Kiwi fruit: green, gold and ruby red

Well, it may seem silly but I never seen kiwi fruit disappearing so fast as when they were served this way! And I swear that they taste better sliced like this that eaten with a spoon...

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

 

Black boy peaches with kawakawa and Honeydew

I am a bit behind with my posts and have accumulated so many photos and recipes that I am not sure I will have the time to post them all. This easy recipe is a bit out of season now in New Zealand, but if you like peaches set it aside, because it is easy and delicious! I use black boy peaches, which have a beautiful colour, cut them in quarters and peeled them, and then drizzled them with honey. I used beechwood honeydew from J.Friend & Co.. Then I added a few fresh leaves of kawakawa, foraged from my bush garden, and a few drops of lemon juice. The peaches and kawakawa should marinate in the fridge for a few hours for better result. Serve the peaches cold, with cream if you like (don't eat the kawakawa leaves, they are there just for flavour, although I love to lick the honey off - not at the table of course! 😅)

And now more posies from Instagram!

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Coconut tofu and vegetables strips with Eastern herbs

I planted some ginger roots in my garden from a bought root that started sprouting and got a beautiful plant... but the flower looked like that of the wild ginger (a weed in New Zealand) and I was a bit worried... my neighbour told me that it is a good ginger, the flower is similar but it doesn't make the seeds that birds spread around the forest. Well, since I was worried I remove the plant (the flowers looked good in a vase anyway) and used the root to make gari (delicious, recipe here) and this tofu dish.

Very easy: just simmer some sliced tofu in a pot with coconut milk, vegetable stock, ginger, chili, lemon grass and a shallot. Add some celery, carrots and capsicum strips and simmer for a few more minutes, then turn the heat off and add some cucumber strips, fresh coriander, basil and Vietnamese mint and serve with Thai rice.

And now a few more subtropical delights from my garden: cherimoya (not ready yet) and bananas (the best bunch so far, shared with many friends!)

Had some flowers too, outdoors...

And indoors.

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Crema Bruciata, or Crème brûlée, with nectarines, plums and cherries

The original recipes comes from my book Sweet As... ,  my own recipe which doesn't require steam baking in the oven and includes nectarine slices. Plum slices and cherries were also added here, and the result was delicious!  In Italy we also call this crema bruciata, but crème brûlée is most commonly used now as it sounds sophisticated :-).

To make the crème you will need one egg yolk for each 100ml of cream and 1 tbsp of sugar, for this recipes I used 5 egg yolks (thus 500ml cream and 5 tbsp of sugar) and I filled 8 ramekins, plus I had a little left to fill three miniature ones. Of course if you don't put any fruit on the bottom you will need more crème.

It is up to you how much fruit you put in, generally I just line the bottom of the ramekins with 4-5 think slices, this time I think I overdid it (thus the leftover crème) sicne stone fruit season is not long in NZ, and I wanted to use more fruit than crème! Don't use watery fruit and remove any juice from from cutting: you don't want to have a soggy base!

For the crème you need to mix well the egg yolks with sugar, then add the cream and either some vanilla seeds scraped from a vanilla pod, or a few drops of pure vanilla essence. If using vanilla essence add it when the crème is thick. A whole pod of vanilla is good too, but I find it to be in the way while stirring the crème!

Put the bowl with the mixture over a saucepan of boiling water and cook at bain-marie stirring constantly. It will take a long time, at least 30 minutes, possibly more, and your wrist will get tired and you will get bored. You can read a book at the same time, as long as you are careful. When you cannot take it any longer the cream will magically thicken, and when it is thick enough (remember that it will need to set in the fridge, not in the oven) and it looks bright yellow, remove from the heat and let it cool down lightly, always stirring.

Then pour over your fruit (or into the ramekins if you don't have any fruit). Refrigerate for at least 6 hours, better overnight, or a whole day. One hour before serving spread some brown or sugar over the top and caramelize under the grill, or with a blow-torch. At this stage I realized that I got rid of my old oven upstairs, the one that I never used since moving the kitchen downstairs 16 years ago except for the grill, and crème brûlée. The grill in the downstair kitchen is not as good, the oven is too big and it takes too long, still, I managed to melt the sugar (mostly).

Then refrigerate again for one hour and serve. The top should be crunchy and the centre smooth. It will be more creamy than the standard crème brûlée puddings that we find in restaurants, which have more of a 'set' texture, but if the crème is far too runny it means that you didn't cook it long enough at bain-marie, so you will know next time :-). If the top is not crunchy it means that you have left it in the fridge too long after caramelizing the sugar.
Mine was yummy and delicious, although thinking back at the grilling part (and seeing the details in the photos) I think that is it time for me to get a blow-torch. I never had one, it should be fun!

