Only Recipes, by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Ingredients: One pack fried tofu balls one hand full of dried mixed Chinese mushrooms 2 small bok choy 1 large carrot 1 tbsp vegetable oil one can of baby corn 1 tsp corn flour 1 tbsp soy sauce salt and pepper to taste half tsp freshly grated ginger Serves 4 I like fried tofu balls, I get them form the Chinese shop and they are very versatile. If you find them too greasy (usually they are not) you can rinse them under water and then pat them dry with kitchen paper. Place the dried Chinese mushrooms in a bowl and soak with water for 1 hour. Drain and keep the water aside to make the sauce later. Wash well two small bok choy and one large carrot. Slice the carrot into stick, and cut the bock choy, putting the green leaves aside. Remember that you want to cook the vegetables very quickly, so that they stay crispy and colourful. I don't have a wok, so I used my favourite pot, it gets very hot. Heat a tbsp of vegetable oil, add the mushrooms (be careful, they have a lot of

I made another focaccia like the one I did a few days ago, but this time with sun-dried tomatoes. Very nice! If you want to try just follow this recipe but use chopped up sun-dried tomatoes (and the oil from the sun-dried tomato jar) instead of olives. Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

One of my kids' favourite snack when they get home from school is a nice piece of freshly baked focaccia. I don't usually measure the ingredients, but the flour/water ratio is about 500 g of flour for 300 ml of water, plus a pinch of salt and 2 tsp of dried yeast granules and a pinch of sugar (this yeast dose is good up to 1 kg of flour. I made a dough. While the dough was rising I cleaned the pantry and found a jar of the olives I marinated last year. They were still good, small (I picked them from a friend's tree) but very tasty. If you like to know how to preserve your own olives go to the SOME OF MY RECIPES THAT HAVE BEEN PUBLISHED IN FOOD AND LIFESTYLE MAGAZINES section on the sidebar of this blog, and click Preserving Olives . First I needed to remove the stones, which I did with a knife. At first I did this over the jar, but it was messy and I wasted too much oil, so I drained a few olives (over the jar) little by little and then I cut the flesh off the stones. I add

Yesterday I received this Versatile blogger award from Amritha of AK's Vegetarian Recipe World . I have never received one of these, and I wasn't sure how it worked, but I thought that it is a sweet idea, like exchanging little virtual presents among us bloggers! So thank you Amritha, I will now pass the award to 10 more bloggers (in random order) that I got to know on Only Recipes. 1. Yari of Il cucchiaio di Legno (A fine blog... and one of my first followers - own you this one Yari!) 2. Vegetarian Yogini 3. Veggie Fare 4. Veg Delicacies (all three, thank you for sharing your Indian Vegetarian recipes, I'll learn to mix spices one day, I am sure!!) 5. Pommes Cannelles (French Cuisine seems more approachable with you, even for a vegetarian!) 6. Rosemary of A Mouse on the Table (Super cute ideas, and then she comes form my own town hehehehe!) 7. Barbara of Dish 'n' That (You have to like people who talk about books!!!) 8. Apu - Annarasa Essence of Food Apu, yo

I am trying to learn to make better curries, I follow several Indian bloggers and I although I am still a bit ‘basic’ with my spice knowledge, my dishes are getting better!!! I made one the other day, actually, I had my in-laws for dinners, and they told me that curry was fine, as long as it wasn’t spicy. I like a bit of spice, but for this one I didn’t add chilli (it is in the ingredients, please add it, if you like!). I served it with Basmati rice and home-made naan bread. My Potato, Tomato and Panir Curry Ingredients 2 tablespoon rice bran oil 1 garlic clove; finely chopped half tsp grated fresh ginger half tsp ground coriander half teaspoon ground cumin 1 teaspoon ground turmeric 1 cup Italian tomato passata 1 cup water 3 potatoes, peeled and cubed 1 carrot, sliced 1 cup cream (or coconut cream, for a vegan version) 1 block panir, cubed (or tofu, for a vegan version) 1 green chilli (optional) 1 teaspoon ground masala 2 tablespoon chopped fresh coriander Serves 6 Heat the oil and fr

This dessert is easy to assemble and takes very little time. You will need two pieces of sponge cake/trifle sponge. Place one piece in a container and drizzle with your favourite booze. I used Frangelico because I needed to finish the bottle, it has a lovely hazelnut flavour. Next, mix some vanilla ice cream with some preserved pitted cherries. Spread the (now pink) ice cream over the sponge cake and cover with the second layer or sponge. Drizzle some more booze on top, and cover. Place in the freezer for at least two hours. The sponge won't freeze, and it will cut beautifully! Cut and serve. It really tastes quite professional, so don't tell anyone how easy it is!!! :-) Photos and recipe by Alessandra Zecchini ©

The other night I made mushroom ramen soup, which was very good, but that is only the beginning of the story, and the recipe for the Ramen is not in this post (if you are interested you can read it here or scroll below this post). The thing is that to make the mushroom stock I used a lot of mixed dried Asian mushrooms, and I had a bit leftover, so I decided to use them to make dumplings. So the ingredients are: Cooked Asian mushrooms (about a cup) Dumpling pastry (50 pieces, round) Tofu, 1 block Coriander (a few leaves and stalks) Soy sauce, to taste (I always use Japanese soy sauce) There are two more ingredients which I didn't photograph, one is Sesame oil, 1 tsp (I didn't take a photo because my bottle is too greasy and you cannot read the label) and the second is Bread crumbs, 1 or 2 tbsp (I didn't take a photo because I was to busy mixing the filling) Place the mushrooms, tofu, coriander, soy sauce and sesame oil in a food processor and pulse until you get a fine textu

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 chees