Ultimate Salads and Magnificent Dressings – Get creative with your salads!

Posted on February 23, 2012 by vibrantearth

Do you love your salads? You make 2 or 3 regularly. Right?! They work and are ok, but don’t really excite you and your family any longer.

Ever wondered if there is more out there to learn about salads and how to vary them? Is there more than ‘Thousand Islands’ dressing out of a bottle? …and how do I do it?

Here is a chance to expand your repertoire dramatically and to reclaim the position of your family’s favourite chef. That will get the kids away from those TV cooking shows and back to their PlayStation 🙂

I’m happy to announce our next Raw Food Class at the Wise Cicada on
Thursday, March 8th, 2012, 7-9.30pm

At this food demonstration class you will learn:

How to make a variety of simple, yet delicious salads for every day and season, as well as for special occasions.
How to make delicious dressings with what you’ve got in your fridge, pantry and garden.
How to flavor balance your dressings and how to achieve the right texture, color and mouthfeel.
Ideas for dehydrated snacks and other additions to top your salads.

Your investment: $60.-/person

Full recipe booklet, flavour balancing chart and samples included.

You will learn how to confidently prepare a variety of great salads that will please and entertain both you, your family and friends.

Join us for an entertaining and fun-filled evening that will raise your awareness and knowledge level around the preparation of delicious salads and dressings.

Booking essential. Space is limited to 20 students.
Book your space today!

Call René on 027 555 1622 or send us a message via our Contact Page.

See you on March 8th!

René

🙂

Superfoods 101 – an introductory class to exotic ingredients

Posted on February 2, 2012 by vibrantearth

Here comes a brilliant opportunity for you to figure out what all these weird named packages are: Superfoods!

A live food demonstration at the Wise Cicada, February 22, 2012, 6.30pm.

What’s in them?
What are they good for?
How do they taste?
How can I use them to my best benefit and greatest taste?

Have you ever wondered how to use: Camu, Yacon, Macqui, Acai, Maca, Sancha Inchi, Chia (apart from Babak’s Chia Drink), Goji berries, Cat Claw, Stevia, Lucuma, Turmeric, Nopal, Noni, Cacao, Mangosteen, Mesquite, Beepollen, Yum, Spirulina, Hemp, Coconut oil, Barberries, Chlorella, Golden Berries, Mulberries, CMD, Pomegranate, and a few more…

I’ll have Ross J Sims from Living Foods Lifestyle assisting me with this class.

Ross and his wife Michele La Chante are running a Superfoods focused business and are also the New Zealand representatives of Navitas – THE Superfoods company. Many of the Superfoods on the Wise Cicada‘s shelves are imported by Michele and Ross. Ross will be there to talk about the superfoods we present to you in this class and will also answer your questions about them.

I myself will be introducing some delicious ways of using the featured products in your daily nutritional routine and meals. Without giving too much away I can already promise you some ice cream, a few great tasting smoothie ideas, raw chocolate and a few others.

You will take a recipe booklet home and get to sample the superfoods we feature that night as well as everything I demo in front of the class.
All of this for an investment of NZD60.- only.

Due to the nature of this class and the amount of samples we will be giving out the space is limited to 20 students only.

Please book early by contacting us here or by ringing René directly on 0275551622. Alternatively you can book your place at the Wise Cicada.

We’ll see you on February 22, 2012 from 6.30pm – 9pm at the Wise Cicada Café in Newmarket – on a natural HIGH!

René

🙂

PS: As you can see above, the list of so-called superfoods is long, so expect more superfoods classes to follow this ‘101’ edition!

Chocolate body paintings available upon request only 😉

Raw Cheese Cakes de-mystified – a Master Class

Posted on January 13, 2012 by vibrantearth

Catering the raw desserts for the One World Café at the Prana New Year 2012 festival has given us plenty of practice and opportunity to fine tune our recipes. We are now announcing our first Raw Cheese Cake Master Class.

Where: Wise Cicada Café, 23 Crowhurst Street, Newmarket, Auckland

When: Wednesday, February 1st, 2012, 6.30-8.30pm

How much: $55.-/person

This class will be run as an interactive food demonstration. René will be preparing several raw cheese cakes right in front of you. You will have the chance to taste the finished products and ask all your questions. We will provide you with copies of the recipes to all demonstrated cakes and will, as always, offer you many many ideas – so bring a pen!

René will basically demonstrate two kinds of raw vegan “cheese” cakes – the cashew-based kind, as served at the Wise Cicada Café and Prana and the young coconut meat version as served at Lydia’s and René’s wedding 🙂

The latter to provide you with ideas on how to use the delicious young coconut meat from the drinking coconuts available now.

ALSO: René will put special focus on the art of making ‘perfect’ raw crusts and their use for different occasions like cakes, pies as well as small tartlets, perfect for catering.

