Baked Banana Cheesecake

I bake this banana cheesecake for many years and still it's one of my favorites cheesecake. This is something can be made in advance, keep in the fridge and serve casually for my guests without any hassle.

Recipe for 9 Inches spring form pan

Bottom base:
155g Digestive biscuits
75g butter

Fillings:
500g cream cheese, softened
90g caster sugar
1 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 ½ cups mashed banana (700g overripe bananas)

3 eggs

How I made it:

1. To make the base, process the biscuits in the food processor to make rough crumbs and add the melted butter. Process again until it makes damp, clumping crumbs and then tips them into a 9 inch springform tin. Press the biscuit crumbs into the bottom of the tin to make an even base and put into the freezer while you make the filing.


2. Preheat the oven to 160’C. Put a kettle on to boil.


3. Beat the cream cheese to soften it and then add the sugar. Mix in vanilla extract and mashed banana till combine.


4. Mix in the beaten eggs one at a time till just combine. (Do not over beat or mix)


5. Take the springform tin out of the the freezer and line the outside of the tin with a good layer of clingfilm, and then another layer of strong foil over that. This will protect it from the water bath.


6. Sit the springform tin in a roasting pan and pour in the cheesecake filing. Fill the roasting pan with just-boiled water to come about halfway up the cake tin, and bake in the oven for 45 minutes to an hour.


7. The top of the cheesecake should be set, but the underneath should still have a wobble to it. Peel away the foil and clingfilm wrapping and sit the cheesecake in its tin on a rack to cool.


8. Chill in the fridge once it’s no longer hot, and leave to set, covered with clingfilm, overnight.

Onion Sweet, Sour & Spicy curry

Don't have any veggies in the fridge? Then try this hot and sour, sweet and tangy curry. I saw this recipe in Indosungod's blog. I tried it right after I saw her post. It was so tasty. It goes great with chapathis or pooris. I followed her recipe verbatim. Thank you for posting such a lovely dish! Onion lovers should definitely try it.




Ingredients:
Onions-2 small(thinly sliced lengthwise)
Mustard seeds-1/2 tsp
Oil-2 tbsp
Chopped garlic-2 pods
Chopped ginger-1/2 tsp
Salt
Turmeric powder-1/4 tsp
Red chilli powder
Tamarind-small lime size
Jaggery-1 or 2 tsp

Method:
Soak tamarind in 1/2 cup of warm water and set aside.
Heat oil in a pan. Tamper mustard seeds. Add sliced onions, ginger and garlic. Sprinkle some salt. Fry till onion turns golden brown. Extract water from tamarind. It should be thick. Add it to the onions. Add turmeric powder, red chilli powder, more salt and allow the mixture to cook for about 10-15 minutes or until the raw smell of tamarind goes off and oil starts to float on top.
Finally add jaggery powder and mix well.
Serve hot with chapathis/pooris.

I am excited to tell you all that I won second place in Eat-healthy during pregnancy event.

Sangeeth did a great job hosting this event. I thank her for giving me an opportunity to participate in this event.

Many thanks to all my friends and relatives who voted for me. I really appreciate it. I feel very encouraged and motivated.

I also thank Anudivya for sharing her version of sugarless laddoos. I modified her recipe and made to suit my taste. You can find the winning recipe-dates and nuts fudge/cake in the menu.

Last but not the least, I thank my father and his colleagues for voting and taking so much interest in following the results till the last minute. One of my father's colleagues sent me an email to congratulate me.

Blog Birthday and Announcing the 'Kitchen Masterpiece' Event

Blog Birthday and Announcing the 'Kitchen Masterpiece' Event

It is a year since my daughter, Dibs, goaded me into publishing a recipe blog. Since I was a novice in the field of computer technology, I hesitated a lot to get down to it, and there were many apprehensions. She persuaded me by saying she would create the Chitra Amma’s Kitchen blog, and publish all the posts, until I felt comfortable enough doing it myself. Since then, there was no looking back, (although she still continues to do all the posting!) Thanks to all my fellow bloggers, this blog is celebrating its first anniversary on 19th January 2009! We decided to celebrate the anniversary by announcing an event. What better way to celebrate than with Food, Art and Craft our all time favourite hobbies!

What can be submitted?

Create any form of art or craft, made of either raw or cooked food products. Since this is a veggy blog, please use only vegetarian items. Examples include vegetable carvings, sugar craft, coconut carvings, ginger bread men and so on. It does not matter whether your masterpiece is eatable or not! For example a kolam made of rice flour, or a rangoli made of raw grains cannot be eaten, but are most welcome for the event! None of us are Picassos or Ravi Vermas (or maybe few of you are!), so please don’t hesitate in taking part! Blog about your art or craft work, and include pictures or videos of your masterpiece. Write about how you made it, what inspired you and so on kin your post.

The Kitchen Masterpiece Logo

This logo comes from a masterpiece that was made by my bright little granddaughter Dhrithi, who is all of seven years old. It is a fairy made from dosa! She made me make the dosa, and then did all the decoration! You can see more art work, poems and essays by Dhrithi here!

Prizes!
Prizes are really exciting aren't they? We were thinking about making this a contest - but then who are we, or anybody else for that matter, to judge your masterpieces! Every work of art is an outlet for creativity, and brings joy and positive emotions to the artist and to others. So instead of a contest we decided to do a lucky draw with names of all participants. A few lucky folks will get some nice gifts! Once we have the lucky winners, we will announce the results on the blog during the round up, and let you know by mail as well.

What do you need to do?
- Make a fresh and independent post on your blog. Link back to this event in Chitra Amma's Kitchen. We’d be happy if you used the logo, but it is optional!

- Ensure that your entries do not violate any copyright laws.

- Drop us a mail with a link to your post at chitra.ammas.kitchen@gmail.com or chitra(dot)ammas(dot)kitchen(dot)com, with the following details.
Your Name:
Name of your post:
URL / Link:
You need not send any details or photos, as we will directly pick it up from your post.

- You may send as many entries as you wish.

- In case you do not have a blog, you are still welcome to participate. You can simply send your entries to our e-mail address at chitra-ammas-kitchen@gmail.com or chitra(dash)ammas(dash)kitchen(dot)com.

- This event is open till 19th February '09, midnight, Sydney, Australia Time (so those in the West actually get almost a day in addition!). The round up will be posted a few days later.

- Feel free to contact us via mail or in the comments section if you have any questions.

So get the creative juices flowing, and we really look forward to seeing your Masterpieces!