Rawkin the Globe - Cape Town, South Africa

Welcome to the first installation of Rawkin the Globe, a segment I have been wanting to add to this blog for quite some time now! My hope is to share the raw food eateries I have visited around the world with you, so when you are travelling, you have a good base to start your raw food exploration from. I have little piles of business cards from raw restaurants and health food stores around the world stacked on my desk just waiting to be written up online.

Last week I was in Cape Town visiting with two of my good friends, Anne and Melissa, as Anne recently moved there. Cape Town has a city center called the CBD (central business district), but that is only one small part of the city. In fact, Cape Town is more than a city--it is an assortment of mountains, vineyards, beaches, townships, and living/working complexes spread over a very vast area. You've probably assumed this, but Africa is really big and the bottom tip is no exception!

Before I hopped on the 11 hour flight from Paris to Cape Town, (a small aside, despite the distance, as I was flying north to south, there was only a one hour time zone difference. It was amazing to travel such a distance and to not have jet lag!), I did a quick search on the Internet to check out the raw food scene in South Africa. Any raw restos to check out? None that I could find online. Any locally made raw food products to check out? Thanks to the website Living Food for Africa, I did find two names that piqued my interest: Earthshine and Superfoods. 

Baobab fruit

What luck! My friend's pad was just a 10 minute walk from the Superfoods store in Westlake, in the southern suburbs of Cape Town. So on my second morning I walked over in the early morning African heat to check out the store and talk to the people there. And what a great introduction to raw food and superfoods in Africa. The store offers a huge variety of superfoods that they sell under their own brands (both Superfoods and Rawlicious), a range of locally made artisanal raw chocolate (Fine&Raw, Honest, O'Natural), kitchen equipment, books and DVDs, supplements, etc. I picked up a package of kelp noodles (I have never tried them!), several different raw cacao bars for us to sample, homemade raw chocolate cookies (delicious!), and a pack of organic baobab fruit powder. I have not yet tried the baobab, but the package says it is a superfood from the African Baobab tree that tastes like "caramel pear with subtle tones of grapefruit." It has high levels of dietary fibre, pectic, calcium, antioxidants, vitamin C, iron potassium, and magnesium. Sounds good to me! I think I am going to add it to smoothies to start, I'll let you know how it tastes and interacts with water.

Rawkin the Globe - Cape Town

Visiting food markets

At Superfoods, I ordered a green smoothie with cacao for breakfast, and while I waited they offered me a sample of tamarillo. A tamarillo is a mix between a tomato and a guava. You can check out the picture of this interesting fruit in the slideshow above. I thought it was good, but it doesn't hold a candle to my current favorite food I discovered in South Africa--gooseberries! I previously knew them as Incan berries, and in Cape Town I had multiple opportunities to eat them fresh. I am in love. While ringing up my purchases, the owner took the time to write down recommended food markets for me to visit on the weekend. Her two recommendations were the EarthFair Food Market held every Friday in Tokai, and the Gaia Food Market held every other Sunday in Constantia Village.

The EarthFair market has artisanal food, but it is not all vegan or raw. I had a great morning there--had a juice by Dr. Juice, a superfood smoothie, picked up fresh gooseberries, chatted with a woman from By Nature, a company that makes a large range of organic dried fruits, nuts and seeds (I bought a bag of dried olives which are absolutely amazing, dried pineapple, and a fresh batch of macadamia nuts), and had a big plate of different salads (mango and avo, beetroot and apple, and cabbage and pear) while watching the South Africa vs. New Zealand cricket match. As I was waiting for my friends I had a great discussion with a woman about my composting woes. She recommends a method using bokashi--something for me to learn more about.

On Sunday we checked out Gaia Food Market, and this is the place to be if you are a raw foodist, or if you love good fresh vegan food. There was vegan Indian food and fresh pressed juices, By Nature was present here too, and Earthshine had a table selling flax crackers, kale chips, superfoods, and three varieties of raw pizza. The previous Wed. night we had ordered a pizza from Earthshine for dinner (yes, raw pizza delivery!) and had really enjoyed it, so Anne and I picked up a few more slices which I enjoyed on the plane that night back to Paris.