And the miniature ones? Well, they were so pretty next time I am just going to make a tray of them!

And now for the flowers of the day, all from my garden!

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Christmas Fruit Platter with Balsamic

Traditional Balsamic Vinegar of Modena goes well with fruit, and there is also a Balsamic cream you can buy which is less expensive and ideal to decorate plates.

 Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Beautiful Fruit Plates and Fruit Salads

Fresh pineapple, kiwi, banana, raspberries, mango, mandarin, blueberries and strawberries

Nothing better than a colourful fruit plate for breakfast, dessert, or snack! 

Berry fruit salad: strawberries, blueberries and raspberries

Tropical fruit salads: pineapple, banana, mango and kiwi

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Frutta sotto spirito

The easiest way to preserve fruit, if you like alcoholic fruit, that is! The Cape gooseberries are with whisky, and the cherries and plums with Cognac (I added a bit of sugar to the plums because they were a little sour). I will try them soon!!

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Macedonia di frutta

Strawberries, nectarines, pears, blueberries and kiwi fruit, a drop of lemon juice and some coconut water. No sugar. 

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Feijoa and Spirulina smoothie

Finally I have some feijoas in the garden!

They are perfect for breakfast, and if you want a Vegan-glutenfree-sugarfree-raw Easter!

For 2 smoothies I just used 6 feijoas (peeled), 400 ml natural apple juice and half a tsp of spirulina.

Happy Easter!

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Plum jam with a little brown sugar

I am back to New Zealand and it is still plum season in the Oratia orchards! But is it so hot that plums don't last long after picking, so I had about 1 kg that was far too ripe and soft for eating. I washed them and then place them in a pot with a little water and boiled them, then I strained the 'paste' to discard stones and leftover skin and tasted it. I usually add 50-60% of sugar (I don't like the 1kg fruit for 1kg sugar ratio they do in NZ), but this paste was already sweet! So I added just 2 tbsp of brown sugar and a pinch of citric acid (as a preservative) and, fearing that the jam wouldn't set, 1/3 tsp of agar agar. If I were to keep this jam longer maybe I would have added more sugar, but I only made 5 small jars and two are gone already!

It is a really delicious and sweet jam, and it is the first time (after 18 years in NZ for me) that plums seems to be so sweet when ripe (almost like in Italy), and a jam need so little sugar - I guess it is due to the dry January we had.

But I really want to try to make a jam with even less sugar (or no sugar at all) to keep, any suggestion?

Remember that the first pears and the famous Oratia Beauty apples are also in season at the Dragicevich Orchard, 556 West Coast Rd, Oratia, Auckland. The Oratia Beauty apples are the first fruit to be added to the Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity Ark of Taste

  

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

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 ©

Mostly raw: two juices and a lunch box

While summer produce abounds it is easy to make juices and to eat more raw food.

Green juices are the best, of course, above celery, cucumber and green apple, light and refreshing.

 This one is a smoothie and the kids made it: melon, natural apple juice, banana and apricot, decorated with borage flowers.

And below a fruit lunch box: grapes, melon, watermelon, strawberries and wild strawberries (these are from the garden), plum and apricot, plus some mini pikelets. Easy as!

Photos and recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

St Valentine breakfast (or dessert) melon, and more heart inspired ideas

This is perfect if you:

A: follow a raw diet

B: prefer fruit to dessert

C: are on a diet

D: forgot that it is St Valentine and need to make something quickly!

All you need is a knife and a hear shaped cookie cutter. My heart cookie cutters get lots of use, look at some St Valentine examples from the past years:

Heart Biscuits for Saint Valentine

These are decorated with fondant icing, just roll the fondant and cut using the same cookie cutter as for the biscuit below. Brush the (baked) biscuit with a little jam and place the cut out fondant on top for a smooth finish. For more ideas click here.

And these are Vegan

Heart Sushi and Onigiri for Saint Valentine

Vegan sushi shaped like hearts (like in this photos, you can find the link here),  I use a sushi rolling mat for the sushi, but a cookie cutter for the onigiri.

Heart Salad? 

Daikon and beetroot salad, using cookie cutters (and not only hearts)

Heart Cake Pops

Chocolate fondant heart pops, click here

Inside a Heart 

No cookie cutter here, but I love this strawberry pudding! And the chance to take out my heart bowls .

Vegan

I made these years ago: a Twilight appetizer (tomatoes, EVO oil and Modena balsamic) and Twilight dessert (Black sesame agar agar with rose syrup and rose petals).
They are classy and they are all Vegan, click here to read.

Rich Chocolate, and hand made heart flags

From my book Party Food for Girls, Photo by Shaun Cato-Symonds, Recipe by Alessandra Zecchini © I used the cookie cutter to draw the outlines of the paper hearts.

Photos and recipes by Alessandra Zecchini