Only Recipes, by Alessandra Zecchini ©

This is a three layer picnic basket, and I use it as a family size bento box. I got it from the Trade Aid shop and it is perfect for Japanese food: I put napkins, sake cups (or other drinks) and fruit in the bottom basket, then small plates and wooden Japanese bento picks in the middle basket (no chopsticks today, this is all food that you can eat with your fingers, but you can use the picks for the omelette), and the food in the top tray. There is a lid for the top and a handle to carry it. It looks very stylish. Picnic giapponese in cesto a tre piani To line the baskets I used some bamboo leaves from my garden, I cut some patterns in some of the leaves to make them more interesting. The food is: Ume Onigiri, Salad Sushi rolls, Nori Omelette, Edamame beans and garnishes. Salad Sushi Rolls Wash the sushi rice (or Japanese rice) several times in cold water, until the water runs clear, and then cook it by absorptio...

This is my favourite apple strudel, once again from my book  Sweet As... , page 20. I learned to make this from my mother, and I like it because it is 'rustic', not fancy like the patisseries' versions, and barely sweet: a real Dolomiti mountain food. In fact I prefer this to any other apple pie or cake or flan! For the filling peel and slice 4 apples, add 1 tbsp of sultana, a few chopped walnuts (mine were from the South Island) 5 to 10 cloves (according to taste), 1 stick of cinnamon broken into two pieces, 4 tsp brown sugar, and the juice of 1 lemon. For the pastry mix 200 g of flour with 50 g of butter (cubed, vegans can use margarine), 2 tsp brown sugar and 100 ml cold water. Mix well by hand and shape into a bowl. Refrigerate for 30 minutes then roll out into a large oval, as thin as you can manage. Spread the apples on top and roll up. Pinch both sides of the strudel and turn them in to resemble a gigantic croissant.  Place on a baking tray l...

I got a few more Oratia heirloom apples (and a few garden lemons too) from Sue, this is still the season for apples in New Zealand! First I made an apple cake, I like to eat apple cake for breakfast, and I took advantage of the fact that I had a German wwoofer staying with us to indulge: she also liked cake for breakfast, something that in New Zealand is not really done! Apple and Sultana Cake with Rum The base for this cake comes from my book  Sweet As... , it is the base for most of my fruit cakes, and the original recipe is on page 28, where is used for a cherry berry cake. I start by mixing 4 eggs with 200 g of sugar, then I add 150 g of melted butter (salted), 250 g of self-raising flour, and the zest of one lemon (optional). In the meantime I peeled and cut 4 apples and splashed them with lemon juice. I also soaked 2 tbsp of sultana in a little Guatemalan Rum (Ron Botran, the best!). I added the sultana and apples for las...

For these I used 200 g of almonds and 5 apricot kernels (enough to give the almonds a more distinctive flavour). If you like to know more about apricot kernels click  here . I blanched everything in boiling water for a couple of minutes and then I removed the skins. I placed the blanched almonds (and the blanched apricot kernels) in the food processor with 100 g of icing sugar. I processed the nuts but not into a 'flour', more like into a coarse mixture, like a crumble mixture. I stirred in one egg white (not need to beat it first, these are not amaretti biscuits), and then I shaped the 'fingers' with wet hands. More than baking, these biscuits need to 'dry', so I placed them in the fan oven at 180°C for 5 minutes, then I turned the oven off and let them dry until they were cold. To finished I melted some dark chocolate (72%) and dipped one side of the biscuits into it. Once the chocolate had set the 'fingers' were ready. P...

Sometimes I am really happy to be a vegetarian: it means that I don't have to try wild specialties like  huhu grubs . Not that many New Zealaders would either, you can't buy them in shops (I think) and you have to forage for them in the bush (they eat rotten wood) or go to special wild food festivals like the  Hokitika Wild Food Festival . But I found a better, and vegetable alternative, with  New Zealand yams . Yam are much bigger than huhu grubs, and I got the red and the apricot colour varieties, I thought that they looked really pretty. After boiling them the colours had faded, a lot, and the look was... well, like in the photo above. I left them on the kitchen bench and went to get the kids from school. As soon as they arrived home the went" "Huhu grubs????". No, they have never eaten them, but they saw them and know what they look like. They giggled a lot, they said that yams really looked like gigantic huhu grubs. Just b...

I have already explained how to make  Rose Turkish Delight (Lokum)  at home, it is pretty and pink, but I must confess that my favourite Lokum of all is hazelnut, so today I will show you this variations, and a few more. To start follow the recipe  here . Rose Turkish Delight While the cornflour and sugar syrup are cooking shell and toast a couple of handfuls of hazelnuts. It is better to use fresh hazelnuts and toast them just before making Lokum, for a full hazelnut flavour. Years ago I also had a hazelnut essence which was great, but I cannot find it here, I think that one of the best places to buy it would be in Piedmont, in Italy. Anyway, even without hazelnut essence you can get the best out of hazelnuts if you toast them and use them within a few days. When they are still hot from the oven put them in a clean tea towel and shake and rub them well so as to discard the peel. If some peel stays on don't worry, it is edible, just not as...

Rose Turkish Delights (Lokum) Before I start I would like to say that I don't have a sugar thermometer, essential if you are really into confectionery, and that I didn't use much sugar for these Turkish delights. Many recipes use much more sugar, and it is not that I wanted to make a low sugar treat here (it is still pretty sweet), it is just that making it at home really makes me realize how much sugar there is already in my diet, and if I can have something with a little less... well, why not! This method is 'home friendly' i.e. these can be made at home with very little effort and equipment, and the recipe comes from my book  Sweet As...  where I also have the recipe for lavender and orange blossom Turkish Delights. Ingredients 1 l water 300 g sugar 2 tbsp lemon juice 100 g cornflour 1 tbsp frozen raspberries 1 tbsp rose water icing sugar (very little) and cornflour (lots) to dust. In a pot put hal...

I like mushrooms but I find than champignons have very little taste. I guess that I grew up with wild mushrooms (and lots of porcini) so maybe I am a bit of a snob... still, champignons are easy to find and I tend to use them as a 'base', adding other dried mushrooms for extra flavour. I had a handful of dried porcini and another of dried Chinese black mushrooms, and I soak them in water for 30 minutes. In the meantime I cleaned and chopped 400 g of champignons (I tend to discard the stalks of the champignons, not sure why, but I learned to do it ages ago in Italy and I keep doing it). I heated some olive oil with a few cloves of garlic, then I added the champignons and some salt. I cooked the mushrooms until all their water was gone (abut 20 minutes) then I added the dried mushrooms and their soaking water.  After 5 minutes I added the content of a can of finely chopped Italian tomatoes, and some more water from rinsing the can (another 400 ...