CO2 Neutral Blog and n.400 post

Well, I do live in the forest, and I have planted many trees, but if this interests you (is in Italian though) click here :-)

In italiano: “Il mio blog è carbon neutral" è sponsorizzato da Doveconviene.it, che pianterà

un albero gratis per ogni partecipante in partnership con www.iplantatree.org, iniziativa ecologica tedesca che ha già realizzato opere di riforestazione in diverse aree.

Gli alberi dei partecipanti verranno piantati a Göritz, presso Coswig (regione di Saxony-Anhalt), dove è in corso un progetto abbastanza importante, con la piantagione di 27,000 alberi su 3,4 ettari. L'area è un terreno soggetto a forestazione per la prima volta e si trova sulla strada B107, sulla destra appena prima di arrivare appunto al piccolo villaggio di Göritz.

Per maggiori dettagli sul progetto, la scelta delle piante e l'ecosistema in cui si inserisce, visitahttp://www.iplantatree.org/project/7

Per avere maggiori informazioni e/o aderire cliccare qui.

I have just noticed that this is my 400 post!

Fuchsia, Fandango and Purple

I have prepared my photos and recipes, but to be honest I am not in the best mood for posting. There has been another big earthquake in Christchurch and I have just seen a friend of mine on the evening news getting some bottled water from the civil defense. Many homes are without water and electricity, and many are badly damaged. All you can think is 'Oh no, not again!'. Then there is this volcanic dust cloud over New Zealand and many flights are grounded, tomorrow my daughter (12) is supposed to be flying to Wellington for the Kids Lit Quiz Nationals (last week her team from Glen Eden Intermediate won the Auckland round, beating 54 schools) and we don't know yet if they will be able to go. It would be so sad if they cannot, those 4 kids are looking forward to it, and they really have a very very good knowledge of children literature. I'll keep my finger crossed for them but, most importantly, I hope hope hope that this was the last earthquake ever in Christchurch.

An now to the recipes, and another palette to colour my winter. I used red beetroots to make two different salads and some fuchsia eggs. The first salad has the classic combination of beetroot and feta, plus the addition of carrots, which take on a lovely pink hue, and some coriander for a bit of zing! The second salad was a hit with the kids: wasabi mayo is easy to make and can be used not only for beetroots, but also for potatoes, pumpkin, kumara, beans, and any other vegetable that you like to turn into a creamy salad.

Which one do you prefer???

Red Beetroot, Carrot, Feta and Coriander Salad.

Wash and boil the red beetroots until you can easily pierce them with a knife. Let them cool down and then peel them (keep the peels aside to colour the eggs later on). Cut them into cubes., then add a grated carrot, cubed feta cheese, chopped fresh coriander, olive oil, lemon juice (optional) and salt and pepper to taste.

Red Beetroot with Wasabi Mayonnaise and Pink Eggs.

Wash and boil the red beetroots until you can easily pierce them with a knife. Let them cool down and then peel them (keep the peels aside to colour the eggs later on). Cut them into cubes, then add one big tbsp of mayonnaise and a little wasabi (to taste). Stir. Boil the eggs, peel and colour using the beetroot peels. You can either rub the peels directly onto the eggs, or place them in a bowl of water and immerse the eggs in it for 30 minutes. Serve with the beetroot wasabi mayo salad.

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Green palette from the garden to the table

At least winter in Auckland is ... green. We had lots of rain and veggies in the garden are growing so slowly that I actually think that some have gone to a complete stand-by. So yes, it is more broccolini and bok choy for us, fortunately I also have a few herbs, including chives, and my first Florence fennels. Only two were big enough to pick, certainly bigger than those 'bambino' fennels I see in the supermarkets here in New Zealand, but not as big as the ones I used to get in the markets in Italy. I had to find a way to make them go ... further! So I decided to cook them with bok choy, hoping that the strong fennel taste would take over. 

Go Further Fennels

Surprisingly enough it worked! I washed and cut the 2 fennels and 1 bok choy and cook them in a pan with just a little butter, then I added some vegetable stock, covered them with a lid and let them simmer on very low for quite a long time. About one hour. Slow cooking is best with fennel (unless you eat them raw), they have to become really really soft, and the bok choy kind of took in the good flavours too. 

