Girl On Raw » Raw Restaurants

Iron ‘Raw’ Chef

GirlonRaw — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 07:14:27 +0000

Who doesn’t love a bit of Iron Chef? I love it!!!

Level One gang:

And for those of you not following me all day on facebook and twitter today, here is a sneak preview of what I have got in store for my final assessment tomorrow. It’s my last day at Raw Chef School Take your places in Kitchen Stadium!!!!

Ice-Cream maker???

Eggplant fresh from the Sous Vide

Lunchtime!!!!

I’ll be back tomorrow with the final reveal on my 3 course dinner menu!!! Any ideas??

Russell James (The Raw Chef), who is also my instructor for this course, has some great birthday deals going on his Home Study Course and his Recipe Books until midnight Friday GMT here. You don’t wanna miss out!!

And don’t forget to vote in my poll here on what you want to see, post my culinary school completion.

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Springwater & Violins

GirlonRaw — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 06:14:16 +0000

Thanks everyone for your wonderful comments on your attempts at sprouting and also your workout styles

Today’s chef school saw us heading out on a field trip. Russell (our instructor) packed up the car (and us kids) and took us to a spring to collect fresh water about 2 hours away. I am sipping on some right now. This water tastes so clean and doesn’t have that chemically smell. You can find a spring close to you here.

But not before we all had a chance to make our salad lunch to go!

Then it was a 2 or more hour drive, and onto business….

The Raw Cowgirl

Lunchtime!

When we arrived back to the academy, it was past finishing time so a couple of us headed straight for the bar for a mid afternoon smoothie beverage:

Gotta love me some Strawberry Seduction : banana, strawberry, cacao, almond milk, coconut butter.

I raced home for a quick freshen up, hit the gym for a quick 35min run on the treadmill then got ready for my event at 105degrees, The Rawkstar Dinner. Music by a local violinist, with 5 courses matched to each song (and wine for those of us lushes). Totally decadent and soo much food!

But first…

A Key Lime-tini (with sake)

Purple Cabbage Pierogies

Walnuts, Sour Cream, Horseradish Mustard served with Trenza Rosado

Carta Da Musica

Micro Greens, Aged Goat Cheese, Truffle Vinaigrette served with Colome Torrontes

Check out the cheese! Can’t wait to learn how to make it!

Tom Kha Gai

Kelp Noodles, Shitake, Sweet & Sour Coconut Milk, Mint, Lemongrass, Ginger, Lime served with Starmont Chardonnay

Ooh and my lovely co-students and instructor Russell James enjoying some time out of the kitch.

Red Beet Pave

Wild Mushroom Concasse, Quark, Buckwheat Bread Crumbs served with Volpaia Chianti Classico

And a side of Kyle

Then onto dessert…we were all feeling REALLY full by this stage but you didn’t have to twist my arm to finish it off.

Frangrant Cheesecake with Orange Zest, Mandarin-Ginger Gelato, Sesame-Lime Bar, Grapefruit Cake served with Michele Chiarlo Nivole Moscato D’asti (my favourite of the night!)

Hmmm, Grapefruit Cake.

Then we were honoured with an impromptu performance on departure.

Kyle chatted to me about a good friend of his Tommy Emmanuel a guitar mastermind from my home of Australia…and for those of you close to Oklahoma City, head on down to First Christian Church 201 E. Second St., Edmond for the Spirit Symphony (Kyle and a 20 piece orchestra) on Tuesday night …I might just find myself there

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Sprouting, Fermenting, Dehydrating.

GirlonRaw — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 05:03:05 +0000

Up until today, Culinary School = Eating School, but today was not so much the case.

We did some more practical on sprouting. I’ve only ever sprouted alfalfa in my kitchen before, it’s kinda daunted me, so I have really been enjoying my learning on this. Expect to see more sprouting in my future Do you sprout?

Here’s my chia babies. I’ll keep you updated on their progress.

Grow babies grow!

Then we began to make some Kimchi for use in a recipe later.

Here’s what Wikipedia says about Kimchi

Kimchi is very spicy and can also be exceptionally sweet. Kimchi is made of various vegetables and contains a high concentration of dietary fiber, while being low in calories. One serving also provides up to 80% of the daily recommended amount of vitamin C and carotene.^[8] Most types of kimchi contain onions, garlic, and peppers, all of which are salutary. The vegetables being made into kimchi also contribute to the overall nutritional value. Kimchi is rich in vitamin A, thiamine (B1), riboflavin (B2), calcium, and iron,^[9]^[10] and contains a number of lactic acid bacteria, among those the typical species Lactobacillus kimchii.

The magazine Health named kimchi in its list of top five “World’s Healthiest Foods” for being rich in vitamins, aiding digestion, and even possibly reducing cancer growth.

Pizza Bases!!!

Ready for dehydration magic.

And some savoury tart shells ready for you guessed it, the dehydrator.

Lunch time. Seeing as we hadn’t made anything to eat, I ordered a Kale Caesar Salad with extra avocado and jalapenos.

And a green Hawaiian smoothie. (lovely pine nut parmesan from my salad in the background!)

Back to class where we made some wraps for future use…

Into the dehydrator!

Tomorrow we are off on a field trip (any guesses where?) so there won’t be much food to share with you all from class, but judging by what we made today, I’d say I will more than have enough to share on Friday.

