Panna cotta alla rosa - Rose panna cotta

These little roses from my garden smell delicious, I often use them for desserts, liquors, decorations... anything I can think of. They are organic and safe to eat (otherwise I wouldn't be here writing this!)

Panna cotta alla rosa

Ingredients

tiny rose petals, as many as you like

150ml water

a few drops of lemon juice

3 tbsp sugar

500 ml cream

100 ml milk

1 tsp rose water (optional)

half tsp agar agar

more rose petals to decorate

Pick the rose petals and rinse with cold water, then place in a pot with the water, lemon juice and two tbsp of sugar. Bring to boil and simmer for 5 minutes.

Let them cool down, the water will turn pink. Add the cream, milk, remaining tbsp of sugar, agar agar and, if using, rose water, and bring back to the boil. Divide between 4 (or 6 smaller) pudding bowls (this panna cotta is very soft, not to be flipped)

Chill and serve, with a few fresh rose petals. Just amazing!!

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Persimmon agar agar

This dessert is perfect after a Japanese meal, maybe not a traditional Japanese dish (I invented it, after all, like most of the recipes in this blog) but it taste great and and it is made with only two ingredients: persimmons and agar agar (and a little water). So it is sugar free, gluten free and vegan! All you need to do is peel two persimmons and cube them. Put the fruit in a blender with a just enough water to be able to blend it. Mix half tsp of agar agar powder with 50 ml of water and add to the persimmon 'smoothie'. Put everything in a small pot and bring to the boil. Simmer for just one minute then pour into a mould (rectangular is better). Let it cool down and cut into slices.

And if you love Japanese things remember that this contest ends in two days, you could win a beautiful Kimono Tango Bag!

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Fresh As raspberry agar agar, and Win with Sweet New Zealand!

Agar agar must be the easiest pudding ever, and it is vegan and gluten free. Also, if you don't use too much sugar it will be low in calories (and no fat, I guess…). 

For 4 serving I use 500ml of water, half tsp of agar agar powder (usually I use 1 tsp, but I wanted a softer and more wobbly jelly) and 1 tbsp of sugar (here too, personal taste!). For the Fresh As fruit powder dosage, it depends on your taste; for most fruit (like pineapple) I use 1 tbsp, or 1 and half tbsp (like passion fruit), but the raspberry powder is so intense that half tbsp with suffice, using the other half just to sprinkle on the jelly when is set. Bring to boil and pour into 4 jelly moulds. Let it cool down, refrigerate, and serve (with more Fresh As powder sprinkled on top). 

This recipe is for Sweet New Zealand #32, the blogging event open to all Kiwi bloggers (living in NZ or overseas) and expats blogging from NZ. Frances is the host for March, and there are many prizes this month offered by Healthy Food Guide (Tote bag, magazine and zesty citrus zester), so check out how to enter by clicking here. Also let me know if you are keen to be a host in 2014, and book a month!

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Gardening for food at home, and New Brighton Community Gardens

Freshly picked from the garden, it doesn't seem much and yet it feeds 4, and for less than the $15 you
would give to a  Supermarket (FYI overseas reader, this $15 is a NZ supermarket campaign )

First course, vegetable soup with: yellow zucchini, green zucchini, plum tomatoes, parsley, chives, celery,
carrot, silver beet, onions. The onion are really small but I can't grow them any bigger in the bush so
I grow them in pots.

Chop, add water (rain water for me, so this too is free!) and salt, then cook. You can add a bit of
extra virgin olive oil at the end.

Second basket, more tomatoes, basil, cucumber, radish, lettuce and mizuna.

Make a salad. I just add olive oil, salt and lemon juice so the dressing is not that expensive.

Yes there is a main to go with the salad, a frittata made with free-range eggs (60c each at the farmers market, the most expensive thing in this meal, and I used 4). To flavor the frittata I used chives from the garden, and the usual salt and pepper, a bit of self-raising flour, and olive oil to fry.

Frittata before flipping

Frittata after flipping

Well, no much for dessert, only some rhubarb and a few strawberries (regular and wild),
since the season is almost finished for me.

