Mandarin Crème

Oh yes, yummy yummy. At home we love crèmes, especially Arantxa and me (Max prefers chocolate puddings, but this one he approved of!). 3 eggs (medium-small) + 2 heaps tbsp sugar + 250ml cream + 1 tbsp of dried mandarin segments (put these in only at the end when the crème is thick and velvety). Remember to mix well while simmering so that the eggs don't curdle, some people find it easier to make the crème at bain Marie (double boiling) but I just use a low flame and good whisk. Pour into 4 glasses. Before serving add whipped cream, shaven dark (really dark) chocolate and some more segments of dried mandarines, which are crunchy and will create a nice contrast with the creamy texture underneath. To me, heavenly!!

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Wholemeal spaghetti with ricotta and pine nut sauce

I am trying to eat more wholemeal pasta, something that I am not really used to. But for some reason I like wholemeal spaghetti, as long as they have a rich creamy sauce, like this one!

Toast a handful of pine nuts in a frying pan until they start to get brown and oily. Using a mortar and pestle mush half of them with a clove of garlic (peeled), a few leaves of basil (not too many, this is not a Genovese pesto) and then thin everything down with extra virgin olive oil. Add a few tbsp of ricotta and adjust with salt and pepper to taste.

Cook the wholemeal spaghetti al dente, then thin the ricotta sauce with a little hot water from the spaghetti pot. Drain the spaghetti and mix in the sauce. Top with the remaining pine nuts, and with some parmesan cheese, if you like. 

For a vegan version instead of ricotta you could add some soft tofu: the pine nuts, basil, olive oil and garlic should be able to flavor the tofu sufficiently (unless you are one of those crafty people who can make vegan soy ricotta, and then you are set!). 

 Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Miniature cupcakes and sugar flowers, and a sugar craft workshop for children

I make all types of cupcakes, but I have to say that I prefer the smallest ones. In fact some of my cupcakes are becoming smaller and smaller, and so are the sugar roses and flowers which go on top of them! Here are some details with my fingers, to show you the sizes. And yes, I like miniatures!

I still make big ones though, and I just made 24 large and 36 small cupcakes for yesterday becasue Arantxa and I went to this:

It was a long day teaching children how to make sugar roses, and we even got a couple of volunteers from Waitakere College to help: first they set up the table with us, then we thought them how to make the roses (they are art students, they learned fast!!) and then the children started to arrive and I got too busy to take photos! All I can say is that I took with me 60 cupcakes (big and small) and about 5 kg of fondant and finished it all! We made hundreds of flowers and the table was constantly busy with little fingers working. A quick estimate would be that each rose is about 20g (maybe 10g for the actual rose, and 10g got dropped, eaten or 'lost' in the process) so count our roses!!!  Well, hopefully someone took some good photos of when we were surrounded by kids, all I can say is that after that we spent Sunday really relaxing!!! Thank you to the Corban Estate Art Centre,  all the volunteers, and all the attendees at the festival!!

Last thing to show you: since I had some chocolate fondant left over, I mixed it with a little almond and a little strawberry fondant and roll it out (it looks like a precious wood veneer!) then cut it with a hearth biscuit cutter, added a stick in the centre and secured two hearts with a little raspberry royal icing (another left-over). Very sweet, but pretty to look at. I will work on this 'veneer' pattern though, I loved it!!

 Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

My best homemade chocolates so far: nama choco with fruit powders

Actually, these would be perfect for Mother's Day, and they are so easy to make!!

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 colour are naturals, and yet they are so bright and beautiful!

I have to say that they looked and tasted so professional that I will make them again. At home we are real  intense chocolate lovers, so these nama choco went down a treat (when I told the kids that I made nama choco they said "YESSSS!"), then I tried them on my Italian language students, and they liked them too, so I thought of putting the recipe on the blog :-). The fruit powders works well not only for colour, but to offer a fresh fruity note to the intense and creamy chocolates. These should be stored in the fridge, but take them out 20 minutes before serving them, unless it is a hot day, or you are one of those people who like chocolate straight from the fridge (and that I can never understand!).

