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Sunday, April 10, 2016

Avocado and celery cocktails with vegan mayo and edible flowers



This is a delicious raw and vegan dish, serves 4 as a starter or side salad, and 2 as a main

Ingredients

2 avocados
1 tbsp lemon juice
2 crunchy legs of celery
2 tbsp vegan mayonnaise
cherry tomatoes and edible flowers to decorate

Cut the avocados and remove stones, drizzle with lemon juice. Clean the celery legs and remove the strings (I use a carrot peeler for this). Cut into small bite sizes and mix with the vegan mayonnaise (click here for the recipe). Fill the avocados with the celery and decorate with cherry tomatoes and edible flowers.
Photos and recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Saturday, April 2, 2016

Sage flower butter



Sage flowers are beautiful and have a delicate taste of sage, lighter than the leaves. They are perfect for sprinkling on food like risotto, pasta, bean salads and roasted vegetables. I also like to make sage flower butter, which is also a way to make the petals last longer (sage butter will keep in the fridge for a couple of months, depending on the expiring date of the butter, of course!). There are two ways to make this: one is to melt the butter completely (a bit like making ghee) and then insert the flowers little by little while the butter is cooling, and then pour it into a container before it is completely solid. This way you loose a little aroma, but the butter lasts longer. The other is to soften the butter at room temperature and then work the flowers in with a fork or spatula, and then roll the butter up into a log and refrigerate. I love this but then I end up using too much butter as it is so good on warm bread...). In either cases every time you need a bit of flavoured butter you can just cut it or scoop out (in the photo I used an old butter curler I got from Italy). Flowers have less flavour than leaves, but the the petals melts in your mouth, making it ideal for those who find sage leaves a bit too tough.

My favourite way to use sage flower butter is on fresh tagliatelle, and then you need just a bit of Parmigiano and you are done! Delicious!




Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©