Day 2

Day 2 was Vegetable sauce. 

We made a simple veggie stock using juiced carrot, celery and tomato.  We dehydrated our our sauces to thicken them.  Then we used them to make an amazing modern take on miso soup.  It was incredible.  The soup has chopped avocado, tomato, macadamia nuts and pine nuts in it.  

We made and plated our beet gnocchi.  Both cream sauces were amazing.  We made a quick parsley gremolata with lemon zest to add brightness to the heaviness of the cream and root veggies.  We made two different shaped gnocchi.  I like the smaller traditional shapes.

We did other things that I didn't take pictures of and can't remember.  I think we made curried cashews to dehydrate...maybe.

OKC take 2!

Week 1 was awesome.  And slow.  It has taken me some time to get back into the swing of things.  It is again an all girl class.  There are 5 of us. These posts will be a bit condensed and I will post them all at the same time.

This week we focused on mother sauces.  The traditional French mother sauces are: bechamel, espagnole, hollandaise, tomato and veloute.  In raw cuisine, they are a bit different.

Day 1 was cream sauce. We made a sage cream sauce and a truffle cream sauce to plate with beet gnocchi.  You will see these later in the program.

We made milk.  6 different kinds.  Then we tasted them to see the flavor differences.  I made oat groat milk.  Which I found surprisingly delicious.

The other kinds we tasted were Pecan, Pistachio, Macadamia, Walnut, Hazelnut and Cashew.

After we made our milks, we sweetened them.  Sweetening really changes the flavor of some of the milks.  Then, with our milks we made chocolate custard.  We used avocados as the base.  It is amazing how different each pudding tastes just using a different flavored milk.  Also amazing, it does not taste like avocado.  Yumm. :)

We made eggplant bacon (they don't do it in level one anymore) and olive and orange crackers for a mezze platter that we plated later in the week.

We started a macadamia nut goat cheese and cashew cheese to age over the month.  Something interesting with nut cheeses; you can only ferment them for up to around 48 hrs, but you can age them for a month(maybe more!).

Check out my new blog

It's the blog I travel with.

www.kurklesabroad.blogspot.com

It may end up being very exciting over the next 10 days.  That all depends on my internet availability.

Popcorn is so good

We have been doing a winter CSA.  It comes once a month and has been incredible.  We get lots of root veggies and some greenhouse greens.  We also get some fun surprise stuff like beans, dried chiles, sundried tomatoes... and popcorn.

This is by far the best popcorn I have ever had.  It is amazing.

Stovetop Popcorn is super easy.  Even if you don't have one of the fun contraptions seen above.  Just use a large pot that has a lid that will fit. 

Put your pot on Med-High heat.  Add 2 T oil and 1/2 c popcorn kernels.  Pop the lid on. Shake the pot to coat the kernels and let sit until you hear popping.  Once your kernels start to pop start shaking your pot constantly over the burner.  Use pot holders! You will need to hold the lid on, but slightly off to allow steam to escape. You will be doing this while you are shaking your pan.  When the popping starts to slow to a couple seconds between pops, you are done.  Remove from heat immediately. Pour your popcorn into a large bowl. Sprinkle with salt and your choice of toppings.  We have been doing garlic pressed into melted butter, pour over popcorn and grate parm on top.  Mmmmmmmmmm.

Kale Chips

The best way to eat kale is in chip form.

One thing I never missed when I went veg and then vegan (not currently vegan) was junk food.  I try to stay away from processed food as much as possible.  It is so bad for your body.  No nutritional value, usually too much salt or sugar and tons of preservatives.  Plus when you stop eating most processed foods for a few years, you realize how bad it tastes when you try it again. 

Kale chips, however, super healthy! And are a quick answer to junk food nostalgia.  Kale has Indole 3 Carbinole which blocks cancer cells and boost DNA repaire.  It also has these friends hanging out inside its green walls: carotenoids, vitamins C,  K(lots of this one), E, B6, B2, B1, B3, manganese, copper, calcium, potassium, iron, magnesium, protein, folate and phosphorous. If you miss Doritos, kale could be your new best friend.  My friend Danae can make kale chips that taste just like Tostinos pizza roll.

These are my pizza kale chips:

Wash, stem and dry 1 head of kale.
If you get it from a CSA or Farmers Market always do a good bug check.  Bugs love the curly leaves.

