Only Recipes, by Alessandra Zecchini ©

After making  Aquafaba Vegan Pavlova  I tried to make meringues. I changed the recipe only a little, and used less sugar (still experimenting though!) Ingredients 1 Can of chickpeas (just the brine - i.e. water, which already has salt) 200 g icing sugar 1 tbsp cornflour A few drops of lemon juice  a few drops of vanilla essence Fresh As plum powder (optional) Beat the brine first, then when it is nice and peaky add the sugar, one tbsp at the time, and the cornflour. Add the lemon juice and vanilla at the end and beat some more. I added some Fresh As plum powder to half of the mixture and then piped the two types of meringues onto a tray lined with baking paper and baked them  at about 75°C fan for about three hours. I offered them to some adult students at the Italian school to taste them, about half of them tried them but I didn't tell them that they were vegan, they liked them and when I told them what they were they could not believe it! Hea...

Kawakawa meringues If you like to forage in the New Zealand bush you may be familiar with  kawakawa , and know that it was used in traditional  Māori  medicine. Also, the leaves make a great tea! But you can also use the leaves instead of vanilla to flavour desserts: they have a distinctive taste which is good for biscuits, meringues and custard puddings (like  Crème brûlée) . It has a peppery flavour and it works! For the meringues and biscuits I started with the Italian meringue, which is made by adding hot sugar syrup to the beaten egg white. Actually, the Italian meringue doesn't need to be cooked as the hot sugar syrup already 'cooks' the eggs, and it is often used as the base for many desserts. But yes, it can also be used for making hard meringues. The so called French meringue is mostly used in New Zealand (egg whites and sugar, rather than hot sugar syrup), and it is easier to make, but to get the kawakawa into the meringues you need a hot syrup! ...

In  this post  I mentioned using feijoa zest, I have use them before for  this cordial , but I wanted to experiment more. Feijoa zest is bitter, that kind of bitter that makes you think that in large doses could be poison (possibly, anyone knows?) just like apricot kernels or fern fronds, but in small amounts, and occasionally, they feel safe (and I am still alive!). And they were good, possibly not as good as my favourite  passion fruit meringues , but still good!  First I put into a pot the zest of about 20 feijoas (you don't need all these, but there is another recipes coming out of this!) with 500 ml of water and 100 g of sugar, and I made a thin syrup. Then I drained about a tsp of zest and set it aside for the meringues. With the rest I made agar agar jelly (the next post). For the meringues I used 3 eggs white at room temperature and 150 g of sugar (normal white sugar). Once the egg whites and sugar were well beaten and stiff I added the zest...

I like making meringues more than I like eating them. I mean, they are nice and all, but I am not crazy about them. Or at least, I wasn't until the other day, when I had 3 egg whites in the fridge that needed to be used and I decided to make meringues with them. I used caster sugar, and didn't measure (I tend to go by ear, it mostly works...) and decided to try to add a passion fruit too, pulp and seeds. I whisked everything with the kitchen aid, and adjusted with more sugar to compensate for the extra moisture that went into the mixture. Well, I have to say that I was impressed: the best tasting meringues ever for me, I don't know if I can ever have normal meringues again now, these were just so 'tropical' and fragrant! I am entering this recipe in  Sweet New Zealand , the monthly blogging event for Kiwi bloggers. Our August 2013 host is  Marnelli from Sweets and Brains , click  here  to enter. Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini   ...

A  Nikau  palm leaf fell on my rhubarb plant, the hazards of living in the bush. I rescued what I could, the rhubarb plant will regrow, for sure, but I had a few stalks to use, quickly. I cut some of the stalks and cooked them quicly with very little water and one tbsp of sugar. In the meantime I got some sweet short crust pastry out of the freezer (this is very convenient when I have to make something sweet in a hurry) and I cut it with cookie cutters. I lined the back of my cupcake trays (regular and mini cupcakes) with cupcake cups, and placed the 'biscuits' on top.  This way, when the pastry bakes it takes the shape of a small pastry container. Let the pastry cool down, then gently lift it out of the paper cups, reverse the same paper cups, and place the pastry inside, ready to be filled. To make the meringue topping I used the syrup from the rhubarb (I added one more tbsp of sugar and boiled it down a bit). Pour the hot syrup, slowly, over the whippe...

Peaches from my garden I like peaches with raspberries, but the season is finished now, so I used the last strawberries and blueberries (marinated with a little sugar and lemon juice for a few hours), than I added peaches and vanilla meringues. To make the meringues I used two tablespoons of caster sugar for each egg white, and a little vanilla paste (which is full of vanilla seeds). And then, why not, I topped everything with whipped cream :-) (come on, I don't do that that often!!!) Yum! Photos by Alessandra Zecchini ©