Experimental Celebrations

Are you like me? What I mean is, do you ever decide to create something off the top of your head for a special occasion and then freak out part way through because it's not going the way you might have hoped, and you've already used lots of precious ingredients... and you knew this was a very real risk, but your enthusiasm to be inventive clouded the part of your brain that might tell you to be sensible and make something tried and true?

And my god, why would you think that it would be a good idea to create something new (and raw, and vegan) for someones (a carnivores) birthday and deprive them (and everyone else) of a regular menu item such as creme brulee or pumpkin pound cake with candied bacon ice cream?

This is exactly what I did for my friend's birthday last week. We were all having dinner at my place of work and I thought it would be extra special to make her a cake. Everyone deserves a birthday cake! My friend loves Mexico, Mexicans, Mexican food, margaritas and tequila. Excellent, I thought, I'll make her a Mexican inspired birthday cake! One catch... one of the guests (my very pregnant boss) is deathly allergic to nuts. Since I use nuts for everything, especially raw vegan desserts, this was a super challenge. Often people accommodate me when it comes to food so I thought I should do the same (and spend many paranoid hours in the kitchen dodging nuts).

So I threw some stuff together and came up with this. The sponge worked out better than I expected. It was dense, like a thin pound cake, moist and durable. The flavour was subtle, but I think if it was flavoured with lemon zest, raspberries, chocolate or something equally powerful it would really add some depth.

Mango Margarita Cake

Mango Sponge:
10 dried mango slices, soaked
1 cup frozen (thawed) mango chunks or fresh mango
1 cup coconut meat from a young Thai coconut
1/3 cup coconut water or more as needed
1 tsp fresh lime juice
1 tsp vanilla extract
¼ cup melted coconut butter (not oil, the butter)
¼ - ½ cup raw honey
blend in vita mix until smooth

In a bowl mix:
2 cups sifted fine coconut flour
½ cup psyllium husks
¼ cup raw honey (or to taste)
1 tsp vanilla extract
pinch of fine Himalayan salt
½ cup or more coconut water as needed

Combine both blender and bowl ingredients in a food processor until fully combined (scraping edges, stop-start…) you might only be able to do half of the mixture at once. It is kind of tricky and you might want to transfer it all to a bowl and knead with your hands to ensure it’s fully combined in the end.

Spread on one teflex sheet and dehydrate for 2-4 hours (about 1/2 inch thick) at 105 degrees. Flip and dry the underside for a shot time, maybe just a half hour.

Cut circles with 2 inch ring mold. You can stack these in a sealed container and keep in the fridge for a day or two if you want to make them ahead of time.

White Chocolate Lime Cream:
2 cups raw cocoa butter, shaved
1 cup coconut oil
Melt the oils together in dehydrator or double boiler
Transfer to fridge in metal bowl to firm. Once mostly firm but not too stiff, take out and using an electric egg beater, beat until white and fluffy, then with beaters running, add rest of the ingredients below:
Zest of one lime
6-10 drops lime essential oil
1 tsp or more vanilla extract
Agave to taste (about ¼ cup)

To Assemble:
Place ring mold on parchment paper
Put one of the sponge circles on the bottom
Follow with a layer of white chocolate lime cream
Top with another mango sponge circle
Lightly hold down the top sponge as you pull the ring mold off
Cover the top and sides with white chocolate lime cream

Ok so here is where things seemed perfect, and then my fancy-cake world crumbled before my eyes (literally). When I iced the cakes and put them in the fridge the cream/icing hardened so much that when I tested a piece of cake, the cream completely separated from the sponge when forked. NOOOOO!!

The icing was so firm that I ended up being able to strip it off each individual cake and put it all in a bowl to re-evaluate (I had less than 2 hours before dinner).

To fix it, I re-whipped the icing (it didn't whip very well, no time to melt-chill) and added Cointreau, water, more vanilla extract and liquid sunflower lecithin. It was tasty and a decent texture so I stopped there and re-iced the cakes. I DID NOT put them back in the fridge.