 Fusilli with Chive Sauce

I like cooking fusilli with chive sauce, this is an example. Just chives, feta, maybe a few nuts, cooking water from the pasta, and olive oil. If the feta is salty you don't need to add salt. Chop the chives before placing them in the blender or food processor with the other ingredients: if you leave them long they will take forever to blend. To top the pasta I used a few broccolini quickly cooked in a pan with garlic, salt and olive oil. A simple but filling lunch, and then back into the green bush.

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Yogurt Cheesecake

I am entering this recipe for the first edition of the event Sweet New Zealand

a monthly blogging event for NZ bloggers.

You can find the rules here, and this month of August 2011 I am hosting it.

We had a guest coming for afternoon tea so I quickly whipped up a cake with what I had in the house, and it turned out really nice. This is very easy: whip 2 eggs with 3 tbsp of sugar, then add 6 heaps tbsp of thick organic yogurt (I used full fat Cyclops green top, the full fat). 

For the base I used a sheet of frozen sweet short crust pastry, and added some strawberry jam.

Pour the yogurt mixture on top and bake at 160°C for about 30 minutes, or until the top starts to brown on the edges. Remove from the oven and do not touch for a while: it will be very soft! Then refrigerate for a few hours.

Because I lined the baking dish with baking paper it was easy to lift the cake out and place it on a plate. Sprinkle with icing sugar, if you like.

I admit it, I got a few American cherry (out of season), not something I would do normally, but seeing cherries everywhere in the blog world, I could not resist: I just got a handful, and used them to decorate the cake.

It was light and tasty, and actually I preferred it to cheesecakes made with cream cheese.

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Vegetables, and how to hide swede and parsnip in a soup

No much in the veggie garden right now, and I am a bit tired of bok choy and broccolini, the only things left. I am looking at my fennel fattening up, tomorrow I may pick the first ones. The rest is still too small.

The other day I pulled up the last bean plants and so this was my last bean harvest! No much eh! I needed colours, and even if out of season I got some capsicums. I mixed them with onions, carrots, celery and my few beans, and made a big stew. I miss summer already.

I did get a few potatoes though, some tiny, while cleaning the beds for the next season. The soil is looking good and full of worms, I covered it with more newspaper to give the little creatures shelter, and work happily in the darkness to make my garden more fertile.

The kids love the tiny potatoes, and some of the big ones I used for a potage soup. In an attempt to be more seasonal I went for winter veggies: more onions, carrots and celery again, coriander, and then some not so popular vegetables: swede and parsnip. Once again my husband reacted like for the brussels sprouts: it seems like swede and parsnip have a bad reputation too! Not my favourite veggies either, I would not bother growing them since I am happy to have them just once a year.

After chopping all the veggies I felt that they didn't look bad: at least there was colour there! But not for long. After cooking everything with some vegetable stock, and blending it into a creamy soup, I had a strange yellow colour.

But the soup was good (I think that the coriander really works here)! The kids tried to guess: pumpkin? No. Kumara? No. I realized that they didn't remember what swedes and parsnips were! I think that the last time we had them (in a soup, as always) it was about 2 years ago!! And my husband? He liked the soup and said that it did not particularly taste of swede or parsnip anyway, and this, apparently, was a good thing :-).

 Do you eat swedes and parsnip?

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Pear and Chocolate Cupcakes, and reverse mixing...

Ingredients

3 eggs, separated

2-3 pears

100 g sugar

100 g butter

150 g dark chocolate

1 shot of Rum or a drop of Vanilla essence

200 g self-rising flour

Usually I fold in the beaten egg whites at the end, but this time I wanted to experiment a bit, and also I wanted to coat some pear slices with meringue for decoration, so I started by whipping the egg whites. Coat a few pear slices with the egg white, then roll in sugar and place on a baking tray lined with baking paper. Then keep beating the egg whites and add the sugar, then the egg yolks. Melt the butter with 50 g of dark chocolate and add to the mixture. Then add the Rum (just a little, these cupcakes were for my kids also) or vanilla essence, and finally the self-rising flour. Fold in some pear cubes and divide between 12 cupcake cases.