Two great discoveries at Gaia were RawLean and Raw Religion. RawLean offers raw food classes, and had samples of different flavors of sprouted and dehydrated organic buckwheat to try. After trying all of them (multiple times!), I bought the cinnamon & date buckwheat, which I have been enjoying with fresh fruit and brazil nut mylk for breakfast this week, and the wasabi buckwheat, which is amazing on salads and topping raw soups. I am developing a true love of buckwheat... if only I could sprout it properly. I blame the quality of the seeds I am getting in Paris, but that is probably not where the problem lies. ;)

Another amazing table was offered by Raw Religion, offering hand-crafted vegan raw cheezes (soft and hard), cookies, crackers, raw chocolate, coconut wraps, banana crepes... the mom and daughter team sell at food markets in Cape Town and offer a full raw menu in addition to a traditional African cuisine menu at Africa Cafe on Shortmarket Street downtown. If I had had one more day I would have loved to visit their restaurant, but I had to suffice with trying all of their samples, eating a coconut wrap for lunch, and purchasing raw chocolate cookies for the plane. Delicious food, I felt blessed by their religion! :)

And in my final hours in South Africa, I visited the Boost juice bar on the arrivals floor of the Cape Town International Airport to spend the remainder of my Rand on a pineapple berry juice before jumping on my flight.

In conclusion, I would state that there is a thriving raw food scene in Cape Town, but it takes some investigating to find it. At first glance, the cuisine is very meat focused (think game - ostrich, warthog, beef, kudu, etc.), but at all the restaurants we visited there was always a delicious veggie option, and the area offers a great variety of fresh fruits and veggies. I am sure there is much more going on in the raw food and health food scene than what I saw. But for a one week visit, I was really happy with the great food, products and people that I discovered.

• If you are from or familiar with Cape Town, do you have another recommendation for raw foodists to check out when in town?

• Have you used baobab fruit before? Any recipe recommendations?

Stewardship of the Earth

What is stewardship? It is caring for the property and assets of another. To be a steward is to be a watchman over the owner's valuables while the owner is absent. We are all stewards of the Earth and all its life--not owners--but temporary keepers of God's creation.

Our role as stewards of the Earth is conveyed in the Bible passage Genesis 1:26, 3:

God spoke, "Let us make human beings in our image, make them reflecting our nature so they can be responsible for the fish in the sea, the birds in the air, the cattle, and, yes, Earth itself, and every animal that moves on the face of Earth.” God looked over everything he had made; it was so good, so very good!

Starting a Compost Bin

400 L compost bin I set up in Paris 16e

 

During my last juice fast I was amazed by how much vegetable and fruit pulp I threw away. I noticed that after several days, my trash can would start sweating and giving off heat. Why, I realized, I am composting in my kitchen! I may as well do it properly outside and generate good soil! So I did a little research and dug up some interesting sites about composting in Paris. There are quite a few composting projects going on around the city (click the link), and from what I could gather from calls to the municipal property office (the Paris Proprete), there is no special license needed or requirements for starting a compost box. 

Municipal issues solved, I focused on figuring out how to generate a healthy compost box. There are a zillion entertaining and useful sites to read on this topic including US EPA site on composting, 163 Things You Can Compost, and 75 Things You Can Compost, But Thought You Couldn't. Overall it seemed pretty basic, though not completely foolproof. So off I went to my local gardening store Truffaut to purchase a composting bin, where I was also talked into buying an activator to speed up the composting, and then I went home to set it up. I am fortunate to live in an apartment building with a plot of land that the building gardien (like a caretaker) takes beautiful care of with a variety of trees and flowers. He was willing for me to experiment with the compost box on his turf in exchange for the promise of rich soil come springtime. 

