eat; cru raw food class

nickdelgado.blogspot.com

I woke up really early on Sunday 4th of December, even before my alarm had a chance to wake me! My housemates were still asleep as I left the house with a belly full of green smoothie goodness and excitement that I almost couldn't contain. I was heading out the door to Cru for their "A Few Of My Favourite Things" raw food class. Yep, I finally took the plunge and went to learn some secrets of raw food cooking!!!!

The class was filled with all sorts of people, mainly middle aged women. I wasn't sure what to expect in terms of an audience for a raw food cooking class, but the demographic of middle aged women somehow threw me off. There were about 12 of us and the room was filled with such excitement, you wouldn't have guessed it was sooooo early on a Sunday morning!

The room was structured so that we sat in rows in front of a table set up with all the ingredients and equipment. Unfortunately, we were not doing the cooking, but we sat and watched, listened and learned the tricks of the raw food trade. I even learnt how to make nut milk, which is surprisingly easy! It's a good substitute for cows milk in any dish.

I took some photos but was soooo captivated by what was going on and the information being thrown at me that I forgot to keep it up during the whole lesson! So here are some photos I did take with a little commentary.

I was like a total nerd on the first day of class sitting with a front row seat so I could see everything! This is the view into their kitchen at Cru. Our menu to learn for the day was as follows; Cheesy Kale Chips, Curry Carrot Soup, Zucchini Pasta with a Red Pepper Cream Sauce and Banana Ice-Cream. My favourite was the Curry Carrot Soup (recipe to follow!)                                                          

The ingredients for the day consisted of kale, red capsicum, zucchini, carrots, frozen banana, raw soaked cashews, pine nuts and a few spices. The equipment was a blender, juicer, dehydrator and an amazing little machine called a Turning Slicer/Spirooli.

Our teacher was Kristan Andrews who is part owner of Cru with Executive Chef Rachel Carr. Kristan is a Raw Food Chef and Educator also catering for the stars here in Los Angeles. She is not a total rawist but her diet is mainly raw. She looked so vibrant and healthy it was unbelievable.

Kale is one of my least favourite things to cook, maybe because i was only introduced to this leafy superfood when I arrived here at the beginning of the year and am unfamiliar with it. I have tried to make salads with it, make chips with it even sautee it. Nope, don't like it. I am now throwing it into my smoothies every morning and that suits me fine. Even these Kale chips Kristan made in the dehydrator did absolutely nothing for me as everyone in the room were umming and ahhing. You know how some people describe some foods as like eating cardboard? Well, i'm going to be that person and say that about Kale chips. Big call, I know, but Kale chips just aint my thing!

Kristan is blending away the Curry Carrot Soup in this pic. Now this aint no cardboard tasting soup!!! LOVE!!!! So creamy, colourful and full of flavour, I'm definitely going to try this at home soon!

 

This above is the Turning Slicer/Spirooli which was such a crowd pleaser. Here, Kristan is making the 'spaghetti' out of the raw zucchini. Yes, as you can imagine, every bit of my Italian blood was sooooo dubious about this thing called pasta, that wasn't actual pasta like I knew it. How can anyone call strands of zucchini anything like spaghetti?!?!? So there I was, arms crossed, with all my spiritual ancestors egging on my suspicious glares, waiting to taste this 'spaghetti'.

It was fun watching the zucchini being spun around into long spaghetti...and yes...IT WAS AMAZING TO TASTE!!!!! The texture was exactly like al dente pasta and defintiely does not leave that heavy feeling pasta can sometimes. The Red Pepper Cream Sauce was divine! It was made with pine nuts and olive oil and had a beautifully light creamy constancy. Definitely going to have to add this machine to my kitchen!