Bake at 180°C for about 16 minutes, or until the cupcakes are cooked. Don't overbake them or they will become dry. Remove the cupcakes from the oven, lower the heat to 100°C and bake the meringue pear slices for 20 minutes, or until the meringue is set. Let them cool down in the oven. Melt the remaining 100 g of dark chocolate and spoon it over the cupcakes. Before the chocolate topping set decorate the cupcakes with the meringue pears and/or ...what you like! I used some Japanese chocolate mushrooms biscuits because they looked so cute!

Here with the pear topping

And here with the 'mushrooms'

Pears go very well with chocolate, and the 'reverse' mixing didn't seem to effect the end result really: the cupcakes were soft and light. Still, I think I do prefer to fold the beaten egg whites at the end, I will have to experiment more :-). The mushroom biscuits... I will use them again for decoration, a nice change from flowers, butterflies and the usual things you see on cupcakes, especially if you are making them for boys, as well as girls.

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

With this recipe I take part in the contest Cucina a prova di bambino

In italiano: la categoria potrebbe essere 'preparate con loro' visto che mia figlia, 12 anni, mi aiuta sempre a fare i cupcakes, ed anche questa volta ha misurato tutti gli ingredienti ed aiutato con le decorazioni... ma se ci avessi pensato prima avrei messo delle foto con le sue manine! E allora ho deciso che per ora partecipo nella categoria 'preparate per loro' e poi se ci riusciamo, entreranno anche i miei bambini con una loro ricettina. Grazie per il bellissimo contest a Gianni e la sua famiglia!

Easy Japanese Vegan Lunch for Autumn

This is easy even if it looks complex. I made a stock using some dried shitake mushrooms, some seaweed (kombu strips, a softer type that can be eaten in salad) and some carrots. But (check this out) I cooked the veggies in three separate pots with just a little water, then I kept the veggies and kombu aside, I mixed the three 'broths' and added some white miso paste. This was my soup. The carrots were cut like flowers, and then arranged with some seaweed 'leaves'. I mixed the remaining carrots and kombu with the mushrooms and pass them quickly in a frying pan with a little soy sauce, lemon juice, and sesame seeds. No oil.

I used the same pan, but added a little sesame oil and a little vegetable oil, to quickly cook some broccolini and bok choy (both from my garden) and added more soy sauce and lemon juice. For the rest... the rice was just plain, to be served with umeboshi plums, plus I had some ready made Japanese pickles (takuan, pickled daikon) and some nori seaweed cut into strips.

Probably in Japan this would look more like a breakfast than a lunch, but not for me (just caffellatte for breakfast!). And dessert was persimmon, the soft type that you eat with a spoon.

All good for Autumn, or Winter.

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Champagne Zucchini and do you know this flower?

 First the flower: it is a shrub, quite prolific, I had it for years (it was in the garden when we bought the house 14 years ago) and I say shrub because it has never grown into a tree... so I guess that it will remain small (?). It seems to be evergreen and flowers now (Autumn in NZ). If you know what it is please let me know :-).

Champagne Zucchini

I made this a while ago but I didn't find the time to post it. I know that zucchini are not in season now, but many of you live in the Northern Hemisphere, so you may appreciate the idea. FYI I didn't buy Champagne especially to make this :-), I just had some leftover, and I didn't want to waste it.

Sauté the zucchini and a shallot with one tbsp of olive oil and a pinch of salt for a few minutes, then add the champagne (I had just over a glass).

Don't add water, between the champagne and the water from the zucchini you should have enough! Keep cooking and stir often until all liquid has absorbed and the zucchini are soft (about 20 minutes). Adjust with salt and pepper and finish with some fresh chopped parsley. I really liked it, and now I know what I will do if I ever get some leftover champagne again. Or any other bubbly :-).

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Hello Kitty Quick Bento

I found out about this bento contest yesterday, it is ending on 2 June, so no much time, but since I make school lunches for the kids, and I like Hello Kitty (yes yes I know...) here is a little bento :-)

Actually, the bento comes in two boxes, both pink Hello Kitty, they are necessary because I don't like to mix the fruit with the savoury (and the kids don't like that either). Also, although I love bento boxes with sushi, cooking rice in the morning is not an option for me. I need bento lunches that are quick to prepare!

