Day #3 of PLR Internship: Strawberry, Lemon Cheesecake

Carried in by the brisk wind outside, I arrived at the café to a chorus of, “Tali, you’re here,” from the workers! I felt like part of the team as I grabbed an apron, washed my hands, and looked to Nicole for direction.

On my way over to where I saw her working, I observed one of the workers peeling almonds. After soaking the almonds overnight (better for our digestive systems), the worker slipped the almond crust off of the almond! It was so interesting to see the almonds skinless, almost like they were naked.

Soaked Almonds

The Whole Process: Soaked to Skinned

 

Skinned Almonds

“What’s great about interns is that we can have a little fun,” she said with a devilish grin. “We’re going to make a cake!” She grabbed up the recipe book, flung it open, and started listing out ingredients for me to grab. Excitedly, I rushed around the kitchen finding things -soaked and sprouted cashews from the freezer, walnuts, coconut oil, freshly-squeezed lemon juice, pale pink Himalayan salt, agave nectar, date paste. It felt like a scavenger hunt since I knew where little of it was.

First, we made the crust, throwing date paste, almonds, walnuts, cacao nibs (which I had never seen before: they’re basically partially ground up cacao beans), agave, and coconut butter into a food processor. Then we weighed the crust mixture and divided it by two for two evenly weighted crust dishes. This is an important concept in cooking: weighing quantities to make sure that all the servings are equal.

The crust of the cake -date paste, cacoa, walnuts, coconut oil, and almonds

After setting those in the freezer to harden, we defrosted and pureed strawberries and coconut oil for a sweet, delicious middle layer. Then we poured the strawberry puree on top of the crust and set them back in the freezer. Finally, we began to make the middle. We were making a sweet lemon, cashew filling -cashews, lemon, coconut oil, agave, and date paste. I was surprised to see how much sugar went into even “raw” and “healthy” desserts. The “sugar overload” is almost impossible to avoid! I blended al the ingredients together after measuring out and weighing each!

Coconut Oil melts on a double boiler

Melted coconut oil and cacao powder

measuring and weighing ingredients

Pouring the filling on top!

For the final touch, we drizzled the extra strawberry puree on top of the smooth and flattened filling, running a fork through the drizzle to create a beautiful creation on the top of the cake! For something that always seemed so hard, it was actually quite simple. Then we set the two cakes into the freezer for a final drying time. Unfortunately, I never got to taste it. Although, I am quite sure it would’ve tasted amazing!!!

Final Product: A Scrumptious Strawberry-Lemon Cheescake

Lemon cheesecake with strawberry puree drizzle

Before designing the top!

Internship: 1.5 hour, Write-Up: .5 hour

Cost: NA, Materials: RAW’s food and supplies

Total Time: 47 hours

Cooking with New Vegetables – Rutabaga and Kolhrabi!

This past Sunday was primarily a day of cooking for me and my family. Wanting to prepare healthy dishes for the week, we headed to the store and came across a number of interesting looking and unfamiliar foods! Feeling adventurous, we bought some of them, took them home, and found recipes for them.

Bok Choi

Kolhrabi at its finest

What was so fun about this, was how odd and unique the plants looked! In fact, I recall thinking: Please, let these not be poisonous! But actually, they all tasted pretty normal –not to mention, some of them had great flavor.

One such vegetable was Rutabaga, a cross between a turnip and a cabbage that originated in Sweden. While the rutabaga may taste inedibly bitter to some, I thought it tasted rather plain, although it had a delicious crunch. The rutabaga is known for its high levels of Vitamin C, containing 25 mg for every 100 g (42% of daily recommended dose). We added this crazy vegetable to the recipe “fall slaw,” a great recipe. The recipe calls for a unique vegetable combination –intermixing carrots, rutabaga, kohlrabi, and celery- along with some apple, lemon, and pumpkin seeds. The dressing was a tahini past with maple syrup, lemon, a pinch of salt, and water. To my delight, the spiralizer came in handy for the carrots, apples, and rutabaga! The whole slaw just looked amazing and tasted great. Plus, good protein sources came from the tahini (sesame seeds we ground up), pumpkin seeds, and a bit from the veggies.

Great Fall Slaw from rawmazing.com

We also got Kolhrabi, which went straight into the Fall Slaw. The word that came to mind when I saw this little green vegetable with long, lush, green stems was “adorable.” For some reason, it just looked so cute. Looking online, we discovered that you can eat the long leaves like you do kale and chard, so we saved those for our morning smoothies. Kolhrabi comes from the same family as cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, and collard greens –with a texture similar to a broccoli stem but a bit milder. Kolhrabi has many noted health benefits. It is rich in vitamins and dietary fiber, yet low in calories, fat, and has zero cholesterol. Like rutabaga, it is an excellent source of vitamin C, providing 62 mg per 100 g. It also contains a myriad of phytochemicals like isothiocyanates, sulforphane, and indole-3-carbinol. What’s more, it contains notable amounts of B vitamins and minerals.

On top of that, my mom and I tried out another new recipe: Shepherds Pie from one of Kimberly Snyder’s recipe books The Detox Diet. While Shepherd’s pie is traditionally heavy with meat, cheese, and a bread crust, this one used a hearty mix of corn, peas, celery, and seasoning for the insides, and a delicious, savory yam topping for the “crust!” It was warm, filling, and deliciously gooey! Plus, it was all vegetables so no worries about loading up on fats.

Cooking up the “pie stuffing”

Blending the yam “crust”

Corn, carrots, peas, and celery laid out!

Adding the “yam crust”

Piping hot out of the oven!

Shop time: 1 hour, Cook Time: 2 hours, Write-Up time: .5 hour, Research: .5 hour

Cost: fresh vegetables ($25), Materials: Fresh vegetables and produce

Total time: 45 hours