Edamame Basil dip

 This is so easy: I used frozen edamame beans, blanched them in boiling water and then blended them with garlic, fresh basil, lemon juice, extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper. Keep a few whole edamame for decoration. Tip: the more oil the better (for me, I love olive oil!)

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Covid-19 lockdown recipe 4: lentil salads, i.e. making the most of 'poor' ingredients

Dried lentils are another 'staple' in my pantry, and I also noticed that while aisles of cans of beans were getting low at the supermarket, packets of dried lentils were still available. Good, because they are cheap and they go a long way, plus they are full of protein and very versatile: you can make soups, stews, curries, lasagne, side dishes or basically add them anywhere to 'increase' the size of your dishes and fill your belly. Because the weather is still nice I'll propose some salads, throwing in some fresh greens, edible flowers and a bit of NZ foraging too :-). All of these salads will serve heaps of people and last a few days in the fridge, in fact they taste better on the second day, giving the lentils time to absorb flavour from the dressing. So I usually make heaps and then before serving I take out what I need and I add the fresh greens and the flowers on the spot.

Lentils with flowers and leaves

500 g brown lentils

1 leaf bay

water and salt for boiling

extra virgin olive oil

white balsamic vinegar

salt to taste

mixed salad leaves

sliced radishes

tomatoes (cherry or cubed)

fresh herbs (like basil, parsley)

edible flowers

Soak the lentil overnight, then rinse well, add plenty of water, a bay leaf and a pinch of salt. Cook until 'al dente', or as soft as you like (but not mushy). Drain and briefly rinse under cold water. Place in a mixing bowl with the radishes and tomatoes, add extra virgin olive oil, white balsamic vinegar (to taste, but make sure that the ratio oil to vinegar is 2 to1), and some salt to taste. Line a serving plate or large shallow bowl with mixed salad leaves (leave a few small ones for the top), spoon the lentils on top, then sprinkle with the remaining salad leaves, herbs and petals (I used verbena, dianthus, and cornflowers).

Same recipe again but with broad beans and different flowers

 This time I added more tomatoes and also broad beans (just the frozen broad beans, to prepare them just cover them with boiling water and then remove the hard skin and they are ready to eat!) . Mix the lentils, broad beans and tomato with the dressing ingredients and place on a bed of mixes salad leaves. To decorate I used calendula, borage and dianthus petals.

With kahikatea berries

Here is another version with a bit of foraging from the New Zealand Bush! The kahikatea berries are ripening, it takes a long time to collect them but they are a welcome addition to a salad. You will need to remove the black blue seed and wash the berries delicately though. 

500 g brown lentils

1 leaf bay

water and salt for boiling

extra virgin olive oil

lemon juice

salt and pepper to taste

frozen broad beans

kahikatea berries

calendula petals

Soak the lentil overnight, then rinse well, add plenty of water, a bay leaf and a pinch of salt. Cook until 'al dente', or as soft as you like (but not mushy). Drain and briefly rinse under cold water. Place in a mixing bowl, add extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste and the broad beans (just use the frozen broad beans, cover them with boiling water and then remove the hard skin so that they are ready to eat and bright green). Mix well and then top with the kahikatea berries and calendula petals.

Last one for the day

And here yet another salad (same basic recipe again, use either lemon juice or white balsamic vinegar) and more flowers: nasturtium, borage, verbena, poppy, marigold, dianthus, and cornflowers.

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Schiacciata con pomodorini - cherry tomato schiacciata, and a meal from the garden

I had a great summer of red and yellow cherry tomatoes, the reds are always the best for flavour, but the yellow are pretty to look at and I like a contrast of colour on my plate, so why not! This schiacciata is easy as it doesn't need muck kneading.

For the schiacciata:
Place 300 ml warm water in a large mixing bowl, add 2 tsp active yeast granules and 1/4 tsp raw sugar. Wait 5 minutes then add 500 g high grade flour and 1 tbsp wheat gluten flour, plus a good pinch of salt. Mix well then dust with four, cover with cling film and let it rise for 2 hours. After 2 hours place a little olive oil on your hands and then gently mix the dough, pick it up and place it on a baking sheet cut so that it will fit you over tray (I have a 90cm oven so one long tray is good for me, for a standard oven divide the dough into two pieces). Roll the dough to cover the baking paper and then place on the baking tray. Brush with more oil if you like, then cut the cherry tomatoes into halves and place over the down, pressing them down lightly. Sprinkle with salt and oregano (chopped garlic too if you like).

Bake in a pre-heated oven at 200° C for approximately 20-25 minutes, or until you can see that the bread is baked on top and on the bottom (lift to check). Eaten warm is fantastic, but it keeps well for a couple of days, or at least, it would, but we tend to eat it pretty quickly! 

We had it for dinner with a Caprese salad (cherry tomatoes again, mozzarelline, basil and borage flowers) dressed with olive oil and salt, plus flat beans from the garden (teghe) boiled and dressed with balsamic vinegar, olive oil and salt (my daughter loves these!) and a simple guacamole (avocado, garlic, salt and lemon juice, made in the nutribullet!).

