Spring soba with nori tagliolini, onion weed and salted sakura (cherry blossoms)

Just cook the soba and top with the rest of the ingredients. To serve just add a drop of soy sauce.

To make the nori tagliolini ... well look here! For the onion weed... just forage it, wash and cut (you can eat the flowers, stems and bulbs... the lot!). I bought the salted sakura (cherry blossoms) here, I love them, a bit like salted capers really!

 Photos and recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

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 ©

Quince Jelly, Plum Paste and a cup of Ginger Lemon Mint tea

Quince Jelly

Living in the bush means that I don't have many fruit trees, but from time to time I am lucky enough to get fruit from friend's trees.

One of my favourite has to be quince; it looks so retro and photogenic (ok, I am talking about my dress as well!) and I love quince paste! But this year I decided to make quince jelly, just for a change.

Cut the quinces and remove the pips, add the juice of half a lemon and then place into a pot with a little water. Cook until the quinces are a soft mush. Now you will have to place this 'mass' into a jelly bag or cloth (I use a cotton pillowcase which I bought just to make jellies) and hung it overnight over a bowl to collect the juices. Drip drip drip you will collect some lovely red-orange coloured juice, but do not squeeze the bag, or the jelly will become cloudy!

Measure the juice and add the same amount in sugar. Bring to boil and simmer for about 20 minutes. Test to see if the jelly is setting by picking up a little on a teaspoon: if it hardens when cold then the jelly is ready, otherwise boil it a little longer. Once ready pour into a rectangular container. After a few minutes skin the top (this will have all the 'scum' which rises to the surface and needs to be discarded).
Let the jelly set for a few days, then cut into cubes and serve.

Plum Paste

I got the plums from Arfi, when I went to her house for an Auckland food bloggers get-together.

Wash the plums and place them in a large saucepan with a little water. Bring the fruit to a gentle boil. 

Simmer the jam for about 20 minutes and then pass through a sieve, discarding the stones.
Put back into the pot and bring back to the boil.  Add the sugar (I used 60% sugar to the weight of the fruit) and stir well. Simmer until you are happy with the consistency (the more you cook it, the thicker the paste. You can also add an apple (not peeled, just chopped and pips removed) for a thicker paste. 

Place the paste into plastic containers, jelly moulds, cups... anywhere you can let it set for a few weeks. I used a silicon muffin tray.

When you need to use the paste tip it over a plate. I did this a bit too early (I couldn't wait to try it) and the top was still soft, but the longer you wait the harder it will become.

And for my cuppa: One of my favourite hot drinks: lemon, fresh ginger (peel it first) and a few mint leaves from the garden. All into the teapot, add boiling water and let it rest for 5 minutes. Serve with honey, if you like.

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

A Recipe Against Homophobia

A blogger from Italy is proposing this great initiative against homophobia, following some rude comments and jokes by our Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

To support the initiative bloggers are asked to provide a recipe with Florence Fennel (recycle OK), for more info click here.

Thank you Gaia for the initiative :-)

Salad with Red Radicchio, Florence Fennel

and Walnut

Photo by Alessandra Zecchini ©

A lovely and crisply salad made with fresh mixed leaves and red radicchio (the round type, which is crispy and lovely to eat raw). I find red radicchio a bit bitter, this is why I like to mix it with other green leaves. Then I added some finely cut Florence fennel, and some freshly shelled walnuts. For dressing I just used some good extra virgin olive oil, some lemon juice and some salt.

Non-vegan option: I had some salad left over and I made a mega panino using crusty ciabatta bread, this salad (without dressing) and some gorgonzola cheese. It was super!!!!

The most clicked post!

Both in here and in Only Recipes the most clicked post is this one! I gets a least one click per day on each blog, and often more. I just thought that this may be interesting from a 'statistical' point of view, and maybe some of you could tell me which is their most clicked post!

I look forward to your comments

XX :-)

Alessandra

"Home Made Halloumi Cheese and Ricotta"

It is easy to make Halloumi and ricotta at home, no special equipment required except for a cheese or brewer termomether.

I started with 2l of milk, full-cream and not homogenized (unfortunately not raw...)

In a large stainless steel saucepan heat the milk to 32C (use the termometer) and then add the rennet (animal or vegetable). I used 2ml dissolved in 2ml of cold water, but if you use industrial rennet you may need less. Follow the manufacturers' instructions. Let the milk set for 45-60 minutes, covering the pot with a lid and keeping the temperature constant on 32C (you may like to place the pot into a bigger pot with hot water, or wrap it with a warm towel).

