Edamame Basil dip

 

This is so easy: I used frozen edamame beans, blanched them in boiling water and then blended them with garlic, fresh basil, lemon juice, extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper. Keep a few whole edamame for decoration. Tip: the more oil the better (for me, I love olive oil!)

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

After dinner chocolate kawakawa

 This is better than after dinner chocolate mints, and very much a New Zealand foraging option! Kawakawa abounds in the 'bush' (forest) where I live and it is by far my favourite NZ foraged leaf. I often make tea, use it for custards instead of vanilla, and in other recipes.  

But these chocolates are my best creation to date, or so I think - so if you copy them please credit me ;-) (I had far too many recipes from this and my other blogs taken without credits, a bit cheeky really, especially if Kiwis do it: New Zealand is a small place, too small to do this!!).

Melt a block of dark chocolate in a deep plate or terrine (not in a bowl - you want something with more surface than deepness) over a pot of hot water. Forage your kawakawa leaves, wash them well and pat them dry. Holding the stem place them shiny side down onto the chocolate, and then on a tray lined with cooking paper, chocolate side facing up. Add a little chocolate with a teaspoon if you missed a bit - you want to cover the whole surface of the leaf. Don't make it too thick though, thin after-dinner chocolates are more 'rstylish'.

Refrigerate until set, then turn upside down and gently peel the leaves off the chocolate (they will come out easily). Keep in the fridge until serving time. One side will be darker, while the other (the one that touched the leaf) shiny. The chocolate will be coated with the scent and mild peppery taste of kawakawa. I prefer them to chocolate mints, and so did my family, plus they look so cool!

A part from being served as an option to after dinner mints, they are also great with ice cream and to decorate cakes, cupcakes and desserts.

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Red currant and lemon tea

More than a recipe this is a tip: fresh red currants make a delicious tea, just wash the berries and add hot water, let them sit for 5-10 minutes and then serve, with lemon slices if you like, and sweeten if you wish (sugar, honey, maple syrup...)

  Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

 

Make your own ciabatta bread

  

This is my recipe for a simple yet foolproof ciabatta bread loaf, one of my favourite loaves! The recipe is straight from my book Savour (now available as an ebook from Kobo and from Barnes & Noble, and also from Amazon for Kindle), where there are many more bread recipes, and more. In the meantime enjoy this one!

  

Ciabatta 

Ingredients

300ml warm water

2 teaspoons active yeast granules

14⁄teaspoon sugar

300g high-grade flour, plus extra for dusting

pinch of salt 

Makes 1 loaf

Place the warm water in a large bowl, add the yeast and sugar and set aside for 5 minutes. When the yeast starts to bubble, add the flour and salt and work into a dough for about 5 minutes using your fingers. This dough will be too sticky to roll on the bench or table so knead it in the bowl (although it feels more like mixing). Cover the bowl with a damp tea towel and leave to rise for about 2 hours. Line a large baking tray with baking paper and turn out the risen dough onto the tray bottom-side up. The dough will be sticky so you will need to scrape it from the sides of the bowl; it is also likely to be runny – prop up the outside edges of the baking paper with a couple of small ovenproof ramekins to avoid ending up with an extremely large flat loaf (the ramekins can be filled with water to create a steam oven effect - image 1)). Dust the top of the loaf with the extra flour. Bake in a preheated 180 ̊C (350 ̊F) oven for 25–30 minutes.

 Remove the bread from the oven, wrap in a tea towel, then place in a plastic bag and seal. Leave the bread in the bag for 30 minutes so that the steam will cook it further and make it soft and deliciously chewy. If you prefer a ciabatta with a crunchy crust, eat it while it’s still warm – yum!

 

 

Tips and variations

Although some recipes add 1–2 tablespoons of olive oil to the dough, I prefer an oil-free version so I can drizzle olive oil on it when it is freshly cut and ready to eat. I also like to dip ciabatta slices in a little oil flavoured with crushed cumin seeds and salt or basil leaves.

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Beautiful Brown Lentil Salad with Edible Flowers

 

Ingredients

500 g brown lentils
1 leaf bay
water and salt for boiling
extra virgin olive oil
lemon juice
salt to taste
Cucumber, half
Rocket salad
Edible flowers 

A fresh lentil salad for summer! Soak the lentil overnight, then rinse well, add plenty of water, a bay leaf and a pinch of salt. Cook until 'al dente', or as soft as you like (but not mushy). Drain and briefly rinse under cold water. Place in a mixing bowl, add extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice, salt to taste, and half a cucumber chopped into small pieces. Mix well. Line a serving plate or large shallow bowl with rocket salad leaves, spoon the lentils on top, then sprinkle with petals and small edible flowers (I used borage, verbena, dianthus, calendula and cornflowers).