Still, I am not discouraged: I boiled the rhubarb with 1 tbsp of sugar, added a pinch of agar agar and
made a jelly to be topped with a little yogurt, the strawberries and some edible violets.
Arantxa got the biggest strawberry!

I am very lucky to have a little veggie garden, but even if you don't have a garden there are many community gardens where work and produce are shared, and the results are amazing. Just watch this short video to see a truly inspiring community garden in New Brighton, Christchurch. And my father-in-law is featuring too, walking around the gardens! He is having an operation tomorrow so I would like to wish him the very best. Over to the video now:

Photos and recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Video by The Tindall Foundation

Feijoa zest agar agar jelly

In this post you can find the recipe for the feijoa zest syrup, and from it I took about one tsp of sezt for the feijoa zest meringues. The leftover syrup (full of zest) was about 350 ml, and I decided to use it to make a little jelly with agar agar. I added a level tsp of agar agar and brought it back to the boil. The I poured it into a jelly mould and waited. It tasted great and was quite a visual treat, with all the zest floating in jelly! 

In fact I think that I will enter this one too for Sweet New Zealand, the monthly blogging event for Kiwi bloggers. Our June host is Sue, click here to enter. 

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Panna Cotta with Rangpur agar agar topping

Yesterday I posted about this citrus fruit, which I believe to be a Rangpur "lime" (technically not a lime!). And as promised, here is the recipe:

Panna Cotta with Rangpur agar agar topping

ingredients

500 ml cream (if you are Vegan use Coconut cream, I am sure that it would go very well with this citrus topping!)

2 tbsp sugar

1 level tsp agar agar

for the topping

4 Rangpur limes

2 tbsp sugar

Water

Half level tsp agar agar

Bring the cream to the boil with the sugar and agar agar, simmer until the sugar and agar agar  have dissolved (about one minute) stirring constantly, then pour into some glasses (I used different glasses, Martini and grappa mainly, since I hardly use them to drink with I thought it would be nice to show them off with a dessert!). Let the panna cotta cool down completely, and set. In the meantime separate the Rangpur segments into a bowl and remove all pips. Add 2 tbsp of sugar and let them rest at room temperature (in the sun if possible) and covered for an hour or two to dissolve the sugar and make some juice. Then put the segments and juice in a measuring jag and add water to take the Rangpur mixture  up to 300ml. Add half level tsp of agar agar and bring to the boil. Pour over the panna cotta and let it set at room temperature before refrigerating until serving time.

PS, don't forget to keep the peels and click here for a fragrant citrus bath idea!

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Passion fruit and Cape Gooseberry Agar Agar Jelly for Sweet New Zealand

I used more or less the same recipe as for the pineapple agar agar: 500 ml of water for one tsp of agar agar, then instead of Fresh As pineapple powder I used their Passion Fruit powder, one and a half tbsp of it, and two tbsp of sugar (since the passion fruit powder is more sour than the pineapple powder).

I still have Cape gooseberries in the garden, I picked a few and cut them into two, them place then in the jelly cups before pouring in the hot agar agar. 

It was a beautiful dessert, so I am entering it to this month edition of Sweet New Zealand, hosted by Shirleen of Sugar and Spice.

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Pineapple jelly... I mean, agar agar!

We all know of the enzymes of certain raw fruit (pineapple, papaya, kiwi etc) that won't make jelly, or agar agar, set. And also that cooking the fruit first will stop the problem. Or using canned fruit! 

But the only canned fruit I use is mango pulp (to make mango agar agar pudding, in fact) and I was just wondering... wondering... if the Fresh As pineapple powder, having been freeze dried, would still have those enzymes... so I tried. I used 500ml of water, boiled it and added 1 tsp of sugar, 1 tbsp of Fresh As pineapple powder and 1 level tsp of agar agar. I simmered everything for one minute and then poured it into 4 individual jelly moulds. I used these colorful ones, when the agar is set you just remove the lid at the bottom and they should pop down. Should. We actually shook them a bit! The pineapple puddings were fresh and fragrant, not too sweet (the sugar ratio was perfect) and I liked the flavor, although my husband and the kids told me that I could have put in a bit more pineapple powder for more zing! I will try a different Fresh As powder soon for more puddings!!

