Celebrity chef and founder of one of Cape Town’s culinary institutions, The Test Kitchen, Luke Dale Roberts has published his first cookbook, an ode to one of haute cuisine’s most iconic restaurants. Roberts says he wanted to make something savoury using baked cheesecake. The lightly smoked trout and snow crab in this dish complement that classic cheesecake taste. Here’s how to make this New York Cheesecake (that serves 6):
Ingredients:
Smoked Trout
15ml miso paste
15ml tamarind paste
5ml grated ginger
juice of 1 lime
juice of ½ orange
400g trout fillet
Snow Crab
1 small leg Alaskan king crab
For the New York Cheesecake
100g miso paste
300g plain Philadelphia
cream cheese
10g cake flour
5ml lemon zest
7.5ml lemon juice
1 whole egg
1 egg yolk
100g sour cream
Lemon Jellies
1½ leaves gelatine
75ml lemon juice
75ml hanepoot
For the Kataifi Malt Crumb
50g malted barley
100g kataifi
drizzle of canola oil
35g parmesan, finely grated
pinch of salt
For the Parsley Purée
30g parsley
1 clove garlic
5ml white wine
100ml vegetable oil
pinch of salt
pinch of sugar
For the Saffron Gel
300g limes, peeled and halved
30g castor sugar
200g pears, peeled and chopped
3 saffron threads
2–3g agar-agar (1g per
100g purée)
olive oil for garnishing
mizuna shoots for garnishing
Specialist Equipment
cold smoker, plating tongs/tweezers, muslin cloth, stand mixer with paddle and whisk attachments, bain-marie, blender, two piping bags, two squeezy bottles, vacuum sealer.
Assembly
Prepare the Smoked Trout
Combine the miso, tamarind, ginger, lime juice and orange juice in a small bowl and brush all over the trout fillet. Place the fillet onto a tray, cover with clingfilm and allow to marinate for one hour in the fridge.
Cold smoke the fillet for two hours (see p. 480).
Remove the skin and portion the trout widthways into strips, 1.5cm thick and approximately 6cm in length.
Prepare the Snow Crab
Break each joint of the crab leg by twisting it off. This prevents the shell from breaking and from tearing the crab meat. Using plating tongs or tweezers, pick the crab meat out of the shell and place into a bowl over an ice bath. Discard the shell and pick through the crab meat, ensuring it is free of shell. Flake the crab meat and store in the bowl over ice, covered with paper towel.
Prepare the New York Cheesecake
Spread half the miso paste over the base of a small tray and cover
with a layer of muslin. Spread half the cream cheese evenly over the muslin. Cover this with another layer of muslin and spread the remaining miso over that. Allow to cure for one hour and then discard the miso and muslin.
Heat the oven to 140°C and line a small baking tin (about 20cm x 16cm) with clingfilm.
Place the cured cream cheese and the remaining plain cream cheese into the bowl of a stand mixer. Beat using the paddle attachment until completely soft. Next, beat in the flour, followed by the lemon zest and juice.
Swap the paddle attachment for the whisk attachment and whisk in the whole egg, followed by the egg yolk, scraping down the sides of the bowl at intervals to ensure everything is properly mixed. Add the sour cream and combine until smooth.
Pour the mixture into the lined tin and lightly bang it against the edge of the counter to remove any air bubbles. Place a piece of parchment paper over the surface of the cheesecake and cover the whole tin with tinfoil. Steam the cheesecake in a bain-marie in the oven for 25 minutes.
Remove from the bain-marie and allow to cool at room temperature.
Once cooled, spoon the cheesecake into a blender and blend for 10 seconds until smooth. Do not over-blend, as this will make the cheesecake runny. Spoon into a piping bag.
Prepare the Lemon Jellies
Bloom the gelatine in ice water until softened.
Bring the lemon juice and hanepoot to the boil in a small pot. Remove from the heat.
Squeeze out the gelatine and dissolve in the hot liquid. Allow to cool slightly, then pour into a piping bag.
Allow to cool, but not enough so that it sets, then spin into caviar jellies (see p. 481).
Prepare the Kataifi Malt Crumb
Heat the oven to 160°C. Line two baking trays with parchment paper.
Place the malted barley onto one tray and toast for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Place the kataifi onto the other tray, drizzle lightly with canola oil and bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until golden brown.
Remove from the oven and wait for both elements to cool completely.
Blend the barley to a powder in a blender. Add the kataifi and parmesan and blitz for one or two seconds, just to break up the kataifi and not blend it. Season with the salt.
Prepare the Parsley Purée
Place all the ingredients into a blender and blend to a smooth paste. It should look like a parsley purée that has been split with oil. Store in a squeezy bottle.
Prepare the Saffron Gel
Seal the limes and sugar in a vacuum pack bag and then freeze.
Chop the frozen limes into smaller pieces and blend with the pear until smooth.
Squeeze through a muslin cloth into a bowl and weigh the purée.
Heat a small amount of the purée in a pot over medium heat and stir in the saffron threads and required amount of agar-agar. Let the saffron colour really bleed out and then strain the mixture into the bowl with the rest of the purée and mix well.
Pour into a small tray and allow to set. Once set, blitz in a blender until completely smooth and store in a squeezy bottle.
Final Assembly
Scatter the kataifi malt crumb over a small tray. Pipe a gumball-size sphere of cheesecake onto the crumb and gently shake the tray to coat the cheesecake in the crumb. Lift with a palette knife and place just off-centre on a plate.
Pipe 15 to 20 tiny dots of parsley purée around the cheesecake in a circular pattern, spiralling out from the cheesecake. Pipe dots of saffron gel in-between the parsley purée.
Scatter a tablespoon of lemon jellies around the plate.
Using plating tongs or tweezers, distribute a tablespoon of the snow crab evenly over the dish.
Place two portions of smoked trout next to the cheesecake.
Garnish the dish with a drizzle of olive oil and a few mizuna shoots.