If I was to do it again, I would add a bunch of young coconut meat, Cointreau, coconut milk and lecithin from the beginning, and not put it in the fridge (make the icing close to the time of consumption).

I could have skipped writing about all of the drama, but since this blog is about experimentation, I think it's a good idea that you learn from my mistakes.

To Serve:
The cakes were quite rich, so I cut them in half and served them on top of a dried mango slice (held in place with raw honey) topped with Mango Tequila Sauce, Salted/Candied Lime Zest and a side of coarse grey sea salt.

Mango Tequila Sauce:
Dried mango flakes
Gold tequila
Agave Nectar
Blend with a hand blender until fully combined

Salted & Candied Lime Zest:
Zest one lime in long strips
Coat zest with a touch of fresh lime juice, fine Himalayan salt and coarse xylitol (natural sweetener derived from birch)
Dehydrate until dry

I also served this with Matthew Kenney's Milk Chocolate Fudge, but instead of almond milk I made coconut milk (shredded dried raw coconut flakes & water, blended on high and strained) and added ground cinnamon and cayenne.

No one died and no one knew they were missing bacon ice cream, so I say...
SUCCESS!

Ooh ooh ooh I'm on Fire

This heated post is brought to you by the capsicums habanero, cherry bomb, bell, jalapeno & random red chili and the age old method of preservation - fermentation.

Now that the formalities are out of the way, a warm welcome to you.

There is a deep level of satisfaction one gets from learning a new skill and applying it in various creative (or standard) ways. A fermentation class in Calgary at The Light Cellar (great place) has led me down a path of playing mad scientist this fall in the world of lacto-ferments.

Vegetables mixing with herbs, associating with teas, mingling with spices and rubbing with salts. Sounds like dinner at grandma's house doesn't it? Probably because the Art of Fermentation is the first known method of food preservation, going back thousands of years. I'm sure most grandmas are familiar with the process, or at least great-grandmas. Pretty much every culture has their 'culture'. The Koreans with Kim Chee, Japanese with pickled ginger & vegetables, miso and sake, Germans with Kraut, various European countries with cheeses & meats, etc.

Why fermentation over pickling? Because fermentation is raw and probiotic and pickling (usually with heat to can) uses ingredients that may harm precious stomach bacteria (such as most vinegars, especially white vinegar).

Here is a small list of reasons to ferment or eat fermented foods:
- aids digestion
- lots of probiotics
- create B & K vitamins in digestive tract
- assists with mental health
- balances moods
- immune boosting
- liver cleansing
- make nutrients more bio-available and removes anti-nutrients and toxins

It seems up in the air as to which people first made hot sauce, but there is some evidence that it may have been the Aztecs. Mexicans are cool, let's give them credit, I'm sure they'd be stoked.
Ok class, enough lecture for today, let's get to the fun part.

I've made several hot sauces this fall. My favourite so far is probably the piri piri, but I have a feeling this new chipotle one I made today is going to rival it.

Cherry Bomb peppers used for piri piri. Didn't wear gloves when chopping and seeding. Big mistake. Luckily the peppers mellowed out considerably after the ferment.

Piri Piri and Med-Hot Pepper Mango sauces fermenting

Red jalapeno & other red chilies with sea salt soaked chipotle peppers & garlic. I thought I could get away glove-less with these ones...oops. Do I remind you of Bart Simpson in the episode where Lisa rigs a cupcake to give him electric shocks and he keeps going for it? Ouch...ouch...ouch...

This hot sauce stuff is so simple... there isn't even a recipe, just ingredients.
Basically, I stem, chop and mostly seed peppers of one or several kinds. I place them in the food processor with about 1-2 tbsp of fine Himalayan salt (use any sea salt, just not table salt) and usually a clove or two of garlic. Process until they are pureed and spoon into mason jars. Cover tightly with a lid for about 3 days, then release any built-up gasses on the following days so your jar doesn't explode. You should ferment for about a week but depending on the warmth of your house and the amount of salt used, you may have to ferment longer. Taste and when you like it, fridge it!