Banana Ice-cream....WOW!!!!! Similar to a soft serve ice cream in consistancy and texture, this is the easiest thing ever to make and is WOWOWOWOW!!!! It's simply frozen banana that has been put through a juicer. Thats it! No cream, no stiring, no fussing and it is AMAZING! YOU MUST DO THIS!!! If you don't have a juicer, cut up the banana before putting it into the freezer and when frozen, put it straight into a food processor and wizz away until you get a creamy consistency! You can leave them peeled and whole if using a juicer. Make sure if you're using a juicer to cover the bit where the juice comes out so the banana exists where the skin normally does. YUM!!!!! Also great with mango.

 

So here is the recipe for the Curry Carrot Soup which blew my mind!!!!! Don't use baby carrots, the flavours in them are not developed enough.

Raw Curry Carrot Soup

What you need;

2 cups of peeled and chopped carrots

1 1/2 cups cashew milk

1/2 cup fresh orange juice

1/4 cup of chopped shallot or onion

2 Tbs olive oil

1/2 tsp of fresh grated ginger

1/2 tsp of curry powder

salt to taste

NOW FOR THE HARD PART!!!!!

Blend it all together in a food processor until smooth and serve!!! This makes a great summer soup but if you want to put it on the stove to warm up a little, I promise I won't tell any rawists I know!!!

Serves two.

Buon appetitio!

P.S Cashew Milk is made by soaking 3/4 cup of raw cashews for 2-4 hours. Drain them and pop them into your blender with 1 1/2 cups of water. Blend until really smooth and then drain it all through a sieve, using a spoon. Vola, cashew milk!!!!

pink; pink tons

zimbio.com

The colour pink is normally associated with sweetness, intimacy and fragility but this intense mass of glass, even though it does look light, airy and beautifully translucent, is an incredible contrast to it's reality. I have never seen this work but I was instantly attracted to the above image of Roni Horn's Pink Tons created in 2008. Apart from being attracted to the colour, the sheer size of the work made me want to know more! The piece is solid cast glass and stands at 48 x 48 x 48 inches. 

I want to start talking about this work with you all imagining a pink cloud floating next to it. Go on, can you see the pink cloud in the background next to it? Good. A pink cloud would be an obvious thing to create with pale pink, as our associations with the colour would be represented within such a work. We can easily imagine being engulfed by it and the feelings we would feel towards such a lovely cloud of pink fluff. It is something that can be imagined within our minds and we can easily create the feelings we imagine we would feel, as it's reality is not far off what we would imagine, even if we can't physically experience it. We see pink clouds often during a wonderful sunset and have a lifetime of looking and imagining what it would feel like to experience a pink cloud. How lovely would that be?!?!?!

If we now go back and look at Pink Tons with the feelings and emotions we have just felt with our imaginary pink cloud work, we are almost stopped in our tracks, like we've just been hit by a big pink semi-trailer truck! Pink is not meant to hurt us in that way! It is meant to be gentle, calming, even soothing to be around, but Horn's work does everything but soothe us. A mass of heavy glass masquerading as something light and translucent, cannot go forth and fool us, especially with the knowledge that this work ways a hefty 5 tonnes, or can it?

It has been said that in a certain light or at a different perspective, this pink mass of solid dense glass gives the appearance of a liquid surface, like an ice cube starting to melt from being exposed to room temperature. But this work is not melting away or disappearing before our very eyes. It is here to stay! Pink Tons questions our associations with pink and how we perceive the context for the colour.  It makes us think of materials and materiality and how they can be transformed to trick us into thinking differently about their reality.

Is Pink Tons, a mass of cast glass, really that much different to a cloud? And is pink really that much different to any other colour? It seems this work highlights  our reactions to and feelings towards things is what determines how different they really are.

This work would be a feat to experience and one that I hope to some day. Until then, all I can do is try and live the experience by talking about it with you.

