raspberry buddha

Raspberry Cannoli with Mint Agave                                                                     

 Nori Rolls - these were delicious!  Processor vegetables instead of rice, and my FAVOURITE umeboshi paste with avocado.

Thai style noodles, well veges actually - I went to dinner at Simon and Tess's (cos I like three esses)  but forgot the spiraliser.  I still wanted coriander. Tess's Mulberry Pie was facestainingly good. (just picture mulberry stained faces  like this t-shirt: http://www.lostateminor.com/2010/10/30/carrot-rabbit-and-friends-t-shirt/  

I want special UV ink on my clothes too).

I thought this photo of a baby buddha hand citron WAS in focus...  cool though, I'll keep track of its growth. The taste is a combo of lemons and roses.

Recipes

I promised, so I'm delivering...  lunch, dinner and dessert.
The idea I had here was to make 2 meals at once - the cucumber/carrot rolls take a little bit of fussing, but then all the leftovers are put together and salted and left in a bowl in the fridge.  Here's the first bit.

You need lettuce, mushroom, avocado, carrot, parsnip, cucumber, red capsicum, lemon juice pesto or nut cheeses/dips and some garnish.

Salad Plate: 

throw some shredded lettuce on a plate, cut an avocado in half and sprinkle it all with salt, pepper and lemon juice.  I put some chilli preserved lemons in the avocado cos I had it in the fridge, but use anything for a taste or textural contrast (nuts, herbs, olives, pickles)

the mushroom caps are stuffed with a cashew capsicum pesto  -  I made a big batch of it and froze a few small ones, it's handy.

Cucumber/carrot rolls:

With vege peeler, cut some long ribbons of cucumber and carrot and lay them on top of each other, with a bit of colour sticking out.

Put a dob of pesto at one end of the ribbon, and lay across some other sliced vegetables - red capsicum and parsnip here, roll it up, and put another dob of pesto on the end to hold it together.  If you sit it on its pesto dobbed bottom for a while it doesn't actually need skewers.

Peel into long ribbons or cut finely the remaining parsnip, carrot, cucumber and red capsicum, add some shredded red cabbage and put in a bowl.  Sprinkle the lot with 1/2 a teaspoon of sea salt and mix it through.  then ignore it until you want dinner or lunch the next day. Then add coriander leaves and make a dressing

 The flavours and textures were so different -the strange looking dressing is a blend of papaya, coconut, miso, lemon juice, a little honey, olive oil and water (actually a left over snack i had frozen).  An alternative delicious dressing is:  Blend half a mango with lemon/lime juice, 1/2 cm ginger and a clove of garlic, sprinkle with nuts and chilli if you like it.  That dressing would look more tantalising on its own than this one did.

Here below is another unattractive looking thing - explains why you don't see "sprouted barley crackers" anywhere, but it makes a great crumbled topping on avocados or thrown into salads in place of croutons - it's almost bready, a bit of sweety meaty and gives substance and texture.

 See? 

OK since we're doing the ugly talk here, you know how you've got to be really careful photographing brown  things? Well...

these are cacao-avocado moussehearts.  

I blitzed up the cocoa crackers from a previous post, added a spoon of coconut oil and turned them into a base for these which looks too ugly to photograph,  here's the recipe:

Raw Cacao Mousse

1 avocado

2 Tablespoons (no more!) of raw cacao powder

1/2 vanilla pod (or 1t extract)

1/2 cup presoaked pitted dates or raisins

variation - for chocmint - add 1/2 T of agave syrup in which you have steeped a bunch of chopped mint leaves.

serve in a bowl with nuts, berries or bananas, mint leaves or just go for it as is.

PS  if you're making bars out of brownish grainyish looking stuff - ie goji energy bars with nuts and dates and things that look undigested, be sure to SQUARE OFF THE ENDS as they look ever so much more appealing like that.  Nobody wants a squashed sausage.

inspect my gadgets

OK here's where I show off just how basic the tools I've been using really are...

aren't they awful?

