Oreo Mango Non-Bake Cheesecake

It's Summer! Hot! Super hot! And it's also the time where mangoes are plentiful. Did you realize in recent years there are many jumbo mangoes around? This size is perfect when you want to decorate your cakes by slicing out more flesh out of it.

Here's a non-bake cheesecake using mango, modified from Christine's Recipe.

Ingredients
120g Oreo cookies
70g butter, melted
250g cream cheese, room temperature
55g caster sugar
150ml thickened cream/ whipping cream
2 tsp gelatine powder
30ml hot water
1 big ripe mango, peeled

Lemon juice or essential oil (I only use Young Living essential oil that is safe for ingestion)
Apricot jam (Orange marmalade works too) & hot water to glaze

Method

1. Remove the cream sandwiched between the oreo cookies and process the cookies in a food processor/blender until finely crushed. Add melted butter to combine and transfer the crushed cookies mix to the base of a spring form pan. Use a spatula to press them firm and chill in freezer for 15 mins or until firm. 
2. Stir the gelatine powder in hot water until the gelatine dissolves. (Remark: If you find it's difficult to dissolve the gelatine completely, place the bowl of gelatine mixture in a large bowl of hot water. It helps the gelatine to dissolve easily and quickly.)
3. Use an electric mixer to beat the cream cheese and sugar until smooth and creamy. Add lemon juice/ essential oil. Mix in the cream using slow speed until combined. Pour the gelatine mixture in and mix well. Pour the cream cheese mixture over the biscuit base. Tap the pan firmly on the table to level it or release some trapped bubbles. Refrigerate until firm or overnight.
4. Remove the cheesecake from the fridge 15 minutes before serving. 
5. Cut the mango into cubes, set aside. For the balance of the mango flesh, pour into blender with some lemon juice/ essential oil and blend them well.
6. Spread the mango puree onto the cheesecake and arrange the mango cubes on top.
7. To glaze, microwave (20secs) 1 tsp of apricot jam and hot water, wait till it is slightly cooled and brush onto the fruits using a pantry brush.

Note
For essential oil I only use Young Living brand, here's the website:
https://www.youngliving.com/en_SG

Lemon (Citrus limon) has a strong, clean, purifying citrus scent that is revitalizing and uplifting. It consists of 68 percent d-limonene, a powerful antioxidant. It is delightfully refreshing in water and may be beneficial for the skin. Lemon essential oil is cold-pressed from the rinds of lemons. Jean Valnet MD estimated that it takes 3,000 lemons to produce one kilo of oil. In his book, The Practice of Aromatherapy, Valnet wrote that lemon is a tonic for supporting the nervous and sympathetic nervous system. Lemon has an approximate ORAC of 6,619 (TE/L). TE/L is expressed as micromole Trolox equivalent per liter.

With a birthday tag, it's ready to be delivered as a birthday cake :)

Air-fried Chicken Pie

I always find it quite a chore to make chicken pies as you need to make the dough, cook the filling and bake it. But with the help of the puff pastry sheet and air-fryer, things seem more manageable ;) Here's a good recipe shared by Chelsia.

Ingredients
2 chicken thighs (deboned and cut into cubes)
1 onion (diced)
1 carrot (diced)
2 small potatoes (diced)
Mushrooms (optional)
2 hard-boiled eggs (remove shell and cut into half)
Light soya sauce
Pepper

Salt
Black pepper
Italian mixed dried herbs

Garlic powder
Worcestershire sauce

Plain flour
Milk

2 sheets of Pampas puff pastry (available from Phoon Huat)
Melted butter to glaze

Methods
1) Season the chicken cubes with light soya sauce and pepper.
2) In a pan/wok, saute onion and add in carrot and potatoes.Add some water to cook the vegetables followed by adding in chicken cubes and mushrooms.
3) Add in salt, black pepper, dried herbs, garlic powder, worcestershire sauce.
4) When the chicken cubes are cooked, sprinkle some plain flour and stir well. Pour in some milk and simmer for the vegetables to be soften.
5) On a non-stick baking tray (of Philips air fryer) lay 1 piece of Pampas puff pastry sheet as the pie base, use a fork to gently poke some holes.
6) Pour in the cooked filling and arrange the eggs on top.
7) Trim off the edge excess to make it neat. Use a brush to glaze the edges of the pastry with melted butter.
8) Cut the 2nd piece of puff pastry sheet to desired size enough to cover the top, I used a fork to press down the edges a little and poke some holes at the center.
9) Brush the top with melt butter and airfry at 180 degree for about 6 mins or until it form golden brown.