Kale chips benefit greatly from using a mixture of fresh and dried ingredients.

In a blender, blend:
1 c cashews (soaked and rinsed)
1-2 T lemon juice
3/4 c water (use tomato soak water if possible)
1/4 t salt
3 T nutritional yeast
1 t onion salt (can use fresh onion, start small)
1 t dried oregano
1/8 t pimenton
1/4 bell pepper (not green)
5-6 sundried tomatoes reconstituted
pepper to taste
If you want a little kick, add red pepper flakes.

Mix your sauce in with your kale, coating well.  Be careful not to mix it too much because your kale will wilt.

Try to spread them so that they don't overlap too much.  Dehydrate 4-8 hrs on 115. I usually let mine go overnight, if going overnight turn them down to 105.

Root Mash, and my obsession with all things potato

But mostly Root Mash.

It is the right time of year for roots.  Matt and I have been doing a winter CSA.  We've been getting 1 delivery a month.  Our delivery comes in a big box with a grocery bag full of roots and onions.  (We also get 3 or 4 gallon size ziploc bags full of greens).  Amazing.

Since Thanksgiving I haven't been able to get enough of the mashed roots.  They are so simple and so tasty.

Here are the steps to making Roots and mashing them:
Step 1
Cut your veggies.  I like to try to use a ratio of thirds, or halves.  If you have celeriac or parsnips or yellow carrots do thirds. 1/3 carrot, 1/3 celeriac, 1/3 potatoes.  If you only have carrots or have rutabaga or other less tasty roots, do halves.  1/2 potatoes (I like to use a mix when I can.  Gold or fingerling, purple and russet) and 1/2 other roots. Potatoes are softer than other roots and will cook first.  Cut them bigger.

Step 2
Boil in 1 part water and 1 part veggie stock. Start cold, potatoes do best when started in cold liquid.  Boil until you can easily stick a fork in it.

Step 3
Drain your roots, put them back in the warm pot and allow the steam to escape.  Once they are done steaming, add a few pads(pats? they both sound wrong right now) of butter.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Step 4
Mash roots

Step 5
Enjoy!

What have I been up to?

Just a few things:

Lime Spritzers

We have been getting the most deliciously green limes lately. We've been mixing them with sparkling water.  So refreshing! You'd never know it was winter here (granted, based on the weather you would never know it either, 57degrees today).

Made more raw Chocolate Chip Cookies. Got some help with the piping of the chips this time around.  He wanted the cookies, I told him he'd have to help pipe.

Checking on my kombucha.  We are pretty close to being brewed. This was at 2 weeks.

 This is almost one month.  It is growing really well!

Made some raw taco boats for a Favorite Things Party.

Sorry the pics are so dark.  These were delicious.  I used a walnut taco meat, cashew nacho cheese and zucchini and baby patty pan shells.  The toppings were fajita style mushrooms and bell peppers, cilantro and romaine lettuce.

Squash tacos:
Shells
Cut zucchini in half length wise, scoop the insides out with a 1/2 tsp.  Cut the top off of the baby patty pans, scoop out the insides with a 1/4 tsp.  Rub with oil, nama shoyu and sprinkle with a tiny bit of salt.  Dehydrate on 105 for about an hour.

Walnut taco meat
adapted from Matt Amsden's Rawvolution
1 c raw walnuts ground (I soaked mine overnight and then dehydrated)
1 tsp ground cumin
3/4 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp mexican oregano
2 T nama shoyu
Mix all together in bowl.  You can warm in the dehydrator if you'd like.
(Optional,  add soaked and processed sun dried tomatoes)

Cashew Nacho Cheese
1/2 c cashews soaked and rinsed
1 T lemon juice
1 T nutritional yeast
3-4 T chopped red bell pepper (I just eye it and cut a chunk out of the pepper)
dash of pimenton
salt and pepper to taste
water as needed (prob about 1/4-1/2 c)
Blend all til smooth in vitamix

Fajita Style Veggies
Julienne bell pepper, slice mushrooms and grate 1 small clove garlic into bowl.  You can use any amount of veggies you want.  I did about 1/4 of a bell pepper, 5-6 musrooms and a very small clove of garlic.  You could add sliced onions. Splash veggies with olive oil and nama shoyu.  Be careful not to use too much.  I also add a touch of agave. Mix well, dehydrate 1 hour on 105.


Cheers!