OK, OK the Alessi citrus juicer is a thing of true beauty, a squidgoddess from another realm, and the vege spiraliser is choice, but really, my food processor is broken in three different ways, I have a cheap mandoline and a stick mixer with a slightly broken nut grinder, but I've been getting on just fine.

Things are a bit rough and chunky, and I know I'll get better textures, fineness and fluffiness with a top qual blender, but I just wanted to show that what I'm working with is nothing special, and it still works.  I made a nut milk bag out of a scrap of tulle and it works too.

My Choc-hazelnut pie is a little grainier than I wanted, but it's very very chocolately and tastes good to me! (Image and recipe coming post raspberrification of said pie)

oh and spatula and vege peeler of course - essentials!

friday afternoon

the last slice of the strawberry.

delight.

and a spot of genetic engineering to round off the week.

What's it all about, Alfalfie?

I'd been visited by the Raw Food Thing a few times before, I tried it for a bit, felt great then I lost it again.

This time it's  so completely different.  I started rawing a couple of months ago now - a result of winter sludge and sluggishness and after I had reacted with scorn and defence to a friend who mentioned she was 'doing the raw vegan thing'.  "Urgh" I though, here we go again, the whole unattainable, perfectionistic, holier than thou dietary regime of restriction and plain intolerance to variety and individual likes.

So it took me a bit to get through that, I just thought to myself "when spring comes around, i'll give it a go..."  And I did.

I began gently with the philosophy that if I pushed hard, my resistance would find greater strength than my intentions, so all that I asked of myself was to start the day with a fresh juice.  After a week of that I just dove  (not like the bird I painted for my spazzy first class homework, dove, like stove, you know I'm right).

There's so much fantastic information out there now: books, workshops, people, websites, blogs, experiments, strange looks, emotional detox, physical detox, queasy before easy and not so hard - a whole lot of fun with some great rewards.  My old lives of organic shops, health food stores, hospitality, catering and food promotions gave me a bouncy spot to jump off.

So here on this blog I want to share my discoveries, laugh at my misses and rejoice about the successes - starting this blog is one of them.  Yay me!

I'm aiming for beautiful, delicious, practical, tasty and easy raw food - just don't try to stop me from going gourmet and haute cuisine - I love it there too, and I'm inspired by so many others.

I'm in Perth, Western Australia, and far from being alone in this trip I very quickly found a group of wonderful people who are all a part of this for me.  I wish I'd taken more photos of my weekend at Samudra with the fantastic crew that Jazz got together, but honestly it was so much more important to be fully there and soaking it all up than preserving it for posterity.  We'll just have to go back!

Social eating for me is pretty OK - I'm always one for an impromptu dinner party or a bring a plate thing, and i'm not so worried about what others think.  There may not always be a raw choice on the menu, but for me personally, allowing myself to stray from the path keeps me on it much more securely.  Perfectionism is crippling, and nobody likes a carping proselytising um, what should I call them? carrying on about what you're eating.  Just do your best darling.

pie

this is the first pizza I made - I wasn't convinced by the sprouted buckwheat base - it had a mealieness that put me off and the portobello mushroom 'sausages' were a lot of work when simple marinated mushrooms would have been spot on.

"Sweet Gratitude" Key Lime Pie is outstanding! It's freakily good and multi-level satisfying.

some raw food I've been playing with

raw lasagne - finely sliced turnip, layered marinated zukes and eggplant, pesto and avocado.

 these two are experimental choc ginger biscs made from leftover almond milk and juice pulp. will go well with a mint cream filling.

pizza base pre dehydrating - I like it with the tasty bits in the crust - I mixed the leftovers of the dodgy buckwheat one with a heap of other ingredients and tasty bits.  It's so much easier then with a simple topping. I'm not yet done experimenting with the crust.

hey roquefort is raw! and a real indulgence - spinach/parsley/pinenut salad with essene roquefort croutons - nice blend of umami sweet and salty.

out for a stroll

running away from the zoo, wouldn't you?