Air-fried Char Siew

 

 I used to roast my char siew using oven and after tried it on air-fryer, I find the latter is faster and tastier ;)

Ingredients (2pax)
200g Pork Shoulder Butt
1 tbsp Hoisin Sauce
1/2 tbsp Oyster Sauce
1 tsp Light Soya Sauce
1/2 tsp Dark Soya Sauce
1 tsp Chinese Cooking Wine (eg Hua Tiao Wine)
1/2 tsp Sesame Oil
1/2 tbsp Honey
1/2 tbsp Sugar
1 tsp Garlic Powder
1/4 tsp Chinese Five Spice powder
Dash of White Pepper

Rice and cucumber slices to go with the char siew

Methods
1. Slice the shoulder butt meat into 2 long pieces.
2. Marinate with all above mentioned seasoning and leave inside fridge overnight.
3. Pre-heat AF at 200 deg C for 5mins.
4. Place the meat slices on baking tray (without sauce) and AF for 10 mins at same temperature (oil not needed). At 5mins, baste with sauce and flip to the other side.
5. Reduce temperature to 160 degree C and AF for about 15mins until charred at some areas. Same thing, baste and flip at every 5mins interval until done.
6. Cool the char siew a bit and slice.
7. Heat up the remaining sauce and serve with the char siew.

 Oven-roasted char siew, using pork belly

Air-fried Mozzarella Garlic Prawn

This recipe is actually derived from my mom's pan-fried garlic prawns. I merely tried it using air fryer and added mozzarella cheese for a cheesy crusty top for a change. Credit should go to my mom :)

Ingredients
10 medium size prawns
5 garlic cloves (minced)
Pinch of salt
Mozzarella cheese

Methods
1. Preheat AF at 180deg C for 5mins.
2. Add oil & minced garlic and AF for 2mins, stir fry and heat for another 2mins until fragrant.
3. Add the prawns and AF for about 7mins or until cooked. In between I will stir twice to make sure evenly cooked.
4. Sprinkle pinch of salt, stir and add mozzarella cheese.
5. Turn temp to 200 deg C and melt the cheese, takes abt 3-5mins.

Note
I am using Philips air fryer, for this dish I made use of the baking pan to cook everything in it.

Schnauzer Cake

Two of my friends have adopted mini Schnauzers dogs months ago and last Saturday was my first time meeting them (the dogs) at a dog cafe. One of my friends' birthday is approaching so I have decided to bake a cake for him. Since we are all dog-lovers so naturally I wanted to design the cake with some dog elements. Quite challenging for me since it was my first trial piping a dog design. I baked a coffee sponge cake and whipped up kahlua cream as the filling and topping. Here's the Schnauzer cake for my friend.

Recipe of coffee sponge with kahlua cream could be found in my earlier recipe (http://yukiecody.blogspot.sg/2013/08/coffee-sponge-with-kahlua-cream.html), I used a different flour brand and added much more kahlua this round and next time I want to add rum perhaps LOL. To pipe the dog design you will need to separate your cream into 2 portions. With a much large portion uncolored for frosting and some to pipe the muzzle part. Color a small portion of cream with black food coloring to achieve grey. Transfer cream into piping bag/ ziplock bag and without the need of any piping tip just snip off the tip of the bag and you may start your pipe. I used 3 slices of strawberries for ears and tongue, 3 chocolate chips for eyes and nose and half a marshmallow as muzzle (fully covered by the white cream in the picture). As for that bone shape biscuit, it was actually a dog treat.

Cake frosted without the dog design yet, I kind of like it simple just like this. Without frosting the sides, just the filling and spreading a layer of cream on top. This frosting design is using a spatula to do dab-n-pull in circular motion from working towards the center.

Molten Lava Cake

I have been hesitating for very long before I attempted to bake this super sinfully-good dessert. Not so much as I am afraid of the extra calories but the heatiness of chocolate is deterring me. Yesterday I gave in, just want to see how difficult it is to achieve the flowing lava inside the cake and to my surprise it is very easy to make. The main idea of this chocolate cake is to make sure that it is underbake so that the center part is uncooked and flow out like hot lava. So if you fail the first time, don't let that stop you. Simply adjust the timing and you will get it.

