Only Recipes, by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Wash and cut two small bunches of silver beet, (or a big bunch) then steam the stalks for 10 minutes and the leaves for 5 minutes. Measure the spices: 1/2 tsp ground cumin 1/2 tsp ground coriander 1 tsp turmeric 1/3 tsp ground chili Peel and roughly chop two shallots. In a heavy pot heat 2 tbsp of vegetable oil (or ghee) then add  the shallots. Stir and add the spices. Stir to coat the shallots. Add the silver beet and a little water, plus a pinch of salt, cover and simmer for 15 minutes. Add a handful of chopped coriander and blend with an immersion blender. In the meantime pan fry one block of paneer, cubed, with two tbsp of vegetable oil, a pinch of salt, coriander seeds and cumin seeds. Add the hot paneer to the silver beet curry.  Stir and keep warm while cooking the rice. Use the same pot where you fried the paneer: keep the leftover cumin and coriander seeds, add a few c...

Manu invited me to a  'Swap'  on her blog, and my swapping partner is Billie from Scotland. We had to send each other an ingredient and then make a recipe with it. I sent Billie the  Fresh As raspberry powder , and I look forward to see what she will do with it! She sent me some Kasmiri Masala, but because I got it late (I forgot to tell Billie my address, silly me, but fortunately she copied it from the parcel I sent her!). The best thing about a Masala is that you don't have to sizzle all the spices at the beginning and work out the doses, in fact a masala should be added at the very end, to enjoy the fragrances of the aromatic spices (and the Kashmiri Masala is definitely very aromatic!!). So even if I was running around like mad I managed to throw together something starting with the leftover juice of a peperonata (stewed capsicums with celery, carrot, and garlic). I had all that wonderful bell pepper's stock left from the night before (we ate all the ca...

Still in yogurt mood, and why not, it is hot and summery and I feel like eating refreshing food. I love making this yogurt sauce, I call it raita when I serve it with Indian food, and tzatziki when I serve it with Greek-Turkish food. The only difference is that when I make tzatziki I like to add mint. You just need some thick yogurt (otherwise strain it) salt to taste, finely chopped cucumber, and if you like, a few leaves of mint, broken with your fingers. So yummy on salad and hot or spicy food, and as a dip.  Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini  ©

The original recipe is  here , and I have to say that I make it often because it is one of my favourite potato creations. A curious fact: when I published this recipe the first time I pointed out that it didn't have anything to do with Nigella Lawson, I that I called it nigella potatoes because of the nigella seeds. But funny enough after a few days I started receiving the Nigella Lawson newsletter in my inbox. I never signed up for it, so some web robot must have picked up my blog reference and details, and signed me in! Nigella must have a great PR team! Anyway, back to the potatoes: the recipe is the same but I cooked the potatoes differently because my husband presented me with a big tajine :-). Nigella Potatoes slow cooked in a tajine Ingredients: 500 g potatoes (Agria or similar ‘floury’ potatoes) 2 tbsp vegetable oil 2 garlic cloves, peeled 1 tsp nigella seeds Half tsp ground coriander Half tsp cumin powder 1 tsp turmeric Salt to taste Wate...

The original recipe (which was for a silver beet, not spinach, paneer) is  here , but I changed a few things, like adding celery, and more spices. Fist sauté with 2 tbsp of vegetable oil or ghee 1/2 tsp ground cumin, 1/2 tsp ground coriander, 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper and 1 tsp turmeric. Then add a couple of roughly chopped shallots, a good pinch of salt and finally 500 g chopped frozen spinach (defrosted at room temperature) and three celery stalks, with leaves. Add a little water too, about a cup, and simmer for 20 minutes. Then add 1 tsp garam masala, 1 tsp freshly grated ginger, and salt to taste. In the meantime cut a block of paneer and sauté until lightly golden on the borders (Vegan use tofu). Blend the spinach with an immersion blender, then add the paneer. This is my very favorite Indian dish!  Ah, and I made chapati too, the edges are not very smooth, but I was in a hurry! I used 1 cup wholemeal flour, mixed with 2 tbsp vegetable oil and then enoug...

In my garden This has to be one of the easiest curries ever, and one of the first I learned to make (alongside Dahl and Palak Paneer ). The kids love it, they love all curries, especially if they have paneer. Matar Paneer Paneer and Pea Curry 1 onion 1 garlic clove 1 tbsp vegetable oil half tsp each of Garam Masala, cumin powder, coriander powder, turmeric, paprika, salt 1 bay leaf 800 ml can of tomatoes half a tsp of freshly ground ginger 1 cup frozen peas 1 block paneer cheese half a cup of cream (optional) fresh coriander to end Chop the onion and garlic. Heat the oil in a pan and sizzle the Garam Masala, cumin powder, coriander powder, turmeric, paprika, salt and bay leaf for a few seconds. Add the garlic and onion and sizzle until the onion start to colour. Add the tomatoes and ginger and simmer for 20 minutes, then blend everything with an immersion blender. Add the peas and after 10 minutes the paneer, cubed. Simmer for 5-10 more minutes, then finish with the cream (optional...

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini  © Until 5 or 6 years ago I only had Indian food in restaurants or at friends', except for  Dahl  and Naan bread, that is. In the last few years I started to cook more and more Indian food (or at least, try to!) by myself, and now, with so many good Indian blogs around, I can really say that I am becoming more 'adventurous' with my use of spices. At home we love to have Indian dinners, and the kids are starting to request them more and more often. Usually I also have rice, but sometimes I find some nice flat bread in the Indian shop. I tend to make two different curries for an informal family dinner, and one is either with panir, or with pulses, for protein. This was our dinner table the other night, to drink we had mango lassi ( recipe here ), on the right palak panir ( same recipe as my silverbeet panir , but this time I used spinach) and in the jar some mango chutney made by our friend Mike. The colurful curry is  ...

The other day I showed you my curry made with borage , ‘invented’ because I have tons of it in the garden! The other green-leaf crop that does well in Auckland is silver beet. My old plants (from last year!) got so tall that I started collecting only the little leaves from the stalks, and they look like spinach. One of my favourite Indian dishes is Palak Paneer (or Panir), spinach with panir cottage cheese, and this variation is made using my silver beet. I washed (many times!) the small silver beet leaves, and then I steamed them and drain them. In a heavy pot I heated 2 tbsp of vegetable oil (I used rice bran oil) and sautéed for 30 seconds: 1/2 tsp ground cumin 1/2 tsp ground coriander 1 tsp turmeric 1/3 tsp ground chili then I added 2 roughly chopped shallots and, after 3 minutes, a good pinch of salt and the cooked silver beet. I cooked everything on low for about 20 minutes (you may need to add just a little water if the silver beet is too dry) and then finely pureed the content ...

I am dedicating this post to an initiative from the blog of Norma Carpignano : get rid of the pig (dedicated to the Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi). Presently Italian women are speaking up to ask the resignations of Berlusconi, and bloggers, as usual, have a very original way of doing this, with a recipe :-). But since I am vegetarian no pork recipes here, so I am posting a vegan recipe instead. 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, clov...

This turned out to be a fantastic vegan curry, and quite innovative too: I have never seen a curry made with borage!!! Yes, borage again! I have tons of it in the garden, you can eat the flowers, the stems and the leaves, but I limit myself to the smaller tender leaves. They are prickly, but that goes away with cooking. 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). Co...