How do you say Happy Birthday? With shrimp and cheesecake, of course.

Feb 19th is Bruce's birthday, and with that comes the custom-made birthday dinner. Whatever you want, your wish is my command, the reply to which was "I don't care". Ugh. What is with people?! Lily asked for "some kind of pasta and strawberry ice cream" and this is "I don't care". You all are no help. Or is this some kind of message that you don't actually want me to cook? Well, too bad. That leaves me with carte blanche for dinner, so what shall I do? Bruce's normal birthday dinner would be either Hot Browns or Fettucine Alfredo with scallops, but I decided to pull out a couple of recipes that I had saved in my to-do list: a pasta and shrimp with a lemon cream sauce, asparagus, Caesar salad, and Junior's Cheesecake.

I got the shrimp recipe from the My Mommy Style website for angel hair pasta and shrimp with a lemon cream sauce. Really quite simple and I'm a sucker for lemon anything. Yes, yes I know it's not MY birthday, but, and I quote, "I don't care". So, lemon cream it is!

There's not very many ingredients, which is good. I always have multiple kinds of pasta and garlic and Parmesan cheese on hand, just had to get the shrimp and heavy cream. Prep? Pretty much none - I crushed garlic. I used medium shrimp (about 30 shrimp per pound), deveined and tails off. While you boil the pasta, the garlic gets sauteed in butter, then with the shrimp, and then add in your lemon juice and zest, then finally the cream and Parmesan cheese. It's not unlike how I make my alfredo sauce - it's not a thick goopy thing. It's butter, cream and parmesan cheese, salt & white pepper as you like. And yes, you can saute in some garlic with that if you like when you start melting your butter. So this sauce is relatively light, even for having rich ingredients. Even though I like to use as few pans as humanly possible, I would recommend sauteeing your shrimp & garlic separately from making the sauce. Shrimp cooks very quickly, and a minute or two over, you have these tough little shrunken shrimp circles. Just use a little extra butter (you've already used heavy cream so what's a few more tablespoons of butter) and do the shrimp last. The kids went crazy for it, including Abby who watched me make the sauce and yelled "no don't do that!" when I added the lemon. I would also say - start with one lemon and check your flavor, add more if you like - you can always add more, but you can't take it away, right?

On to dessert: The famous Junior's Cheesecake.

What is Junior's you ask? Junior's is a New York institution that I have never had the opportunity to visit (mostly because I've never gone outside of the NYC limits and the place is actually in Brooklyn) - a restaurant around since the 50's known for their meatloaf, and sandwiches, but mainly for their cheesecake:

The crust isn't really a crust, it's actually a layer of spongecake, and the cheesecake itself is a traditional New York-style - thick and heavy and somewhat dry. They also have a strawberry version, with this macaroon crumb that is pressed into the sides. Once upon a time, I had their cookbook, but the cheesecake recipe was just so labor-intensive, and so were the rest of the recipes, frankly, that I gave the cookbook away. And then I was sorry, because I so wanted to make that cheesecake. It has been like some kind of my own Everest - I knew someday that I had to do it. First I needed to find the recipe again, which luckily is no longer a trade secret. It's right here! I decided I would make the fresh strawberry cheesecake (it's in the pic with the recipe when you click on the link). I had everything for the sponge layer, I had heavy cream for the filling already, and for the macaroon crumb, the jellies for the glaze. I just needed 2 lbs of cream cheese and strawberries for the top. Note that the recipe calls for the real deal. I usually buy the lower fat content neufchatel with no issues using it in baked goods, but I figured I better follow the directions explicitly for the authentic cake.

I wanted the cake to be ready for about 7pm, so backtracking my time for finishing, cooling, etc., I started cooking around 9 - 9:30am. Got the springform pan ready - buttered and covered the bottom and up the sides of the pan with foil. Why? Since the pan was buttered, I didn't want any of the butter (or cake batter that was coming) to start leaking through the bottom. Also the cheesecake was to be cooked in a water bath, so you need it for a barrier. Sponge layer was very easy, mixed entirely by hand. The filling was easy also, the key being to add ingredients slowly and mix slowly as well. If you try to whip it up, you end up with little lumps of cheesecake that don't smooth out. Pan went in its water bath (hot water in a roasting pan) to cook for 1 hour & 15 minutes. I took a look around the one hour mark and the top of the cheesecake looked fairly tan. Hmph. I shook the pan and touched the top a lightly. It's supposed to jiggle just a little - the cheesecake is so dense that it will continue to hold heat and cook a bit after it comes out of the oven; heavy cheesecakes take a very long time to cool. Cook it in the oven too long and while it's cooling, you'll likely get a giant crack in the top. In another 15 minutes, the top was very brown, and it seemed the center seemed about right. I did not like how dark the top was, but I took it out and started the cooling process.

In the meantime I made the coating, which I sort-of had half done - I already had some toasted chopped pecans, and they happened to have a little bit of chocolate in it (that's just a happy accident), so I just toasted some coconut and chopped it and added it.

When the cake was done cooling, it had shrunk down a little but ok. I put the crumb coating and sliced the strawberries and made the glaze. The kids could not wait to get that cake out and have some. (Here comes terrible pic)

We cut into it and... it wasn't properly done. I was so disappointed. The top was really browned and the inside was not dry and dense.. instead it was kind of wet and dense. Thoroughly cooked but more of a creamy cheesecake, not the iconic New York-style that I was really hoping for. I am not happy.

Verdict:

Shrimp recipe - definitely would make again - super simple, fast, everyone loved it. In fact I'd double it - we had enough for dinner and lunch, but the leftovers were a fight of who would get it, and who got the most, and no fair, you had more than I did, yada, yada. That's a good thing.

Cheesecake - I'm so sad. A ton of work for a crappy cake. I'm thinking that I need to replace my oven thermometer so I can double-check it. Did I overmix the batter? I don't know. The spongecake later for the crust is excellent and this one had a slightly lemony flavor (strictly from extract)but it was very nice. Everyone ate the cheesecake anyway and really liked it.

Bruce was sick as a dog, had a really long day, and made his way through dinner and dessert graciously when all he wanted to do was lie down. He and the kids are still eating it graciously; they think it's fine. But I don't think it's fine, and the guilt over his lackluster birthday cake is driving me to make a new proper one and redeem myself. I won't use the Junior's recipe, but one from my "Joy of Cheesecakes" cookbook. (Yes, I love cheesecake so much that my aunt got me a cheesecake-only cookbook for one of my birthdays.) Somehow, I don't think anyone will mind putting up with the burden of eating a new cheesecake.