Raw Food Pastry Class with Slow Food Waitakere

Unfortunately I won't be in New Zealand for this class, yes, I am off traveling again, will keep you posted... see if you can guess where I am going! But I really need to share this because I had other classes and dinners with Eri and she is really talented. 

Just look at this Vegan cake!

And what about this one? Eri made this Chocolate Vegan Cake a while ago in a Vegan Pastry Class for Slow Food Waitakere, you can click here to see photos.

And I love the look of this one!!

Eri sells Vegan cakes (http://lanoixvegancake.com) and for this class she will make RAW Vegan cakes! So if you are in Auckland and interested in Raw, or Vegan, or even Gluten Free cuisine, this class, organized through Slow Food Waitakere, may be for you!

Sunday April 7th 1pm to 4pm 

Raw Food Pastry Chef Eri is 

teaching an amazing raw 

cheesecake  (with no dairy, of

course) along with raw truffle, green 

smoothy, and how to make a 

whipped cream using coconut

 cream.

Raw Food Pastry Chef Eri



There will be scones and tea served 

for the tasting party.



She is going to bring a whole array of  
her vegan cakes so that we can all 

taste them.

Take a look at Eri's cakeshttp://lanoixvegancake.com/Home/Cakes

What you need to know about the Raw Food Pastry Class

Date: Sunday April 7th 

Time: 1pm to 4pm 

Cost: $50 per person ($45 Slow Food members)

Location:  Pine Valley, 48 Young Access, RD2, Silverdale (Dairy Flat), 0992

RSVP Anutosh :  Kernewek2@vodafone.co.nz (8349909) by Thursday April 4th

Learn to build a Pizza Oven

My friends Dan and Kazuyo are organizing this very interesting class, so I am passing the information on if you live in the Auckland area and are interested.

Pizza Oven Building Class on Dec. 1st and 2nd at PineValley B&B

Grant Steven, known for his hand built clay pizza ovens is coming for two days
to teach how to replicate his large example that will be built in the outdoor 
kitchen at 48 Young Access, Silverdale (Dairy Flat on google map).  Please bring gumboots, your camera,
and some energy to get this hands on experience that will save you thousands
of dollars when you take the knowledge to your garden.

Where: PineValley B&B
                        48 Young Access, Dairy Flat, 0992
                        phone : 09-442-5701, or 027-9191808

When : 1st and 2nd of December (Sat and Sun) 
                        from 10 am to 4 pm.

Cost : $40/ day or $70/ both days (better to come both days to get the complete information)

Please bring gum boots and own lunch. We will serve snacks and drinks.

An Indian cooking class

It was a very 'Slow' weekend, fist we had the bush walk on Saturday, and then an Indian event on Sunday! The cooking class was taken by Sheena, and we all learned a lot. The main dish was a chicken curry, but she also kept some spices aside and made the same curry vegetarian for the five veggies who were present. Then Sheena showed us how to make a cauliflower and carrot baji, a daal, chapati,  basmati with cumin seeds, and a good chai.

From top left clockwise: the rice, frying onions and spices, chiken and veg curries, vegetable baji

Making Chapati

Making chapati was my favourite part, every student made his/her own, but I ended up making quite a few, for the children and the house staff too, it was very enjoyable! I think that this is the first thing that I will try at home because I need to eat more wholemeal flour, and chapati are so easy to make!

If you live in Auckland and would like to come to some Slow Food events please follow the Slow Food Waitakere blog for updates, or join the Slow Food Waitakere Group on Facebook.

From top left clockwise: Sheena and Sachiko, making chai, flavouring basmati with fried cumin seeds, daal and chapati.

Photos by Alessandra Zecchini except the 4th one (of me) by Steve Kesler©

Cake and Make Workshop at the Lopdell House

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini and Arantxa Zecchini Dowling ©

Here are some pics of today Cake & Make workshop at the Lopdell House Art Gallery in Titirangi. Parents, grandparents and children made a variety of sugar flowers from Party Food for Girls, and decorated lots of cupcakes. Arantxa tutored the kids, and we all had a great and creative afternoon. Thank you Lisa and Lopdell House for organizing the workshop :-).