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Vegan Inari-san sushi with flowers

 

Wash the sushi rice (or Japanese rice) several times in cold water, until the water runs clear, and then cook it by absorption. The doses are about 1 and 3/4 (three quarters) cups of sushi rice for 2 cups of water, but that depends on the type of pot. You need a pot with a good lid, or you will loose too much steam. I kind of regulate myself by ear now, since I know my pots and pans. Bring the pot to boiling point, lower the heat and simmer until all the water has been absorbed. Once the rice is ready pour it into a bowl and stir it with a wooden spatula, cooling it with a fan if you can. 

This was for a large party so I cooked 1 kg of rice. I divided the cooked rice into 4, to one I added Japanese preserved mushrooms, to the second toasted black sesame seeds and salt, to the third sakura furikake, and to the fourth shiso furikake. But you can just add sushi vinegar if you don't have furikake or other ingredients. Then I used the rice to fill inari pockets (available in Japanese and Asian store, and many supermarkets. I decorated the sushi pockets with dianthus, calendula, cornflower and violets. I also added some cutting of carrot paper (like nori sheet, but made of carrots), chives, and little mushrooms. I also added some calendula petals to the soy sauce. 

 Photos and recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Potato salad with Fresh As Tarragon, capers and Friarielli flowers, plus focaccia and eggplants with Fresh As herbs - plant based paradise!

I have been trying a few freeze dried herbs from Fresh As and this potato salad is definitely a winner.

Boil the potatoes and peel, then cut and mix with vegan mayo and capers. Sprinkle with Fresh As French Tarragon. I also added some edible flowers from my friarielli (cime di rapa) plants.

The friarielli seeds come for Italian Seeds Pronto, such a great winter crop! Eat the leaves, tips and flowers!

I also tried other Fresh As powders: chili, garlic, oregano, basil and rosemary (plus the French Tarragon) on focaccia. I used letter stencils before adding the powders, just to record what went where. FYI, the garlic becomes orange after baking.

Delicious, and also pretty in a bread basket!

And on some fried eggplants (added after frying, with salt).

 Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Jackfruit for tacos

I love tacos, tortillas and Mexican food in general, and for me it goes with beans, but everyone is talking about jackfruit these days, so I gave it a try. Got myself a jar of green jackfruit in beans and started the experiment.

First I fried some onion with olive oil and a Tio Pablo Mexican spices, in the meantime I drained the jackfruit and cut it into smaller segments, like in the photos.

I added the jackfruit to the onions and cooked it until the jackfruit become soft and easy to break with the wooden spoon. 

 Like this. Various recipes suggest breaking it up so it resemble shredded chicken... not sure I like the idea, never had shredded chicken and I don't see the appeal of it, but the jackfruit 'core' is a little hard, so some mashing goes well here, and the spices combined well. I used this to fill tacos, with the usual salad, tomatoes, guacamole and salsa verde, it was good, and I made several variations ever since, but I now use cans of organic Jack Fruit, they are easy to find in all supermarkets! And I got better at mixing my own spices ;-).

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Baby zucchini, zucchini flower and basil leaf beer tempura

This was so yum!!!! My zucchini plants now make only little zucchini, they must be tired. But baby zucchini are so delicious and special, and the flowers too, that I decided to make something scrumptious, like tempura. And also to add some big basil leaves: I love leaves in tempura, but I never tried Italian basil, it was amazing!!

For the batter I used a tempura flour mix and, instead of water, a chilled Peroni Leggera beer. Using cold beer produce a crispy tempura, plus you can drink beer while you are cooking :-).

Don't overtax the batter, make sure the oil is really hot, and cook the baby zucchini first, then the flowers and the basil leaves. sprinkle with salt and serve, with more beer!

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Carrot leaf fritters, Vegan and gluten free

Having munched through everything green in the veggie garden I am left with the leaves of carrots, I usually make frittata with them, or fritters, and this time I tried a vegan experiment which was very successful (the kids looooved them). To be repeated soon, in the meantime here is the recipe.

Pick your carrots (mine are always small, since they grow in clay soil poor things). Keep the leaves, wash them well and remove the thicker stalks (a bit like cleaning parsley really).

To make the vegan batter I used the liquid from a can of chickpeas, two tbsp of chickpea flour, a good pinch of salt (or two), and the tip of tsp each of ground cumin, ground coriander and ground turmeric.

