A few days ago, I was invited to an event organized by the Greek yogurt brand Oikos at Martin Juneau’s restaurant Pastaga. Juneau is the new Quebec ambassador for Oikos. The brand sent him on a 5-day culinary discovery trip to Greece to deepen his understanding of Greek cuisine in general and the history and artisans behind Greek yogurt in particular. Among his traveling companions was Anthony Seldak, the Food Network star and western Canada Oikos ambassador, and Diane Kochilas, the famous Greek cuisine ambassador and cookbook author.

The trip culminated in this media dinner held at Pastaga upon Martin’s return to Montreal. The 3 courses we sampled that night were each created by one of the chefs using Oikos Greek yogurt in the preparation. The smoked salmon, tzatziki and marinated red onion crostini was chef Seldak’s creation. The main meal, a guinea hen breast with oregano and guinea hen thigh in tomato sauce was Martin Juneau’s creation. The dessert was Diane Kochilas’s delicious and light cheesecake recipe but was kicked up a notch by Pastaga’s very talented pastry chef Isabelle Leroux. She used homemade graham crackers for the base as well as homemade candied orange rind, orange marmalade and orange segments cooked in a honey syrup to make the perfect accompaniment to the silky smooth cheesecake.

The good people at Oikos, as well as Isabelle, were kind enough to let me share the cheesecake recipe here with you today. Do give it a try now that oranges are at their best but I imagine that this cheesecake would be just as delicious paired with berries or even pomegranate.

Greek Yogurt Cheese Cake
By Diane Kochilas

8 servings

Ingredients:

• 1 3/4 cups crumbled graham crackers, cinnamon cookies or Mastiha-scented cookies or wafers
• 3 Tbsp. Greek honey
• 6 egg whites
• 1 pound cream cheese
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• Pinch of salt
• 3 cups Oikos Greek drained yogurt

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 190ºC (375ºF).
2. Combine the cookie crumbs and honey in a bowl. Press into the bottom and up the sides of a 22-cm (9-inch) spring form pan. Place in the refrigerator until ready to use
3. In the bowl of an electric mixer, whisk together the egg whites, cream cheese, sugar, vanilla, and salt. Add the Oikos yogurt and mix to combine. Pour the mixture into the prepared pan and bake for 35 to 45 minutes, or until set. The filling will still look soft. Remove from oven and let the cheesecake stand at room temperature for one hour before topping with preserved fruit

Toppings by Pastaga’s very talented pastry chef Isabelle Leroux

Candied orange peel

Ingredients:

• 2 oranges
• 40g sugar
• 20g honey
• 100g water

Method:

1. Peel the zest of the oranges carefully without getting any of the white (and bitter pith)
2. Place the peels in cold water and bring to a boil. Drain and repeat then reserve the peels
3. Bring the sugar, honey and water to a boil
4. Add the orange peels and let cook for about 10 minutes or until translucent

Orange marmalade

Ingredients:

• 400g orange
• 100g orange juice
• Juice of 1/2 lemon
• 150g sugar

Method:

1. Keep the oranges whole and blanch them for about 25 minutes at a medium
2. Slice them and add the sugar, lemon juice and any of the orange juice that might have run out while slicing
3. Cook it like you would a marmalade then blend in a food processor by gradually adding simple syrup until you reach the right consistency

Orange and honey salad

• 3 oranges
• 2 Tbsp. honey
• Zest of 1/2 orange
• 1/2 a vanilla bean

Method:

1. Remove the segments from the oranges by peeling them, removing the white pith then running your knife along the membranes to release the segments
2. Heat the honey, zest and vanilla and add the segments to the mix. Warm for one minute then serve

 

To taste some of pastry chef Isabelle Leroux’s delicious creations, pay a visit to Pastaga restaurant:

Pastaga
6389 St Laurent
+1 438 381 6389
Pastaga doesn’t have a website yet but they do have a Facebook page

Dinner:
Monday – Sunday 3:45pm – midnight

Lunch:
Fridays only

Brunch:
Saturday & Sunday: 10am – 2:30pm