I set the box up in early November, which, according to my research, is not an ideal time to start a compost box due to the upcoming cold winter months. But we were having a mild winter, so I hoped for the best and positioned the box in a sunny spot. Unfortunately, over Christmas holiday when I was in the States, the gardien moved the box to a very shady corner of the land. Plus we have had a very wet winter thus far. Nearly three months into the composting, I am not sure how actively the garbage is breaking down, it does not feel very hot, and I do see mold. I am not sure if the mold is bad or normal--I think I may try turning it to see what is going on underneath and if that helps. And hopefully we won't get too much more snow... I will keep you informed on its progress.

Setting up a Recycling Program at Church

When I started composting, I converted my large trash can into the compost pile (to carry outdoors), and my Christmas gift to myself was a very cool connected 3 trash bins, so I can separate paper/plastic/metal, glass, and everything else. (These are the 3 categories that Paris recycles). Batteries are also taken separately in a little container nailed to the apartment building.

Separating trash shows me how much of each type of trash (plastic, food, paper, glass, metal, other) I dispose of in a given week. This has given me a better understanding of the type of products I buy and how many disposable products I use. And armed with this knowledge, I can start to change certain habits. For example, I use towels instead of paper towels, and have replaced paper napkins with cloth.

Stack of paper recycling boxes for the offices

Also around Christmastime I started working with Chira, who makes everything run smoothly at the American Church in Paris, to set up a recycling program for the Church. The building houses 2 schools and 6 apartments in addition to 3 Sunday services, multiple offices, and 7 days a week of activities happening in the Church. Setting up the recycling program was alot of fun to do, and it was very interesting to see people's reactions to a new way of disposing trash, and to note what they needed (information, training, signs) to be able to make the change. Most people easily accepted the recycling bins as they were already familiar with recycling at home. Of course, remembering to begin separating trash takes a little bit of time.

Chira at work amid the recycling bins and pamphlets

It was also interesting to gauge how much of one type of trash would be thrown away in the various rooms. For example, the kitchen has different trash needs than the theater or library. In total, we distributed 28 bins, complete with labels, signage and pamphlets, over a 2-week period. Chira and I plan to take an assessment after one month to see if the right number of bins are distributed, if additional training is required, etc. We will also use the first month results to assess if there are areas where trash could be reduced.

• Would you like to start a composting or recycling program for your home, office, church, club, or anywhere? If so, do you have any questions on how to get started? 

• If you are composting, I would love to hear any advice or feedback you may have on my fledgling box. Please share in comments.

Welcoming the Year of the Dragon - Raw Asian Style

 新年快乐! 

 恭喜发财, 万事如意!

Happy Chinese New Year! Wishing you fortune, happiness and that your dreams come true during this year of the dragon, which will be a powerful year for transformation and manifestation. I am definitely hoping to harness the fire energy of this year to help me through some exciting changes. What do you want to manifest this year?  Envision it, believe it, and make it happen this year!

'Fu' character welcoming fortune into my home

 

First 2012 Potluck Cru (Auberge Espagnol) of the Paris Raw Food Community

To start the Year of the Dragon, Parisian raw foodies gathered chez moi for a great evening of yummy dishes with an Asian twist, recipe swapping, conversation, a lot of laughter, and a little September Sessions as midnight approached.

 

Parisian raw foodies celebrating Chinese New Year
(Do you see the dragon in the tapestry on the back wall?)

Chinese food is one of my favorite cuisines due in part to having lived in China for close to 9 years. During my time in Asia I also developed a great appreciation for Japanese, Korean, Thai and Singaporean cuisines as well. Last summer I was in Portland browsing through Powell's City of Books and came across Ani Phyo's 2011 masterpiece (and masterpiece may be an understatement) recipe book of raw Asian dishes: Ani's Raw Food Asia. 

If you are not familiar with Ani's raw recipe books and personality, I highly recommend you follow her via the social media tools--she has been a great inspiration to me over my raw journey due to her eco-sustainable lifestyle, accessibility, and of course, her innovative recipes. Ani is Korean-American, and Ani's Raw Food Asia is a fantastic fusion of east-west recipes that are *easy* to make. This is the most unique raw recipe book that I own and it holds a special place in my heart due to my love of Asian food. Recipes cover dishes from Korea (bimbimbap! kimchis, namuls), Thailand (green papaya salad, soups, curries), China (dumplings!, hoisin sauce, "stir-fry"), Japan (sukiyaki, noodles, matcha green tea ice cream), Indonesia (samosas!), India (dal! pulaos) and Vietnam (pho!)...