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Colours: flowers in the garden and a bright pudding

One of the best things about Auckland is that even in winter, where is raining cats and dogs, the garden is always bright with flowers. My orchids are blooming I have two yellow/green ones two different pink ones (although only one has flowers now). I always wanted to have orchids and these sturdy types can live outside, as long as they are in a sheltered spot. Also the Reinwardtia, or yellow flax, is still full of flowers, even after all that rain and hail we had in the past week.

No blooms from my white camellia yet, but the red one is full of flowers, they are lovely cut flowers for Japanese ikebana and for decorations (like for my bento here). The Rhododendron towering over the carport is also full of flowers, usually they stay for a couple of months, and by September the tree is almost all pink. Potted flowers: the hyacinths are just starting outside...

... while indoors they have already bloomed.

And the recipe for today is a mango pudding revisited: my fool proof recipe for mango and agar agar pudding is here, and for the colourful twist I just added a few mixed berries to the mixture. It looked so pretty that I will definitely make it again. 

Happy weekend everyone!

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Small Sweet Vegan Treats

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 chocolate look less dark that it actually was. Still, everything got eaten pretty happily!

The last image is more chocolate, but I don't think that I will be cooking with this one!!! My husband brought it back from Latin America this morning, single origin special dark form Ecuador, I tasted a bit... uuhh! Intense chocolate heaven! Form Republica del Cacao.

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Square mangos

Today is our anniversary. 20 years together. We were soooooo young, we both agreed that mango was the best fruit, and we also agreed about many other things.

Square mangos

850 ml canned mango pulp (from India)

250 ml water (from the sky)

2 tsp agar agar powder

Mix all the ingredients in a pot, bring to boil and simmer for 2 minutes.

Pour into a rectangular container and let it set (a couple of hours)

Cut into small cubes and decorate with small bamboo leaves.

On another note, if you get Alive magazine check out my article: three pages on the history of pasta and 2 recipes (plus a view of me in the kitchen :-)

Ciao

A.

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Twilight menu (inspired by Stephenie Meyer's books)

Photos by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Yes, I have 'Twilight fever', or 'Twilight addiction'? Whatever the term, it gets to me at any given time of the day, and I have to open the closest of the Twilight saga's books I can find, and read a bit of it!

Yesterday I got it early in the afternoon, and it didn't go away. I had to act, so just for fun, but also out of necessity (of providing a meal for the family instead of reading...) I though of making a Twilight inspired menu...obviously vegetarian (but don't the Cullens call themselves the vegetarians of the vampire world?), or even more challenging (for me): vegan.

The colours had to be black and red, of course; my daughter insisted that we only buy the books with the red pages, and this was the first of my challenges: I really try not to use artificial colourings in my food, and so I looked for black and red ingredients. And of course the food should also be 'romantic and sensual', Italian and Mexican flavours (which are also mentioned in the books), just a little 'bite' in one of them perhaps?

The second challenge was that...I couldn't go shopping for anything new, I had to do with what was in the house, and at present it is very little because we are leaving in 10 days and I am slowly emptying the pantry!

But I have tomatoes in the garden...

Twilight Starter

Plum Tomatoes with Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale di Modena

Well, the first was easy! Red tomato and Modena's black gold: Traditional Balsamic Vinegar (ABTM), possibly one of the most sensual ingredients ever!

Ingredients

Fresh plum tomatoes

Extra virgin olive oil

Salt to taste (I used Maldon)

A few drops of Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale di Modena

Assemble as shown in the photo.

New Moon 'Rice'

Tomato and Red Chili Sushi Rolls

I had nori, and it looks black and shiny. And Sushi rolls are round like the moon, but I needed a red moon! Actually, the red rice in the photo is not very clear, these looked much redder to the naked eye. Never mind, they tasted great, I even surprised myself, as I never though of combining tomato and chili with nori seaweed!

