Recently I was blog hopping and came across this dessert. I had never heard of semolina pudding before and the combination of blood orange and ginger intrigued me. In fact, I highly recommend you read the blog I got it from because she goes into how she got this combo of flavors together and has tried it in different recipes. It's blood orange season right now, so I figured I should do it before they were gone. I also happened to have a small amount of extra semolina lying around.

One thing you'll see in Linda's blog is a much nicer picture/presentation. I had poured my pudding into my PC prep bowls and could not flip one out so that it kept its shape. So I left the other three in the bowls and put the sauce on top.



The oranges I got were very red and delicious. They were also very small. I had gone to the farmers' market on Sunday and found only one person who was selling at $3/lb! And his oranges turned out awful. Later in the day we had gone up to Ikeda's in Auburn and they had them for 69 cents/lb. I got a bag of these small beauties and they were so much better. I had hoped, though, to get a couple that weren't absolutely red. I really love the look of blood orange sections when they have a kind of bleed from light orange through to the dark red 'kernels' (is that the right word?).

The pudding itself was a new texture experience. Semolina flour is a grainier than baking flour, so the pudding had the slight grainy texture. But it was not unpleasant. The pudding itself had a very subtle flavoring of the orange/ginger. I definitely enjoyed it better with the tart sauce with each spoonful.

I later researched semolina pudding on the internet and saw many other flavor variations. I think I will be trying some of them in the future.



Blood Orange/Ginger Semolina Pudding

400 ml (1 ⅔ cup) milk
100 ml (3 ⅓ fl oz) whipping cream
1 tbs grated fresh ginger
1 tbs (blood) orange zest
50 g (1 ¾ oz) semolina
40 g (1 ⅓ oz) sugar + extra
6 cut out blood orange segments

Heat the milk, cream, ginger and orange zest until nearly boiling. Turn off the heat and let it steep for 15 minutes. Strain the milk and cream mixture and fill it up with milk until you have 500 ml in total.
Mix the semolina and sugar. Add the mixture to the hot milk whilst stirring. Bring to a boil and allow to cook. Cook and stir for 3-5 minutes. Rinse a non-stick muffin pan with cold water and pour the mixture in 6 of the cups. Sprinkle with sugar to prevent the forming of a crust. Allow to cool to room temperature. Chill in the fridge for a few hours.
Unmold each pudding by turning the pan upside down and massaging it in a circular motion. Let the pudding slide onto your hand and place it on a slighty wet soup plate. Correct the position if necessary. Place an orange segment on top. Pour blood orange sauce around it.

Blood orange sauce

225 ml (1 cup) blood orange juice
25 ml (1 tbs + 2 ts) lemon juice
1 tbs ginger syrup
5-10 g (¼ oz) potato starch

Bring the blood orange juice, lemon juice and ginger syrup to a boil. Mix the potato starch with a little bit of water until lump free.
Add the potato starch water mix to the juice whilst stirring. Allow to cook for 1 minute. Allow the sauce to cool down completely, stirring occasionally.


Blood Orange

Cleaning up my archives, I found this old post (2008) and decided to repost because I had forgotten about it and need to remake them myself. I love looking at other food blogs and discovering new things. I stumbled across hoddeoks at My Korean Kitchen. Hoddeoks are Korean street food, pancakes with a brown sugar/cinnamon filling. They looked interesting and easy, so I figured I'd give them a try. Tips for next time: more filling, try chocolate shavings.


Ingredients for 6 pancakes


* All purpose white flour - 1¼ cups
* Salt - 1/4 tsp
* Milk - 90 ml (6 tbsp)


Fermented yeast water (mix these well in bowl 1)


* Warm water (40℃) - 45 ml (3 tbsp)
* White sugar - 1/4 tsp
* Dry yeast- 1/4 tsp


Stuffing (mix these well in bowl 2)


* Cinnamon powder - 1/4 tsp
* Crushed walnuts- 2 tbsp (you can use peanuts instead, but I prefer walnuts)
* Dark brown sugar - 90 ml (6 tbsp)


Leave the mix of fermented yeast water in a warm place (30-40 ℃) for 10 minutes. Add the flour, salt, and milk. Mix well. Cover with plastic wrap and place in a warm place for two hours.





Oil your hands and then split the dough into six equal parts. Take one and flatten it into a pancake in your hand. Put a spoonful of filling in the center and then seal the dough around it.





Heat a skillet with a little oil. Place a pancake in and flatten with a spatula.





Brown both sides and serve. Here is a cut one to show you the inside. The brown sugar should be melted in the center. Yum.

I decided that it was the perfect time to try my hand at a baked cheesecake. I had the wine/cheese party (above) coming up and I certainly didn't need an entire cheesecake in my frig. Although I would love every bite, I'm sure my scale would not. So here was my chance to bake one and share it for an event.

I chose a raspberry cheesecake recipe from Cooking Pleasures magazine. It was pretty easy, although I didn't have any raspberry jam. I cheated and put a bit of black currant jam on the bottom - which didn't spread well. So then I gave that up and just poured the cheese mixture on top. I paid attention to every cheesecake tip sheet out there and took it out of the oven when it was still a little jiggly. I'm proud to say it came out perfectly and was a hit.

Raspberry Cheesecake

CRUST
1 (5.3-oz.) pkg. pure butter shortbread cookies, crushed (about 1 1/4 cups)
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1/4 cup raspberry preserves, melted

CHEESECAKE
1 (10-oz.) pkg. frozen raspberries, thawed
3 (8-oz.) pkg. cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sour cream
2 teaspoons lemon juice
2 eggs

1. Heat oven to 350°F. Wrap outside of 9-inch springform pan with heavy-duty foil. Combine crushed cookies and melted butter in small bowl; press into bottom of pan. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until slightly darker in color. Cool slightly; gently spread preserves over crust.

2. Puree thawed raspberries in food processor or blender until smooth. Strain through medium strainer, pressing with spatula to remove seeds. Reserve 1/2 cup puree. (Save remaining puree for another use.)

3. Beat cream cheese and 1/2 cup butter at medium-low speed until smooth. Beat in sugar and flour just until blended. Beat in sour cream, reserved raspberry puree and lemon juice. Beat in eggs one at a time. Pour over crust.

4. Place springform pan in large shallow pan. Add enough hot tap water to come halfway up sides of springform pan. Bake 40 to 45 minutes or until edges are puffed and top is dry to the touch. Center should move slightly when pan is tapped but should not ripple as if liquid. Remove cake from water bath; remove foil. Cool completely on wire rack. Refrigerate overnight.

5. Garnish with raspberries. Store in refrigerator.

16 servings