No bake cheesecake using agar

A few weeks ago I try to make a mango no bake cheesecake using gelatin ( as instructed by the recipe), and dear me, it turned out to be a flop. The gelatin doesn't hold the cake, it blubbered out from the pan.  I tried to eat most of it, but cheesecake is not something you can enjoy too much of- the cream, the cheese. You'll go tired of it in no time. Not to mention as I was preparing the gelatin for the cake, the smell of it when exiting the microwave oven was  such a kill-off.
Being me, I wish to achieve some sort of a- yes! moment, so yesterday I tried the recipe using agar (a jellylike substance, obtained from red algae- wikipedia). As at the time I don't know there people who has already use this, I trialed adjusting the recipe I got from here and here.
While writing this I found out that there are actually those who have managed to achieve making cheesecake using agar. You can look the recipe here. Well, back to my adventure...


Ingredients:

Crust:
A- 1/2 pack of digestive biscuit
B- 1/4 cup of cornflake
C- 1 tablespoon of brown sugar
D- 65g of butter

Cheesecake filling:
A- 1/3 pack of agar (+-9g)
B- 1/4 cup of water
C- 250g cream cheese (room temperature)
D- 3/4 cup powdered sugar (shifted)
E- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
F- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice (optional)
G- Zest of half a lemon (optional)
H- 1 cup of cream

I- A jar of blackberry/strawberry/raspberry jelly or jam (optional)

Methods:
1- Crush the biscuit and cornflake.
2- Melt the butter.
3- Mix thoroughly the crushed biscuit/cornflake, butter and sugar.
4- Press the mixture in a springform pan about 7x7 inch and put in the fridge for at least an hour to firm.
 5- Soak the agar into a bowl of water for about 10 minutes.
6-  Beat the cream cheese and sugar until fluffy.
7- Add the flavouring: Vanilla and lemon, and continue beating
8- Strain the water out of the agar. Put the agar into the 1/4 cup of water and heat in low with a microwave oven. Stir for every 5 minutes until all is smooth and melted.
9- Add the cream into the cheese filling and continue beating. Don't forget to scrape the sides of the bowl.
10- Slowly drizzle the agar into the cheese filling while the beating the fillings.
11- Quickly pour the filling into the springform pan and smooth it.
12- Melt the jelly in the microwave over low and sieve if there is seeds in them.
13- Pour on top the cheesecake and let everything set in the fridge for at least 4 hours.

These are the ingredients I think should be use instead; (I think I've used a little bit more agar than I should- I used maybe 12g, but when eating it, the texture seems spot on)

Here is the picture of my failed no bake mango cheesecake:

How it tells you should never judge from looks..

chicken dim sum

When I made chicken murtabak using popia sheet (I got this idea from Facebook), I notice that wet popia sheet has the almost the texture of dim sum's wrapper after steaming. It inspire me to search for recipe for dim sum from several web page. Eventually this is the recipe that I settle with

Ingredients:
A- 800g of mince chicken
B- 1/4 cup of corn flour
C- 1/3 carrot (small dice)
D- 1/8 cabbage (small dice)
E- 1/3 onion (small dice)
F- 2 stalk of scallion (cut small)
G- 2 eggs
H- salt and sugar to taste
I- popia sheet


Methods:
1- cut the popia sheet so you will have equal 4 small squares wrapper sheet for every 1wrapper sheet
2- put all the other ingredient in a bowl and mix well.
3- use 2 layer of the wrapper (1 layer is a bit too thin) and put a small dollop of the mixture in the middle of the wrapper
4- use flour water to act as glue. you can use which ever method to shape the dim sum.
5- steam the dim sum until the wrapper seems translucent.
6- enjoy warm..