This is a perfect meal for me!

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Crunchy Bean Sprout Winter Mediterranean Salad

I love beans and lentils, but I also love salads and raw food, my body feels like it needs them!

I usually mix cooked beans with raw salad vegetables, but when I remember I get some bean sprouts, and I particularly like this crunchy bean combo from Sproutman. I can just eat the sprouted beans as they are, with a drop of olive oil and lemon juice, 

These crunchy beans are quite filling and with the addition of a few more goodies with just one packet of the packet bean combo I made a salad for 4! It is winter here in New Zealand so there aren't many green leaves around a part from iceberg lettuce, quite bland for my taste, but ok to give 'volume'. No fresh tomatoes either, so I used some semi dried tomatoes, and added more Mediterranean flavors: salted capers, and mixed olives. A salad like this really fills you up, even without carbs or animal protein. The dressing was just extra virgin olive oil and lemon juice, with a pinch of salt.

And now some photos from Nan's garden in Christchurch, to add to my Pinterest flower board!

I told Nan that most of her flowers could be eaten, but promised that I would not ;-).

 

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Poor Italy, Viva Mexico and an improvised Vegetarian Mexican dinner

Well, Italy is out of the World Cup, and I am just glad that I didn't get up at 4 am to watch it happen!

But before the games started the four members of our family picked another nation to support (random, out of a hat) and I got Mexico! You had to dress up, cook something and learn some facts and words from that country… I was lucky! I speak enough Spanish, I like Mexican food, I have been there, and my husband was going there for work that week! So he bought me back a Mexican team T-shirts (looks good) and also some tequila, some Mexican sweets and a cute little piñata donkey. 

Now a part from the sweets (some had milk) the dinner was actually Vegan and just improvised with what I had in the house. I also used tofu, instead of meat. I rubbed the tofu in a mixure of chili, salt, oregano (oregano seems to be the only dried herb really used all over Mexico, although the name is approximative - there are several varieties!) dried coriadner, cumin and smoked paprika. The doses were totally random! Then I sautéed the tofu with a little olive oil. I kept the tofu aside and used the same pot (with the very spicy oil) to sauté some chopped celery and onions, I added some rice, then a can of red beans, and finally a couple of cups of vegetable stock. Lid on and cooked the rice by absorption. In the end I added the tofu, just to warm it up.

For the Guacamole I followed this recipe, with the difference that I didn't have fresh coriander at home, but I used a bit of chili (I always have chili in the freezer). Also because this was a really rushed job (and I had the whole chili, seeds removed) I blended everything with an immersion blender. Quite different texture really, but nice for a change. The tortilla chips came from a packet. Well, this dinner took me 40 minutes to make (including cooking time), so Viva Mexico!!

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Fresh Borlotti Beans

I love shelling fresh beans from the garden, especially borlotti, as they are so pretty!

I usually put fresh beans in soups, or boil them to make a salad (and keep the water for a soup). To cook them slowly in a frying pan takes a bit longer, but they are delicious!

Chop a small red onion and sauté with a little olive oil for a few minutes, then add the borlotti. Stir and add a little water and salt, cover and check form time to time, stirring well and adding more water when needed. It takes about a hour (or more if you simmer on low), so be patient. No need to add tomato paste as the onion will almost melt and make a nice colored sauce. Taste for salt at the end and adjust with black pepper, if you like. 1000 times better than baked beans!

Another bit of news, I am well over the 200,000 page views per month now, so thank you for all of you that visited this blog. :-)

Sweet Reminder

Kiwi Bloggers: remember also that there is one day left to enter your recipe for Sweet NZ, (click here for the instructions) to be in the draw to win two delicious packs of Fresh As products: Raspberry Powder and Strawberries slices. 

 Photos and recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Minestrone with the last veggies from the garden

My garden is now empty, except for some miniature leeks (a kind name for leeks that haven't grown) a few solitary small potatoes trapped in clay, and some mizuna. Pots still have herbs and some timid Alpine strawberries (incredible!), but for the rest... all gone! I save everything, even ugly carrots and watery yellow zucchini, and even the green tomatoes: in a minestrone soup all tastes good.

My favourite were the beans, it is just so much fun shelling them and look at the beautiful colours. Pity that they become all brown during cooking.

And here is the minestrone. No recipe, just wash, chop and boil, add salt to taste and extra virgin olive oil at the end. So tasty and healthy! Some of the photos are mine, but the prettiest are Arantxa's!

Photos and recipe by Alessandra Zecchini and Arantxa Zecchini Dowling ©

Wonder of Venice beans with parsley and garlic

One of my best crop this year is Bean Wonder of Venice Runner from King Seeds, I have a few plants growing so high that they are reaching the nearby trees, so much that the bamboo support poles are bending (great stuff bamboo, it bends!!)

Wonder of Venice is yellow and delicious, and not stringy. 

