Only Recipes, by Alessandra Zecchini ©

I grew up in the Apennine mountains of Italy, and during Autumn and Winter I ate chestnuts almost every day. These fritters were a staple in my family, they are easy to make and incredibly filling. Mix 250g of chestnut flour with 400ml of water, mix well and add a tablespoon of sultana. With a spoon drop some batter into the hot oil (I used rice bran oil) and cook on both sides; it only takes a couple of minutes. Place the fritter on a paper towel to absorb the excess oil. These fritters are actually better cold, just by themselves, or with a little ricotta cheese. Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini  © I like to enter this post for  Sweet New Zealand  #36, the blogging event open to every one blogging in NZ, and all the Kiwi bloggers living overseas! This month of July is hosted by  Libby at Ditch the Carbs . Click  here  to enter! 

Photos by Alessandra Zecchini © Plum jam is one of my favourite, and as I live near some beautiful orchards in Oratia, west of Auckland, I like to make the most of the plentiful supply. This year my neighbors invited me to pick from their fruit trees, the variety was great and the fruit delicious. Plum Jam Ingredients For each Kg of plums I used 600 g of sugar, (because I like my plum jam a little tart) and one teaspoon of pectin. Wash the freshly picked fruit and place in a large saucepan with a little water. Bring the fruit to a gentle boil. When the fruit is simmering add the sugar and stir well. After 5 minutes add the pectin. Simmer the jam for about 5 more minutes and then pass through a sieve, discarding the stones. Place the hot jam in sterilised jars, dried in the oven. At this point you can add to each jar a cinnamon stick (for dark plums) or a long pepper (for yellow plums); or you can wet the inside of the jar with a little grappa or brandy (an old Italian method). Either s...

Summer is colours! I like to eat fruit as it is, but sometimes it is nice to do something different, just to bring out the flavours and intensify the colours: This is easy, cut the watermelon into pieces, add the blueberries, and then just a little icing sugar and a few drops of lemon. Stir and serve. Photo by Alessandra Zecchini ©

I have two zucchini plants, one yellow and one green. It is incredible how many flowers and zucchini two plants can provide, certainly more than enough for a family of 4! The green zucchini plant is huge and very prolific, the yellow one less so (don't know why...), but still, I get enough. In the garden I also have herbs and lemons, and a friends who grows garlic gave me some; for this dish I only had to buy salt and olive oil! Zucchini Antipasto Cut the zucchini in long strips and fry on both sides with extra virgin olive oil. Finely chop some Italian parsley, mint, and Genovese basil with two cloves of garlic and a generous pinch of salt. Place this 'pesto' on the zucchini (keep a little aside for decoration) and add the juice from half a lemon. Stir and let the zucchini marinate for two hours. Arrange on a platter and add the remaining 'pesto'. Serve. Photos by Alessandra Zecchini ©

from my garden I pick yellow beans every day now, and every few days, purple beans. The purple beans are beautiful, but unfortunately they loose their colour while cooking. I tried to add salt and a pinch of baking soda to the water...nothing, the purple colour just washes away....but they do become an incredible brilliant green!!! To remember that they were purple. I decided to serve them with a red onion, (from my garden), and this is my recipe: Cut the red onion into thin slices, put into a bowl with a pinch of salt and a teaspoon of Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale di Modena (ABTM) . Let the onion marinate for at least two hours. Wash and top and tail the purple beans, boil them in plenty of water with a pinch of salt and a pinch of baking soda. I like to leave them a little crunchy, but you can cook them to your taste. Drain the beans and rinse them under cold water, then dress them with a little extra virgin olive oil and a pinch of salt. Place them in a glass and top them with some ...

From my garden... I have quite a few strawberries in the garden, but often they are not enough to make a dessert, and often they are not exactly 'pretty' enough for decorating desserts! So this summer I have been making lots of shakes, adding bananas and the wonderful natural apple juice which I buy from my local orchard, the Dragisovich, in Oratia, West Auckland.

A friend from a culinary forum told me that there is a new rage in Japan and it is tomato gari: a slice of tomato topped with some gari (thin slices of Japanese pickled ginger - the ones you eat with sushi) and salt. Well, I had to try it! I wasn't sure how it is supposed to look like, so the composition is my 'invention', and I used some Maldon salt (in flakes). And then I tasted it. A M A Z I N G ! ! ! A real hit to the taste buds...but...I wanted a second...wow, still surprising...and then a third...and I was tired. Yes, I will make it again, for some posh Japanese dinner maybe, I will serve ONE single slice per person, maybe between courses, or as a starter to wake up the taste buds. But no more. With one I think that people will remain wanting more...and they will remember it in their 'culinary memory bank' like something unique. More than that, and I feel it may be too much.