Lotus Root Chips

 

For our potluck, I made Ani's lotus root chip recipe, but instead of serving them as chips with the mustard dip, I mixed the lotus with the mustard sauce and served it as a salad. The lotus chips were really well received as most people living in Paris had not tried lotus before. Lotus has a light taste and a great crunchy texture. If you live in Paris, you can buy them at Tang Frere's in the 13e arrondissement. Here is a picture of what the root will look like when you buy it.

Lotus root

 Ani Phyo's Lotus Root Chips recipe

- Peel and slice lotus root into 1/8 inch thick pieces

- Soak immediately in lemon water to avoid oxidation (purely for aesthetic purposes)

- Pat slices dry

- Place in mixing bowl with 1 1/2 tsp Nama Shoyu and 1/8 tsp cayenne

- Let marinate for at least 30 minutes so the lotus root will soften

Ani Phyo's Pine Nut Mustard Sauce

Ani recommends to serve this sauce on the side as a dip, but it was a bit watery for a dip, so I added it to the lotus chips marinade.

1 T Nama Shoyu

3 T apple cider vinegar

1 tsp mustard powder or 2 T prepared mustard

2 T agave or maple syrup

1 tsp sea salt

1/2 cup apple juice or filtered water (I will reduce this to 1/4 cup next time as the end result was too watery for a dip, but that could be because I omitted the pine nuts)

1 tsp ground flax meal

1/4 cup finely chopped pine nuts (I did not have these on hand, and they are not in season right now)

- Mix all ingredients together. 

Lotus Root Chips, photo courtesy of Opal Taylor

Green Papaya Salad

The second dish I made was a green papaya salad, using a recipe I had recently acquired at a vegan thai Foodies Cooking course. David offers a variety of types of cooking classes and dinner parties in Paris and in the Cote d'Azur--the classes are friendly, fun, you make a ton of different dishes, and you learn alot. 

I bought the green papaya at Tang Frere's in the 13e arrondissement. Choose a green papaya that is firm and has no yellow/orange spots.  I used a julienne peeler to quickly julienne the papaya for the salad.  Next time I make this recipe (there will definitely be a next time!) I will increase the lime + sweetener in the dressing, and I will add julienned carrots and Chinese cabbage to the salad mix.

David's Spicy Green Papaya Salad

1 firm green papaya

1/2 cup cashews roughly chopped

1-2 cups bean sprouts

8-10 cherry tomatoes, cut lengthwise in quarters

1 red chili, minced, seeds removed

3 spring onions, sliced into long matchstick-like pieces

1/2 cup Thai basil, roughly chopped if leaves are large

handful of fresh coriander

Dressing:

2 T oil

2 T soy sauce

3 T lime juice

1/2 to 1 T liquid honey

Green Papaya Salad, photo courtesy of Opal Taylor

Tomato Dal

Over the past few weeks I have been trying different recipes from Ani's Raw Food Asia, so I thought I would include them here as well.

This Tomato Dal, inspired by Indian daal, had a great creamy texture and a nice bite due to the sun-dried tomatoes. But I missed the chewiness that the lentils provide in daal. Perhaps next time I will keep some sunflower seeds whole and add them in at the end as lentil substitutes. I made a parsnip/ cashew "rice" to eat the dal with. Ani proposes a Samosas with Tomato Dal and Mock Tamarind Sauce recipe which sounds amazing.

Ani Phyo's Tomato Dal

1/4 cup almonds

1/4 cup sunflower seeds

1 cup diced tomato

1 cup diced cucumber

3/4 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp curry

2 T chopped sun dried tomatoes

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1/4 tsp sea salt

In a food processor, process almonds and sunflower seeds into small pieces. Add tomato, cucumber, cumin, curry, and sundried tomatoes. Process to mix well. Add oil and salt and process to mix.