When the milk is set cut into 1 to 2 cm squares. If the pot is deep also cut across with a slotted spoon.

Wait 5 minutes, then take to 35-38C and stir gently with your hand for 30 minutes, keeping the temperature constant.

At this stage the squares will look smooth and lightly elastic. Wait 5 more minutes, then lift the cheese up with a slotted spoon and place into a basket or colander lined with cheese cloth or gauze. I used a steamer, which has holes in the bottom and sides. Cover with more cloth and place a weight on top (I used a pot filled with 2l of water). Let it rest for 30 minutes.

In the meantime make the ricotta, which is a byproduct of Halloumi.

Ricotta

Heat the leftover whey to 90C, then add 1 tsp of salt and 1 tbsp of white vinegar. Gently stir and cook for 5 minutes. The foam forming on the top is the ricotta.

Lift the ricotta up with a slotted spoon and place in a small colander lined with gauze. With my leftover whey I could just make enough ricotta for a Barbie doll, but it is fun to make. Refrigerate the ricotta for one night.

Now cut the Halloumi cheese into pieces and cook in the leftover whey (after lifting the ricotta up) at 85-90C for about 20/30 minutes, stirring from time to time. The cheese will rise to the surface.

Take the cheese slices out, add a pinch of salt on each side, and a little dried mint (optional) then fold each slice into two.

Make a brine with 50% leftover whey, 50% boiling water and 10% salt (i.e. 100g of salt for every litre of liquid). Keep the Halloumi in this brine for up to two weeks, in the fridge.

To cook: Halloumi can be cooked under the grill, in a frying pan or on the barbeque. No oil is needed. Lightly rinse from the brine and cook until lightly golden.

Here with bruschetta and rucola (rocket salad).

Photos by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Pumpkin and Nori Tempura

Photo by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Ingredients

8 slices of pumpkin, about 2 cm thick

1 sheet of nori seaweed

1 cup of tempura mix

3/4 cup iced water

oil for frying (I used rice bran oil)

salt to taste

Remove the skin and seed from the pumpkin slices. Cut the nori into eight strips and roll each strip around the middle of each pumpkin slice, like a belt. In a bowl mix the tempura mix with the water using a fork. Do not over mix the batter, but leave it a bit lumpy. Heat the oil in a capable frying pan, the oil will be ready when a drop of batter poured into it start sizzling and raise to the surface. Start coating the pumpkin slices with batter on both sides and place them in the hot oil. Fry the slices for approximately 3 minutes, turning once. The batter should look golden and crispy. Place on kitchen paper to remove excess oil and sprinkle with a little salt.

Dipping Sauce:

For the tempura dipping sauce I mix soy sauce with a little kombu stock (recipe here, without the wakame of course). Some people add mirin or sugar, but I prefer not to. Maybe a little grated daikon or grated ginger, if I have it.

What is the meaning of food blogging?

Introducing:

ONLY RECIPES

When I started blogging I was thinking mostly about recipes...and then, of course, gardening and foraging to source my ingredients, and then, of course, travels, and all the exciting food in the world, and Slow Food, and the environment, and then, of course again, books, but not only cook books, as I am into many other types of books...and then ...and then...in the end my blog has become a patchwork of many different topics. I don't mean that this is necessarily a bad thing, but I had a moment of thought for those readers who are only looking for recipes, and may not be interested in my personal thoughts about living in the bush or visiting a cathedral in Europe. Of course it is great to give recipes a context: a soup for a book launch, a dinner after a festival, a thought for a personal friend...all of this can still continue here, but for those who have less time to go through the archives, or speak English as a second language (and at present are forced to 'navigate' through several non-related topics before finding the beginning of a recipe), or simply need to differentiate between vegan and vegetarian, I have created a new reference space: 'only recipes'

This current blog is not closing down, and although it has become more of a diary than I intended it to be in the first place, I do hope that it would still prove interesting for some of you :-)! And yes, I will continue to put here all my recipes (and news about food and products, restaurants and shops, travels and books, and more!), but if you are only and exclusively looking for recipes please go here.

I have started by uploading old recipes from this blog, and I will continue with updating the

'only recipes' space with new entries on a regular basis. Hopefully only recipes will be easy to consult, but since it is going to be only a reference space, rather than a blog, I will be most grateful if you could still post here, on Alessandra Zecchini blog, and in the latest topic (where I am sure to see them) all your comments or questions (at least for now...in the future I may find the time to open comments there, as well as in here).

I hope that only recipes will be useful to you, and I thank you for your comments :-)

Happy blogging

Alessandra