A few years ago in Kyoto I had an amazing vegetarian meal in a Shojinryori restaurant (it belongs to a Buddhist Temple, you can find my full review here ), and among the delicious dishes served there I had some fried tofu balls, simmered in a light vegetable stock with celery. At home I have been trying to reproduce that amazing taste with what I had available. The tofu is Chinese-style, New Zealand-made, maybe the stock is a bit 'Italian' in flavour, and the celery is from my garden. But every time I am happy with the results. Now I make this a lot, especially for my kids. I buy the tofu balls in the Chinese shop in Henderson. They are already fried and puffy, and they are very versatile. For this recipe I just simmer them for 10 minutes with celery stalks and vegetable stock, then I lift them up from the stock (which I use as a base for soups or other things) with a slotted spoon, and I serve them, warm. They are so simple to make and yet they taste quite elaborate. I often s...

In the garden I saw my first yellow beans!!! I picked them immediately, the more you pick them and the more they seem to grow, and the plants still have so many flowers on! Initially I thought of cooking them with a tomato sauce, but then I changed my mind: they are so fresh, and the first, so I just sautéed a shallot with olive oil, added the beans (washed and top and tailed, of course) and sautéed them gently for a little. Then I added a pinch of salt, put the lid on, lowered the heat, and let them cook in their own steam for about 10 minutes (checking and stirring from time to time). I didn't need to add any water, probably because they were so fresh, and they tasted perfect! Photos by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Photo by Alessandra Zecchini © I used ready made Japanese tempura mix (available in Asian stores, but also in many supermarkets in NZ). Just add very cold water (doses according to packet instructions) and stir, not too much. Do not over-soak the vegetables in batter, just a little dip is enough, and make sure that the oil is very hot before frying. I used rice bran oil. The zucchini and flowers are from my garden, the fresher the better, I just added a sprinkle of salt before serving them. I did have some batter left and so, after taking this photo, I used it up to fry up some borage flowers as well. They were lovely! Dipping Sauce: For the tempura dipping sauce I mix soy sauce with a little kombu stock (recipe here , without the wakame of course). Some people add mirin or sugar, but I prefer not to. Maybe a little grated daikon or grated ginger, if I have it. Zucchini Flower

Photo by Alessandra Zecchini © Ingridients: 1 sheet kombu seaweed 1 l water 1 tbsp dried wakame seaweed Gently scrape the kombu seaweed with the tip of a knife. Place it in a saucepan with 1 litre of water and gently simmer (simmering, not boiling) for 30 minutes. Turn the heat off and let the soup stand for 30 minutes to 1 hour (the longer the better), then remove and discard the kombu. Gently bring the soup back to a gentle simmering and add the wakame. Simmer for 5 more minutes, and serve. This soup doesn't need salt, or anything else, the broth remains clear and the taste is delicious! Of course you can also add some miso when you add the wakame, but don't let it boil!

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 I 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!). I used the rice to fill some inari (Japanese tofu pockets), which you can buy already made fr...

Photo by Alessandra Zecchini © I found a punnet of seaweed salad in the Asian store, ready to eat. I think it is called Hiyashi Wakame in Japanese, but I am not sure and they didn't know the name in the shop, they just told me "Seaweed - good for salad!". I rinsed it (just in case), and I made a dressing with: 2 tbsp Japanese rice vinegar 1 tbsp Mirin (sweet cooking sake) 1 tsp toasted sesamy seeds and decorated the salad with calendula petals. But you can also add a tablespoon of light Japanese Soy sauce (I didn't because it was part of a Japanese meal with many dishes and there was Soy sauce on the side). If you don't have, or like seaweed, you can substitute it with cucumber cut into thin Julienne strips (or as a combination of seaweed and cucumber).

Photo by Alessandra Zecchini © The broccolini are from my garden :-) First I fried some breadcrumbs with olive oil and garlic, and a little salt. When the breadcrumbs were golden I put them aside and used the same saucepan to cook the broccolini (no rinsing required, just add a little more olive oil and fresh garlic). Fresh broccolini need very little cooking, even less than broccoli, I just sautéed them with olive oil and garlic, and a pinch of salt, then turned the heat off, put the lid on the pot for a few minutes, and the remaining heat did the rest of the cooking. You need a pot with a good lid! In the meantime I cooked the orecchiette in plenty of salted boiling water. I followed the packet instructions for this, as different manufacturers seem to have different timing and orecchiette are usually more 'crunchy' than other types of pasta. Once ready I drained them and placed them in the pot with the broccolini, I stirred and then topped everything with the fried breadcrumb...

My friend Claire gave me some organic coconut butter. It was pure white and smelled delicious, like an expensive hand cream. But the only thing I can do with coconut butter is vegan puff pastry, and that's take time...also it is too hot now to make puff pastry! I wanted to try something different. For my first experiment I tried some muffins, and used some standard ingredients: egg, sugar, milk, self rising flour...and coconut butter instead of normal butter. Well, what can I say, they were...ok, but nothing more. The fact is that they were too rich for my taste (I am extremely fussy), too 'greasy'. They were eaten, of course, by family and friends, but I wouldn't make them again, so I won't bother with the recipe. I gather that if coconut butter is so rich, maybe I could try to bake something without using other 'rich' ingredients like eggs and milk. (And if I failed again I would make hand cream!). I had some coconut butter in a bowl, so I melted it in the...