Cauliflower in the garden

Photo by Arantxa Zecchini Dowling ©

orchids in mason jar

Photo by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Chocolate and plum mousse with Italian meringue base and Fresh As plum powder

What I like about mousses is that you can just improvise, and as long as you beat well the main ingredients (eggs and cream) you can never go wrong! I made this with Arantxa; while I made the Italian meringue and whipped the cream she whipped the egg yolk, and while she folded the chocolate I folded the plum cream, and there was a lot of licking of spoons and bowl at the end, and 7 lovely mousses in the fridge!



3 large free range eggs, separated
2 tbsp icing sugar
50 ml water
300 ml cream
1 tbsp cocoa2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp Fresh As Plum Powder (plus some to sprinkle)

Start by making an Italian meringue base: whip the egg white until stiff. In the meantime boil the water and icing sugar into a syrup. When the syrup is bubbly, start to thickens and smell like candy (but before is turns white or caramel! Be careful here!) pour it at once into the egg whites, (while beating). Keep beating until the meringue is cold again.

In another bowl beat the egg yolks with the sugar and cocoa for a loooooong time, until light and creamy. In a third bowl beat the cream well too. Divide the Italian meringue into two, add the Fresh As plum powder to one half and beat for one more minute, until the meringue is pink.

Divide the cream into two and fold with the pink and white meringue mixtures. In one bowl you will have the pink plum mousse ready (set aside) and in the other the white 'base' to which you will need to add the chocolate mixture. Do this slowly and folding well.
Pour the chocolate mousse first into glasses or verrines, and then top with the plum mousse. Sprinkle with more Fresh As plum powder and refrigerate for a few hours.

I am entering this recipe for Sweet NZ #40, to enter your November Recipe click here.

And now: two images of some of my favourite flowers, peonies, for my Pinterest Board! 

Photo and recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Two New Zealand birds in my garden; tui and kererū

I love the fact that I can use my phone to video the birds I see out of the window. We are surrounded by native forest, including plenty of nikau palms, so we have lots of kereru, and we also have flowering trees like puriri, and a one exotic, an Australian frangipani, that tui love! In fact this morning there was quite a fight between two tui for the control of the frangipani, it was like living in a Attemborough's documentary. Here tui and kereru feeding (in peace).

The Tui is an endemic bird of New Zealand that mostly feed on nectar. Here is feeding on an Australia frangipani tree (Hymenosporum flavum).

The New Zealand pigeon or kererū is a bird endemic to New Zealand. The nikau is the only palm native to New Zealand. Filmed in the Waitakere Ranges, Auckland.

Strawberries with orange and cinnamon (perfect for Xmas) and Sweet New Zealand

This is the 40th consecutive edition of Sweet New Zealand, and I will be hosting it from this blog.

Last month (October 2014) our host was Lesley from eat, etc. so check out her round up here for some ideas. And I am also entering the first recipe: Strawberries with orange and cinnamon. This is a prelude to the Xmas Season, strawberries are the traditional Xmas fruit in NZ, but being from the Northern Hemisphere I cannot renounce some more traditional and festive winter flavors, like orange and cinnamon. 

Just wash and cut the strawberries (two punnets), add the juice of one orange, a cinnamon stick and one tbsp of sugar. Let the strawberries marinate for a few hours at room temperature, and then a few more hours in the fridge. Serve cold, with cream, or yogurt, or ice cream, or just as they are!

Now it is your turn to enter Sweet New Zealand!

1. This event is open to all bloggers living in New Zealand (even if you’re not a Kiwi), as well as all Kiwi bloggers living and blogging overseas.

2. You can enter anything sweet: cakes, biscuits, slices, desserts, even drinks. You may submit as many entries as you like, including old posts if you want.

3. Your entry must contain the phrase Sweet New Zealand, the Sweet New Zealand badge (choose your own size), a link to the host, and to this post – so if you are submitting an older post remember to update it accordingly.

4. To submit your entry, email me at alessandra (at) clear (dot) net (dot) nz by 28th November 2014 with:

• name of recipe with the link to the post you’re contributing 
• a photo from your post (not more than 250 kb if possible)
• your name, your blog name and a link to your blog
• 
  
• A roundup of all the entries (with links and photos) will be published at the beginning of December. Leave me a message below if you have any questions. 

I look forward to your sweet entries!

Ciao

Alessandra

Photo and recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©