Ingredients

Short grain rice

Fresh tomatoes

garlic

red chili

Olive oil

salt

Nori seaweed

I didn't measure the rice, I used what I had left. I washed it and cooked it by absorption. In the meantime I fried some fresh chopped tomatoes with garlic and 1 red chili using a little olive oil. Then I passed everything through a sieve to remove the skins and seeds. I added salt and I stirred the spicy sauce into the rice. I then rolled the rice just like for sushi rolls.

Eclipse Pizza

Red Pizza with Black Seeds

Pizza is a must when teenagers are involved (and it was the first food our heroes, Bella and Edward, shared). I scoured the pantry for black seeds, I finished the poppy seeds, but I had some black sesame seeds. I added the cumin seeds mostly for flavour. I also used up the remaining of a jar of roasted red capsicum antipasto. I finished all my fresh tomatoes with the first two dishes, so I used canned tomatoes instead.

Ingredients

Pizza dough, recipe here

Tomato Sauce, recipe here (but omit the basil)

Olive oil

Salt

Black sesame seeds

Cumin seeds

Roasted red capsicums

Follow the given links to make the pizza dough and the tomato sauce. I have to say that by this stage the most difficult thing for me was not to add anything green to my food! Roll the dough to fill an oven tray lined with baking paper. Better to make a pizza slab that can be cut into small pieces (good if you have a Twilight inspired party). Top with the tomato sauce, then add salt and olive oil, the seeds and the capsicums. Bake at highest setting in your oven until the borders are golden and it smells delicious!

Breaking Dawn Dessert

Black Sesame Seed Pudding with Rose Syrup and Red Rose Petals

I unashamedly admit that I am very happy with the dessert. In the pantry I found some surigoma, crushed black sesame seeds, and I remember that in Japan I enjoyed many sesame seeds desserts. And in the garden I had some beautiful red roses, not sprayed and therefore edible!

Breaking Dawn is all about love.....

Ingredients

50 g crushed black sesame seeds (available in Asian shops)

100 ml water

1 tbsp sugar

1/3 (one third) tsp agar agar (available in Asian shops)

For the Syrup

100 ml water

2 tbsp sugar

1 tbsp rose water essence

Finish with red rose petals

Place the first 4 ingredients in a small pot and bring to boil. Simmer for 2 minutes, stirring well, and then pour into a small container. Set at room temperature, and then refrigerate. To make the syrup boil the water with the sugar until it halves in size, add the rose water and set aside. Before serving tilt the pudding from the container (this dose makes about 4 servings) and cut. I used a heart shaped cookie cutter here. Place on a plate decorated with rose petals. Drizzle with the syrup. Eat everything , the rose petals are delicious!!!!!

Last minute editing

Well, this menu is touring the globe now, who knows where it is now in web world, but I did find it already (the day after) in two places:

here (photos and recipes)

http://cullenboysanonymous.com/twilight-inspired-gourmet-vegitarian-recipes-from-new-zealand

and here (as a link)

http://recipes.latestrend.com/general/only-recipes-twilight-menu-new-moon-sushi-rolls/

I am honoured guys, and I don't mind, really, but just as a you may know good blogging etiquette requires that you do put the link to this post, and since the photos are also my copyright (yes,

you have to write my name there too), you should comply.

Just add my name and link to the original post and you should be fine :-)

This one for example:

http:/twilight.judyoz.com/?p=22228/

is ok, or this one

http://beattiesbookblog.blogspot.com/2010/02/what-books-inspire-stephenie-meyer.html

Thank you so much for

your cooperation.

ciao

Alessandra

Rhubarb Agar Agar

My rhubarb is huge, and ready to eat now! I cooked some for a pie and made some extra juice to make this agar agar.

1 l water

200 g sugar

a few drops of lemon

600 g rhubarb stalks, cleaned and cut into pieces

2 tsp agar agar

Boil the water, sugar and lemon juice. Add the rhubarb and cook until it starts to froth. Drain and use the rhubarb to make pies (or eat by itself). Collect the juice and bring back to boil. Add the agar agar and simmer for 3 minutes.

Pour into a square or rectangular container. Cool. Cut in to squares and store in the fridge. Very refreshing and with a delicate but distinctive taste.

Photos by Alessandra Zecchini ©