I reduced the recipe to halve so that I could try it using my air fryer which is older model and having a small capacity. Air fryer recipe is originated from http://www.ourprincessdana.com/2013/12/cooking-with-air-healthier-choice.html. Oven recipe can check from www.noobcook.com

Ingredients (yields 2 ramekin size)

50g dark chocolate (use chocolate bar and break into pieces or compound chocolate chips from baking store like Phoon Huat)

50g unsalted butter (cut into small pieces)

1 egg

25g castor sugar

10g self-raising flour

Methods

1) Melt chocolate and butter using microwave.

2) Beat sugar and egg until frosty and pale with electric whisk.

3) Pour melted chocolate and butter into batter, add flour and mix well with a spatula.

4) Grease 2 ramekins with melted butter and pour the batter. It shouldn't exceed 3/4 full to allow space for expansion. For my standard size ramekins it didn't quite fill up to 3/4.

5) Bake at 180 degree C for 7-8mins using a pre-heated air fryer.

6) Remove from air fryer and leave it to cool for 1-2mins before removing using a knife to loosen the edge.

7) Serve hot with icing sugar or ice-cream.

Such a pity that I couldn't capture the photos nicely due to the fast melting ice-cream, couldn't even see the flowing lava. Next time it shall be ;)

Air-fried Skinny Crust Hawaiian Pizza

Quick and easy fix by using Tortilla wrap as pizza base to achieve a thin crust.

Ingredients
1 Tortilla wrap
1 slice of fresh pineapple (or from can)
2 slices of ham
2 tbsp tomato pasta sauce
Generous serving of Mozzarella cheese
Black pepper & Italian mixed dried herbs (optional)

Packaging of Tortilla wraps

Before air-frying on the grill pan

Methods

This is easy, just assemble everything together by
- Spread tomato pasta sauce on wrap
- Arrange diced pineapple and ham all over
- Sprinkle generous serving of cheese
- More pineapples and ham cubes on top
- Sprinkle some black pepper and Italian mixed dried herbs(optional)
- Pre heat Airfryer at 180 deg C and place the pizza in for 7 mins.
- Serve hot and you could sprinkle some Parmesan cheese.

Fruity Pizza on Toast

Did another version using fruits and bread. Instead of pineapple cubes and ham, we used pineapple cubes and banana slices and not forgetting the pasta sauce and lots of cheese. We placed everything on a bread and AF for just 5 mins. Viola! Done! Quick Supper at 11pm! Oh gosh too late to eat but when you are hungry you have to give in...hahaha...

Air-fried Button Mushroom Melt

It's mushroom time again, couldn't get enough of these Smurfette's houses...

La la la-la la la

Sing a happy song

La la la-la la la

Smurf it all day long

Remember this song? Oh my, so nostalgic... LOL.

Ingredients
About 10 button mushrooms
Salt and black pepper
Italian dried mixed herbs
Olive oil
Cheddar cheese
Mozzarella cheese
Dried dill (optional as garnish)

Methods
1. Rinse the mushrooms and remove stems.
2. Season with pinch of salt (go light with salt), black pepper, Italian dried mixed herbs and a little olive oil. Mushroom has it's own unique yummy taste and it is perfectly alright to skip these seasoning. On certain days I don't season them at all, going Au natural. Adding a little olive oil to coat the mushrooms is for preventing them drying out with Airfryer (AF).
3. Pre-heat AF at 180 degree C for about 3-5mins.
4. While AF is pre-heating, place all the seasoned mushrooms into the AF wire basket with the hollow part facing upwards. Sprinkle both cheddar & mozzarella cheese on top of each mushroom cap.
5. At 180 degree C, AF the mushrooms for 7-8 mins.
6. Dish out and sprinkle with some green herbs (optional) like parleys, basil, drill, etc and serve hot.

Enjoy these juicy and cheesey mushrooms while singing 'the happy song' ;)


The other mushroom dish that uses AF is at http://yukiecody.blogspot.sg/2014/02/air-fried-mushroom-melt.html

Mochi Cheese Puffs (Brazilian Cheese Puffs pão de queijo)

Ingredients

1 beaten egg
1/3 cup olive oil
2/3 cup fresh milk
170g tapioca starch
50g mozzarella OR cheddar cheese (I used a mix of both cheese)
50g parmesan cheese
1 tsp salt

Methods
1. Add all ingredients into a blender and use a spoon to stir first.
2. Switch on your blender and using slow speed to blend the batter smooth.
3. Pre-heat oven at 200 degree C.
4. Grease mini muffin pan with butter and use an ice cream scoop to fill each muffin hole till brim. You can also use silicon baking ware for this. The recipe will yield about 14 puffs.
5. Bake for 20mins or until the top is slightly brown.
6. Cool a little and remove using a cutlery knife.

