A reader has highly recommended this recipe of steamed raspberry cheesecake, and left a comment here for me to try it out.

I have not had time to do any cooking or baking for a while until I’ve recently settled in my new job and got a new maid. Just made this cake yesterday…

This recipe is very different from all the other ‘common’ ones, in many ways. For a start, it is the EASIEST and SIMPLEST cheesecake recipe that I have tried. It is steamed instead of baked. And it uses 6 eggs rather than 4 that other recipes usually call for, but my friends and I do not quite like the overpowering egg scent and taste, and if I were to make this again, I will reduce to 4 eggs like the usual ones.

The original recipe calls for raspberry jam, but since the shop ran out of stock, I replaced it with blueberry. I believe you can substitute this with any fruit jams that you like.

RECIPE
Ingredients
500g cream cheese
1/2 cup caster sugar (reduced from original recipe)
6 eggs (recommend to reduce to 4 eggs)
1 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla essence
200ml UHT cream
200g fruit jam (raspberry, blueberry, strawberry, etc)
Juice from 1/2 lemon

Method
1. Cream cheese and sugar until smooth
2. Add in eggs, vanilla essence, and cream. Mix till smooth.
3. Pour into lined 8″ round cake tin.
4. Mash the jam until very smooth, pour half of the jam into the cake mixture. Stir with a chopstick to create marble effect. Reserve the other half of jam for decoration.
5. To avoid water sipping in, cling wrap the cake tin 3 times tightly.
6. Steam the mixture for 2 hours under low heat (after water is boiled).
7. Cake is cooked, if the surface is firm to touch and shrink from the sides.
8. After cooled, chill in fridge for at least 1/2 hour before decorating.

Decoration
1. Pour the rest of the jam onto a pan, mix with 1/2 lemon juice. Bring to boil.
2. Spread over the chilled cheesecake, and chill for another 1/2 to 1 hour. It is ready to be served.

The other day I bought from MPH sales, a recipe on steamed cakes. Happened that I have all the ingredients required, I steamed this cheesecake on the same day. This is very suitable for households without an electric oven. Steaming is also seen as less ‘heaty’.

INGREDIENT
250g cream cheese
150g whipping cream
80g caster sugar
100g flour
30g corn flour
4 eggs, separate yolk and white
2 tbsp chocolate emulco
1 tsp vanilla essence

METHOD
1. Whisk egg whites with half of the caster sugar until peaked.
2. Mix cream cheese with sugar until well mixed, add in egg yolks one by one, and followed by whipping cream.
3. Fold in (1) and flour batch by batch alternatively. Mix well.
4. Take out 1/4 of (3), mix well with chocolate emulco.
5. Add vanilla essence to the remaining of (3) and mix well.
6. Pour 1/3 of (5) into a lined 7″ cake tin, top with 1/3 of (4), swirl to create some pattern. Steam 10 min.
7. Repeat step 6 until all batter used up.

I have always wanted to make Chawan Mushi. I heard that it is very easy to make. Finally got the chance to try it last week. Yummy! With this recipe, you can make it really like the ones you eat in shop!! The only difference is what you want to add in your chawan mushi.

INGREDIENTS
2 eggs
1 piece filament crabstick
2 prawns
2 pcs chicken fillet
3 shiitake mushrooms
40cc shiro dashi
400cc water

METHOD
1. Finely cut crabstick, chicken, prawn and shiitake mushroom into small pieces.
2. Stir egg slightly and strain with a fine muslin cloth.
3. Add shiro dashi, water, ingredients and egg mixture into chawan mushi cup.
4. Steam for about 10 min with cups covered. Serve immediately.

The key to success is in point 2. You must strain with the muslin cloth. I didn’t know it is so hard to squeeze the egg mixture out of the cloth. It shows how ‘unfine’ the egg is, before it is strained!

Really, really, really, yummy… BTW, even if you want to replace the chicken, prawn and crabstick with veggies, this is still not-vegetarian, because Shiro Dashi is made of fish. Vegetarian to note this.

I have been frying fish a lot lately, and am quite worried about it being unhealthy. So, would like to try steaming instead. I don’t like plain steaming, so tried to add in some ‘junks’ – basically whatever I could I find in my fridge! LOL!

I wiped some salt on the fish, lined in the plate. Then, chopped all the ingredients: tomato, coriander and some celery.

The fish looks like over crowded with those stuff. But I think the coriander and tomato compliment the fish quite well. No fishy smell despite many days in freezer. The tomato actually brings up the fish’s taste very well. A good combination…

Oh ya, not to forget, I also sprinkle some spices: pepper and oregano. I also quite fond of using oregano on fish.