Molds and yeasts that are white may form on the top layer, and that is ok. Spoon off the layer and everything under it is totally fine. If your mold is other than white, ditch it.

With my habanero ferment, after one week I put it in the blender with some raw apple cider vinegar (one of the only vinegars that doesn't harm gut flora) and then strained it through a nut milk bag. Yes, my hands were on fire. But I did wear gloves for the initial chopping.

Habanero sauce final product, smooth and deadly. Seriously, I can't eat this shit.

Inspired by a Mexican joint on my recent travels (and my obsession with hot stuff) I dabbled in chipotle-habanero vodka infusion. If I ever get into self-torture I might liberally apply the above habanero sauce to my dinner and wash it down with this.

I highly recommend this book if you want to get your ferment on. It is, for lack of better words, the bible of fermentation... but really it's The Art of Fermentation.

Wear gloves.
J

Convenience Camping

Raw camping, what? Are you thinking "oh my gosh, like, why wouldn't you take advantage of campfire cooking, s'mores are totally the best"?

As I told my dear outdoor adventure companion - "I'm a convenience camper". Take that however you will, but at this exact moment, I'm referring to food.

Preparing your raw meals beforehand is the best idea ever. When you are in the woods it allows for this: Relax. Open container, eat. Relax. Repeat.

If you pack everything in glass containers with lids then you can also use the containers as eating vessels and eliminate extra dishes. Washing dishes cuts into the relax time slot, obviously.

Here are a couple of very simple dishes I made before our recent woodland expedition.

Dinner/Lunch:

Creamy Serrano Corn Salad

The Salad:
3 fresh organic ears of corn, kernels cut off
a handful of fresh green beans, chopped
a few fresh cherry tomatoes, whole (so they don't make a mess of the dish)
a handful of fresh cilantro leaves
a few leaves of fresh basil, sliced
some chopped spring onion or onion of your choice
Place all ingredients in a sealed container.

The Serrano Chili Sauce:
about 1.5-2 cups of raw cashews
a splash of cider vinegar
a touch of water, enough to blend (maybe 1/4 cup or so?)
a fresh serrano chili, chopped, seeds optional
lots of sea salt (to taste)
Blend until smooth. Taste for deliciousness.

Keep the salad ingredients and the sauce in separate containers until you are ready to eat. When it's feeding time, pour the sauce over the vegetables and toss well. Drizzle with hot sauce or chili oil.

Chili Oil:
a mixture of dried peppers (about 8-12 peppers)
olive oil or avocado oil
a few dried onion slices or 1/2 tsp of onion powder
a handful of raw almonds
a handful of raw pecans
sea salt
Place the peppers and nuts in a bowl and pour enough olive oil on them to almost float them, but not quite. Add the rest of the ingredients and allow to marinate on the counter for a few hours or place in dehydrator to warm for about an hour (not sure this step is necessary). Blend all in a vita mix until smooth.

Breakfast:

Coconut Yogurt w/ Vanilla Fruit

The Yogurt:
approx 2 cups of young Thai coconut meat
about 1 tbsp of lemon juice
a few small pieces of lemon zest (maybe 2 thumbnail sized pieces)
water or coconut water to get the blender going
a pinch of sea salt
2 probiotic capsules
Blend everything except the probiotics until smooth. Transfer to a glass bowl and stir in the probiotic powder (open the pills). Let sit on the counter for about 8 hours, then transfer to the fridge.

The Fruit:
Whatever seasonal fruit you have on hand. Pictured here are peaches, strawberries, blueberries, cherries and apricots.
Toss in a bit of fine lemon zest, a few tbsp of lemon juice, fresh vanilla bean or a bit of vanilla extract. Place in a container.

