Do you ever recycle your Christmas cards?
Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©
Showing posts with label cardamom. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cardamom. Show all posts
Monday, December 17, 2012
Hot chocolate spoons, and recycling Christmas Cards
Do you ever recycle your Christmas cards?
Sunday, December 9, 2012
Chocolate and cardamom pudding with berries, and over 3,000 views
Yesterday Google recorded 3,228 page views, a new record for me, and interestingly over 2,000 views were from the UK (which is usually 4th or 5th in the audience statistics). Once again most viewed post was this one, but the Turkish delights also did well, as did all the recent Xmas posts. Of course it could simply be a robot that checks every single page and steals recipes, but never mind, it is lovely to top the 3,000 mark, and by more that 200 too!
And now to the recipe, nothing to it really, but I like chocolate with cardamom and berries, and the kids loved the glasses!!! These are quite cute grappa glasses that sit on the side and can roll around like a spinning top, in fact I don't use them much because they are quite wobbly, but they do give that 'ship-in-a-bottle' feel to food, and are perfect for verrines and fancy dinners.
I made a chocolate cream with one egg, 1/2 tbsp flour, 2 tbsp sugar, 50 g dark chocolate and 250 ml milk. In the end I added a few seeds of cardamom. I poured the chocolate pudding into the glasses and when it was cold I added raspberries, strawberries and other berries... but I have to say that this part wasn't that easy, I should get myself some long and skinny tongs!
Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Shrikhand cupcakes, or Shrikhand muffins? And what is the difference between a cupcake and a muffin?
Back from yesterday's post, where I made Shrikhand, and I told you that I had this saffron/cardamom/yogurt/honey juice left over (yes, it tasted like all of these things!) and I could not discard it. So why not use it for some cupcakes???
I used the basic Vanilla Cupcakes' recipe form Party Food for Girls, like in this recipe, but I didn't need to use any vanilla, nor lemon zest as I had my bright yellow saffrony/cardamomy juice (and of course I didn't add the Pinoli, although they would be good too)!!! I soaked a good handful of sultana in it and made the cupcakes batter. Another variation was that instead of milk I used natural yogurt. I added the sultana and Shrikhand juice at the very end. I managed to fill up 12 medium and 12 tiny cupcake cases, choosing yellow, orange and just a few lime green paper cases, to keep my cupcakes/muffins "solar looking". To husband and kids these tasted even better than the Shrikhand :-). They are very soft and fragrant and perfect for breakfast!
Now, the original recipe is for cupcakes, but I wonder if these, being totally undecorated, should be called muffins instead. What is the difference between a muffin and a cupcake, in your opinion?
Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©
Monday, April 16, 2012
Shrikhand
Chiarina's version called for some yogurt, mushed cardamom seeds and saffron (I used a sachet of Italian saffron) and she adds a little icing sugar just before serving. I did it a bit differently, I added a tbsp of bush honey to mine. I use Cyclop yogurt, thick and creamy. Put everything in a gauze or fine cotton cloth and let it drip for a night (I did it for a bit more). It tastes delicious and quite... citrusy!! In fact it is difficult to guess the ingredients, everybody said lemon!! I liked it like it was, but the rest of the family added some maple syrup to it (I guess that it was a bit too... sour for their taste).
After straining the yogurt I had all this saffron 'juice' left. OK, it is not that much, but still, not something that I would want to discard! So tomorrow I will show you what I did with it!
Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©
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