Lychee Cheesecake - Contributed

September is cheese month and Food continues to bring you recipes that incorporate Tastee Cheese.

Creamy Baked Macaroni and Cheese

5 cups cooked macaroni

(8 oz raw)

4 tbs butter

4 tbs flour

1/4 tsp salt

pepper to taste

2 cups milk

3/4 cup shredded Tastee

Cheese

paprika (optional)

Method

1. In a saucepan, melt butter over medium-low heat.

2. Stir flour into the butter until smooth and bubbly. Stir in salt.

3. Gradually add milk, stirring constantly.

4. Let cook while stirring constantly until thickened.

5. Add cheese and continue to cook and stir until melted.

6. In an 8x10in baking dish, alternate layers of macaroni and cheese sauce.

7. Sprinkle with paprika, if desired. Bake in a preheated oven at 350° Fahrenheit for 20 minutes or until hot and bubbly. Serves 6.

Lychee Cheesecake

For the base

250g/9oz crushed water biscuits

100g/31/2 oz soft, light-brown sugar

150g/5 1/2oz unsalted butter, melted

For the filling

150g/5 1/2 oz shredded coconut

900g/2lb cream cheese

150g/5 1/2 oz caster sugar

6 eggs

400g/14oz can of lychees (drained) or 12 fresh lychees, peeled and stones removed.

Method

1. For the base, combine the biscuits, sugar and butter. Press into a 23cm/9in springform tin and chill for 20 minutes.

2. Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas4. Put the coconut under a hot grill and shake around until it's toasted and golden, being careful not to let it burn.3. Put the cream cheese and sugar into a food processor and pulse together then add the eggs and pulse to combine.

4. Tip the mixture into a large bowl and fold in the lychees and 100g/31/2 oz of the coconut. Spoon on to the biscuit base then sprinkle over the remaining coconut.

5. Bake in the oven for about one hour. You're looking for a cake that's firm yet yielding! Allow to cool before serving.

The pilgrims included cheese in their supplies on board the Mayflower in 1620.

FACTS ABOUT CHEESE

Pizza Hut uses about 300 million pounds of cheese per year.

The top-five cheese producers in the United States are Wisconsin (more than 2.4 billion pounds annually), California (2.1 billion pounds), Idaho (770.6 million pounds), New York (666.8 million pounds) and Minnesota (629.3 million pounds). These states account for 72 per cent of the country's cheese production.

Archaeological surveys show that cheese was being made from the milk of cows and goats in Mesopotamia before 6000 BC.

The United States produces more than 25 per cent of the world's supply of cheese, approximately nine billion pounds per year.

The world's largest consumers of cheese include Greece (63 pounds per person each year), France (54 pounds), Iceland (53 pounds), Germany (48 pounds), Italy (44 pounds), the Netherlands (40 pounds), the United States (31 pounds), Australia (27 pounds) and Canada (26 pounds).

The hardness of a particular cheese depends on how long it has been aged.

Travellers from Asia are thought to have brought the art of cheesemaking to Europe, where the process was adapted and improved in European monasteries.

The only cheeses native to the United States are American, jack, brick and colby. All other types are modelled after cheeses brought to the country by European settlers.

Processed American cheese was developed in 1915 by J.L. Kraft (founder of Kraft Foods) as an alternative to the traditional cheeses that had a short shelf life.