Homemade Ricotta Cheese

Have you ever heard of ricotta cheese?  Ricotta is a fresh soft Italian cheese with a creamy texture that is amazingly used in so many delicious sweet and savory dishes!  Simply top on to fruit with a drizzle of honey or smear on toast with a sprinkle sea salt/pepper.  For savory dishes use to make lasagna, stuff ravioli and to top pizza.  For sweet treats use to make lusciously light cheesecakes, pies, cakes and that extra special Italian dessert cannoli.  What a powerhouse of a cheese, amirite?!

Ricotta actually means 'recooked' in Italian, as it is traditionally made by 'recooking' the leftover whey from making rennet based cheeses like parmesan or provolone.  However, there are other simple ways to make this cheese.  For us, as a consequence of making homemade yogurt and failing sometimes, we discovered, to our delight, that ricotta cheese is very easily made at home with just a few simple, always on hand ingredients!  Wow, oh, wow!  What a discovery indeed, yummilicious ricotta cheese, with its mild, creamy, slightly sweet and nutty flavor, moist and soft texture, made fresh and easy peasy at home.  It was my first homemade cheese and it was perfect!

Chinese Peony Pastry 牡丹形酥餅

Dear readers, I have recently discovered a most fabulous book of dim sum!  Dim sum 點心 is a traditional Cantonese style of dining on small bite sized tidbits, both sweet and savory, all exquisitely presented, while drinking fragrant Chinese tea.  Ooooo..we love us some dim sum, how about y'all?

The dim sum book of which I speak is 正統中式點心全書: 師承香港傳奇料理大師 by 吉岡勝美 which translates into The Complete Book of Authentic Chinese Dim Sum by Katsumi Yoshioka.  The Japanese author of this book apprenticed with the legendary culinary master Chef Liang Jing 梁敬, at the 敬賓酒家, a famous Cantonese restaurant in the 80's.

This is our first try at a recipe from this book and boy-o-boy are we pleased!  Around a delicious heart of creamy lotus seed paste, this Chinese Peony Pastry 牡丹形酥餅 opens out in the most delicate flaky pastry petal layers, looking just like real peony blossoms.  Super duper uber gorgeous amirite?!  And the perfect special treat to celebrate the Chinese New Year!