Enjoy!

love; 10 things i found to love this week

awesomelyluvvie.com

1. TRAINS!!!! Oh how I do love a train ride. My first overnight train trip was from Hong Kong to Beijing in 2008 and recently I took the train from L.A to New York!!! Yes you heard me right, L.A to New York! The ride was over three days and nights. I felt like a 1920's movie star leaving L.A all dressed up in heels, off to New York by rail. LOVE!

kokpit.com

2. PLANES!!!! Oh how I do love flying! I've done many long distance travel that only Australians can really relate to. I do have a giggle when an American says that Europe is such a long flight...TRY 26 HOURS MELBOURNE TO LONDON GUYS!!!!! The excitement of going to a new place somehow does override the pain of long distance plane flights! LOVE!!!

a1-diamond.com

3. Turning yourself into a diamond when you die?!?!?! Well, you can't do it because you'll be dead, but someone else can turn you into a diamond!!!! I LOVE THIS!!!!! Check it out! http://www.lifegem.com/

buzzle.com

4. I love a steaming hot shower! Now when I say hot, I mean the tiniest turn of the cold water you've ever seen! I'm sooooo not one of those people who can handle a cold shower, nor do I think jumping into a cold natural bath is actually sanity!!!! Give me heat any day! LOVE!!!

legendsofamerica.com

5. I heart L.A!!! I love this city! It is a mix of plastic fantastic and down right dirty rundown suburbia. In one day this city of Angels can turn my mood from an incredible dark deep depression where I don't want to leave my bed to the height of ecstasy where I don't want to fall asleep in case I miss something! It truly is a great city that is better lived in than visited as a tourist. LOVE!

golfblogger.com

6. Writing and sending Christmas cards via snail mail. I have the opportunity to do this now that I am away from home and I LOVE IT!!!! Such a nice feeling when you do get something in the mail that has hand writing on the envelope and IS NOT a bill! LOVE!!!!

7. My artist friends in Melbourne. How I love them sooo much and miss them like crazy! This photo was taken the morning after a party I had at my house, affectionately known as Number 12. We had pasta with cherry tomatoes and fresh basil for brunch, served in that big wok in the middle of the table. Gotta love dear friends! LOVE!!!

8. My housemates Dolphina and Natalie. They are the most amazing and inspiring women I have met here in the states and am soooo grateful for the universe to have introduced them to me and this home we now have. They are an absolute pleasure to feed!!!! LOVE!!

laruso.ca

9. Baci chocolates! With their cheesy love messages and wonderfully perfect combination of chocolate and nuts, they truly are a kiss from the gods! I just ate one and the message inside was "The notes of love enhance our joy'...Ahhhhhhh. LOVE!!

bloomspot.com/featured/los-angeles/city-sip-la/

10. Having a Bubble Bath with Dolphina at Sip City! A Bubble Bath at Sip City is a tasting of their range of champagnes and you can have a cheese platter that is matched to each bubbly! Bring on the bubbles!!!! LOVE!!!!

eat; my famous pasta sauce

photo luxyfarm.blogspot.com

I grew up with pasta sauce and espresso coffee running through my veins. From as early as i can remember, my family would get together at the end of summer to all par take in the ritual of creating sauce for the year to come.

Everyone had a job to do with the 20 or so wooden crates of tomatoes my dad brought home from the local market. My sister and dad would wash out the long neck beer bottles we collected over the year, with bottle brushes in hand. I can still hear the sounds the brushes would make against the glass, brushing and scrubbing them clean, with the metal handle crunching and sliding against the necks of the bottles on their way in and out in an almost percussive beat and the sound of the water being poured out of each one, in long drawn out gulps. They would then turn them upside down, leaning one against each other to dry in the sun. 

My mum and brother had the job of washing the tomatoes which would annoyingly float in the big white bucket of water, seemingly in an act of rebellion against what they knew their fate would be.  As if choreographed in a dance, my mum and brother would help each other pick up a crate, one on each side, placing it up against the side of the bucket and then tip it,  watching as the tomatoes tumbled over each other, cascading into their awaiting bath. I always wanted this job only because I wanted to create big splashes of water as the tomatoes tumbled into their bath and be covered by the water they pushed aside. Never did happen. I think my mum knew I would create havoc!