Tomato Dal on Parsnip/ Cashew "Rice"

Cucumber Pickle

Also from Ani's Raw Food Asia, this is a super simple cucumber salad with a great mix of flavors. I wouldn't call it a pickle as my cucumber slices were not "pickled", but that could also be because of my choice of cucumber. There were no small cucumbers available, only the standard large ones; I would prefer to use smaller cucumbers next time. Here is a quick online tutorial for how to prepare lemongrass.

Ani Phyo's Cucumber Pickle

2 cups sliced cucumbers cut in semi-circles

1 tsp apple cider vinegar

1 tsp minced lemongrass

1 tsp chopped red onion

1/8 to 1/4 tsp chopped red chile 

Ingredients ready for Cucumber Pickle

Everything in the Fridge Leftover Noodle Soup

Today we had our first snow in Paris and it is positively freezing out! Inspired by Ani's Asian noodle recipes, and working with the ingredients in my refrigerator, I threw this together for lunch. It was light and tasty. Next time I would like to add a creamy component to it - either a creamier sauce (perhaps made with coconut meat), or a creamy condiment added to the top of the dish like a raw hoisin sauce.

There are four components to putting together your noodle soup. Be creative and don't be afraid to experiment with each part. Below is what I threw together.

Prepare your broth

- Bring water to a hot temperature (yes, this soup is warm!)

- Dice ginger, garlic, onions and blend with water

- You can also add a little oil and soy sauce if you'd like

Prepare your noodles

- I used a seaweed noodle I purchased in Mallorca. You could use kelp noodles or make zucchini noodles with your spiralizer.

Prepare your veggies

- Thinly slice bok choy, Chinese cabbage, carrot, and/ or whatever you have in the fridge to throw in. Mushrooms, fennel, peppers, daikon, turnips would all be great too. Experiment!

Prepare your toppings

- I added cilantro, red chili, bean sprouts, green onions, and alfalfa sprouts

- You can experiment with herbs, sprouts, seeds, chopped nuts, and even dried fruit like raisins or chopped apricots.

- Squeeze of lime juice

To construct, first add the noodles, then your veggies, and then pour the broth over it all. Finally, add your toppings.

Raw Noodle Soup for a Cold Winter Day

 

Close-up of Toppings on the Noodle Soup

Happy Year of the Dragon! 

• If you are in Paris and would like to join our Raw Food Community, please contact me through the blog. 

• Do you have a raw asian recipe to share?

• What is your favorite cuisine that you would love to discover more raw recipes for?

Recently read: Farmer Jane

 

Farmer Jane: Women Changing the Way We Eat, by Temra Costa

Farmer Jane introduces various approaches to creating and supporting sustainable agriculture, that can be taken whether you are an eater, a farmer, or working in the food business. The book profiles 30 women across the USA who are farmers, social advocates, entrepreneurs, educators, and innovators working to change the way food is grown, distributed, and consumed. The book focuses on women in order to show the influence femininity is having on an industry that is typically thought of as male-dominated, and to show the enormous impact that women as caretakers have on making food decisions and setting directions for the food industry.

But regardless if you are a woman or a man, if you are looking for recommendations of steps you can take to contribute to the growing sustainable agriculture movement, this book will give you inspiration and concrete actions on everything from getting financial aid to start a farm, to starting a CSA point for your area of the city, creating a farm to school program, how to get into urban farming, as well as comprehensive lists of organizations involved with everything from policy advocacy to educating children.

Some quotes to ponder, and hopefully hook you into reading the book:

"We need to become independent of the world market economy because the world market economy is ultimately controlled by interests which seek power or profit and which do not respond to the need of the world's peoples."

Native American (Haudenausaunee) saying

The true cost of food: This cost is the real monetary value that is required to produce food that is free of pesticides, that pays a fair working wage to farmers and farm workers, and that produces food on the land with future generations in mind. What we see in conventional grocery stores hardly reflects conventional food production, whose "negative externalities" of excessive water use, soil erosion, pollution via shipping and chemical application are not equated for. 

