No-Bake Jelly-yoghurt cheesecake

 A colleague asked me if nooknosh was still being updated.

I said no. But in my mind, over the years, I had been thinking that some receipes should have been uploaded here.

Anyway, fast forward to 2025.. back in the magic kitchen in England..

Here we go. A receipe which I’m sure I will attempt soon…

I do like jelly cheesecake. Every time I go past a jelly hearts outlet, I have to give myself a reason not to buy.

No bake cheesecake. It’s really not that difficult to make. Diane makes them for our gatherings. Perhaps if I succeed, and pass my own test, I could share these.

This picture shows jelly liquid with lemon peel in it. Jelly crystals with no sugar. Agar would probably work too. Or gelatine. 

On the right is the ‘biscuit base’ all crushed up packed together on the base of a Pyrex dish.  Use your imagination how you want the base. Bit of oat biscuit. Bit of digestive. Bit of chocolate bicky. Bit of crunch … add a little bit of sugar. It’s actually about maybe 6 pieces of bickies crushed up with a stone pestle in a bag, with ginger powder. A 1 cm slice of unsalted butter went on top and into the microwave in bursts of 1 min to melt it. That kind of keeps the crumbs together  as they are packed and squeezed. Traditional methods, no magic there.

Then there is the soft cheese and the Greek yoghurt. Not Greek-style yoghurt but proper Greek yoghurt. Big difference.

500g of yoghurt and 200g of cheese.

The jelly powder with water,  lemon peel, was heated, stirred and dissolved. 

Cheese poured into the jelly pitcher jar, mushed up a bit.

Yoghurt poured into the jelly jar and whisked with a $2 whisk from Daiso.

Texture changes as the whole thing is mixed together because the jelly will cool some  and cause the mixture to thicken abit. If it’s too thick, can add some squeezed lemon juice.

Stir in the juice well, you don’t really want it tooooo runny either, so just do the agar-ation thing.

After you think it looks good, just pour the mixture over the biscuit. Use a spatula to scrape the pitcher so that nothing is wasted. 

Most likely it will now look like this. Just bump the tray on the table a bit so you get a flat surface.

Cover with cling film then chill it in the fridge. And you’re done.

If adventurous or need a variation, can pre-cut some colourful jelly into cubes, and mix them into the top layer. 

Or maybe sprinkle some cocoa and chili flakes. 

Or maybe after this is set, then pour another layer of jelly on top and wait for that to set into a 3 layer dessert. Then we could give jelly hearts a run for their money.

Credit to the noshlette for the foundations of the receipe and her hubby as the test subject over the years.

Nosh Lab : Cari de poulet (comme à la Réunion)

Cari Poulet - a dish from Reunion Island
Bastardised by me on account I served it with bread!
Traditionally it is served with rice.

Obviously I'm still cooking , although I haven't blogged about my foodie venturings in a while. So much to eat and so little time to write about it! Anyway, the picture above is of Cari Poulet which is a bit of a culinary adventure for me in creole cooking courtesy of my •❤• Angel.

Ingredients: 

Chicken (I used 3 leg portions)

Tomatoes (I used what I had but I'd estimate about 6 medium salad tomatoes to make about a cup in measurement)

Onion (1 large brown onion, thinly sliced)

Garlic (aprox. 2-3 cloves which might be too garlicky for some - do to taste)

Thyme

Tumeric

Fresh Ginger (aprox. 1 inch)

3 Cloves Garlic

Fresh black pepper

Sea Salt

Honestly, this organised ingredients pic is only for the blog.
I'm never this neat actually cooking. Maybe that's why I never blog!
Clockwise left to right : Garlic + Ginger, Tumeric, Thyme ( I used dried but I think fresh would have made a more authentic dish - Angel says use 2 sprigs) , Salt + Pepper, 1 Clove.

So the funny thing about this dish is I've never tasted the actual thing and a lot of the nuances of actually cooking it, is an educated guess on my part. This is my interpretation based on the recipe that was shared with me. I made it because I had most of the ingredients to hand and said I would!
It's surprisingly good for its simplicity.

Method :

In a pestle, pound ginger, garlic, salt and pepper

Pound to a paste  
Basically so there aren't any huge lumpy bits of spice

Slice onion thinly - Angel's top tip (and I quote) 
" ... so that the onion melts"

I was told in the authentic dish they are fond of using small tomatoes.
I had an assortment so I basically cut them up about the same size ie. halves and quarters.

Now here is where a good non stick pan is essential.  
Brown off the chicken in a hot non stick skillet

This is done by dry frying (not adding anything else)  on a high heat - Here you can see I used a splatter guard because the chicken skin will eventually produce quite a bit of oil on its own. 
(aprox. 5-10 mins)

Then to ensure that the chicken is moist, cover  to cook via steaming 
(aprox. 5 mins -10 mins) 

When skin is a golden brown and meat is part cook,  
add onions and continue to cook gently

As the onions begin to become softer and more translucent,
add the pounded paste of salt + pepper + garlic + ginger

Follow on with the rest of the dry spices ie. Tumeric + Thyme + Clove
Gently cooking and mixing till everything in the skillet is a lovely golden tumeric colour

Continue to saute gently as you add your tomatoes...
(Which just means to stir and turn your chicken + onions + spices + tomatoes 
while the dish is on a medium - low  heat) 

To break down and finish cooking the ingredients through,
turn heat down to low, cover pan and simmer. 
(aprox. 15 minutes)

Here you can see that the chicken is cooked through 
(comes away from the bone around the cartilage)
The tomatoes have broken down to form a liquor with the rest of the pan juices.
The actual dish I'm told is relatively dry - so all I did was reduce the liquid in half by cooking uncovered. 

Finally, I added a chilli (sliced into so that the heat is infused in the last stage of cooking)
and garnished the dish with sliced spring onions

20 seconds later  - this was all that was left
(Ok ... I exagerate but it was GOOD and it went FAST)
Angel thinks I'm heathen because I served it with bread. I know.. it's sacrilege !