Pomegranate Cheesecake

Last year, when I moved back to India and started looking for houses in Bangalore, all I wanted was a big kitchen and solid counter space. There were houses I entered and with just a quick glance at the kitchen, knew it wasn’t the place for me. My dad warned me not to be picky, considering I had only a couple of days to find myself a job, go back to Madras, pack up the house I’d left behind before I left for the US and ship it all to Bangalore before my job began, but I was determined. I knew what I wanted and I wasn’t going to rest until I found it and in my budget too.

Have you ever walked into a house and known immediately? The way the sunshine and breeze played with this apartment lured me in with a smile and as I peeked into the kitchen, my heart skipped a beat A beautiful, dark, L-shaped marble counter-top dominated the room contrasting the white floors with wooden cabinets all over. I turned around to the realtor with the biggest grin and I knew I’d made a mistake. He could so clearly see that I wanted the house! I wonder how I won any poker games at all.

My home got set up pretty quickly (a big thanks to Ni, for hauling all my things across the world,) with a little bit of my life before Dartmouth and a lot of keepsakes from my life in Hanover. I covered my fridge with magnets of my travels and my bookshelves with rocks from covered bridges I’d visited. I lined the kitchen closets with newspaper before filling them with boxes and boxes of rice, dal, flour, and most importantly, freshly ground spices. As I fell back exhausted on the couch and looked around, I found myself getting excited about how amazing it was going to be. I dreamt of all the new ingredients that I could experiment with, all the Indian dishes I could perfect, all the knowledge I could gain.

And then I hit a block. Everyday I would sit at my dining table looking into the kitchen wondering why I didn’t want to enter. I didn’t even want to get myself a gas connection for the stove (I had to get one eventually when my folks came down to visit,) as I was so disinvested. My kitchen still felt bereft of all my precious tools that I was forced to leave behind, and that made me feel shallow because I thought my love for food was more than just that. I detested my kitchen for making me feel that way and raining on my parade by giving me no inspiration at all. Everyone around me tried to push me in every which way they could, and even though I cooked a bit here and there, I never felt the joy.

After a few months in, a close friend of mine came down for a visit, all ready to take me up on my promise to make him something delectable. I went through all my saved recipes and nothing jumped up at me. Groaning to myself, I dragged him to the supermarket to see what I could find. There, in the dairy section, Philadelphia cream cheese! That’s it! A cheesecake. I pulled out two boxes and searched for the sour cream. You cannot get that tang without sour cream. For the base, instead of graham crackers, I chose digestive biscuits just to see the difference in texture. For the compote I picked up a box of blackberries, but as I crossed the fruit section, my eye caught these gorgeous, red plump pomegranates. I ditched the blackberries and decided to try something new. Pomegranates have the perfect balance of sweet and tart, just enough to cut through the richness of the cheesecake. We lugged huge bags of groceries back home, excited to get started, but between cooking an elaborate dinner and heading out for Bohemian Rhapsody (oh, what a beautiful movie!) I never got the time to make cheesecake that weekend.

In the month of December, I decided to spend a quiet birthday weekend, digging into books that I’d picked up from a famous second hand bookstore called Blossoms and finally getting around to making the cheesecake. I was a little worried about cooking the cheesecake in my counter-top oven because I was still having trouble figuring out his personality. Like me, he seems a bit moody, occasionally burning my cauliflower or under-cooking my custard. The trick to a crack-less cheesecake is to not open the oven until the time is right. When cooked perfectly, it jiggles just a little in the middle. This was going to be a challenge.

I crushed up about 15 of the digestive biscuits, mixed them with the sugar and melted butter to make the crumb base. This went into a buttered spring-form pan to be baked for about 7 minutes, to make sure it is able to hold the weight of the cheesecake batter. While that was in the oven, I peeled out the little red jewels inside the pomegranate. While I know the easier trick is to split it into half and beat it with a rolling pin, I quite enjoy the simple task of pulling each one. I put them in a pan with a couple of tablespoons of sugar, water, and lime juice and cooked it down until the fruit became soft and released the pink juice. Once satisfied that it wasn’t runny and after a quick taste check, I pulled it off the heat and let it cool.

I’d left the cream cheese, sour cream, and eggs outside earlier in the morning to make sure that they all came down to room temperature. This is essential if you want a smooth, well combined batter. The process is quite simple. First whip the cream cheese and sugar together until it is light and fluffy and make sure there are no lumps. Fold in the sour cream and vanilla essence. Add three eggs, one by one, making sure it is well incorporated, but do not over mix. Once the base is out of the oven and cooled (do not miss this step,) pour the batter into the pan.

I had absolute fun putting in the design for this one, I’d actually been thinking about it since the last time I made a cheesecake. I drew out a spiral blossoming from the center and along the line I laid out little dots of the pomegranate juice. With the knife, I connected the dots, starting from the center again, leaving me with a trail of hearts.

Pop this in the oven for 50 minutes and make sure that you don’t open the oven door until it’s done. Then crack the oven open just a bit and allow the cheesecake to cool in there itself before letting it set in the fridge for four or more hours. This time around, my cheesecake did crack along the design and to be honest, I was sorta expecting that, but tasted delicious none the less. All in all, not a bad birthday after all.