Building New Farm-to-Eater Relationships, p. 35

...we don't really understand the value of our ecological systems and food is the basis of this. "If we care about our local ecosystems and our local economies, we have to be willing to make real food a priority... People kick and scream, saying that local or organic foods are too expensive. But what about cell phones, cable TV, fancy cosmetics and all these other things that we spend tons of money on in this country? Paying $2.50 per pound for peaches is branded 'elitist', but for some reason paying $250 for tennis shoes is not. Why? I would argue that food is something that is completely essential and these other things aren't. They're optional."

Jessica Prentice, Three Stone Hearth cooperative food business

Promoting Local and Seasonal Food, p. 104

The sounds of crop planes were omnipresent in the sky as the workers would watch them sweep low and release their poison. Milly remembers the first time it happened to her while in the fields. "I tried to run away; it was terrible. There was sulphur in our eyes and they would get irritated. There were other chemicals that were sprayed and smelled worse, those experiences and memories will never go away," says Milly... Today the negative health impacts of pesticide exposure--including asthma, various cancers, and birth defects in children--are well documented, yet workers continue to be exposed to chemicals and aerial spraying.

Milly Trevino-Sauceda, Founder, Organizacion de Lideres Campesinas

Networks for Sustainable Food, p.147

Food desert... 1 grocery store to serve 23,000 residents (more affluent areas average 1 grocery store per 4000 residents). Food that is sold [in these areas] is largely processed junk food easily accessible in liquor stores (1 for every 625 residents), with only a handful that carry any sort of fresh fruits or vegetables.

Urban Farm Women, p. 174

"...and [the greenhorns, ie. young farmers] all have the same story. They are fierce and they all had naysayers, but they all did it anyway. It gives me a lot of courage. There's a certain amount of ballsiness that goes along with it and you feel driven to make change and initiate like a pioneer. I really cherish that sense of independence."

Severine von Tscharner Fleming, Filmmaker, The Greenhorns

The Next Generation of Sustainable Farmers, p. 192

"To be a good diversified farmer you have to be a systems thinker and that's something that doesn't come easy. Farming is one part intellect, one part intuition, one part muscle, and one part heart. And beyond that, it's mostly out of my control."

Zoe Bradbury, Farmer Valley Flora Farm

The Next Generation of Sustainable Farmers, p. 201

For more, check out the website and blog on the book here: http://www.farmerjane.org/book.html

• Books on sustainable agriculture and learning about where our food comes from are on the rise, have you read a good book on this topic that you would recommend?

• Likewise, films and documentaries on this topic are also increasing. Which would you recommend and why?

I am 35

(Title is a riff on Cafe Gratitude recipe book, did you get it? If not, keep on reading :)

12 has always been my favorite number. Maybe this is partly because I was born on the 12th day of January, but my love of the number 12 goes beyond a simple date. When I was a little girl I associated the age of 12 with the final year before one becomes a teenager, the end of a cycle. Years later I would learn that 12 years mark the end of the Chinese horoscope cycle. 12 was also the age when Jesus stayed behind in Jersualem at Passover and Mary and Joseph found him in the temple talking to the rabbis--already amazing people with his truth. 12 is also the number of apostles Jesus called to walk with him, and it is considered the number of completion. 12 is a powerful number, and to me it is aesthetically beautiful. 

On January 12, 2012 I celebrated my 35th birthday. I am not exaggerating when I say that I had been looking forward to this specific date since I was young. The two 12s made the date even more beautiful, plus it marked a semi-milestone year of the age 35, *and* it would be just before the start of the Year of the Dragon, which is my astrological sign. So it was a special birthday date for me this year. Throughout the 24 hours I was conscious of the day's existence and passing. As I went to bed early on the morning of Jan. 13 I felt I understood the passing of time. January 12, 2012 was over and would never be again.

