White chocolate strawberry cheesecake

Here it is! Everything all together - base, cream filling, raw choc drizzle and fresh strawberries.
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We enjoyed the cheesecake with a simple banana and coconut cream sorbet (2 frozen bananas, 1/4 can of organic coconut cream and tiny bit of agave). It was really delicious, a great balance of texture, flavour and freshness.

Noah wrote up a list of the key ingredients, see below.

Cacao Magic

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We played with making chocolate, the quantities and ratios were a bit out and the chocolate was very strong, none the less delicious.
2 tbs raw cacao butter, melted at low heat
2 tbs raw chocolate cacao powder
1 tsp carob powder
1 tbs of coconut oil
little salt and agave
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we chocolate dipped strawberries to put on top of the cheesecake and then drizzled on more of the melted chocolate, which dried hard by the time the cake was ready to eat.

Strawberry cashew cream

Another of my little brothers, Llewy joined our cheesecake making team, and with him brought a high level of genius and attention to detail. Llewy made the cashew, cacao butter and strawberry cream filling. It was his idea to add the strawberries and when we tasted it we all decided that it didnt need chocolate as it was already super delicious. When Llewy was putting the cream on top of the base, he shook the pan vigorously, and initially I was like hey slow down and chill out dude until I realised that his method created an ultra smooth and even layer of cream. 

Cream filling

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1 and 1/2 cups of organic cashews soaked for 2 hours
5 or so strawberries
a few tablespoons of dark agave syrup
approx 4 tbs of melted raw organic cold pressed cacao butter
tiny bit of pink salt
blended together until beautifully smooth
spread on top of base (and put into freezer)

Ground zero

 

the base

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1 and 1/2 cups of activated biodynamic almonds (soaked overnight and sundried)

1/2 cup organic brazil nuts

approx 6 dried apricots and 2 or 3 handfuls of raisons, chopped and soaked for 6 hours

1 - 2 tablespoons of coconut oil

a tiny bit of salt and a little cinnamon
press into a spring form pan and freeze

 

Bowls of soaking dried apricots and raisons 

activated almonds, and soaking cashews

Inspiration

Gathering inspirations from all over the place to make my mum's birthday cake. Here are a few of the most delicious sounding recipes that I found on the net
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Blackforest Chocolate Cheesecake
Raw Orange Chocolate "Cheesecake"
Concorde Grape Cheesecake with Fig and Grape Puree
Raw Chocolate Avocado Pie

Ive decided to go down the path of cashew nut cream filling using cacao butter. Noah and I went to the health food shop and bought some organic cashews and chatted to the lovely man working there about eating raw and the high food miles of ridiculous superfoods, he gave both of us a taste of his homemade flax crackers (which Noah loved) and some more inspiration for our cheesecake adventure.

When we got home from the school pick up/ organic shop mission I showed Noah some of the recipes I had shortlisted, he was totally pumped to get right into it and start making a really delicious wonder cake for our mumma. He put his apron on and we went for it.
Noah requested that we make the Purple cheesecake for his birthday in February (and got me to write it in my diary so I dont forget).

Making dosa for lunch

Ive made Dosa experiments several times in the last couple of weeks. I really enjoy the flavour and texture of these pancakes, they are delicious, though im sure mine would be quite different to traditional dosa, I was happy with todays recipe.
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1/2 cup of organic white rice soaked for a day and ground up in mortar and pestle (you could use a blender)
1/2 cup of whole red lentils soaked and beginning to sprout, also ground up, some lentils were left whole
1/2 cup of kefir, I used biodynamic cows milk kefir because thats what I had, this is to kickstart the souring process. Which develops the flavours and extra healthful qualities of dosa. You could also use some sourdough culture (maybe even yoghurt?) or leave the mixture to ferment naturally for a few days.

The ingredients were mixed together into a thick paste and left in a jar for a day to ferment. When ready to cook I added some pink salt, a little extra water, a few dried garlic granules because they were beside the stove and I thought why not, and a little bit of cinnamon powder.
I fried them on a low heat using a thin layer of coconut oil in a heavy cast iron pan. It is best to let the dosa cook well on one side until the top becomes dry, then flipping is a simple endeavour and they hold together well. It doesnt need much cooking at all on the other side. Dosa are flavoursome enough to enjoy on their own, today mum and I ate them for lunch with salads and tahina sauce.

Bok Choy Strawberry Salad

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fresh bok choy
strawberries
brazil nuts
flaxseed oil
served with dosa pancakes and tahina sauce

A light like taboulei

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Sprouted buckwheat

avocado

fuji apple from local farm

fresh parsley from mum's garden

lemon juice

served on freshly cooked dosa with tahina sauce
eaten outside in the sunshine

Just looking at an amazing looking live pizza recipe from the beautiful Holly on her WhollyRaw blog,
I really want to have a go at making it, i dont have a dehydrator but perhaps it is possible using the oven on very low (slightly ajar)...

