Right now I’m reading “Steve, don’t eat it!” and I’m laughing out loud. It’s so funny and crazy, just what I needed now when I’m ill. It’s about a guy that tries weird food and he writes really funny, you just can’t stop laughing. Thanks Fredrik for the link ;-)

OK, it’s in the oven… My second attempt with the Tiramisù cheesecake, this time with quark and a mixture of less dark chocolate than the last time together with a small amount of milk chocolate. No espresso coffee this time and more sugar. Keep your fingers crossed :-)

Today after work when I was waiting for the tram, I decided to take another one than the usual one. I needed to shop food and I thought that I just as well could go to the ICA foodstore where I used to shop before moving to the new flat. As I was getting closer to my stop, I saw a new food store through the window. The sign said Kryddhuset (The spice house) and I couldn’t resist walking back a bit and visit it! It was a nice store with all kinds of spices, tea, coffee, honey and many other interesting things. I ended up buying hot indian curry powder, fish curry masala and Sumac. I actually didn’t know what the dark red coloured Sumac is, so I couldn’t resist buying it as it looks really interesting and as it was the last jar (that must be a good sign, I thought). At home I looked it up on the internet and I found this page and this one about Sumac. Apparently Sumac is often used in Döner Kebap and the spice is being preffered to lemon for sourness and astringency in the Arabic kitchen. I have a cold at the moment so I can’t smell it, but it does taste a bit sour and it will be really fun to try it out. So if you have any nice recipes including Sumac, they are very welcome.

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Yesterday when I started to bake the Tiramisù Cheesecake from Maxine Clark’s book Cheesecakes I was so excited, it was going to be perfect. I bought the book just the other day and finally decided to try the Tiramisù Cheesecake. Today, after tasting it, I’m dissapointed. Have you ever baked or cooked something that you had high expectations of that didn’t turn out that great? Well, then you understand how I feel. I love cheesecakes, both cold and baked ones. This could be perfect, but the chocolate that I used was too dark and too bitter (72 % cocoa) for this recipe. Honestly I don’t even like dark chocolate, I’m like a kid and only eat milk chocolate. But even Fredrik, aka the chocolate lover, thinks that the chocolate used for the cheesecake doesn’t fit. One other negative thing was the Philadelphia cheese, I discovered that I don’t like Philadelphia cheese in cheesecakes, I think that it’s too salty. I prefer “natural” fresh cheese, like Swedish Kesella (quark) or Italian Mascarpone. I know that many people use Philadelphia cheese in cheesecakes, but I don’t think that I will use it more times (exept for bagels and sandwiches of course), it’s something with the taste and the salt. The texture of the cheesecake is perfect, but as I wrote earlier it’s just too bitter. I’m sorry, but I wont’ share this recipe with you. Maybe I’ll modify it and give it a new try some other time. But at least the cheesecake looks pretty.

Updated September 2nd 2005:
I just thought that I would add some words about me not liking cream cheese/Philadelphia cheese in Cheesecakes. There’s a big difference between American and eastern European Cheesecakes. The American ones are generally made with cream cheese. The eastern European ones have always traditionally been made with quark. Quark is white fresh cheese which is mildly tangy, smooth and creamy.

I was born in Sweden but my parents are from Poland, so I am raised with typical Polish food, but my mother also loved to experiment and try other culture’s recipes. When I was young, my mother made her own quark that she used in all cheesecakes that she made. Nowadays she uses the Swedish quark Kesella instead, as it’s much easier. I am used to, and truly love thoose quark cheesecakes. There’s a big difference in taste depending on which kind of cheese you use, and I just prefer the quark version.