Probably owing to too much bragging, my friend got the idea that I could somehow make a cheesecake (never made one before) and have it taste like lemongrass. I’ve never seen lemongrass before until I spotted it at a supermarket a few weeks ago. Its sitting in my fridge, mocking me. I’ve haven’t tasted it, don’t know how strong it is, and personally am not a huge fan of it in the first place.
It looks like a big piece of grass. To get the flavor out of it, I’m assuming that I can cut it up then boil it, then maybe the liquid will taste a bit like lemongrass? I don’t know.
If all else fails, I saw that the supermarket also has on sale Essence of Lemongrass, I can try that instead. But first, how do I get the lemongrass flavor out of it and into the cheesecake? I’m assuming I shouldn’t cut it up and toss the chunks into the cheesecake mixture
I believe - but am not certain - that lemongrass’s essence is an oil, like rosemary, and not a water-soluble element like those of most dried spices. So I’d see about infusing an oily component of the cheesecake from the chopped lemongrass, then straining out the bits. It may take an overnight set. Let’s see, what’s oily in a cheesecake… butter, sour cream, cream. I guess I’d try lemongrassing the cream, for a start.
The typical way to infuse stuff is to heat it with whatever liquid you’re going to use in the recipe - does it call for cream or anything like that? If it does, I’d mince the lemongrass, heat it with the cream or whatever liquid you’re using, and let it sit for a while, maybe even overnight. Keep tasting until it tastes strong enough for your liking, then strain out the lemongrass.
If there’s no liquid in the cheesecake, like it’s only eggs and cream cheese, you might be better with the essence.
If the recipe calls for vanilla or other alcohol-based stuff (brandy), you could also try steeping some lemongrass overnight in more liquid that the recipe calls for.
Or, just chop the lemongrass up real fine and toss it in.
you could take a microplane to the lemongrass stalks. same thing as putting lemon zest in cheese cake batter. might have to play with the amounts though.
That kind of depends on the lemongrass, I think. I know some lemongrass is soft, but I’ve definitely gotten some in the past that’s like chunks of wood. I don’t think that would work no matter how finely it’s grated.
Please see the “Food that should not exist” thread in this forum.
Lemon grass, which is sort of a horse piss of the vegetable world,
got far more votes than any other for food that should not exist,
and is now under international ban.
A new controlled substance category Schedule IA+ was created for it.
You get 50 years for the first offence, and they are squabbling about
the sentence for subsequent offences, but the most lenient being considered
is 70 years.
And people say the UN never does anything worthwhile!
Lemongrass tastes vaguely like lemon, especially if you were told it would before you tasted it. It’s too savory for cheesecake and would ruin it. What’s wrong with regular lemon? It’s yummy and cheaper and you can use the zest and the juice and toss the empty husks to the dogs who think that if you are in the kitchen it is because you are either eating or cooking something good that dogs would like and are holding out on them. The more dogs you have the funnier as each gets that “Oh, Jesus!” look in turn.
This is what I was thinking. Are you sure you don’t want lemon (or lemon zest) cheesecake? That is, unless, tarragon cheesecake and rosemary cheesecake are next on your list.
In one of her trifle recipes, Nigella Lawson infuses a syrup with lemongrass and it seems to carry the flavor pretty well, so for this scenario you’d probably be okay infusing any cream for the recipe instead. If you recipe doesn’t have any liquid cream, I second the microplane idea. (Or maybe melt any butter in the recipe and infuse that?)
I’ve had a chocolate and rosemary mousse once, it was lovely. And I regularly make lavender shortbread and sweet lemon and thyme biscuits. But I agree that lemongrass and cheesecake might be not the right combination. If you’re after Asian inspired, I made a cardamom cheesecake once which was really good.
Lemongrass essence is definitely infusable in water. It’s a common flavoring in Thai soups.
Lemongrass is very tough and woody. I would be careful about putting it in a cheesecake - even thin slices would interrupt the smooth texture of the cheesecake in an unpleasant way.
You can make lemongrass into a paste by pounding it with a mortar and pestle. This is a common technique in making Thai curry pastes. It takes a little persistence, but you can get it to a point where the fibers really are broken down. BTW, a blender or food processor wouldn’t really work - they would just chop up the lemongrass rather than pulverize it.
I think the mortar-and-pestle approach would work better than infusing the lemongrass into a liquid, because cheesecakes aren’t usually made with a lot of liquid. Lemongrass flavor isn’t very potent, so you might have a hard time getting enough flavor into a small amount of liquid.
Also, lemongrass flavor is distinctly different from lemon flavor to my taste.