My birthday wish

This year I vow to be courageous and grateful. To live my life with honesty and compassion. To harness the energy and transformative power of the dragon to fully become who I am created to be. As with all great achievements, I lean upon the support of my friends and family who enable me to create, love and persevere.

Now on to some recent raw culinary adventures!

Irish moss

Almost all of the desserts in the Cafe Gratitude recipe book call for irish moss. Even after googling 'irish moss' and reading about how to use this aquatic ingredient, I was still intimidated by it and left the Cafe Gratitude dessert creations to the more advanced raw chefs. But this year my sister gave me a bag that she had picked up from the One Lucky Duck takeaway store.  "I have no idea what that is," she said, "but the lady said it was cool and I figured you would know what to do with it." Well I had no idea, but was happy that she was inadvertently pushing me to discover it! Aren't siblings the best?

Irish moss is a type of algae that is used as a thickener. For nutritional info on Irish moss, check this link here. To learn how to use the material, I turned to my reliable online source Carmella and her Sunny Raw Kitchen blog which has such a great wealth of information on it. Sure enough she has a post dedicated to instructing us how to work with irish moss, complete with video. 

Definitely check out the video, but to summarize: clean with cool water, let soak between 2-12 hours, snip, place measured amount in blender with the liquid called for in the recipe, and blend. It is the heat during the blending that causes the Irish moss to pop and become gelatinous. The moss needs heat to release its gel-like qualities, so don't let it warm up before it is put in the blender. And a little insight that I discovered when making the two recipes below: you will hear the moss pop and the blender will behave differently afterwards. And when you open the top of the blender, it will smell like warm ocean and the gel will be quite warm. That is what you are looking for! Don't worry, the smell will not be noticeable in your dessert.

Irish Moss step-by-step in photos

Irish moss post cleanse, soaking in spring water

Irish moss 12 hours later, soaked and ready to be used

Close-up of the Irish moss gel

I Am Grateful for raw desserts!

Now that I felt confident working with Irish moss, first up was the Cafe Gratitude I Am Perfect Pecan Pie, then the I Am Magnificent Chocolate Mousse. Below are the recipes from their I Am Grateful recipe book, I note where I changed the recipes.

I Am Perfect Pecan Pie

Crust: 
2 3/4 cup macadamia nuts
1/8 tsp salt

Process nuts in a food processor until it is a dough-like consistency. But do not overprocess or you will end up with nut butter. Once the ground nuts start rolling into each other to create what look like balls, and you feel confident that you can press the mixture into a form, it is ready.

The recipe calls for macadamia nuts, but to keep my expenses down I substituted cashews. Macadamia nuts would have created a lighter, more buttery pastry-like crust. Cashews are a bit heavier.

Pecan pie ready for wishes to be made

What was different to me about this crust recipe is that it did not call for any sweetener - either for taste or to bind the nuts. I usually add a dried fruit or dates to the nuts and was concerned that just packing cashew crumbs together would not work. Well, it did! And now I know a new trick for making a pie less sweet.  I did put the crust in the freezer while I prepared the filling.

Filling:
1 1/2 oz Irish moss
1/2 cup H2O
3/4 cup agave (I only added 1/4 cup - could not get myself to pour 3/4 cup of agave into one recipe, that is toooooo sweet!)
Blend the above ingredients together in the blender until you have a warm gel.

1 cup pecans

Blend in food processor to a paste-like consistency.

2 T vanilla (if you are using vanilla bean, make it a liquid first by blending the bean with water in a high-speed blender)

Ben ready for pie, jasmine tea, and lychees

1 T yacon syrup (I substituted maple syrup as I do not have yacon, and increased it to 2 T)
1/8 tsp salt
Add the Irish moss gel and the above liquid ingredients to the pecan mixture and process until smooth. 

1 1/4 cup dates (I used 1 cup = 8 medjool dates)

While processing, add in the dates in small amounts until smooth.

Spoon mixture into pie crust, and top with cashews. Chill in fridge before serving.


