Breaking Down Part 2 is on: the end of Twilight

So this is the end! I won't go to see the movie, I'll probably wait to be on a plane, I seem to watch most of my movies on a plane, and certainly I saw the entire series flying! Also, I admit that I read the books and liked the story, and a quick peep of the latest trailer didn't seem faithful to the book.. too much action!

Still, to celebrate the end here is a re-post of all my Twilight cupcakes and a full Twilight dinner (Vegan!) perfect for those who have decided to do the Twilight Marathon! Warning, lot of scrolling down to get to the end of this post(s)... Enjoy!

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Twilight Cupcakes: Volturi Cupcakes

Black or white cupcakes cups, white royal icing, a cherry, and maybe a splash of red?

Volturi cupcakes: stylish, minimalist, timeless,

these could be the 'evil twins', sadistic Jane and silent Alec. 

Perfect for a Halloween party too!

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Twilight Cupcakes: Breaking Dawn

Breaking Dawn, styling inspired by the original book cover, black and white elegant cupcake cup for the new Bella, pure white for Renesmee. 

Very vanilla cupcake base and Italian butter icing for the frosting.  

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Twilight Cupcakes: Jacob

The werewolf cupcake, baked in a white heart cupcake cup, 

and topped with royal icing covered with black sesame seeds

plus a single red heart sprinkle. I never thought that sesame seeds could 

taste so good with royal icing! 

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Twilight Cupcakes: Eclipse

Maybe my favourite book of the series?? Of course the cupcakes had to be three: Bella, Edward and Jacob. No frosting but icing sugar to represent the snow.

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Twilight Cupcakes: New Moon

The Twilight Saga continues with New Moon

and a cupcake to eat while

walking the streets of Volterra at night,

or listening to werewolves howling.

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Twilight Cupcakes

I am having a Twilight cupcake week, starting today.
These 'bite size' mini cupcakes are called
Edward and Bella (I suppose that you can guess 
which one is which). And in case you are wondering, 
the black seeds are black sesame seeds.

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

A totally Vegan Twilight menu (inspired by Stephenie Meyer's books)

Twilight Starter

Plum Tomatoes with Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale di Modena

 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 somesurigoma, 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!!!!!

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Bergamot Cupcakes, and eclipse

The other day I bought a jar of candied Greek Bergamot peels in syrup, they looked really attractive and bergamot oranges are not something that seem to be well known in New Zealand (even if many here drink Earl Grey tea!). I confess of having eaten some just by themselves (a bit of an indulgence really), but mostly they are perfect for topping cakes (and cupcakes). 

Bergamot Cupcakes

Ingredients

120 g butter

3 eggs

130 g sugar

1/2 tsp lemon zest

200 g self-rising flour

60 ml milk

Topping:

Bergamot orange peels in syrup

Makes 12 cupcakes

Preheat the oven to 175°C. Line a 12-muffin tray with cupcakes paper cups.

Melt the butter in a jug, either in the microwave or in the oven (while the oven is warming up for the cupcakes). Place the eggs and sugar in a mixing bowl and whisk, using an electric beater, until the mixture looks light and pale yellow in colour. Slowly add the melted butter and the lemon zest. Keep beating at a low speed now; add half of the flour followed by half of the milk. Add the rest of the flour and milk and keep beating making sure that there are no lumps. Divide the mixture between the 12-cupcake cases.

Bake for about 18-20 minutes, until golden brown at the top. You can also check by inserting a toothpick into the cupcakes: if it comes out clean the cupcakes are ready. Remove the cupcakes from the tin and let them cool down. Brush a little bergamot syrup on top of each cupcake and the top with one piece of bergamot peel (I had to cut my peels as they looked to big for the cupcakes). Simple and delicious!

Did you see the eclipse today?
Pity that it is cloudy, but definitely everything
looks a bit strange, and the light is so unusual.
Max is watching it as school with special glasses,
I wish I had them to now, but instead I just took
a photo which probably doesn't says much,
but looks very cool! Let me know if you have
some good pictures!

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Arantxa making sugar roses with fondant video

This is my second entry, featuring Arantxa, for this month's Sweet New Zealand, hosted by The Kitchen Maid. I hope that you will like it! 

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Marinated strawberries with Greek yogurt and dried lychees

This is a super easy and super yummy sweet treat, gluten free and low in sugar too. Hull and cut the strawberries into halves (or quarters, if very big) then place in a bowl with a tbsp of sugar and 2 tbps of lemon juice. Stir and let them rest at room temperature for a few hours stirring from time to time to get more juice out, then refrigerate until serving time. To assemble place a few strawberries and their juice in tumblers, top with 1 tbsp or 2 of Greek Yogurt (I used this one) and finish with a dried lychee. 

This is my first entry for this month's Sweet New Zealand, hosted by The Kitchen Maid. I may have a few more, as I really feel like having a Sweet November! :-).

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Stuffed mushrooms (pity they shrink so much!), Taste magazine, and a story about quail eggs and great service

When I started these mushrooms were three times this size (I used the 'breakfast' Portobello type) but never mind, the flavour was all there and this is a great way to cook them!