I have registered for Blog Action Day 2011. Join me in the global discussion about Food. http://bit.ly/BAD11 

Chocolate Truffle Cupcake, and a cupcake workshop at Taste Matakana

Photo by Shaun Cato-Symonds, Recipe by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Today Arantxa and I went up to Taste Matakana in Warkworth for a cupcake workshop. It was a great chance for Arantxa to teach girls (and boys) to make sugar flowers and decorate cupcakes. Kids went home with a plate full of their creations, and grown up got really into it too. And I guess that it is time to  show a cupcake recipes: the photo above is our Chocolate Truffle Cupcake, please click here to find the article on Yahoo Lifestyle, with the link for this recipe (chocolate ganache included). Also Yahoo offers NZ residents a chance here to enter to win a copy of the book (and if you don't live in NZ you can always enter here).

Photos by Alessandra Zecchini ©

I would like to thanks blogger Frances Chan from The Bake Club who came to the book launch, you can see her photos and read about the event on her blog. Next workshop, about sugar roses and flowers, is at Millys in Parnell (Auckland) next Saturday. See you there!

A Slow Food Sunday

Making mozzarella

Today some members of Slow Food Waitakere group meet for a mozzarella making workshop at the Gourmet Gannet. If you like to see more photos please click here, and if you like to read Allison's mozzarella recipe you can find it by clicking here. Thank you Allison for hosting the event and sharing your recipe :-).

Conviviality

After making mozzarella we all went for lunch at the Tasting Shed on State Highway 16, it was a lovely day out, the sun was almost warm, and the Tasting Shed was a good discovery. 

All serious about our food!

Taking a photo of Sean taking a photo of his lunch

Photos  by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Slow Food Waitakere Croissant Class

On Sunday a small group of members from Slow Food Waitakere learned to make croissants from Allison of Gourmet Gannet.

The students

The teacher

After a demo we are all ready for hands-on!

It was a great class for everyone. We baked some croissants (plain and chocolate) on the spot, and we took some more home to freeze or bake. I baked some as soon as I got home, and they came out lovely (pics below). Thank you Allie for a lovely morning!

Taste Matakana Pasta Workshop

Last night I took a pasta making workshop at Taste Matakana, in Warkworth.  The students were all lovely ladies (no men! Usually there are always men at my pasta workshops, they like the pasta machine!) and very confident cooks too. It was a pleasure to teach them, and to get to know them.

We were a bit too busy mixing dough and rolling pasta, and talking, and I forgot to take photos, (also, my hands were full of flour). I took out my iPhone only at the end, when we were eating...

We made different types of pasta: plain, coloured, filled, with herbs, with roses... and a couple of simple pasta sauces. Below some images of the leftovers!

Thank you Andrea for organizing the class, to all the staff at Taste Matakana, and to my enthusiastic students: I hope that last night you went home inspired, and that you will make fresh pasta very soon!

Photos by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Japanese Macrobiotic Vegan Cooking Class

Yesterday my friend Kazuyo from Pine Valley B&B invited me to attend one of the classes she hosts at her place. This was part of a course for Japanese living in New Zealand.

The tutor was Eri Ishibashi, a pastry chef turned Vegan and interested in macrobiotic food. Here is the lesson for the day...

Oh dear...

Better!

I was the only Westerner there, and the class was run in Japanese, I know enough to understand (most things, for the rest Kazuyo translated for me) but reading! I only know the basic kanji characters, and even for those I need a long time! Very nice of Eri to organize for me some instructions written in English!

We looked at the ingredients, a lot of whole grains, from amaranth to buckwheat, and then sorghum, quinoa, linseed... some I knew, others I never used before. On the menu, a part from the brown rice with a selection of other grains and seeds (including daikon seeds), we had to make Tofu burgers, fried imitation fish, marinated cucumber (plus other veggies) and Ichigo Daifuku. I was particularly interested in the imitation fish and the daifuku, so I joined the ladies who wanted to prepare those. We split in groups and started cooking!

The base of the imitation fish is done with cooked millet and ground linseeds, plus ginger juice, flour and salt.

Spread on a sheet of nori and cut.

Brush the top with a batter made with flour and iced water.

And fry. In the meantime the other ladies where busy with the tofu burgers and the vegetables.

The daifuku is hard work, you really have to make it with someone to understand it, but it was so much fun!

No sugar was used, for the glutinous rice we used rice syrup (which was also used for the teriyaki sauce), and to sweeten the azuki beans for the paste, we used dates.

In the end we all enjoyed our own bento boxes, and they looked so pretty too! Kazuyo also organizes classes on classic Japanese and Korean cuisine (and more, last here I came here for a special Italian Cuisine class with designer Paola Navone) at her B&B, to contact her visit her site by clicking here.

Photos by Alessandra Zecchini ©