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March 16, 2008
Savory Cheesecake with Sauteed Onions and Pear
Yes, really. Cheesecake with Onions. Love it.
Here's how it came to pass. Last fall, or summer was it?, at a Potluck Friday extravaganza, Meg brought this scrumptious cheesecake appetizer. She had some extra cream cheese hanging around and she got creative. My mouth has watered ever since whenever I think about it. And, as I have been threatening for years to make a cheesecake (never had the patience before now), I finally broke down and did it. Dan requested my first cheesecake to be savory - not such a dessert guy doncha know?
So, as I've never actually made a cheesecake before, I had no idea what the texture should be so I didn't dare to just start throwing things together "until it looked right" like I usually do. So I googled "savory cheesecake" and chose the entry by Alton Brown. Our friend the Good Doctor Faber is a big fan of Alton Brown and has shared some of the episodes with us. I trust the Fabers, so I trust Alton Brown. But I don't like his idea of putting smoked trout in anything. Not a fan of the fish. So I poked around and figured out how to make the onion-pear mixture and voila. The result was stupendous. Here's the recipe (modified from Alton's b/c my spring-form is larger than he called for).
Turns out the patience is needed more for the onions than for the cheesecake. But now I know.
Start with the onions. They take a long time.
Thinly slice 4 medium onions (and 4 shallots, if you have some laying around). On low heat melt 4Tbsp of butter and toss in the onions. I like to use a cast iron skillet and a wooden paddle. You can walk away from them and let them cook down if you leave it on low, and they will caramelize nicely if you just stir them every few minutes, between beatings on the Kitchen Aid. It'll seriously take about an hour.
In ye' olde Kitchen Aid, blend:
2 pounds cream cheese (4 bricks)
4 T corn starch
1 1/2 tsp salt
6 oz sour cream (I used low-fat b/c that's what was in the house)
Then add 2 eggs, one at a time and beat the snot out 'em.
That's your savory cheese cake. Transfer the mixture to a greased 10-inch spring form pan.
(or for a 9" use 3 bricks of cream cheese, 3T corn starch, 1 tsp salt, and 4oz sour cream, still 2 eggs. Alton made a crust out of 1 1/2 cups crushed bagel chips, 3 oz butter, and one egg white baked at 350F for 8 minutes, but I left the crust right off and it was just fine.)
It's probably time to tend to the onions. Dice up a whole pear, or throw in a handful of dried pear slices if you don't have access to fresh pears, and add that to the mix. Measure a 1/2 cup brown sugar and 1T white wine vinegar, and add that to your onions. It will all cook down nicely and become a jelly with your onions.
I spooned about half the mixture onto the cheesecake and used a knife to cut-in the onions so they were all through it. The other half I used as a garnish on the plate when I served it.
Bake one hour at 250F. Then turn the oven off, don't open the door, and leave it in for another hour. Remove it from the oven and cool on a rack for 4 hours. Then either serve it or refrigerate it.
To serve it, I used half at a time - so it thrilled people at two parties! Place four 1/8th's on a platter, points in, with crackers alternating between the slices. Put a little pile of the onion/pear in the middle and voila. Yummeronous. The black pepper-poppy seed crackers went the quickest, but any little water cracker will do. Just don't try it with corn chips. That didn't go so well!
your host for this episode : carrie; March 16, 2008 09:05 AM
Comments
ahh, potluck fridays, how i've missed you. we gotta get this old house done enough that we can start them up again!
i'm thinking if we can do it without a kitchen we could make it happen in a couple weeks.
we'll make meghan bring another dish to inspire us: along with your cheesecake fabulousness, her challah has become a regular in our house. mm...now i'm missing potluck fridays, and challah, and the savory cheesecake at house church...
man. thanks a lot! ;)
from the peanut gallery of : holly ; March 30, 2008 12:57 AM