"Permaculture is revolution

disguised as organic gardening."
- Graham Burnett

'Permaculture – A Beginners Guide'

Rock-App-Avo Smoothie

Morning smoothie
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One medium sized pink lady apple from local Red Hill Farm
1/2 an avocado

Rocket greens and flowers from Josiane's garden
1 and 1/2 cups of water

this was deliciously satisfying and has put my brain and body back on track

Tam's delicious Coconut Cacao Cheesecake

inspiration for my raw cheesecake adventure
from Tamara Lunchbox

Soaking

Today I am going to make my mum some kind of raw chocolate cheesecake for her birthday. Ive started the process by soaking some biodynamic almonds in rain water (they are on tank water here) and in another bowl I have some organic dried apricots and raisons soaking away to their hearts content. I am going to do some more recipe and idea research, will keep you posted. A lot of raw pies are based on cashews and coconut meat, as I dont have either of these ingredients, I am looking for a way to make a simpler pie with what I already have here. I do have some raw cacao butter though which is amazingly indulgent and exciting.

Mums forest garden

Mooseel and Sosua Milk

My five year old brother Noah wrote this shopping list. See Sosua Milk (Soya Milk) and Mooseel bars (Muesli bars). Below is his play kitchen set up in the shed next to the hay bales, perfect setting for filming a cooking demo...

Bus stop smoothie

Green smoothie takeaway. Sometimes I make a smoothie minutes before I
need to leave. I blend, somewhat haphazardly, pour it into a jar and
run out the door.

Late night kraut

I decided not to go to Fermentation Friday this week because I really needed to do the overflowing stacks of dishes and my homework before getting up early to go to school. But funnily enough just before bed, overtired and needing to dream, I found myself slicing cabbage for a late night kraut. I salted it, covered with a plate and weighed it down with my mortar and pestle. I'll pack it into a jar when I wake before I run off to learn things. Fermenting on Friday now seems to have taken on automatic function. It will be interesting to see if I prepare anything else in my sleep.
How good are these cabbage spirals?

Yellow noodles

I wish you could see how fluro coloured these yellow noodles are.
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Steam sweet potato, then add coconut oil, pink salt, lots of chopped green cabbage, and fresh tumeric paste. When done add some desicated coconut and lemon juice to taste and your favorite rice stick noodles.

Super great textured icecream

Sometimes you enter your kitchen with a desire in mind, to make a pie for instance. You are little unsure about the exact flavour and composition of this, pie, you are also not sure if you have all the ingredients required though you are not following an exact recipe. You launch yourself into this venture, and in the beginning you have a vision that you are making a pie crust and a pie filling to achieve this pie desire. As you progress along this pie making process it becomes evident that these two parts really need each other but not in the way that you expected. The crust and filling wish to be truly entwined, and suddenly, unexpectingly you have icecream with the most incredible texture.
 

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1 tbs coconut oil melted

1 tbs raw honey

2 tbs black tahini

Some amount of hempseed protein, I used about a cup

The other half of the flesh from the fresh Thai coconut 

(previously seen in milk thistle smoothie)

2 frozen bananas

Milk thistle coconut smoothie

I haven't been overly into the Thai drinking coconut craze, mostly because of the very high food miles and very low price (indicating non fair trade). I know they are delicious and so so very good for you, but so are lots of things, and this isn't the tropics. But sometimes you do these things, and you buy a coconut from the supermarket for $1.78 and you celebrate and rejoice and really enjoy the choice you've made.
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Lots of freshly harvested milk thistles
Fresh coconut water and half of the flesh
A banana
And then add more greens - young cos lettuce, parsley and spicy rocket
until flavour is balanced.



To my good fortune Lex turned up and happily drank half of this smoothie, the celebration of mystical far away things is better when sharing

Platter of condiments

Jas came over for a late afternoon pancake lunch, see batter below. We made up a nice selection of fermented and fresh things to go on top.
The mash pumpkin has kefir in it and the white/green thing is a pesto made from slightly fermented sunflower seed sprouts, fresh rocket and hemp oil. These okonomiyaki style pancakes are particulary delicious when made really thick and cooked covered on low heat for awhile (and of course some kind of mayonnaise is always a hit).

