomed cake pan (20 cm diameter), pat into the edges making sure you have a uniform layer of biscuity goodness.
• Place in fridge to chill.

For the cheesecakey bit:

• Take a roasting tray and fill with water, such that the water will come up to about halfway up the cake tin.
• Put this into the oven which should be set to gas mark 4/180 C
• Beat the cream cheese with the sour cream
• Beat in the sugar
• Add in the eggs one by one
  
• Add the lemon rind and juice and vanilla and mix well
• Take your base out of the fridge, and pour the cheesecake mix onto the base
• Place the cheesecake into the bain marie in the oven and bake for 35 mins
• When done, switch the oven off and leave the oven door open so that the cheesecake can cool.

Whilst the cheesecake is cooking, make the topping:

• In a saucepan heat the water and sugar till all the sugar dissolves
• Add half the berries and reduce down till the berries have broken down and you have a berry syrup
• Taste and add more sugar if needed.
• Just before topping the cheesecake, put in the rest of the berries and coat them in the syrup.
• Or you can just swirl the syrup through the cheesecake like in the pic
  

Transcontinental moving...

So, the main reason I've been quiet on here for a while has been mainly cause I've been running around like a headless chicken sorting out plane tickets and a visa for India. Well I've been in India for a week now, as a 'visiting scientist' at the National Centre for Radio Astrophysics in Pune, doing data analysis of the data I took when visiting the radio telescope, GMRT, in July and interacting with students, other postdocs and staff here. And well they are proving that one really needs a sense of humour to be an astrophysicist! ;-)

Culturally, I'm loving the laid-back attitude here, and its actually proving conducive to getting a lot of work done, though I may, by the end of it, I'm either going to love or hate AIPS... I'm already starting to see residual maps when I close my eyes.... :S

I haven't had chance to explore Pune yet (hey, I've only been here for a week!), but I'm hoping I will... If nothing else, I need to do some shopping for gifts for people back home (and I may take requests... ;-) )

Will post more when its not quite so close to dinnertime!

Watching the US Election...

OK, so I haven't updated this blog in a while, I have to blame work, more work, and packing up to leave France. Luckily, have arrived back at my parents' place in the UK (fully equipped with internet access and CNN ;-) ), just in time to watch the coverage of the US Presidential elections... And yes, like most of the rest of the world, I have my fingers crossed for an Obama win, and so far, its looking interesting with polls in Indiana and Kentucky having just closed. Preliminary results seem to suggests that Kentucky will go to McCain, though Obama is catching up... Indiana is close... Very close... Come on Obama... This is getting nailbiting...