All our recipes are vegan, gluten-free and raw. You will graduate from this class with the confidence to prepare stunning raw cheese cakes on your own. We will also be there for you to help you pick the right ingredients and equipment. Any questions later on – just contact us here, by phone, e-mail or at the Café in Newmarket.

The spaces for this class are limited to 20 students so please reserve your place early. We have already taken several bookings.

Send us an e-mail from our contact page or ring René on 0275551622.

Alternatively register at the Wise Cicada shop counter.

We are looking forward to seeing you shortly.

🙂

Prana, Raw Cheese Cakes and a word on Raw Food Blenders

Posted on January 13, 2012 by vibrantearth

Yep, the Prana New Year 2012 Festival is over. It was stunning! Despite the rain we had a Blast supplying the ‘One World Café’ with raw desserts. Jack and René arrived well ahead of the crowds and went straight to work making raw granola, our vegan chocolate müsli slice, chocolate walnuts, and raw cheese cakes. Jack truly refined the art of crust making during the festival. In the end we counted a total of 18 raw cheese cakes made and sold. By the time the festival started we had 16 in the freezer waiting to be served and just topped it up with two more in the end. The selection of flavours we had were: lemon, lemon vanilla, lime vanilla, goji apricot, chocolate peppermint, chocolate chai, spicy chai, passionfruit vanilla, goji chocolate, maple chocolate and layered as well as swirled combinations of the above.

Lydia joined us a day later and put her loving energy into our Super Hero Bliss Balls as well as tied up all the loose ends around our raw food operation in the back kitchen as well as lovingly tending the front dessert counter.

We had an AMAZING crew volunteering in the kitchen and helping us occasionally. The groovy music in our part of the kitchen seemed to help a bit 😉

from top clockwise: peppermint choc, ginger cashew, goji cashew, plain choc and cashew, pure choc orange

Once the festival was under way we also supplied the nightly chocolate bar with a selection of our raw chocolate buttons in various flavours. Jack became great at making a vibrant-looking strawberry chocolate torte (which was a mission to cut :-)) and we also sent out the occasional Orgasmic Blueberry Pie.

Overall we had a splendid time in the kitchen and at the festival. Having prepared so much in advance we had enough time to attend a few concerts and music happenings when the rain stopped 🙂 Jack was out networking and jamming with great enthusiasm. Lydia and I enjoyed ourselves at Caitlin and Sika‘s concerts, laughter yoga and a late night drumming circle in the large tipi – which was out of this world!!!

Yes, the Raw Food Blenders!

We had three different models in our prep zone: Jack’s late model Vitamix, Maya’s LexSun (replaced by OmniBlend brand nowadays – see below) and our trusted BlendTec Total Blender.

They all performed extremely well. Yet making raw cheese cakes in series production really showed the different models’ strengths. Guess, which one tolerated the most ‘abuse’/hard work?! Maya it was your darling LexSun blender! After the VitaMix and BlendTec had both requested a holiday in the freezer to reset their over heat fuse the LexSun completed the job without complaint. Very impressive!

The strategy René followed in the end to make the raw cheese cake filling was to blend the whole batch in the LexSun – somewhere between 1.2-1.5 liter of thick cashew mix. After everything had mixed well and the cashews were kind of finely broken down I split the batch and finished it in two parts in the BlendTec – which definitely achieved the smoothest texture – 750ml as optimum fill level.

The cool thing about this strategy was that it allowed for colourful swirly cakes with different flavours combined in one crust. The most popular one was the spicy chai and chocolate one.

These days the LexSun is replaced in New Zealand by the identical OmniBlend machines at a more reasonable price. Make sure you get the new jar with it – which is a larger copy of the BlendTec jar. Perfect combination! This on here.

For a generous 15% off the listed prices on the OmniBlend website with free shipping in NZ apply this discount code: RAFS2014

Oh, did I mention that we will be teaching a Raw Cheese Cake class?

See you there!

René

🙂

Surprising alternative to cole slaw – Cabbage Cranberry Salad

Posted on October 19, 2011 by vibrantearth

Here is a delicious winter recipe with a surprisingly easy preparation and brilliant flavour combination. The cranberries add a lovely sweet and bitter contrast to the salad.

You might have seen me demonstrating and sampling this salad at New World in Remuera, Auckland. Stay tuned, there is more good stuff to come!

Cabbage Cranberry Salad
Serves 6

¨ 1 head of green cabbage, finely chopped, center removed

¨ ½ tsp natural sea salt (to taste)

¨ 2 Tbsp grape seed oil

¨ 1 avocado, seeded and peeled – optional for a creamier dressing

¨ ½ lemon, juiced or 1Tbsp organic apple cider vinegar

¨ ½ cup dried cranberries

Combine all ingredients in a big mixing bowl and massage well by using your hands in order to soften the cabbage.
Pause and let the salad rest for 5 min before massaging it to final softness. The cabbage should start to release liquid. Together with the finely distributed avocado this will make your dressing and also soften the dried cranberries.