 In the savoury bento there is a boiled egg, cut into two, 4 miniature sandwiches of Pumpernickel bread, Gruyère and salad (held with Hello Kitty picks), a small tomato, and raw carrot slices cut like flowers: a good mixture of proteins, carbo and veggies.

For the fruit mixing colours is good: green and yellow kiwi, orange mandarine slices and a purple berry. And another Hello Kitty pick.
All very simple really, but presentation matters, and makes food taste better. Also, it is fun to prepare :-).
Of course no Hello Kitty bento boxes for the boy... but the food is the same!

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Matar Paneer and Weekend Baking

In my garden

This has to be one of the easiest curries ever, and one of the first I learned to make (alongside Dahl and Palak Paneer). The kids love it, they love all curries, especially if they have paneer.

Matar Paneer

Paneer and Pea Curry

1 onion

1 garlic clove

1 tbsp vegetable oil

half tsp each of

Garam Masala, cumin powder, coriander powder, turmeric, paprika, salt

1 bay leaf

 800 ml can of tomatoes

  half a tsp of freshly ground ginger

1 cup frozen peas

1 block paneer cheese

half a cup of cream (optional)

fresh coriander to end

Chop the onion and garlic. Heat the oil in a pan and sizzle the Garam Masala, cumin powder, coriander powder, turmeric, paprika, salt and bay leaf for a few seconds. Add the garlic and onion and sizzle until the onion start to colour. Add the tomatoes and ginger and simmer for 20 minutes, then blend everything with an immersion blender. Add the peas and after 10 minutes the paneer, cubed. Simmer for 5-10 more minutes, then finish with the cream (optional) and some fresh coriander leaves. Serve with rice or Indian bread.

These images are of the afternoon baking with my daughter, we made jam ring biscuits with strawberry jam, and with the left-over pastry Arantxa cut her own biscuits.  She really likes little details :-).

Happy week to everyone!

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Do you like Brussels Sprouts?

About myself I could say that I love broccoli, I like cauliflower, and I eat brussels sprouts. Do you like them? I think that I buy them about once a year, I did plant them once but I wasn't very successful: they opened up like little cabbages (maybe it is not cold enough in Auckland) and they attracted lots of bugs. And nobody in the family is exactly 'crazy' about them. My husband saw my shopping bag and said 'Brussels???'. He wasn't looking forward to dinner. The kids didn't even remember the taste, since we eat them so rarely, but they hear horrible tales about them from other kids: nobody is supposed to like them.

But I love variety, and if I cook the brussels slowly in veggie stock, and maybe with other vegetables, I think that they can be interesting. I put them in vegetables soups, like minestrone, and they don't seem bitter then. This time, instead, I wanted to cook them with other brassica, so a made a big brussels/cauli/broccoli mix.

Brussels, Cauliflower and Broccoli mix

I sauteed a garlic clove with a little olive oil, then I added my brassica: brussels and cauliflower florets first, and the after 5 minutes, the broccoli. Stir well during this time, you don't want to burn your brassicas!! Then I added 250 ml of vegetable stock, lowered the heat, covered with a lid, and cooked the lot until the liquid was absorbed. They can be used as a side dish, but also with pasta, or to fill a pie. They were eaten no problem, with comments like: "Cooked like this they are not bad..." which probably meant "Ok I'll eat them, but can we have pizza tomorrow?"

Quick Cheesy Brussels Quiche

Well, my husband approved of this one: you can't even see the sprouts :-) !! I used some ready made puff pastry as a base and arranged some of the brussels from above. I added about half a cup of grated edam cheese, and then mixed 3 eggs with one cup of vegetable stock and poured it on top (no cream, vegetable stock works well if you like to cut the calories just a little :-). Bake at 180°C for about 30 minutes and serve. Really really yum!

Maybe I will not have anymore brussels for another year, I'll wait for better brassica to fill my garden (like cavolo nero, my favourite) and other veggies too, but sometime it is nice to change, and I have to say this: brussels are not that bad, and they look really 'doll-house' cute. Plus I enjoy the challenge of making them taste good to children... of all ages.

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini, Artwork by Arantxa Zecchini Dowling ©