Modified from MummyMoo's recipe. 

Notes
- Try not to use donut tray for this as it will not puff up nicely and result in a dense and hard texture. 
- This only taste good for a day, the puffs will lose their texture and not as soft on the second day. 
- Adding more cheese is not advisable, it will result in a  heavier puffs and harder texture.

Oven View

Puffing puffing away, look at how much they puffed up?! It was about double the size, so interesting to watch the puffing process.

Air-fried Turkish Yogurt Grilled Chicken

Ingredients
2 deboned chicken thighs (cut into small pieces about 5x4 skewers)
2 tsp minced fresh tomatoes
2 tsp plain yogurt
1 sprig rosemary (chopped)
1-2 tsp honey
Salt & pepper

Methods
1) Marinate the thigh meat with all seasoning overnight and thread the meat on skewers
2) Airfry at 180 degree C for about 12-14 mins, check especially after 10 mins
3) Serve with grilled pumpkins and your favorite chilli/creamy sauce.

Grilled pumpkin
Remove skin and cut the pumpkin into small pieces. Season with black pepper and salt, spread a little oil and air fry at the base at 180 degree C for 15mins or until they are soften with a little browning.

 

I use the base of Airfryer to grill the pumpkins, followed by baking mussel button mushrooms using the basket. Lastly is to stack the double rack on the basket for the chicken skewers by cooking 3 items at the same time. This requires close monitoring because their timing are different, the only common requirement is the temperature where 180 degree C is used.

Air-Fried Spinach Frittata

Ingredients
1 small red onion - minced
1/3 pack of spinach
3 eggs
Salt, pepper n mozzarella cheese


Methods
1) Preheat Airfryer at 180deg C
2) In baking pan, add oil for a min
3) Add minced onions into the pan for 2-3mins or until they turned translucent
4) Add spinach n fry for abt 3-5mins to about half cooked. They may looked a bit dry but it is ok, just keep frying with the oil.
5) Whisk the beaten eggs, season n add cheese then pour into pan
6) Bake for 8mins or until cooked

Air-Fried Mushroom Melt

Playing again with my Airfryer and it's baking pan. The pan may look small but it could whip up quite a decent portion depending on what you are cooking. Those who love mushrooms and cheesy stuffs will fall for this. Recipe below is meant for 2 pax as we love mushrooms, just couldn't get enough of it.

Ingredients

A pack of portobello mushrooms (about 8 pieces,sliced)
A pack of golden needle mushrooms
2 tbsp of yellow capsicum (sliced)
1 tbsp of red capsicum (sliced) 
1 small red onion (sliced)
1 tbsp butter
Salt n pepper
Cheddar n mozzarella cheese


Methods



1) In Airfryer baking pan switch to 180deg C and melt the butter for a min
2) Add onion for 2mins
3) Add capsicums for 2mins
4) Season mushrooms with salt & pepper, add into pan and mix well. Cook for 5mins
5) Give a good stir to moisturize the mushrooms & cook for another 5mins
6) Sprinkle cheese and melt it for about 2mins under 200deg C
7) Serve hot 

Air-fried Hasselback Potatoes

Ingredients
2 russet medium potatoes
2 tbsp of butter
2-3 garlic cloves (minced)
Salt and black pepper
Shredded cheddar cheese
Shredded mozzarella cheese


Methods
1) Scrub and clean the potatoes (skin intact).
2) Slice potatoes thinly but not through, by placing a chopstick at each side will prevent slicing through.
3) Melt butter & fry minced garlic on wok.
4) Preheat air fryer at 180 degree C for 3-5mins.
5) Line the air fryer grill pan/basket with foil with the sides fold up to act like a shallow pan, this will help to collect the melted butter.
6) Pour melted butter over potato without garlic, garlic will be burnt will add in to air fry for a long time.
7) Air fry for 30mins same temperature.
8) Baste the potatoes with melted butter collected on the foil at every 10mins interval
9) 2-3 mins before done sprinkle with salt, pepper, cheddar n mozzarella cheese

Tips:
- The cooked garlic minced could be use for another dish, the main idea is for the butter to be fragrant. 
- Basting helps to prevent the potatoes from drying up.

