In 1990 I started doing my regular cookery slot in WLR, Waterford Local Radio, and have been doing this virtually every Tuesday since.
Giving out recipes on local radio , when you need to come up with two new ones every week is challenging.
Funnily it is often the times when it is obvious that you must run with something seasonal that it becomes most challenging, Christmas is often a nightmare until you realise that people just want the same recipes delivered again,like familiar carols.
The same thing happens at this time of the year when the strawberries hit the shops and the road sides.
The fact that this year, because of the judicious timing of sunshine, strawberries are the sweetest and plumpest I have ever seen them here , has made a strawberry recipe imperative for the radio.
Two other products which I have come across recently made my mind up for me.
The first was tasting Green and Blacks Organic Vanilla White Chocolate, the second was discovering Glenilen Quark.
Since my time spent in Germany in the Sixties I have known that this race are the masters of the cheese cake, particularly their Käse Sahne Kuchen, a sort of light creamy and unbaked version which I used to shamefully overindulge in when the Germans ate their best meal of the day, their version of Afternoon Tea; Kaffe und Kuchen.
Inspired by these products and memories I sat down at the computer yesterday and put together the following recipe.
I then made it.
The interesting thing is that the chocolate alone permits it to set lightly so it needs neither gelatine nor eggs and baking.

Modesty forbids me telling you how good it is.

White Chocolate and Strawberry Cheesecake
(For a 28cm tart tin-serve 6 to 8)

For the base
125g (5 oz.) wholemeal biscuits
60g (2 oz.) unsalted butter

300g (10oz.) Strawberries
1 Tablespoon Sugar
110g (4 oz.) Cream Cheese
350g (12 oz.) Quark or Framage Frais or Thick Yoghurt.
175g (6 oz.) good White Chocolate

Slice the strawberries thickly and sprinkle over the sugar.

Crumb the biscuits (in a food processor or by hand) and melt and add in the butter.
Mix these together and press in evenly into a 28cm tin.
Put this into the fridge (or freezer) to set.

Put the chocolate in a bowl over simmering water until melted or melt in a microwave at defrost.
Mash the cream cheese and then beat in the quark until you have a smooth cream.
Line the biscuit base with half the strawberries.
Beat the melted chocolate into the cheese mixture and then spoon over the base. Smooth the top with a palette knife.
Put this in the fridge for a couple of hours to set.
Before serving decorate the top with the remaining strarberries and dribble over any juice that they have made.