I Am Magnificent Chocolate Mousse

One of my first raw creations when I started experimenting with this way of eating was raw chocolate mousse using avocado as a base. That has consistently been one of my favorite raw desserts. The Cafe Gratitude version does not use avocado, and instead relies on Irish moss, lecithin and coconut oil to create the right texture. The result is a lighter mousse with great chocolate flavor. I tried to capture the texture of the mousse in the picture below. See the air bubbles?

Chocolate mousse

1/2 oz Irish moss
1/2 cup water
Blend in blender til it pops! and you have gel
 
2 cups almond milk (I had a stash of amazing almonds that made a beautifully scented almond milk that added a nice perfume to the mousse).

1/4 cup dates
1/3 cup agave nectar
1/4 cup + 2 T cacao powder
2 t vanilla
1/8 tsp salt
Add all of the above to blender and blend til smooth
 
2 T lecithin (I did not have lecithin and omitted this ingredient)
1/2 cup raw coconut butter (I used 1/4 cup)
Add to blender and blend until smooth.

I poured the mixture into 6 cups and let them set in the refrigerator. And I learned another trick about Irish moss: consistency of the dessert depends on using just the right measurement of it. I used a little less than 1/2 oz which made the mousse a little less dense than it should have been. But it was still a good texture and delicious!
 

• Do you have an Irish moss tip to share?
  
  
• Have a favorite Irish moss recipe to share?
  
  

Strawberry coconut basil ice kream!

Making ice cream chez moi

This Christmas my wonderful grandmother gave me a Cuisinart ice cream maker! Wahoo! Isn't she a stylish beauty? (The ice cream maker, see picture on the right. My grandma is a stylish beauty too, but I don't have a photo to share with you). I couldn't wait to experiment and make a rawkin' ice cream, despite the weather in Connecticut being below zero.

At the same time, my sister was in from Manhattan and kindly scoured the city to bring me two young coconuts. Did you know there is a shortage of young coconuts in NYC? Well, there was in mid-December. I was equally excited to experiment with coconut, as it is not an ingredient I commonly have on hand in Paris.

First step was figuring out how to open the coconut. In my excitement I started hacking at the first one, and finally found the soft spot on the bottom of the nut. While this enabled me to drain the water, it did not help me open the shell to get the meat out. My dad came to the rescue, wrapping the nut in a bag and smacking it with a sledgehammer. Ah, yes, preparing raw food can be entertainment for the whole family! To open the second coconut, I took a more judicious approach and pulled up The Raw Chef YouTube channel for some video schooling. Here is a super resource for how to open a young coconut, thanks to Russell James.

And to complement the video, here is a step-by-step photo stream of a successful, and less eventful, coconut opening:

Finding the soft spot after shaving the top of the husk, and pouring out the water.

Cracking open the top of the coconut to be able to scoop out the meat.

Fresh young coconut meat cleaned and ready for tasting!

First Mix of Raw Ice Kream
Why is it spelled kream and not cream? It's a raw vegan thing, a way to differentiate from animal products (like saying nut cheeze and mylks).

Again, in my excitement to see how the ice cream maker worked, I did not follow a recipe, and instead threw a bunch of ingredients into the mixer: coconut meat + water, handful of cashews, big handfuls of strawberries, 1/2 T of coconut oil, raw agave and vanilla. I was concerned that I did not have enough mylk for a creamy consistency, or enough liquid, but I thought, well, let's just give it a mix and see what happens. Once I had poured the mixture into the ice cream maker, I added in the chopped basil.

You can see the blended concoction in the picture below, and the following pictures of the mix being turned into ice cream; the machine took 25 minutes from liquid to frozen block.

Liquid concoction in the blender

Ice cream maker starting to mix the liquid

After mixing for 15 minutes

Completed ice cream spread in a glass pan

Two scoops!

 

The end result was a delicious ice kream, which was easy to make. It tasted great, though I will work on improving the creaminess of the texture the next time. Perhaps I will follow a recipe.  :)

• If you have a yummy raw ice kream recipe, please share! You can share it in the comments section.
  
• Do you have a tip on how to increase the creaminess of raw frozen desserts?