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.

Japanese dinner and what is blogging these days

Last Sunday we went for dinner to Kazuyo and Dan's place, Pine Valley B&B. Kazuyo is also a blogger and you can find more photos of the evening here. At Pine Valley they organize weddings, parties, cooking classes and special events, catered by chef Katsumi Ishibashi and his wife Eri (a pastry chef). This was an informal dinner for 10, based on fish and seafood, but they made a vegetarian option just for me, and also for my children (there were also 6 children, having their own private dinner party).

I had a vegan aspic for starter, and then vegetable tempura (Katsumi kindly fried the vegetables before putting the seafood into the oil) a fantastic homemade (by Eri) smoked tofu salad, and Japanese omelette. The others had several fish dishes. The only picture missing was Eri's strawberry dessert, because by then it was too dark for me to be able to take a decent picture with my iPhone.

Japanese Cuisine is my second favourite after Italian, and Eri and Katsumi are so talented! Thank you Kazuyo and Dan: it was such a great evening with good food, good company, and in a beautiful setting.

November is pushing on, we will leave for Italy soon and I am very busy. Tomorrow I will go with Arantxa to the Dorothy Butler Children Bookshop in Auckland for another sugar flowers' demo to promote Party Food for Girls if you are in Auckland please pop by because right now I am baking and decorating tons of cupcakes to give away: 1 Jervois Rd, Ponsonby, 10:30am to 12pm.

Then I will have 4 photo shoots in three weeks, for the total of 28 recipes (which I also have to develop and write), a couple of Slow Food events, a Xmas party and tomorrow night I am hosting a dinner for friends. It is also the end of my second year at Maori, with exams and all, and of course the kids have all their own activities, including extra rehearsals for Arantxa's ballet show. I still like to blog, and even if I am posting almost everyday, I am behind with posts just because the days are so full of things and recipes that I would like to share, but cannot find the space or time. Still, I am now officially addicted to blogging, maybe it is my 'relaxing' moment of the day, when I take a break from work, and housework,
and just download my photos and write up a commentary.

And what about you? What is blogging for you these days??

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 ©