The never ending batter

Pancake batter with grated pumpkin, sweet potato, carrot, cabbage, red onion and dulse.
I've been using and replenishing the same sourdough pancake batter for over a week, adding new flours for the culture to feed on and adding some of the batter to a fresh selection of grated vegetables. As you can see there is a lot more veg than flour in my mix.

Ginger Jaffa smoothie

This is a very delicious and emotionally balancing smoothie
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2 bananas and 2 oranges (whole but with skin cut off)
handful of almonds soaked overnight
2 spoons of raw cacao powder (to taste)
little salt and dark agave syrup
sprouted quinoa
a knob of Ginger
two or so cups of water

Green Smoothie love

The green smoothie phenomena is quickly becoming a central part of my life. Everyday I pick greens and blend them with water and whatever fruit I can find. Everyday I invent a new recipe and find out you really can eat everything that grows (almost haha).














Here are a couple of recent smoothies I really enjoyed
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24.08.10
parsley and a few leaves of cos lettuce (from garden)
a grapefruit and 2 bananas
1 cup of water
-
23.08.10
fresh parsley
1 and 1/2 bananas
tablespoon each of carob powder and dessicated coconut
1 cup of water
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22.08.10
(made with Chita)
milk thistle and nettles
1 orange, stick of celery and 2 bananas
3 cups of water
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17.08.10
lots of spinach stalk and all
a small apple and half a banana,
spoon of tahini and a spoon of hemp protein
1 and 1/2 cups of water
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11.08.10
lots of chickweed!
Spoon each of hemp, cacao and carob powders
4 squishy Turkish dates
1 banana and 1/4 of an avocado
1 and 1/2 cups of water
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another version of chickweed chocolate!
04.08.10
chickweed!!
Half an avocado
1 banana and 3 strawberries
raw cacao and maca powder to taste
a tiny bit of agave of you need to balance sweetness
1 and 1/2 cups of water
(by all the exclamations you can probably see I am fond of chickweed-chocolate smoothies...)
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01.08.10
buk choy leaves
2 bananas and 3 strawberries (these were high flavoured organic strawberries so don't need many, also I don't generally use much expensive fruits in my smoothies, since the high proliferation of bananas, I buy ripe ones from the markets and keep in freezer, I do the same with avocadoes sometimes-removing skin, quartering and freezing-rationing)
spoon of maca
1 and 1/2 cups of water

Carob tahini hemp ball

I've made these a few times in the last week, I'm a bit into carob at the moment, it's so aromatic and delicious. Depending on quantities you have available and particular taste (whether you want an intense flavour or more sustenance) this concept is very adaptable. Yesterday I made it like this
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1 cup of ground sunflower seeds
1-2tbs coconut oil melted
1-2tbs tahini
1-2tbs raw honey
1-2tbs carob powder
1 cup of hempseed protein
juice of an orange
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the previous day I made a version without the sunflower seeds and much less hemp, they were deliciously rich, this recipe above is a sustenance version. Hemp is super high in protein.

Sour-Oko

Sourdough okonomiyaki

Sourdough pancake batter made with a mixture of flours (sourgham, white maize and tapioca),
2 eggs from our chooks (not neccessary at all but its me being extra safe that they wont stick to my pan)
himalayan crystal salt
grated carrot and sweet potato, chopped up super fresh green cabbage
Fried with coconut oil, served with mayonnaise and dulse.

Later I made it again and served with coleslaw-sauerkraut (cabbage, carrot, red capscium) and fresh rocket.

The beginnings of something wonderful...

Chita came over to begin her foray into sauerkraut and kim chi making. It was a beautiful sunny day, so we set up a little makeshift kitchen in the backyard overlooking the garden (we ended up moving the table into the sun after this initial shade photo). Im really keen to set up a full outdoor kitchen situation...

Sour-pumpkin pancakes

Sourdough pumpkin pancakes

Using the continuation of the injera batter (made with red sourgham flour and a sourdough culture), i added some white maize flour, salt, lots of grated pumpkin and 2 eggs and then fried them in coconut oil. Lately I have been having trouble with sour-pancakes sticking to the pan (the mixture is holding together but the entire bottom surface is sticking), it happened again this morning, but I decided to see what happened if I added eggs and they flipped like a dream. I was so happy!

We had these pancakes with an platter of vegetable ferments, sprouts, greens and sunflower seed sour cream.