Variations: Play with other vegetables from the cabbage family! Broccoli and kale work well. You can also add carrots and beetroot.

Substitute the cranberries with sultanas or dried and minced apricot. To soften cabbage and other hardy vegetables by massaging you will need natural salt. Acid and oil will help to soften the vegetables too and to distribute the flavours.

Happy massaging!

René

🙂

Raw Snack Recipe – Chocolate Walnuts

Posted on October 3, 2011 by vibrantearth

With our “Dry it, you will like it!” class coming up here a little teaser and one of my favourite raw snack recipes. Should you prefer pecans over walnuts use them! For a different twist try sunflower seeds. They have a lighter yet nutty base flavour and dry in handy clusters. See the yummy picture below!

Chocolate Walnuts

Makes 1+ dehydrator tray

3 c soaked walnut halves
4 T date paste
2 T agave nectar
6 T organic whole fat cocoa powder, raw if you choose
½ t cinnamon
1 t vanilla essence
3 drops butterscotch flavour or maple essence
pinch natural sea salt
¼ t lime juice (I always add a few drops of citrus juice to chocolate – as it balances the flavours nicely)

Method

Mix everything thoroughly in a big bowl.
Spread on Teflex sheet.
Dehydrate at 105F for 12 hours. Turn over and remove Teflex sheet. Dehydrate for another 12 hours or until crisp. Turn trays by 90° periodically.
Store in sealed glass jars (what’s leftover from snacking during dehydrating :-))

Enjoy!

René

Dry it, you will like it!

Posted on September 27, 2011 by vibrantearth

Here it is, a raw food class fully dedicated to dehydrated foods!

The menu for the night contains a lot. I will make many things in advance so you can taste everything. As the dehydration process takes more than 12 hours we will not be able to sample what we make in the class. Yet we are going to prepare most of the dishes until they go into the dehydrator so you get a feel for the process and the flavours before dehydration.

Here is the menu:

Apple Spice Granola with Almond Milk
Chocolate Walnuts
Golden Linseed Crackers
Chilli Sunnies
Lydia’s Focaccio Bread
Buckwheaties
Zoom Burgers with condiments and caramelised onions
Almond Butter Cookies
Pizza Alive
Wraps and Turnovers

Phew! That will keep us busy and happily fed 🙂

We are truly looking forward to it. Why not join us?! There are still about 4 places left in this class. Get in touch with us to secure your space!
(Yes, check out the testimonials first! ;-))

We are going to play with our Excalibur dehydrator. They truly are the best on the market. They are available here in New Zealand from Pure Wellbeing. Of course, you can use what you have or what you can easily get.
Years ago when living in Norway I built one of these beauties: http://www.dryit.com/
Check it out!!! They work. I recommend you get the book and the heating element from them – in case you are planning on building your own dehydrator.

Here is a picture of the one I created in 2003

My home made dehydrator to the left

René

International Delights – Raw Food Class Tuesday 20 September

Posted on September 17, 2011 by vibrantearth

Allow us to announce the remaining 5 spaces at our brand new “International Delights” raw food class this coming Tuesday. We have not taught this class before and have no clue what it will be about…

Haha! Just joking!

The recipes include the following:

· Berry Bliss Breakfast smoothie,
· Bonbon Sauce dressing,
· Greek Dolmades,
· a heavenly raw Minestrone soup,
· Mexican style cabbage with
· cashew sour cream,
· Salsa Picante and
· Whole Lava Love.

We’ll finish the feast with

· a blissful Lemon Macaroon Cheesecake Tart (the very cheesecake that’s selling at the Wise Cicada café – currently in blue Grape and Cherry flavour)

So, if you are game let’s play!!!

As always, this is a hands-on class with a feast in the end.

We are looking forward to having a Blast together.

Start 6pm – 9.30pm

Please contact us to reserve your space.

Yum Yum!

René Archner Workshops, Food & More

Real Food for Real People

Tag Archives: cooking classes

Ultimate Salads and Magnificent Dressings – Get creative with your salads!

Superfoods 101 – an introductory class to exotic ingredients

Raw Cheese Cakes de-mystified – a Master Class

Prana, Raw Cheese Cakes and a word on Raw Food Blenders

Surprising alternative to cole slaw – Cabbage Cranberry Salad

Raw Snack Recipe – Chocolate Walnuts

Chocolate Walnuts

Dry it, you will like it!

International Delights – Raw Food Class Tuesday 20 September