105degrees is also having an event tomorrow night to celebrate a local musician Kyle Dillingham, with set courses to match his music. If you are in the Oklahoma area you should come down and join in. Cocktails begin at 630pm, seating at 7pm.

Workout: I’ve not been working out as often as usual, but yesterday I did a Body Pump class and today I feel like I need assistance to walk! I really wanted to do another today but realised my muscles need to recover so I did an easy hour jog on the treadmill.

Does the thought of your first workout back after a break scare you? I sometimes think the battle is over once you have your shoes on and are out the door!

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Restaurant Review: Saf London

GirlonRaw — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 17:42:29 +0000

Well howdy y’all (that’s right I’m in Texas right now!) and I think I have gotten over my jetlag from the trip across the pond but let’s rewind a couple of days to London!

I arrived into London early Tuesday morning to this familiar sight at Heathrow:

This would have been the plane I would have worked on, had I remained living and working in London. I never was trained to work on the big betty. Isn’t she large?

This was after a 12 hour flight through the night from Bangkok to London in 2008 on the smaller 747.

KLM lost my luggage into London! Can you believe that??? I don’t usually fly commercially for work, but this time was a little different and with all the travelling I do, I was amazed that it hasn’t happened more often. But I am definitely a believer in ‘manifestation’ and only the evening before, as I was painstakingly packing for this trip, I said that I wasn’t going to pack that much as I could do with buying some new clothes on this trip, plus for the first time in FOREVER I really didn’t want to go away. Sometimes living out of a suitcase can get a little tiresome, and I really just wanted to stay at home and not go away for once…maybe a sign that it’s getting close to retiring the wings?

After numerous calls to the airline and their baggage contractor, I determined I may not see my luggage before I left the following day, so I resigned myself to having to go out and buy some basics.

Meeting up with my girls for dinner, was definitely the HIGHLIGHT of the day, and something I really needed after the less than helpful airline staff and my lack of belongings.

So I finally made it the London’s only Raw food restaurant SAF and what a treat to end such a lousy day. All 3 of my friends hadn’t ever actually tried any Raw food and were a little hesitant (being the end of winter) but they were very excited and allowed me to take the lead with ordering. It was such a great idea to have the 4 of us too as it meant we could order and sample more food!

I arrived to the girls in the bar (Saf’s Wine & Martini Bar is one of the first organic bars in Europe) with Gemma sipping on a Lavender and Ginger Lemonade (fresh lemon, lavender and sweetened with raw cane sugar syrup) which she claimed to be delicious but I never got a try!

We made our way to the table and for a mid week the restaurant was neither empty or heaving, which was great for us!

Peta (we met at make-up school back in the day in Australia) & my old housemate Gemma (check our her gift cards & accessories blog here)

And another pal from school days in Australia, now living in London, Camilla. I went to her wedding in Albania last August. Shhh I’m wearing day old clothes due to NO LUGGAGE thanks KLM

Our starter to share :Tasting Plate Beetroot ravioli, vegetable maki, olives & spiced nuts, tapenade, sun dried tomato cashew cheese with raw flax seed crackers, homemade pickles and samosa. The girls loved the cheese.

Close up of the ravioli

With some extra samosas to try…these were quite similar to the real thing just a little sweeter.

And now for the mains….

Lasagne – Raw Bolognaise, sage pesto, olive relish, mushrooms, sun dried tomatoes, macadamia ricotta served with side salad

Apologies for some poor photo quality…hard in a darkened (but ambient) restaurant. Our only warm dish – Pumpkin Risotto : Pearl barley, pumpkin cream, cinna- mon, crispy sage, roasted pistachio, hazelnut and balsamic reduction

The wait staff were extremely knowledgeable in the dishes and explained all meals that came out including a new dish that we sampled which has not made the menu yet.

Don’t know what they are going to call it but it resembled pasta carbonara. Was tasty with some kind of dehydrated mushrooms.

Camilla’s and my favourite, the very spicy Pad Thai : Courgette noodles, enoki mushrooms,mung shoots, fresh chilis and chipotle almond sauce.

And of course we couldn’t come all this way and not try out the desserts…

Cheesecake! Ooooh yeah. I loved it. I strangely thought it tasted like the real thing..the others didn’t think so much.

Chocolate Ganache Tart: pernod ice cream, spiced rum & pear compote, cacao syrup

And unpictured pineapple & lemongrass sorbet (the clear winner) and not so great vanilla ice-cream (according to my critics!)

Such a fun way to catch up with my friends who all commented on how satisfied but not too stuffed feeling they felt and how they would definitely return with friend.

Oh and no girls night out is complete without a glass of vino or two (Unpictured!)

Saf Restaurant London

152-154 Curtain Road – Shoreditch London EC2A 3AT – +44.20.76130007
Coffee/Tea/Cakes starting at 10:00am – Lunch 12:00pm-3:30pm – Dinner: 6:00pm-10:30pm – Bar food & drinks: 12:00pm – till late
Now Open Sundays for London’s #1 Veg. Roast (Evening Standard) Served 12:00pm-4:00pm

Hey while you are there why don’t you check out Emily’s blog here and the interview I did with her this week. It was a load of fun, thanks Emily

Gotta run but I definitely have some more news to catch you up on later

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