Only Recipes, by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Mango Agar Agar Flowers Mango pudding is a staple at home, and the kids like to take it to school for lunch. For the lunch boxes I usually cut it into  squares , but just for fun this time I used some little flower cutters. Agar agar is easier to shape and cut than jelly, and it is healthier too. The basic recipe for mango agar agar pudding is  here . Hazelnut Gold Chocolates Toast some hazelnuts and remove the skins, then drop into some melted dairy free chocolate, the darker the better. Collect 3 hazelnuts at the time and let them set together (I also spoon just a little more chocolate on top to make it more like a proper chocolate). I had a very little edible gold paper left from an old job, so I sprinkled some on the chocolates. It didn't give it any particular flavour, I must say (maybe I had too little?), but it looked pretty and sophisticated :-). Unfortunately is was dark by then and the photo is not too clear, the flash also made the c...

I am used to Italian cats eating almost anything, but New Zealand cats seem to be fussier, so I was very surprised when Marameo jumped on the bench to grab the cooked chickpeas that I was rinsing. I had to give her some, she could not wait, and ate them all. I gave them seconds and then she stopped bothering me. Strange cat!  With my remaining chickpeas, I wanted to make a spicy snack:  this one  from the blog of Araba Felice. Smoked Paprika Chickpea Snack The  original recipe  calls for: 400 g can of chickpeas, 1 tbsp flour 1 tsp sweet paprika, or your favourite spice (in my variation I used smoked paprika instead) 1 tsp salt, about 2-3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil I also added a few cumin seeds. Rinse and pat dry the chickpeas, and mix with the other dried ingredients until the chickpeas are nicely coated. At this point I left the chickpeas in the bowl for about 30 minutes so that the flour and spices ...

The original recipe is from  Loredana  and you can find it  here  (in Italian).  The ingredients from Loredana: 3 egg whites (About  100g ) 200 g icing sugar 100 ml water 200 ml cream 250 g plain yogurt  1 tbsp fruit compote First you have to make an Italian meringue base. I must confess that I really enjoy making Italian meringue, possibly because it is not something that I see here in New Zealand. Beat the egg whites really stiff, in the meantime make a syrup with the water and icing sugar (I never used icing sugar for the syrup before, so this was a new one for me!). I don't have a sugar thermometer (didn't I say this already?? A few times?? Yep!) but you see, Loredana in her original recipe doesn't talk about temperatures, she just says to make quite a thick syrup. Ahh, a real home cook! I made my 'thickish' syrup, and I wish that I could explain it better, but it is that stage when the syrup just start to ...

I saw the name Cloudberry in the  New Yorker,  it wasn't a recipe, just an article with someone ordering Cloudberry Gelato in Aspen. I like the name, it reminded me of a Tibetan restaurant in London years and years ago where all the dishes had something to do with clouds, dragons or heaven. Astrofiammante just told me that the cloudberry is yellow,  this one ? Incredible! I planted it in my garden years ago, made lots of leaves and not a single berry! No yellow berries for me, so I changed the name of this dessert to Cloud-berry Tiramisù, or maybe it would be better to call it Berrycloud Tiramisù... and as I had some friends over for  crescentine , I decided to also test my new dessert, and its name, on them :-). A little edit, I added an Italian name to the dessert, the translation sounded really romantic. Tiramisù ai Frutti di Bosco e Nuvole Cloud-berry (or Berrycloud) Tiramisù Ingredients: 1 heap cup of...

Bored with the same side salad? Can’t get the kids to eat it? Maybe you need to roll it up! I did this because I had a few sheet of rice paper to use, just about a dozen, not enough to make a meal, but enough for some fun side veggies. Ingredients: Cooked green beans Cooked carrot sticks Mesclun salad Rice paper Sweet chili sauce to serve Follow the instructions on how to soften, fill and roll the rice papers  here . Btw, these were a hit with the kids, they like salad, but they had more fun eating it this way. Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini  ©

I collected the last bok choy from the garden, they were just baby bock choy, but the snails weren't going to wait for them to grow up! Baby bok choy is perfect for ramen soup. Ingredients for 4 bowls of ramen: 8 dried shitake mushrooms, 1 small carrot, 4 baby bok choy, 1 pinch salt, 1 pack rice vermicelli, miso paste, 4 eggs. I cooked the shitake mushrooms first in 1 litre of water with a small pinch of salt, when they were soft I added the carrot, sliced, and the bok choy. I simmered everything for 5 more minuted and then I collected the vegetables and kept the stock in the pot. I added the miso to the stock and kept it hot but not boiling. In the meantime I cooked the rice vermicelli in hot water (they just take a couple of minutes) drained them and divided them between 4 bowls. I arranged the vegetables on top and then I added a raw egg for each bowl. I poured the hot miso over and served immediately. The egg white will cook with the hot stock, ...

Since recently there has been some  talk  about bloggers' getting payed or sponsored, I better just say that I didn't get payed, not receive canned tomatoes for writing this :-).  As it happens tomatoes are not in season in New Zealand (you can buy them, of course, but they taste bad, are very expensive, and I don't know where they come from). So I use Italian canned tomatoes from Mutti. As a matter of fact I have been using Mutti since I left Italy, when I could find it, that is! It was ok in London, more difficult in Japan, and now I can get it in New Zealand and my pantry is a bit like the one of an Italian immigrant: dry pasta and canned tomatoes better came from Italy! For this pizza slab I used the canned cherry tomatoes. I made the base (recipe  here ) but also added a tbsp of wheat gluten (these days I find that High grade flour is not 'strong' enough for making pizza). After 2-3 hours I rolled the dough on a large baking tray, then...

Canederli ( Knödel in German) is something my Mum made often when I was a child. There is no strict recipe because they are made with left-overs, and the base is left-over bread. But  here  you can find my basic recipe, with step by step instructions. I really prefer them in a broth, but the other day I wanted to make them with onions and cheese, I didn't think of publishing them on the blog as the photos are not exactly pretty, but my husband loved them! He said that he actually preferred them served this way! Once again left over bread was put into good use! Canederli with Cheese and Onion Sauce Prepare the canederli and cook them in a light vegetables stock (instructions  here ). Peel and finely slice 4 onions (white or brown) and simmer them slowly with a little olive oil and salt. I cooked them in my Le Creuset pot, on low and keeping the lid on, for about 45 minutes. I added a little stock from the canederli from time to time, but j...