50 Women Game Changers in Food: #19, Pim Techamuanvivit

Our second Game Changer food blogger is Pim Techamuanvivit. She prefers to go by just plain Pim because "I’ve grown tired of people butchering my multisyllabic last name."  :)

Pim was born in Thailand, educated in several places and ended up living in the San Francisco Bay area. She had a Silicon Valley job which she quit in 2005 to pursue a career in food: her recipes, writings, and photographs have appeared in the New York Times, Food & Wine magazine, Bon Appétit magazine. She's also moonlighted as a judge on Iron Chef America. Fluent in many languages, Pim is a world traveler and taster. When she started blogging in 2001, it began as a way of keeping in touch with friends but it soon turned into a food blog and eventually a career. (Sound familiar?)

Pim's food blog is called Chez Pim and she reports on her travels around the globe in search of gastronomic treasures. When she comes home, she lives with Michelin-starred chef David Kinch of Manresa restaurant fame. The London Guardian once called Pim the “queen of the food bloggers”; she has written The Foodie Handbook, cooked Pad Thai for Martha Stewart, and had her recipes featured in the New York Times and Bon Appétit magazine.

Two pieces of advice from Pim? 
1) Go to farmers’ markets when you travel — get the true taste of where you are. 
2) Everyone has innate good taste. People just don’t pay enough attention when they eat. They follow recipes, but they don’t taste. People should taste as they cook.

To highlight one of Pim's recipes, I chose this lovely idea for fall: Pumpkin Cheesecake in a Jar. Now when Pim made it, she used very pretty oven-proof glasses and served it at the dinner table to her guests. I was thinking more in terms of football and tailgate parties, so I used my little Ball jars with tops. This travels beautifully and is made entirely in your food processor.

Pumpkin Cheesecake in a Jar
From Chez Pim

Ingredients:
For the base:
200g Anna’s Ginger Thins (I used gingersnaps)
120g (1 stick) butter, melted
2 tablespoon brown sugar
a pinch of salt

For the cheesecake:
24oz cream cheese (3 bricks of Philadelphia Cream Cheese)
1 cup pumpkin puree 
1/2 cup sour cream
2/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1/4 cup All Purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
a pinch of clove

Method:
Put the ginger cookies in your food processor and blitz them until fine. Transfer the ground cookies into a medium bowl, add the melted butter, brown sugar and salt, stir with a fork until you get wet crumbs.
Divide the crumbs equally between 8 little glasses. Press down the loose crumbs to make slightly compact crust at the bottom of each glass or jar. Set aside for the batter. Wipe the food processor clean so you could make the batter in it.

Then you make the cheesecake batter:
Preheat the oven to 350F.
Put all the ingredients into the food processor and process until homogeneous. It will be easier if your ingredients are at room temperature, but don’t sweat it, you blitz it long enough everything will come together.
Pour the batter into the 8 glasses or jars you’re using, just divide it equally-ish, don’t sweat it. Tap each jar on the countertop  to let out air bubbles and smooth the top a bit.
Take a deep pan large enough to fit all the jars, the one you plan on roasting the big fat turkey on Thanksgiving would be just fine. (Or if you’re doing half the recipe like I did in the photo a pyrex brownie pan works perfectly.) Arrange the cheesecake jars on the pan, fill the pan with hot water from the tap until half way up the sides of the jars. Bake in this water bath in the preheated oven for 40 minutes.  Cool and refrigerate. This will make about 10-12 little Ball jars.

Join Mary from One Perfect Bite and all the other participants in this fun series.

Val - More Than Burnt Toast
Joanne - Eats Well With Others
Taryn - Have Kitchen Will Feed
Susan - The Spice Garden
Claudia - A Seasonal Cook in Turkey
Heather - girlichef
Miranda - Mangoes and Chutney
Jeanette - Healthy Living
April - Abby Sweets 
Katie - Making Michael Pollan Proud
Mary - One Perfect Bite
Viola - The Life is Good Kitchen
Sue - The View from Great Island
Kathleen Van Bruinisse - Bake Away with Me 
Kathleen - Gonna Want Seconds
Martha - Lines from Linderhof
Amy - Beloved Green
Linda - Ciao Chow Linda
Nancy - Picadillo