Raspberry + yoghurt cheesecake : Chef Serge Dansereau

September 23 2010 by Rebecca Varidel in At home with ... | 0 Comments

At a time before we were all talking about (and eating) local food in restaurants, there was a pioneer in this country who forged a path for those that followed. Chef Serge Dansereau was one of the original supporters of Australian artisan produce. In the early 1990s when he was the Executive Chef of The Regent Hotel, its signature restaurant Kables received the coveted (and currently rare) 3 hats in Sydney from Leo Schofield in the Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide which said,

“How ironical it is that the most aggressive promoter of Australian produce should be a French Canadian. In California the chefs have a saying that “if we can sell it, someone will produce it.” However the law of supply and demand works differently here, and chefs have virtually had to drag, cajole and coax their suppliers into production of things other than mass-market ingredients. Serge Dansereau has perhaps worked hardest, not only at getting quality produce but actively promoting it, and his menus are celebrations of the glories and the rosy future possibilities of Aussie meats, cheeses, fruits, vegetables and seafood.”

I’m a huge fan of Serge and his cuisine. His current restaurant at Balmoral Beach sometimes flies under the radar and is deserving in my humble opinion of more accolades. His restaurant is the perfect reflection of life in Sydney, with a contemporary menu, matching classicly crafted dishes from great produce with a fantastic view, complemented with casual but correct service.

Raspberry and yoghurt cheesecake
Gâteau au fromage blanc et à la framboise

Serves 8

In his latest book, French Kitchen, Serge Dansereau says “This is my version of a set cheesecake, as opposed to a baked one. It is lighter but make no mistake, it is still quite rich. I got the idea from Café Marly in the Musée du Louvre in Paris.”

300 g digestive biscuits
100 g butter, melted
200 g fromage blanc or cream cheese, diced and softened
300 ml sweetened condensed milk
125 g (H cup) plain yoghurt
125 g (H cup) sour cream
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 x 5 g gelatine sheets, soaked in cold water
125 g raspberries, washed

berry coulis, to serve

Crush the digestive biscuits in a food processor or put them in a bag and crush them with a rolling pin. Stir in the melted butter until well combined. Use the crumbs to line the base and side of a 20 cm round springform cake tin. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour to firm up.

Put the fromage blanc or cream cheese in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Beat on low speed for 5 minutes, then increase the speed to medium for a further 5 minutes until smooth. Gradually add the condensed milk on low speed, again increasing the speed to high for 5 minutes, making sure there are no lumps in the mixture. Add the yoghurt and sour cream and continue mixing on medium speed for 5 minutes, scraping the side and bottom of the bowl from time to time, until well combined.

Heat the lemon juice in a small saucepan. Squeeze the water from the gelatine leaves and then stir them into the lemon juice until they melt. Strain over the cheesecake mixture and continue mixing for 5 minutes at high speed until all the ingredients are well combined. Pour the cheese filling over the cake base until it is filled to halfway. Sprinkle the raspberries all over the cheesecake and then top with the remaining filling mixture. Refrigerate for 4 hours. Once set, remove from the tin, cut the cake into wedges and serve with the berry coulis.

variations: You can use blueberries or any other berries instead of the raspberries. If you prefer you could make a chocolate crumb base instead, simply follow the instructions for the base of the dark chocolate and raspberry tart recipe (in the cookbook) — you do not need to cook it, just spread the crumbs into the base of the tin, refrigerate briefly, then pour the cheesecake filling on top.

I got hungry just looking at this photograph. I love a good cheesecake and I’ll be making a blueberry version of Serge’s recipe for a family birthday very soon. I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as me. We have a lot to thank the multi-talented Chef for as well as this recipe. I seem to remember he humbly told me earlier in the year when I was looking at proofs of the book, that he did the food styling at home himself. And, I for one, won’t forget the foundation he gave this country in promoting Australian produce.

Raspberry and yoghurt cheesecake is from Dansereau’s latest cookbook, French Kitchen, which went on sale this week. Although it’s available in all good bookstores, if you pop along to the restaurant you can picked up a copy that’s been signed by Serge.