I don't like to boil beans, I rather stew them slowly. For this recipe I just sizzled some garlic with olive oil, then I added the beans (washed and topped and tailed) and then cooked them on low with the lid on, adding just a tiny bit of water and a pinch of salt. They take about 20-30 minutes. In the meantime I chopped some garlic, parsley and salt, and then added this mixture to the beans once they were cooked. So simple, and the taste is so good!

Another good crop this year is tomato, I pick cherry tomatoes and plum tomatoes daily now, and the Cape gooseberries are also starting to come through: these are great for the children's lunch boxes. A lot of gardeners in NZ had a good tomato crop this year, and I wished that I have planted more now, usually I don't get so many!

Final note: I am enjoying my flowers from the garden too, I think that they missed the rain this year, but the strongest still managed to prosper even if I couldn't water them (we have a draught here and I use only a little water for the vegetables, I would feel too guilty overwatering my garden when some farmers have so little water). Did you garden prosper this year, or did it suffer for luck of rain?

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Leek and edamame risotto, Sunday out at the Hobsonville Farmers Market, ice cream at Giapo, and what Trip Advisor says!

Chop one large leek and wash it, then sauté with olive oil until soft. Add one cup of shelled edamame (I used the frozen ones) and sauté until the edamame are starting to cook. Add 400 g arborio rice and stir, when the rice is hot and starting to toast add a glass of white wine at room temperature (not chilled). Stir and after the wine has been absorbed add about 1 l of vegetable stock, one ladle at the time, stirring often until cooked. This risotto is perfect as it is (Vegan) but non-vegans can add grated parmesan cheese if they like, or start with butter instead of olive oil.

Serves 4

On another note, on Sunday I accompanied an Italian photographer to the Hobsonville Farmers Market, a nice covered market in a new residential development which is, I guess, still West Auckland, although it felt like the people were very North-Shore types. 

The kids had langos, the same that they get when they go to the Oratia Farmers Market. They like them, but they prefer gnocco fritto. And then we drove all the way back to Auckland city and stopped at Giapo for ice cream. I had orange sorbet, which came with candy floss and a violet on top. I will talk about Giapo again in the future, it is a bit of a landmark in Auckland's Queen Street, in fact if you go on Trip Advisor you will find Giapo ranked in second place among the 807 restaurants in Auckland... yes Second place, ahead or the French Cafe which is in 5th place although it is supposed to be one of the best restaurants in the city... and Giapo is just an ice-cream place! I guess that every business could list itself as a restaurant and cash on the reviews (although I have noticed another ice cream place in the city being only in 348th place...)!

At this point I also had to go and look what Trip Advisor had as number 1 restaurant in Auckland, and found this one (never heard of it, but I don't eat out often...).

Now tell me, do you ever read Trip Advisor's reviews? And if so, what do you think?

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Beans, gas, and embroidery

 The most famous borlotti beans are from the village of Lamon (not far from my Mum's place).

Fagioli in Padella

Soak the borlotti beans overnight, rinse and then cook with plenty of water and a bay leaf. Usually I add salt only at the end of cooking, then I keep the broth and a few beans for soup, and drain the rest to cook separately or use them in salads. Here I made them 'in padella' (in a skillet).

Sauté a shallot (sliced) or a couple of peeled garlic cloves with two tbsp of olive oil. Add the cooked borlotti beans, then about one cup of Italian tomato sauce (passata) and one cup of bean broth (or vegetable broth). Simmer on low for about 20 minutes, when the sauce thickens add half a tsp of smoked paprika (or some black pepper), adjust for salt and then finish everything with some more olive oil and plenty of fresh chopped parsley. 

In the past I didn't use chopped parsley with the paprika, but I do now, if I can: I find that parsley makes the beans easier to digest without... gas! Do you use parsley agains the 'effects' of beans? I also know that kombu seaweed, and bay leaves, are supposed to help, but if you know any other trick do let me know :-).

And now for something completely different!

A while ago I wrote a post about embroidery, i.e. what I used to do before blogging! Well, I didn't have much time for my own project, but in the meantime my Mum managed to finish the embroidery that I designed for her, and had it framed (you can see the pictures of the 'working process' here). She is quite happy with it, and it looks great (better that my photos that are not so good, sorry, but I hope that you get the idea :-).

Photos and Recipe by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Beans and flowers, and a morning with the Slow Food ladies

This salad is really simple: I just chopped half red onion and marinated it for 30 minutes in white balsamic condiment of Modena (FYI, white balsamic vinegar of Modena doesn't exist, it can only be called 'condiment') and then I added one can of Italian butter beans and one can of Italian chickpeas (obviously drained and rinsed...), salt, extra virgin olive oil, and flowers from my garden: chive flowers, borage flowers and calendula petals. Easy but yummy!

On Tuesday I spent a morning with a few ladies from the Slow Food Waitakere convivium making sugar roses. There is something magic about a group of girls in the kitchen chatting and drinking cups of teas... you get lots done, for me it is one of the best way of cooking or preparing things that usually take ages or are very fiddly: together it is fun and not as tiring! Do you like cooking with friends?

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©