Then I added the carrot leaves

At this point you can add a chopped spring onion, or some chopped onion, or chives, but since I picked my first onion weeds I added a couple, bulb, stems and leaves, You can also add the flowers, but I kept them for decoration (i.e. to take the photo!). 

Spoon into a frying pan with hot vegetable oil and cook on both sides until crispy.

Drain on kitchen paper, sprinkle with salt (optional) and then serve, hot or cold, with a good squirt of lemon juice.

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Italian chips - patatine fritte (with olive oil, garlic and rosemary)

How silly can a recipe be? I never thought that I would bother writing something so basic, but the world where I live is so full of chips, and terrible chips I must say, that I very rarely eat them out, and very occasionally I like to make them at home the Italian way, patatine fritte, like we made on special occasions, usually on a Sunday. These are not deep fried but pan-fried, and they are flavoured with garlic and rosemary, 

Peel the potatoes, cut the potatoes into chip sizes, rinse (or just soak in water) and pat dry. Sizzle some garlic in a frypan with extra virgin olive oil, then add the chips and pan-fry stirring and/or shaking the pan constantly. I add just a little salt at the beginning, and remove the garlic before it burns. Then I add rosemary when they are nearly cooked (they takes about 20 minutes), finish with more salt and eat immediately (although if you cook them this way they are also tasty when cold, unlike British style chips). 

And now for something completely different (especially if you like birds!)

A Kereru! The New Zealand native wood pigeon, all puffed up and using her chest for a pillow.

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Miniature Sushi, every piece is a grain of rice

I find it very relaxing to make miniature food, and I particularly enjoyed making this. 

Could it be the smallest sushi in the world? Each piece is exactly a grain of rice! But it is easier that you may think, just check the video out.

I made the rice like regular sushi rice (recipe here) and for the toppings I just used a variety of Japanese pickles, plus nori and bamboo shoots, so this is actually a vegan sushi. It looked super cute!!

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Schiacciata con pomodorini - cherry tomato schiacciata

 This schiacciata is easy as it doesn't need muck kneading.

For the schiacciata:
Place 300 ml warm water in a large mixing bowl, add 2 tsp active yeast granules and 1/4 tsp raw sugar. Wait 5 minutes then add 500 g high grade flour and 1 tbsp wheat gluten flour, plus a good pinch of salt. Mix well then dust with four, cover with cling film and let it rise for 2 hours. After 2 hours place a little olive oil on your hands and then gently mix the dough, pick it up and place it on a baking sheet cut so that it will fit you over tray (I have a 90cm oven so one long tray is good for me, for a standard oven divide the dough into two pieces). Roll the dough to cover the baking paper and then place on the baking tray. Brush with more oil if you like, then cut the cherry tomatoes into halves and place over the down, pressing them down lightly. Sprinkle with salt and oregano (chopped garlic too if you like).

Bake in a pre-heated oven at 200° C for approximately 20-25 minutes, or until you can see that the bread is baked on top and on the bottom (lift to check). Eaten warm is fantastic, but it keeps well for a couple of days, or at least, it would, but we tend to eat it pretty quickly! 

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Christmas Fruit Platter with Balsamic

Traditional Balsamic Vinegar of Modena goes well with fruit, and there is also a Balsamic cream you can buy which is less expensive and ideal to decorate plates.

 Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

San Pellegrino drink for summer

The garden is full of produce and flowers, and also limes and mint, so cheers to summer in New Zealand with a glass of San Pellegrino sparkling water (just add fresh mint leaves and lime (or lemon). 

What else I have now? Silverbeet and rainbow chards, calendula and radishes (recipes coming soon)

 Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Soft tofu and avocado sashimi served on homemade disposable bamboo dishers made with bamboo leaf sheath

There is no much to this dish really, just soft tofu with grated ginger and avocado (add wasabi and say sauce) plus some pickles, mostly bought except for the cucumber (recipe here).

The exciting thing for me here are the bamboo platters! I have some bamboo in the garden and it is shedding leaf sheaths. I love those fancy bamboo disposable dishes that you can buy in home stores, so I though of making my own. To clean the sheaths I just placed them in the dishwasher! Some rolled up a bit, but after a couple of days they were flat again! The dishwasher took away the dirt but some black stains remained, which makes me wonder how ecologically they treat the commercial plates, since they are so pale and spotless! But now I can make my own and doesn't matter if they are a little stained, they are natural and lovely to look at!

Photo and Recipe by Alessandra Zecchini ©