Keep the yogurt and fruit separate until ready to eat. Also top with goji berries or incan/golden berries.

Relax.

Canasian Soup

Our Farmer's Market in Banff has begun and it is a really exciting time of year for me - not because I am selling food (I'm not, btw), but because I receive farm shares from local organic farms via Farm Box. Let me tell you - these are the best vegetables and fruits around. I instantly become inspired the second I fill my bags. I rush home to chop, blend, mince, massage, season and assemble them. With raw food, the quality of the ingredients is key, it makes all the difference in the world. It's easy to forget how amazing a carrot can taste when all you know is California carrots from a bag 9 months of the year.

Here is a really simple soup I whipped up, with some extra ingredients from T&T Asian market in Calgary.

Fresh Asian Broth Soup, errr Canasian soup?

Broth:
approx. ¼ cup braggs
1L filtered water
juice of one or 2 lemons
inch of thin fresh turmeric
½ inch of fresh ginger, thick
3 fresh kefir lime leaves
½ fresh garlic scape (farm box!)
splash rice vinegar
½ serrano chili
one small piece of star anise

Blend all in a vita mix on 10 first speed, bring to high speed for a few seconds, but not long. (if you have a normal blender, just blend for about 20-30 seconds)
Strain in fine mesh strainer over a big bowl. Discard the fibers in the strainer.

Add to bowl of broth:

about 1 cup thinly sliced red cabbage (farm box!)
long slices of fresh oyster mushrooms (really nice meaty texture)
¼ red pepper, thinly sliced (farm box!)
a few stalks w/ leaves of cilantro, roughly chopped (farm box!)
a few stalks w/ leaves of pea shoots (farm box!)
1 carrot, thinly sliced (farm box!)
a handful of broccoli florets, chopped small (farm box!)
a few small radishes, thinly sliced (farm box!)

Garnish with a few cashews

If you plan on having this over a few days it’s best to keep the veg and broth separate and add them together just before consuming.

Sorry I didn't take any mouth-watering photos, I actually only took this one crappy photo with my phone. These are the harsh realities when you make something an hour before you have to be at work. Still, there aren't even cashews in this photo, how embarrassing.

Here are some photos of other things I've made recently, to make up for only having one soup photo.

This is a fresh organic corn polenta topped with BC cherry salsa

A marinated mushroom tart with dill kale pesto and fresh market tomatoes. Almond pastry.

Even cross-eyed Eddie is enjoying the fine summer greenery. That guy sure knows his way around a patch of grass.

Cheers to Asian Soup and Asian Cats, in Canada.

Truffles, Macaroons, NZ, Oh My!

In May I found myself across the pond in a land of sheep and greener pastures (for real, these pastures were fantastically green, lovely rolling hills too, just a stunning place). I didn't have my usual pantry items to turn to when snacking struck, but I managed to find some terribly expensive coconut oil, cocoa powder and lovely Manuka honey that came with me everywhere in my travels. It's no secret that I'm addicted to Chocolate. Or if it was a secret, it was a really boring secret. Anyway, one day while working (yes, working on vacation) I was struck by a snacking desire and rummaged through the food bag to see what I could concoct. This is what I had:

Quite solid coconut oil (no central heating in NZ)
Raw cocoa powder
Manuka honey
'Port of Russel' NZ dessert wine / "port"
Cinnamon
Himalayan sea salt with kelp

So I mixed these things together in a bowl and they made a tasty frosting-consistency bowl snack.



The following week I made this again, but added only a dash of dessert wine, this time an NZ Gewurztraminer Riesling and some thin, long dried coconut shreds. They made perfect instant macaroons. The trick is to only add a teaspoon or less of the dessert wine and mix well and if you need more, add a touch, but too much will make them too soft and gooey.






The following week I tried making them without the coconut shreds and the result was beautiful truffles.