And when these are finished (I still have a couple left in the fridge) I'll move on to the goodies that my husband brought me from South America, lots of chocolates (from the expensive to the 'over the counter') to try, and the first are going to be my favourite: Alfajores! Usually he gets them from Argentina, but this time they came from Chile, I wonder if they are going to be very different. Maybe Gloria can tell me if this is a good brand?

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

I am entering this recipe for Sweet New Zealand #10, the monthly blogging events for Kiwis, this month hosted by Jemma of Time for a Little Something.

We are still looking for a host for June, especially if you haven't had a turn yet!!!

Please contact me if you like to host: remember that you must be living in New Zealand, of be a Kiwi living/blogging overseas.

Last item on this post: Tomorrow Arantxa and I will be here all day to show kids how to make sugar roses. Please come and join us, Corban Arts Centre, Henderson, Auckland

Free art workshops and activities, children's performances, schools' art exhibitions of children's art, photography and multi-media.

Date: Saturday 5 May, 2012 | Time: 10 am – 4 pm | Free entry and parking (onsite).

Best Blog in May award from Open Kitchen Magazine

A surprise today: I got awarded Best Blog in May 2012 by the Open Kitchen Magazine.
I am trilled and I would like to thank the editorial team at OKM, and congratulate all the other bloggers who have been awarded this cockade (offered to ten blogs around the world each month for originality, aesthetic and excellence in the kitchen).
Well I am trilled :-)!

The 10 recipients this month are:

Best Blog” di maggio sono:

• Bitter sweet blog
• Coconut and lime
• Cream puffs in Venice
• Nella cucina di Ely
• La vetrina del Nanni
• Alessandra Zecchini
• Bloc de recetas
• Il pranzo di Babette
• La cucina di Calycanthus
• Labna

Today I am also adding my image for Black and White Wednesday, a weekly blogging event created by Susan of The Well-Seasoned Cook and this week hosted by Siri of Cooking with Siri. The title of the photo is: On the kitchen table.

Photo by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Nigella Potatoes, slow cooked in a tajine

The original recipe is here, and I have to say that I make it often because it is one of my favourite potato creations. A curious fact: when I published this recipe the first time I pointed out that it didn't have anything to do with Nigella Lawson, I that I called it nigella potatoes because of the nigella seeds. But funny enough after a few days I started receiving the Nigella Lawson newsletter in my inbox. I never signed up for it, so some web robot must have picked up my blog reference and details, and signed me in! Nigella must have a great PR team!

Anyway, back to the potatoes: the recipe is the same but I cooked the potatoes differently because my husband presented me with a big tajine :-).

Nigella Potatoes slow cooked in a tajine

Ingredients:

500 g potatoes (Agria or similar ‘floury’ potatoes)

2 tbsp vegetable oil

2 garlic cloves, peeled

1 tsp nigella seeds

Half tsp ground coriander

Half tsp cumin powder

1 tsp turmeric

Salt to taste

Water

 fresh coriander (or parsley) leaves

Peel the potatoes and cut into 4-5 cm cubes. Heat the oil in the tajine, then and add the garlic cloves and nigella seeds. 

When the seeds start to crackle add the ground coriander, cumin, turmeric, and a little salt. 

Add the cubed potatoes and coat well with the spices. Stir constantly, and when the potatoes start to become too dry add a cup of water.

Cover and simmer on lowest setting, stirring from time to time and adding water every time the mixture gets too dry. When all the potatoes are cooked, remove from the heat. It took me about one hour to cook the potatoes this way, in a normal saucepan they usually get quite mushy, but in the tajine they kept their shape beautifully!

Finely chop some washed fresh coriander or parsley (or a mixture of both) leaves, and add to the potatoes. Stir and serve. It was dark when I took the last photo, so the light wasn't good, but the potatoes were delicious!

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©