Air-fried Baked Rice

Michelle shared a fantastic idea to bake rice using air fryer for whatever leftover from the previous meal. So I purposely cooked additional rice and made more creamy butter sauce for the previous meal, I also kept some broccoli and carrots to be used. Here's my version of baked rice using another Philips accessory, the baking pan.

Ingredients
2 pax overnight cooked rice
1 tbsp butter
4 garlic cloves (minced)
3 tbsp of broccoli florets
2 tbsp of carrot cubes
1 veal sausage (sliced)
8-10 tbsp of creamy sauce (I used the leftover from creamy butter sauce)
3 tbsp of shredded cheddar cheese
2 tbsp of shredded mozzarella cheese

Methods
1) Preheat air fryer for 3-5mins at temperature 180 degree C.
2) Melt butter inside baking pan for about 1-2mins.
3) Saute minced garlic for about 1-2mins or until fragrant.
4) Add in broccoli florets and carrot cubes to fry for 3-4mins. Add a little water will help to speed up the softening.
5) Add sausage slices and cook for 2-3mins or until they turn slightly browned.
6) Add in the rice and mix well.
7) Pour in the enough creamy sauce and mix well, level the rice with a ladle.
8) Sprinkle cheese evenly and air fry for 8-10mins. Above photo was done in 8mins.

Tips: You could use whatever ingredients you have and any store bought pasta sauce.

Sweet Hearts Cheesecake

"Oh no my block of cream cheese is expiring soon!" I exclaimed when I was checking my stuffs from the fridge. Time to make something out of it, here's a easy one from Angela Chia.

Ingredient

250g cream cheese block
65g castor sugar
1 beaten egg
6 oreo cookies
Fresh vanilla beans or essence
Red food coloring gel
Toothpick

(Recipe modified from Angela Chia's.)

Method
1) Remove the cream sandwiched between the oreo cookies and place the cookies into bakable cup.
2) Cut cream cheese block into cubes and whisk together with the sugar well. Add in egg and vanilla beans till combined.
3) Scoop the mixture into 6 cups and leave a bit of the mixture for coloring. Firmly tap/knock the cups on tabletop to burst the trapped bubbles.
4) Using a piping bag, snip off the tip and pipe 7 dots on the top.
5) Use a toothpick to circle/ connect all the 7 dots forming a trail of connecting hearts.
6) Bake at pre-heated oven at 150 degree Celsius for about 20mins.
7) Cool at room temperature and fridge for at least 4 hours before serving.

The fresh vanilla beans really enhanced the flavor

Air-fried Rosemary Garlic Grilled Prawns

I wonder what took me so long to pen down recipes for air-frying dishes. This kitchen appliance is my new love and it really does wonders being a helpful assistance. Not only that I could cooked french fries without oil or little oil, it makes food juicer and cook faster. Here's a grilled dish making use of my newly purchased accessories, the double rack with skewers.

Ingredients

8 prawns (medium size will be ideal, mine were large prawns)

3-4 garlic cloves (minced)

1/2 tbsp melted butter

1 sprig rosemary leaves (chopped)

salt & black pepper

Green capsicum (prepare 8 slices)

Methods

1) Marinate the prawns with all above seasoning for an hour or longer.

2) Use 2 prawns and 2 capsicum slices per skewer.

3) Preheat air fryer.

4) With temperature 180 degree C grill the prawns for 5-6 mins.

5) Increase temperature to 200 degree C and grill for a min.

Tips:
Sometimes when I ran out of time I will lessen the marination timing for prawns, probably just a 10mins will do.

For air frying, you could always open the drawer to check on your food and it is advisable to do so. After all this cooks faster compared to conventional cooking hence is good to check before they turn overcooked.

This dish could be done in oven as well. It is much faster to do it in air fryer and the prawns will retain the juiciness. The only disadvantage will probably be the quantity, you can't grill a lot at one go.

Creamy Butter Prawns

The pricing for seafood is known to be expensive during Chinese New Year but not all true for this year. I learned from the news that the price for prawn has gone down instead. So here it is, more prawn dishes on the dining table ;) The recipe is available at Creamy Butter Crab page except that I replaced crab with prawn and omit curry leaves since I didn't have it. I have also added small red onion which added some sweetness to the dish.

I used 8 large prawns for this but maintained the amount of sauce quantity which will be a lot. I did it on purpose to keep the creamy butter sauce for the next day to make baked rice.