Love Heart Ume Onigiri

In the previous post I made heart sushi and talked about cooking sushi rice.

But if you don't have sushi rice, nori seaweed or sushi vinegar, or a sushi mat to roll your sushi, you can still try this method:

Cook some short grain (not long grain, basmati or Thai) rice by absorption and then start working it when it is still warm. Wet your hands with water, and rub them with just a little salt, then press some rice into a heart shaped cookie cutter. Add something colourful in the centre, I added a umeboshi (Japanese pickled plum), and then gently press the heart out of the mould into a serving plate.

This version is very easy and effective!

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Love heart sushi rolls

I find cooking rice for sushi challenging: you need to buy proper sushi rice and then wash it 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. I then add some ready made sushi vinegar, about 2 tablespoons, but this is my personal taste. If I don't have sushi vinegar use 2 tbsp of rice vinegar, a little sugar and a little salt (to taste, and I don't like to use too much sugar or salt myself!).

To fill this sushi I used a combinations of thin carrot sticks and takuan (Japanese pickled daikon) sticks, but you can use what you like!

Place a sheet of nori seaweed on a sushi mat, add the rice and the filling, roll and, once you have your sushi roll, pinch the edges to shape it like an heart (this takes time!!!). The most difficult part is to cut the sushi, as you may loose the heart shape, so gently re-touch your sushi pieces with your fingers.

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Cape Gooseberry Jam

Last Summer I went on a two weeks holiday and upon my return I found that I didn't have a veggie garden but a forest of leaves and bugs! We had so much rain when I was away, and I could hardly see the tomatoes on the plants (full of leaves), the zucchini plants were rotten while pumpkins were crawling everywhere, and golly, the Cape gooseberries were out of control!

My problem is that I am not very good at 'thinning' plants. I don't have the courage of killing a seedling just because it gets to close to another one... and the result is this: a mess! I almost felt like removing all the cape gooseberry plants at once, but then I remember the Italian bloggers saying that cape gooseberries are so expensive in Europe... so I picked some and made a jam, on the same afternoon that I got home, even if I was tired from the trip.

Ingredients:

700 g cape gooseberries

Juice of half a lemon

500 g sugar (I used caster sugar simply because I just had that in the pantry, having being away so long!)

1 big apple

Wash the freshly picked fruit and place in a large saucepan with a little water and the lemon juice. Bring the fruit to a gentle boil. When the fruit is simmering add the apple, cut and cored but not peeled (the peel contain pectin, which will help your jam set) and the sugar. Stir often and cook for 30 minutes, then blend with an immersion blender. Cook for 10 more minutes, at this point the jam should start setting (check by picking up a little with a metal spoon).

Place the hot jam in sterilised jars, dried in the oven. Either seal the jars with cellophane covers (available in all supermarkets) and secure with an elastic band, or use capsule lids (I use Quattro Stagioni brand).

If using capsule lids, seal the jars well, place in a pot and cover with water. Bring to the boil and simmer for 20 to 30 minutes, depending on the size of the jars. Let the jars cool down in the pot overnight and when they are cold make sure that the capsule has popped by pressing gently on the lid. Properly sterilised jars will keep for over a year.

The jam turned out to be great, possibly one of the best jams I have made during the Summer :-)

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Pilaf rice with Chickpeas

I am still very ‘timid’ when it comes to Indian spices: I am always scared to burn them, or to use too much, or too little. In particular I am so used to have cloves and cinnamon in sweet dishes that I never know how much to use in savoury dishes.

For this pilaf I just filled up a tbsp of spices, as you can see there are plenty of cumin seeds, but just a little cinnamon and a few cloves, plus a few cardamom pods), still, just the right amount for me to flavour a pilaf for four.

Ingredients:

1 tbsp vegetable oil

1 tbsp mixed whole spices (cumin seeds, cinnamon, cloves, cardamom)

1 garlic clove, peeled

1 tsp turmeric powder

1 generous pinch of salt

300 g basmati rice

1 can chickpeas, drained

1 Wash the rice and soak for 30 minutes.

2 Heat 1 tbsp of oil, sizzle the whole spices and garlic.

3 Add turmeric and salt.

4 Add rice, chickpeas and water (just enough water to cook the rice by absorption)

5 Cover and simmer for 10-12 minutes.

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Stir-fry with marinated tofu

Usually I don't buy ready made products like this, i rather buy the plain tofu and marinate it myself, but sometime I am pressed for time, so I tried this one from Bean Supreme.

Really nice! I made a quick stir fry with noodles, broccoli, cauliflower, red cabbage and carrots.

It was like food in a minute!

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Cauliflower and Borage Curry

This turned out to be a fantastic vegan curry, and quite innovative too: I have never seen a curry made with borage!!!

Borage is a beautiful plant to have in the garden, loved by the bees and with pretty blue flowers. It is also versatile: you can eat the flowers, the stems and the leaves. It is prickly, but that goes away with cooking. If you don't have a garden sometimes you can find borage growing wild in meadows, and forage it.

The only thing to remember is to discard the pods with the seeds that have already formed (they are too hard), like the one in the photo below. Flowers and flower buds are soft, and can be cooked.

Sizzle one tsp of fenugreek seeds and one green chili with one tbsp of vegetable oil.

Add one small tsp each of turmeric, ground coriander, ground fennel and paprika, and also a good pinch of salt.

Add one onion, chopped, and sizzle for two minutes, and then add half cauliflower, cut into florettes. Coat the cauliflower well with the spices.

Add one can of coconut milk, and then one can of water (to rinse the coconut milk can). Cover and simmer for 5 minutes.

Add the borage, cover and simmer for 10 minutes.

Add one tsp of masala powder and simmer for other five minutes, or until all the vegetables are soft. At the end decorate with fresh borage flowers.

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

My daily bread: Pane

I rarely measure doses for bread now. I just put a little yeast in warm water with a pinch of sugar, wait for 5 minutes and then add flour and a pinch of salt. Sometimes I feel like making soft bread, or ciabatta, so I add less flour. Other times I feel like thick country bread, and add more flour. I am never fussed, mostly I just follow my instinct with bread now, maybe because I have done it so many times, and in so many different ways.

Pane is always good! Do you bake your own bread?

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Gnocco Fritto, Fried Bread from my village in Italy

Gnocco fritto is a fried bread they make in Emilia Romagna. The gnocco fritto form my village is particularly nice, sometimes I think that this is because it is high in the mountains, and the water is better... but on the other hand it could just be that my memory of it is better.

My husband feel in love with gnocco fritto the first time he visited my village, and my kids love it too (of course, it is utterly delicious!!!): if it was for them we would have it every week! Instead I try to limit fried food, and so I just make it 3-4 times per year. For the dough I just use my pizza dough recipe (but I don't really check on quantities). I just use flour, water, salt and yeast. Let the dough rise for a couple of hours before rolling it out.

Roll out the dough

I like the round gnocco fritto, so I cut it with a bowl (and the centre with a smaller bowl).

I used rice bran oil for frying.

Then I fry the centre holes, the kids love them!!!

The rest I cut into squares.

Photos by Alessandra Zecchini and Aranxta Zecchini Dowling©