Because I was the littlest, my job would be to simply pop a few leaves of fresh green basil into each bottle awaiting to be filled with the juice of the tomatoes. The rows seemed to be never ending as the brown bottles would all be lined up, like soldiers at attention, on every table we could get our hands on; from folding camp tables to make shift, two planks of wood type tables. With a gentle push of encouragement by my tiny fingers through the necks of the bottles, I would watch as the green basil leaves made their journey to the bottles bottom. Seeing them struggling to maintain their intense green colour as they collapsed and surrendered at the bottom, engulfed by the brown light shining through, always felt like a sad ending for those poor basil leaves. 

Once our prep jobs were done, we would all collectively hover around the machine that would squeeze out the juice from the tomatoes, spitting out their skins to one side. The machine made a rhythmic sound churning constantly, not ever waiting for a second for the next lot. We all took turns at tossing big handfuls of tomatoes into the top and watching the juice collect into an awaiting bucket. My mum would be the pourer of the sauce into each individual bottle with an aluminum saucepan and a blue plastic funnel, while my dad stood ready with golden bottle tops and his strength, to close them up ready for the boiling. Their fate was sealed and they would be gently placed into an overlapping pattern within their 'grave like' 44 gallon drum that would transform them into our pasta sauce.

By the end of the days making, we would all be covered in sauce, scratching away at the dried up remnants of tomato on our skin, whilst mum would roast vegies and meat on the fire under the barrel that housed our days work, bubbling away cooking the sauce within each bottle.  We would occasionally get the fright of our lives as a bottle exploded from the pressure. It didn't happen every year but the anticipation was always there that we might just be frightened out of our wits at any moment. 

My mum still does make a very small amount each year to this day (i think more for the sake of reminiscing about those days) with my brother joining in while they bond over this special practice that is now becoming obsolete within the modern day Italian family.

In those days, Australian/Italians had no choice but to make their own food as buying a bottle of pasta sauce was simply not an option. Now days, the variety is in abundance but i still enjoy making my sauce from scratch when tomato's are in season, rather than opening up a jar. Maybe it is my way of holding onto my childhood memory of making sauce.

The following recipe is really basic but the flavours are amazing and i guarantee, you'll never buy a jar of already made sauce again!

What you need;
1 420g can of peeled whole tomato 
2-3 cloves of garlic, diced finely (I use organic and they are always smaller so I use 3)
1 birdseye chili, chopped (if you like it hot that is!)
3 Tbl of olive oil
1/2 tsp salt
4 basil leaves, torn into small pieces 




It's all in the canned tomatoes!!!! If you can get your hands on Annalisa brand of peeled tomatoes, do yourself a favour!!! Otherwise, any organic brand will be fine. You can get whole or chopped. I prefer whole and will direct this recipe to using whole peeled tomatoes.

Pour the oil into a frypan on med to high heat. Once hot, throw in the chopped garlic (and chili). Cook the garlic for a minute and then throw in the can of tomato. Add water to the can, filling it up to  just under a third of the way and swirl it around to clean off the remaining sauce within it. Pour this into the sauce and let it simmer for about 10 minutes on a med to low heat.

After 10 minutes, if using whole tomatoes, gently press against each tomato to break them up. I like my sauce reasonably chunky but you can press them until you find a consistency you like. Add salt.

The sauce should be ready within about 20 mins. Once you turn the heat off, toss through the torn basil leaves. NEVER EVER COOK BASIL!!!!! Whenever using basil, always throw them in after the heat has been turned off. The flavour will be more intense and create a freshness to any dish.

Pour over a good quality pasta, freshly grating a good quality Parmesan and serve with a great bottle of wine!

I have used a 420g can for this recipe which will cover enough pasta for about 2-3 people. If you need to cook more, simply double or triple the recipe. Easy! This sauce can be frozen for use at another time.

I use this recipe for lots of things including my vegie lasagna and pizzas. If you are wanting to use it for such things, i suggest adding a little more water so it will be more runny and spending the time to break up the tomatoes so they are not so chuncky.

