[Elise] Dinner Party

I threw a small dinner party yesterday, mainly as an excuse to make these delicious-looking Raspberry Cheesecake Brownies. Yes, three amazing things rolled into one. So since that was the main point, I'll start there

Raspberry Cheesecake Brownies:

Ingredients:

1 c flour
2 c sugar
7 oz butter
7 oz dark chocolate
8 oz raspberries
14 oz cream cheese
1 tsp vanilla extract
5 eggs

To start, take the butter, cream cheese, and eggs out of the fridge an hour before starting so everything can soften.

Beat the butter and 1 cup of sugar until fluffy, then add three of the eggs, one at a time, blending each in completely before adding the next. Once these are blended melt the chocolate (microwave is easiest, but don't over nuke). Let cool a little bit until warm instead of hot, before adding to the butter/sugar/egg mix. Finally, fold in the flour slowly. This is the brownie batter!

In a separate bowl beat the remaining cup of sugar, the remaining 2 eggs, the cream cheese, the vanilla, and a 5-10 raspberries. until mixed. This is the cheesecake filling!


Assembling the brownies:

First a layer of brownie batter (about 2/3 of the mix).

Then all of the cheesecake mix poured out on top.

Add the remaining brownie batter in globs.

Using a butter knife, marble the cheesecake with the brownie globs.

Finally, press in frozen raspberries.

Bake for 45-60 minutes (depending on the thickness) at 175 C (350 ºF)

Dinner Preparation

Dinner itself was a much more straigforeward affair. I made dish of picadillo with a side of oven fries. The following recipes fed the five of us modestly (no leftovers, but no empty stomachs)

Oven Fries (sorry no process pictures!)

1 1/2 kilos baking potatoes
Rapeseed (Canola) oil
Spices: I used oregano, rosemary, and thyme

Slice the potatoes into wedges (I did six per potato). In a large bowl pour about a half cup of oil, and mix in desired amount of seasonings. Add a few handfuls of wedges at a time, making sure they are thouroughly coated in oil and seasonings. Line up wedges peel side down on a baking tray covered on parchement paper. Bake at 200 C (~390 ºF) for 40-45 minutes.

Pork Picadillo

2 Cups veggies (I used onions)
3 cloves garlic
1 lb groud pork (beef is more common, but I didn't know the word in Danish yet!)
Rapeseed oil (enough to coat pan)
12 oz can stewed tomatoes


I whipped this up while the potatoes were in the oven. I started with chopping 2 small red onions, 2 small yellow onions, and the garlic. I think normally half the veggies would be peppers, but the peppers at the store didn't look very apetizing, and the onions looked delicious!

I coated the bottom of the pan with oil and one hot, I added the veggies, and sauteed for about two minutes. Then I added the pork, and a little more oil, when it started sticking, broke it up with the spatula and cooked until the pork was cooked through. The last step is to add the can of tomatoes, mix in, cover, reduce the heat to medium, and let simmer for 15-20 minutes.

When served it looked like this (and it hit the spot!):

Finally, as dinner rapped up it was time to pull out the labored over desert (served with coffee and tea)

It was absolutely delicious. The chocolate balanced the cheesecake beautifully, and the tartness of the raspberries and the sweetness of the cheesecake layer played very nicely together. If there was anything wrong with it, it would have been that the brownie layer was a bit on the dry side, but the cheesecake was so moist that it really didn't matter.


After dessert, we watched Se7ven, Pulp Fiction, and Casablanca.