All posts tagged: raw

Clean Eating in Auckland

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IMPORTANT: This article was published in 2014. Details may have changed.  I love dining out, but it can be hard to make healthy choices when dining out so I often view dining out as a chance to indulge in rich foods. It doesn’t have to be this way! Luckily, there are a few places in Auckland who are making huge effort to offer delicious healthy options. What I also love about these places is they can be great inspiration for cooking at home too. Most of these offerings are easy to recreate at home using fresh ingredients. I’m not a health nut, but with my health issues this year, I’ve been looking at what I eat more and focusing on clean eating and whole foods.

Prepare Ika Mata (Cook Islands raw fish salad)

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Raw fish is delish I fell in love with Ika Mata during our honeymoon in Rarotonga a couple of years ago. This raw fish and coconut cream salad is “cooked” in lemon juice and confettied with diced vegetables. I’ve eaten it a couple times in New Zealand, but never had the guts to make it at home until now. It’s absolutely a summertime dish and I’m glad to be able to cross it off this summer’s to do list. It was much easier than I anticipated. I don’t know what I haven’t made it sooner. Some raw fish dishes from around the world (alpha): Crudo, Italy Ceviche, South America Ika Mata, Cook Islands Kelaguen, Mariana Islands (Micronesia) Kinilaw, Philippines Kokoda, Fiji Ota ‘ika or Oka i’a, Tonga, Tahiti, Samoa Poisson Cru or E’ia Ota, Tahiti Poke, Hawaii Tiradito, Peru This recipe uses yellowfin tuna because it happens to be on special this week at Nosh, but you can use firm white fish such as kahawai or gurnard if the price is right. This is good eating, but can feel on the light side. If you are like …

RAW: AUT Grad Show

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This week, 7 years ago, I had just completed an illustrated children’s book and had set up for the AUT Grad show for the Bachelor of Art and Design. It happened to be the same week as my 21st birthday and I was so busy with the exhibition that I flagged a formal 21st party. Instead, I opted for a spontaneous knees up at Rising Sun bar on K Road where The Koala worked. We lived on K Road back then so it was an easy choice. It was a good party, not that I remember, but for the next week, random strangers told me that they had met me my birthday and that I was really happy. Good to know. Well, this year’s AUT grads are on show and I’m going to visit tonight for the preview evening of RAW. I love going to grad shows. Something about the naive enthusiasm, the relief that it’s all over and the general buzz, is great to be around. It’s always inspiring and a little daunting to see …

Prepare a raw meal

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One of my “To Do” activities this spring was to prepare a raw meal. Don’t worry, I’m not giving up hot meals just yet, I just thought it would be interesting and a challenge this spring to make something that was raw, good looking and edible. So I gave it a go. It was harder than I thought even without cooking involved. I picked ingredients based on flavour and colour. I used a few questionable ingredients that have been processed/fermented/pasturised like oil, soy sauce and milk. You can get raw versions of these things apparently. I didn’t for this experiment, but you could. I used gurnard and salmon and squeezed fresh orange and fresh lemon onto the lot. A happy ending via a strawberry smoothie.

The secret to making Vietnamese Spring Rolls

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Vietnamese spring rolls (or summer rolls) are one of my favourite things to eat and I always order this as starter when we visit a Vietnamese restaurant. The light, refreshing roll contrasts with a punchy sauce and I feel like I never get enough of these things. The beauty of making food at home is you can have as many pieces as you like. You can eat as many as you like for a main course without confusing your poor waiter. I’ve made these rolls once before but it was a messy failure. My mistake was to soak the rice paper in hot water and for too long. By the time you roll up, it disintegrates and you can forget about trying to eat them with any ounce of dignity. I have found the secret which I will share with you below. When we were eating in Hanoi, Vietnam at the start of this year, I noticed that the rice paper rolls were a tad under softened. That led me to believe that the rolls …