Buon Appetito!

pink; green pink caviar

Pink lips, pink tongue, pink jelly. Do yourself a favour and watch this video on 'full screen' option on your computer. Marilyn Minter, who is based in New York, has been one of those artists in which I'm not sure if I love her work or hate it. She blurs the lines between the beautiful and the grotesque, questioning conventional notions of both. What is beautiful? What is grotesque?  Her works are completed with a high gloss, high definition, hyper-real execution capturing images such as women wearing designer stilettos, covered in mud and dirt. She works in photography, painting with enamel on sheets of metal and recently (by accident) in video.

This video I'm featuring above is a short exert of Minters Green Pink Caviar which totally captivated me when i first saw it earlier this year at MOMA in New York. Shot with a macro lens and slowed down to almost snails pace, it is completely mesmerizing and definitely sent me into a whole new world, where detail became oh soooo seductive. With a macro perspective of such detail, the womans tongue slowly sliding across the screen, sucking up and spitting out the slippery jelly, is both gracious and visceral. It is a feeling that is felt deep within ones own body on viewing this work, as if her tongue were licking our internal organs with long slow sliding strokes, sucking in and spitting out our jelly. This is were the work grabs you and is, I imagine, what Minter was hoping for. Is it beautiful to feel as if your internal organs are being caressed and stimulated by a tongue, or is it grotesque? Our own perceptions of sensuality are being asked to be layed out on the table with those of what society claims they should be; to be compared, discussed and challenged.

I was so lured and seduced by this lush work that Katya had to literally grab my arm to drag me away from it otherwise i would have stayed in MOMA for days, like a stunned mullet! I like it when a work does that without giving away too much, sending me into a state of vagueness, emptying my brain of any thoughts whatsoever and allowing me to succumb to a place full of sensuality and sexuality.

You can check out more of her work at http://www.salon94.com/artists/20/

love; 10 things i found to love this week

1. Flannel Sheets! Yep, it's that cold here in L.A the flannel sheets have come out, believe it or not! Oh how I love flannel sheets in the winter. My housemate thinks they are totally unsexy suggesting I should imagine horizontal folk dancing between these sheets! 'As if!', she proclaims. Well, I might have to agree...yes they are completely unsexy!!!!! But if you don't have a human hot water bottle, between stops, i think they are a great addition to any bed!!

photo by Julie Ponder

2. Sprinkling a few drops of essential Lavender Oil onto my freshly washed sheets as i'm making up my bed. If you haven't done this before, i suggest giving it a go! Sooo nice to slip in under the sheets after doing this...and apparently lavender helps you have a better nights sleep. Double bonus! 

FYI, it is also a great ant repellent!!!

santamonica.com

3. L.A bus drivers! I've had the most fun bus drivers here in L.A than anywhere else in the world! I always make an effort to say hi and ask how they are doing when boarding and yelling out "Thankyou!" as i exit the bus. One bus driver greeted me with such a huge smile one day when I was wearing a really feminine flowing pale blue dress. "I really like your dress! You know why i like your dress?" he asked, as i was sliding my money into the slot. "No', I  answered with anticipation. "It reminds me of a fairytale. You look  like a princess!" Boy did he make my day!!!!

maduratea.com.au

4. Madura Tea. Oh how I love a cup of this Australian tea! I love it soooo much that when i lived in Beijing for three months, I brought my own supply of this tea. All the tea in China has nothing on my Madura! I have my favourite mug I like to drink from that I have also brought from home. I like my tea strong with a quarter of a teaspoon of sugar and a dash of milk. The small amount of sugar does make a difference fyi! It does to my tea what a pinch of salt does to cooking!

photo by Julia Theobalt

5. Chocolate stilettos?!?!?! WTF?!?!?! I want them and i wanna crunch on them soooo bad!!!! My friend Julishka who lives in Berlin went on a trip with her boyfriend to Amsterdam and came across these shoes tagging me in the picture on facebook! How lovely!

