Don't be overwhelmed by the title! True, I used two kinds of berries, strawberry and Saskatoon berry.

I never feel regret that I had to move out from the city due to my work's location. I live close to the farmers where the food begins. My neighbour sometimes offers me to have some fresh vegetables from their garden.

Out of the blue, one of the local people came to the office. She brought a pack of fresh strawberry from u-pick farm. They were totally awesome, sweet and really red. Totally different with the store bought ones! I decided to keep some of them frozen and ate the rest for smoothie and snack.

The next two week, my husband and I went for Saskatoon berries u-pick. I came to conclusion to make New York style Cheesecake with adding Saskatoon Berries as compote. The story of Saskatoon Berry will be posted later.

Since I played around with the recipe, I thought it would be failed. Voila!!! I modified by adding flour as I enhanced by fresh/frozen strawberry in cream cheese filling, and of course the compote.

New York Style Strawberry Cheesecake
recipe by Ricardo Larriv�e, modified by me

Ingredients:
Crust

1 1/4 cups graham cracker crumbs =>I used Italian �Savoiardi� Lady finger cookies, then grind
2 tbsp sugar
1/4 cup melted butter => I reduced to 3 tbsp

Cream Cheese Filling
4 x Container (250 g/8 oz each) cream cheese, at room temperature=> I used 3 containers
1 1/4 cups sugar => I reduced into 1 cup sugar
4 x eggs
1/2 cup 35% cream => I substituted for plain natural yogurt
1 tbsp vanilla extract => I skipped this
1 cup fresh/frozen strawberry
1/2 cup flour (I suggested to reduce to 1/4 cup)
2 tsp konyaku jelly powder (I suggested to reduce to 1 tsp)

Directions:
Crust

1. In a bowl, combine the ingredients. Press lightly into the bottom of a 20-cm (8-inch) springform pan. Bake for about 10 minutes at 350�F. Let cool.
2. Wrap the outside (bottom and sides) of the springform pan with aluminum foil, making sure it�s watertight
3. Turn the oven temperature down to 170�C (325�F).

Cream Cheese Filling

1. Place all the ingredients in a food processor and pulse until smooth. Pour onto the crust.
2. Prepare a bain-marie: Place the springform pan in a large baking dish. Fill the baking dish with boiling water until it comes halfway up the side of the pan.
3. Bake in the middle of the oven until the filling is set at the edges but the centre trembles slightly when shaken, about 70 minutes. Turn off the oven, leaving the cake inside with the door slightly ajar for 1 hour. Remove the pan from the bain-marie. Remove the foil from the pan. Run a thin knife around the inside edge of the pan. Cover and refrigerate until completely chilled, about 4 hours.

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The picture is my submission for Click-Agust 2009 with a theme Allium.

Idea of the picture? Why the heck did I put red onion on top of the jar with water in it? Here is the clue, by utilizing the green parts for cooking and leave the red bulb in a jar with water, the greens will grow back and you can use them again, as long as you keep the bulb under water. This method can apply for green onions or scallions as well.

In Indonesian culinary, allium has been used widely, especially shallot which is often in one recipe it is called more than 3 pieces of shallot. The specialty Indonesian nasi goreng also uses shallot, not garlic.

A part of my work�s schedule every Friday is to visit the local farmers� market (FM). On that day, I will bring home a big bag of organic fresh salad mix which is so cheap only $ 2.50. The salad mix frequently contains edible flowers.

About a month ago, I realized that I couldn�t get the usual shallot that I used to get whenever I am in Winnipeg. Instead, I bought a bunch of fresh red onion from the FM and the onions still had the green stalks attached. Anyway, I only keep one bulb of the red since I used the bulb for cooking, my shallot�s substitution for the time being. :)

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