Injera

Injera
Eithopian sourdough pancake (traditionally this is beautifully spongey and aerated)

This was the first time I have tried to make injera, I've had the red sourgham flour I bought from an injera bakery from Footscray for about a year in my freezer and I thought I would finally attempt it and bring it along to Fermentation Friday. The recipe is straight out of Sandor Ellix Katz's Wild Fermentation. They were a bit of a flop and no matter how hard I tried the bottom of the injera kept sticking to the pan. So I took my mixture along to FF and luckily there was someone that could help me out (go real life troubleshooting, way more fun than the Internet).I met Ben from Brisbane who runs Culture Club, he taught me many very useful and interesting things. We managed to pull together something of edibility, and I dressed the 'injera' with Megs delicious mango chutney I found in her fridge. But the most important thing I learned was that sourdoughs hit 'peaks' and when they are peaking you want to seize the moment and cook them. My injera mix had been well and truly bubbling with wonder in the morning but by the afternoon had passed a peak. I think I will need to further investigate if this makes a difference to the sticking situation. Sourdough peak watch...

Raw chocolate coated energy bar

Major discovery, I can choc dip things... Ive figured out how to make raw chocolate and how to chocolate dip my energy bars. It was really easy, pretty much melting at a very low heat some super awesome ingredients and then dipping in my already prepared energy bars. They dried super quickly and were really delicious.
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raw cacao butter
raw cacao powder (raw chocolate)
agave
salt
dried sour cherries
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the energy bars had a LOT of ingredients and whilst they were pretty good they weren't totally amazing, until I came up with the genius idea of choc-dipping them, it's amazing how even a really thin layer of chocolate can change your life. It really complemented the subtle lemon tahini flavour of the bars.


here is a rough inventory of ingredients
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sunflower seed sprouts and buckwheat sprouts (this is the bulk of the recipe, 1 cup of each)
chia seeds (made into a concentrated gel by adding a little water),
brazil nuts, sultanas, raisens, sour cherries
sesame seeds, coconut oil, salt
slippery elm powder
lemon juice and rind, tahini
dry buckwheat and sunflower seeds for texture and to add dryness and form to the bars.
- After mixing all the ingredients together, press down into a flat container and freeze. When frozen dismantle the slice from the container by popping it out and slicing into bars or squares. Alternately you can form into shapes by hand and then freeze.

Best porridge ever

Organic brown rice flakes soaked uncovered for 2 days
then cooked with lots of himalayan crystal salt
-- served with chia gel (chia seeds soaked in water), olive oil and lemon juice

Sour-Dosa

Sourdough Dosa (Indian pancakes)
I have made these three times in the last week following along the path of the recipe in Wild Fermentation. Each time I have made variances and experimenta.
- the basic idea is to soak rice and lentils separately overnight and then grind them up, make a thick batter and ferment it for a few days.
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I have used brown rice and organic white rice and preferred the later as it was much easier to grind. I have just been using my mortar and pestle because I enjoy using it, and don't mind a coarser grind, the rice turns into powdered snow. Traditionally Sosa calls for urad lentils but I used whole red lentils. Instead of plain water I used cobnut kefir which kick started the souring process. When ready to cook add salt and water to thin the mixture then fry in ghee or coconut oil. These were really great and it was such a revelation that I could make pancakes without needing flour bug rather by sprouting things and smashing them, yeh!

Eating dosa

Dosa with mashed pumpkin and a fried egg for dinner before taking the rest of the mixture to Fermentation Friday

Hijiki and Purple Carrot Kim Chi

Kim Chi

jap pumpkin
white sweet potato
purple carrot
cauliflower leaves
hijiki seaweed
Himalayan crystal salt
--
smashed
2 super hot chili's
3 cloves of russian garlic
2 brown onions
grated rind of lemon
-- veg soaked in brine overnight, then drained and mixed with onion chili sauce from mortar and pestle, packed and weighed down...

Kimchi chili paste

Inside the mortars guts there are onions and garlic melding together to make the kimchi sauce

Projects

So another energy in a bar

So another...
I'm pretty much making up all of my energy bar recipes as I go along. They are definately inspired by The Thrive Diet Book by Brendan Brazier, but like all recipe books, I flick through to get excited and then I go off on my own adventure
--
activated almonds, sunflower seeds and buckwheat (sprouted)
chia gel
mesquite, maca, slippery elm
cacao powder
and carob powder
chunks of smashed up cacao butter and dried sunflower seeds
dedicated coconut
agave
-- golden tanas (sultanas), smashed almonds and a couple of cacao beans
smash, blend and mix together, form into bars and freeze. The freezing keeps the energy bars alive for longer otherwise the sprouted content would go off very quickly. These are really yummy.

Soaked chia and golden sultanas preparing for masceration.

powders in the blender
mesquite, maca, slippery elm

Pickle stacks

a pickle stack, is when you use one jar of pickles to weigh down another in the process of pickling and that which needs to be weighed down under it's brine. Seen here is a jet of olives on top of a coleslaw-sauerkraut and Kim chi, all in progress.