aahhh the month has passed by SO freakin’ quickly, it’s incredible, really. the past two weeks were really exciting in our kitchen, we got to experiment more by our selves with the amazing pantry ingredients, and our instructors gave us more freedom.
The third week finished off with the presentation of each student’s cheese plate. We each had to make two cheeses and accompany them with pickles, chutneys, crackers, and candied fruit or other. Obviously they were vegan cheeses, which some of you may think , How is that possible?, but they DO exist indeed and taste great also, not to mention Cruelty free, full of vitamins from nuts, full of flavor, lactose/dairy free bla bla bla. You basically make vegan cheeses by blending soaked nuts (we used macadamias and cashews) and letting ferment for 1 day by adding probiotics or you can use some other starter. After that you flavor it and make it into the desired shape, and you can also make a rind by putting it back in the dehydrator for another day. I made a “cheddar” cheese and a coriander/cumin one.
The same week we did a local market tour in the morning before class; we met up with our bikes at 7 am and cycled to the market in town, where our thai kitchen helper met us there too. It was great to be able to ask him what was everything. If oly I could have someone like him everywhere I travel!
We saw some great stuff, to say a few: the making of coconut cream/milk, thai donuts, ..
The market visit was great, not only to get to know better the local produce, but also to get inspired for our cheese plates, in fact I got some garlic chives and some thai small eggplants to use on my plate.
Here are some pics of my cheese plate and the presentation:
The last week was all about our final project: create a three course meal, and execute two or three of the courses, making 2 same dishes of each.
We had time to experiment and organize for our final day, but especially start preparing things that would be ready on time for friday, for example dehydrating or making ice creams etc. Â (TIME is a VERY BIG component of raw cuisine).
My menu was:
-appetizer: a green creamy soup (avocado, cilantro, cumin were the main components) with a cashew sour cream, flax crackers, cucumber and dill chips and garlic chive flowers;
-main: beet and carrot tagliatelle (pasta) dressed with a miso-tamari sauce, macadamia cheese (ricotta style), pine nut parmesan and an arugula pesto;
-dessert: lemon-coconut ice cream, berry sauce, mint syrup, oat-almond crumble and dehidrated orange slices and powder.
Friday was both an exciting and anxious day, we were all so pleased to show our dishes, but also nervous that something would go wrong, so happy and proud of this incredible experience but also sad to leave this place and the friednships we’ve created with fellow students and instructors.
Following our dish presentations, the instructors/other people in room tasted our dishes and evaluated them while we were finally relaxing outside. Then came graduation time, where we each recieved our certificate paper for the course, then celebration/tiramisu time.
I loved attending this Matthew Kenney’s course so much that I signed up for level 2 the following month!!!! so be prepared for more great food pics…
Here are some of my favorite pics from last month’s dishes (last three are my final project dishes):
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