Here is the general break down of the stuff:

NZ Chocolate Honey Truffles

All ingredients are approximate.

½ - ¾ cup coconut oil (cold, but any hard nubs broken with a spoon or fork. you don't want it to melt at all, just make it more combine-able with the other ingredients, like you would soften/whip butter with a fork)
½ cup cocoa powder
2-4 tbsp raw honey
couple generous pinches of sea salt
dash of cinnamon
dessert wine (start with 1 tsp and add more if needed after stirring thoroughly)

Mix all ingredients together into fairly stiff batter. Form into balls and coat in cinnamon, cocoa, coconut flakes, chili, or whatever you want. If the balls are too soft to roll, place the batter in the fridge for a bit to stiffen, then take out and roll (about 1 tbsp per ball)

Cinnamon & Chipotle Chili Powder for Rolling








Place in fridge to harden. If you use too much coconut oil they will be really stiff after refrigeration, but it's all a matter of trial and error, my recipes aren't exactly accurate - I just dump the ingredients from the bags into the bowl and mix. Sorry about that.

Yum Yum!

Beegan Latte

I've been reading a lot about Bee Pollen lately and was stoked to have some on hand after reading a lengthy PDF - this stuff is pretty much the perfect food. It is supposed to make your skin radiant and younger, help your digestive tract run smoother, alleviate allergies and asthma, be an effective anti-radiation food, prevent disease, stimulate and boost the glandular system and immune system and ward off alien invasions, among other things. Extraterrestrial life has been trying to contact my orange cat Pierre so I've been feeding him bee pollen in his wet food. Hopefully it will also help his asthma.

Every once in a while when I remember I have the granular goodness in my freezer, I choke it down because I know it's so good for me. One should never have to 'choke' anything down though. Yesterday I was determined to create a drink that makes bee pollen palatable. Turns out it was so simple!

Beeeeegan Latte

2 cups homemade almond milk (½ cup almonds w. 2 cups water, blended and strained through fine strainer to allow foam to transfer)

pour milk back in blender with:
2 tbsp coconut oil
2 tbsp fresh bee pollen
1-3 tsp raw honey
½-1 tsp lecithin granules (optional)
a large pinch or 2 of vanilla bean

Blend everything together in a high speed blender for about 30 seconds.
It is nice to put a few frozen cherries in the bottom of a glass if you want your drink chilled but don't want to water it down.

I made another one today without nut milk and coconut oil because sometimes my guts don't want to hang out with the rich. This one was surprisingly delightful, and you can barely taste the bee pollen!

NUT FREE Beegan Drink

2+ tbsp bee pollen
1 tbsp raw honey
1-2 tbsp raw carob powder
2-3 tsp lucuma powder
1-2 tsp ground cinnamon
1+ tbsp tocotrienols (some raw white powder made from rice that makes drinks creamy)
large pinch of vanilla bean
2 cups filtered water

blend in vita mix for 30 seconds.

So the second nut free option is only for those who's cupboards are full of strange raw vegan powder accessories, otherwise this drink might end up costing more than you think, and you might not even care for it. It will make you feel good though, and fill your belly for hours.

Guess what?! I made cheese!
For Christmas dinner we made cheese boards with crackers and all the usual suspects (fruit spreads, olives w/ truffle oil, homemade mustards, etc). Real dairy cheese attended for those brave enough to eat it, but I made four different kinds of nut cheese and raw almond thin crackers. Two of the cheeses were raw cashew based, one was orange zest + dried cranberry and the other was lemon + fresh thyme. The other two cheeses were made from macadamia nuts. One was plain with a rind (dehydrated for a day) and the other was fresh rosemary + black pepper, also with a rind. They were incredible. I got the recipes from Russell James' cheese book. It was so nice to take the 'simple' route and not stress about Christmas dinner - these cheeses were minimal effort and were ready in just a few days.

- Insert CHEESY joke about BEEEEEING finished this post.