Only Recipes, by Alessandra Zecchini ©

 This one is a cute dessert with three ingredients: Passion fruit, sugar and cream. Take two passion fruits, cut them in half and scoop the pulp out. Put the shells in the freezer. Mix the pulp with sugar to taste and let it stand for 30 minutes so that the sugar dissolves, then fold into just enough whipped cream to fill the passion fruit shells. Place in the freezer for 30 minutes then serve. Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini  ©

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   ...

For the Custard: 3 free range eggs 4 tbsp sugar 2 tbsp flour 1.5 l full cream milk Vanilla essence Mix the eggs with the sugar and flour and add the milk slowly. Simmer until the custard thickens then add the vanilla essence. I pour some in a large bowl, then once cool I topped it with whipped cream, some lime and passion fruit curd (made by Ken) fresh raspberries and cherries, and ground pistachio. I had lots of custard left and I put some in some shot glasses. I added some 72% dark chocolate to the remaining hot custard and made some chocolate mini puddings for more shot glasses. I topped some of the chocolate puddings with pistachio, and other with cream and fruit of blackcurrant powder (from  Fresh As ). Some of the vanilla mini puddings were also topped with cream and fruit, and others with the lime and passion fruit curd.  I had some extra custard so I also made a quick trifle with lots of red fruit! Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini...

I used more or less the same recipe as for the  pineapple agar agar : 500 ml of water for one tsp of agar agar, then instead of  Fresh As  pineapple powder I used their Passion Fruit powder, one and a half tbsp of it, and two tbsp of sugar (since the passion fruit powder is more sour than the pineapple powder). I still have Cape gooseberries in the garden, I picked a few and cut them into two, them place then in the jelly cups before pouring in the hot agar agar.  Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini  ©

Nama choco are my favourite Japanese chocolates, to make them I followed  this  recipe from talented blogger Nami of  Just One Cookbook . Basically it is the same recipe for chocolate ganache: two parts good quality chocolate to one part of cream, and this time I used Whittakers  Dark Cacao  62%. Brake the chocolate with a knife and then melt with the cream over a pot of water at  Bain Marie . Pour into a rectangular/square container, smooth the top and refrigerate. When set cut with a warm knife, rinsing the knife in hot water and drying it between each cut. Yum, the chocolates already look yummy as they are!! At this stage you should dust them with cocoa, but after doing that I added some colour. Mostly I used  Fresh As  powders: passion fruit, pineapple, strawberry and blackcurrant. Then I used some  Fresh As  dried blueberries slices, and some spirulina powder (green tea would go well too!). So all the col...

For the crema use 2 free range eggs, mix with 3 tbsp of sugar and 1 tbsp of flour. Add slowly 500 ml of milk and simmer until it thickens, then add 1 drop of vanilla essence. Stir while it cools and then store in the fridge. Before serving top with passion fruit. Photos by Alessandra Zecchini ©