miumiu.com

6. Talking about shoes...HAVE AT LOOK AT THEEEESSSSE!!!! Miu Miu released a whole collection of shoes last year inspired by the old fashioned teapot. Wish I could afford a pair or three!!!! I'm keeping a close eye on ebay!!
LOVE!

feedmyhummingbirdblog.com

7. Hummingbirds drinking the nectar from the brightly coloured cactus flowers in my backyard. Did you know they are the only birds that can fly backwards?!?!?! They are the sweetest looking birds and move so elegantly and strategically while feeding. The neighbours cat, Maurice, seems to think so too!!!!

spacingmontreal.ca

 8. Watching people people watching. I love doing this on the bus especially. It is an exercise in letting your imagination run wild wondering what the person you are looking at is thinking of the person they are looking at!!!!

bialettiespressomaker.com

9. My Bialetti espresso maker. Hale the espresso maker!!! I can't start my morning without it! I even travel with my maker so i don't miss out on my morning ritual. If you love coffee, do yourself a favor and by one of these machines!!!

photo by Christo Crocker

10. A good artist friend of mine, Simon Zoric sent me a link to his blog during the week. I love his work and was completely blown away by this piece which he calls Mood-O-Meter. You can't see the tiny writing in this pic, but it's range goes from Angry, Depressed to Horny. How amazing would it be if all of us had one of these strapped around our necks?!?!?! You would certainly know who to keep well away from and who you should gravitate towards!

eat; raw blueberry cheesecake with lemon cream by Cru

OMGWAD!!!! If heaven could be thrown into a blender and served to me on a plate...THIS IS WHAT IT WOULD LOOK LIKE!!!! Look at it! LOOK AT IT!!!!

I'm no real fan of cheesecake these days, but this, a raw blueberry cheesecake from Cru here in Los Angeles, aint no ordinary cheesecake! Even though in my younger years of culinary explorations, I did love a good cheesecake, I rationalize those days of enjoying them (as well as all sorts of other foods i would not eat today) as an act of culinary rebellion against being subjected to my mums Italian cooking all my life. Today, I tend to choose a dessert that has anything to do with berries...oh how i love berries!!! Even the slightest hint of berries, even if plopped on top for decoration, I'll take it!

 I have been totally captivated by the raw foods restaurants here in California and there are soooo many to choose from. My first encounter with a raw restaurant here in the States was Cafe Gratitude (http://www.cafegratitude.com/) in San Francisco. Oh how i miss Cafe Gratitude. Yes, they are total hippies, asking you at the end of your meal what you are grateful for, but hey, I'm grateful for having experienced their amazing form of art! The preparation for creating a raw feast exhausts me just thinking about it!

So back to this amazing slice of heaven! Raw foods are not cooked above a certain temperature, so there is no baking involved (which is the reason i could never go all the way with raw!!!). The base of this cheesecake is made with pecan nuts and dates, all mashed together until they stick. The 'cheesecake' is made up of soaked and ground raw cashew, which when treated this way, forms a wonderfully creamy texture. They use other ingredients to hold the 'cheesecake' in place and then add fresh blueberries to it. The texture is amazing just the way you would hope it to be for a cheesecake and the flavours...omgwad...totally awesome! It's creamy consistency hovers around the burst that occurs when you get your jaws around the fresh blueberry...YUM!!! I didn't feel guilty one bit hoeing into this dessert!

The 'cream' on top, made with the soaked and ground cashew nuts, is ever so lightly hinted with lemon. It's consistency is like a thick cream but the texture is better. It definitely highlights all the flavours in the cheesecake and leaves a wonderfully fresh lemon aftertaste. What an amazing treat. 

OMG! Just writing about this raw blueberry cheesecake has made my mouth salivate!!! 

I'm soooooo leaving right now to get me one! 

Bye!...

http://www.crusilverlake.com/about.html