Stepping up your FOOD GAME
Chef Cherie Metcalfe’s book offers classic recipes with a delicious twist
CLASSIC RECIPES YOU’LL USE again and again with a delicious twist — from the creator of successful NZ food brand, Pepper & Me. Five years ago, trained chef Cherie Metcalfe set about creating what every busy family needs: Delicious condiments, salts and spice pastes to take their cooking to the next level without fuss. From selling salt rubs at local markets, Cherie’s business has grown into a thriving food brand, making her one of New Zealand’s most successful next-generation food entrepreneurs. She now has a full range of Pepper & Me products stocked nationwide and a recipe club with more than 6000 subscribers.
Keepers presents a range of Cherie’s fabulous and accessible recipes for the first time. An unsung hero of the food business, Cherie will see readers step up their cooking game without the hard work. From breakfasts, to light delights, main courses, sides, condiments and baking, the recipes in Keepers are ones readers will return to again and again.
Pepper & Me products can be found at pepperandme.co.nz.
This recipe features in her book:
WHITE CHOCOLATE and CHERRY CHEESECAKE
Oh we do love a baked cheesecake. This is my favourite flavour, I think the tartness of the cherry makes it a little different, but switch the cherries out for raspberries if you are after a more classic combo. Great to make a day ahead of a dinner party — you can have the cheesecake and compote all made the day before, which makes for an easy last course at the end of the evening.
Ingredients
400g vanilla wine biscuits
200g butter, melted
500g cream cheese
1 cup caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
3 eggs
1 Tbsp cornflour
250g sour cream
200g white chocolate, melted mint leaves, to serve
Cherry Compote:
500g frozen pitted cherries
1⁄2 cup sugar
1 Tbsp Bakers Blend, or 1⁄2 tsp salt, 1⁄2 tsp sugar, 1⁄2 tsp cinnamon, 1⁄2 tsp mixed spice
Method
Preheat the oven to 160C. Line a 26cm cake tin with baking paper and grease well.
Pulse the biscuits in a blender or smash them in a sealable bag with a rolling pin — then stir through the melted butter. Press the biscuit crumb around the bottom and up the sides of the tin as firmly as you can. Cover with plastic wrap and pop into the fridge while you get the filling ready.
Soften the cream cheese slightly. Add to the bowl of a stand mixer with the whisk attachment fitted (or use hand-held electric beaters) and start to whip the cream cheese. Add the sugar and vanilla and keep whisking on a medium-high speed.
Add in the eggs, one at a time, then the cornflour. Add the sour cream and continue whisking until everything is very well combined and the mixture is smooth. Turn the mixer off, drizzle in the white chocolate and fold through.
Remove the plastic wrap from the chilled biscuit base, and pour in the filling. Pop the cake tin on a tray and into the oven for 1 hour until just set. Leave on the bench to cool completely, then pop into the fridge to set — overnight ideally, but four hours minimum.
For the cherry compote, put the frozen cherries, sugar and Bakers Blend in a saucepan. Simmer gently for around 25 minutes until thick and syrupy. The compote can be made a day ahead and will last for seven days in the fridge.
To serve, cut the cheesecake into eight to 10 slices and serve with a few generous spoonfuls of the cherry compote.
— serves 8