Clean the mushrooms and remove the stalks (set them aside) and top skin if you can (discard). Place the mushrooms on a baking tray lined with baking paper, cap side down, sprinkle with salt and a drop of olive oil and bake on medium for 15 minutes. Turn and bake for other 10 minutes. In the meantime clean the stalk, chop the very end bits off and discard, and them chop the rest with a couple of garlic cloves and plenty of Italian Parsley leaves. Add one egg to the mixture (vegans can omit egg and add a little more oil instead), a pinch of salt, a tbsp of olive oil and enough breadcrumbs to get a malleable consistency, like for croquettes. Remove the mushrooms form the oven and stuff with this mixture pressing down well at the top. Place back into the oven and bake until the tops look golden and crunchy. Serve hot, as a main with salad on the side, or warm as appetizers/finger food at a party.

On the magazine front, this month you can find my work in Taste, one of the longest spreads I have done recently in fact (11 pages, usually I do 5 or 6), and this time there were 6 models, all children. Here are a couple of photos on set, in the studio of photographer Toaki Okano.

Yes it all looks glorious, but the reality behind a photo shoot is that it requires a huge amount of work and planning, even for the simplest recipes. When I go on set I load my car with what seems to be half of my kitchen, and as we start early I need to do all my shopping and propping the day(s) before. And here I need to tell you a story. I needed some quail eggs, not something that you find often in my area, I have a friend with quails but she lives far away, and farmers market are on the weekend (the photo shoot was on a Friday) but I know that I can always find them in this supermarket, so I drove there, even if it is half an hour from my house. I got the quail eggs and a few more things that I needed for the photo shoot and I went home to do some cooking, starting with boiling of the eggs that I had to dye overnight in beetroot juice. But NOOOO! I could not believe it, the eggs were not in the bags. I called the supermarket (I was a bit stressed by then) and said that my quail eggs were missing, and guess what? The manager said "Don't worry Madam, someone will bring them to you immediately". I told him that I lived 30 minutes away and he told me that in that case someone would bring them to me in 30 minutes. If it hadn't been for the fact that I needed them for work I would have just said that I was going to get them next time I was in town, but in that moment I felt really grateful for a supermarket with such a great costumer service. And here is the feature.

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

New record for pageviews (topped the 1100 mark!) and some really nice photos of the Festival italiano

Photo by Right Hand Corner

Ciao! First of all I would like to celebrate the first day where my pageviews (according to google statistics) topped the 1100 mark! Pageviews yesterday

1,108

Edited 8 Nov, today I did 1228... new record
Edited 11 November 1,305... new record :-)
Edited 15 January, 12,587!

So, taking advantage of this moment of high traffic I would like to direct you all to the Dante Blog, and show you some lovely photos of the Italian Festival kindly offered by Right Hand Corner.

You can also find more photos in their FB Page. I would also like to ask you to support the voluntary work of the Dante Alighieri Society in Auckland by adding your name to the followers' list, but I don't know if it is working these days... I have been trying to follow other blogs myself and an error 404 always come up, making it impossible to add my avatar with google connect or other accounts. Did any of you experienced the same fate? Or do you know anything about it? 

Thank you and ciao

Alessandra

Pears, Rocket and Parmesan Salad with Extravecchio Balsamic Vinegar of Modena

At the Festival Italiano I received a very special present from Naomi of Aceto Downunder: a bottle of ABTM (Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale di Modena), the extra vecchio (25 years +). This Balsamico is the real thing, only sold in specially designed 100ml bottles, expensive but worth it, every drop of it.

The first thing I made was this classic Italian salad: Rocket leaves (fresh from my veggie garden), shaved Parmesan, thin slices of crunchy pears, and a drizzle of ABTM. This salad is absolutely delicious, and perfect as an entree or a sophisticated yet easy and light summer main course. Thank you Naomi!

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Easy Parmigiana with zucchini and eggplants, step by step

Slice the eggplants and 'sweat' with salt for at least an hour. Rinse and pat dry. Slice the zucchini into long strips, you can also sweat the zucchini for 20 minutes to take away any bitterness and make them soft, if you like. Step two will be to either fry the vegetable slices (with olive oil) or to grill/bake them. If you fry them they are tastier, but a bit greasy (remove excess oil with kitchen paper) and it does take time! If you decide to grill them or bake them just put them on a baking tray lined with kitchen paper, brush with olive oil and add a pinch of salt. Place under the grill or in fan oven at 180°C until they look cooked on one side, turn them over and cook them on the other side. The grill is quicker, the oven tends to dry them up, so when I turn them I also cover them with more baking paper so that they keep some 'steam'. I prefer the baking method but for special occasions I fry!! Once you have all your veggies ready start assembling them like this:

In a roasting pan make a first layer of fried/baked zucchini (don't need to grease the pan,
the zucchini have been cooked in oil.

Add a little passata (Italian tomato sauce).

Add a second layer of fried/baked eggplants.

Add some more passata.

Add more zucchini.

Add some more passata and top with mozzarella. Bake until the mozzarella melts.

Eat.

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©