Raw Foods. Food Raw. Raw Food Diet. The Secret to Raw Food Recipes is Time.

One would think “cooking” Raw would be as simple as slicing and dicing.  Previously mentioned  it takes hours in preparation for each experiment!  I was not sure if  setting up my telephone line in the St. Thomas took a longer amount of time?  Regardless, it was a test of patients in comparison to actually heating up a sauté pan and whipping up dinner!  In order to do some of the experiments we had to sprout dry seeds –which took between 30 min-6 hours…

It was all worth the time and effort that we endured (along with my patients to get the other half fed!)  The  natural energy levels that I had after just 2 days of eating raw was one that I had never experienced.  I felt like I was in a formula 1 car 16 hours a day!

Below is the making of walnut “whipped cream” and fresh fruit dessert.

*The walnut whip cream had a denser texture that had an incredible aroma of vanilla, creamy texture, and full of great nutrients.  How could you go wrong!

Raw Food Recipes. Raw Foods. Dehydrating Mushrooms.

Mushroom, fungi, spores, some woody, some meaty, yet all have a large water content that defines their unique texture.  Another perfect item to explore when playing with raw food.  My only thoughts of raw shrooms is when your crafty waitress brings you a house salad with sliced raw button mushrooms.  Thanks, I will pass!

In order to extract optimal flavor in mushrooms they need to have  heat added to them, this creates a problem in the raw food scenario.  Ah yes, dehydration!  I marinated the generic shrooms in organic soy (just a little), shallots, chili flakes, and sesame oil.  They sat for 4 hours then off they went into the food dehydrator!  12 hours later we had moist flavorful shrooms!  These were used to add flavor packed punches in all kinds of raw dishes and as a tasty snack.

Butternut Squash Raw Food. Vegan Recipe and Culinary Creativity Meet.

Reaching deep into the depths of my knowledge of flavor profiles I  decide to push a few  culinary boundaries with Raw Food recipes. Butternut Squash was the medium to create a new recipe platform.  Recently I was reading that you could eat it raw and it carried outstanding nutritious properties.  Hmmm, the mind was doing circles, I had to experiment with butternut squash, were these vegan’s on to something?

First things first, I large diced a vibrant colored butternut squash and handed out a few pieces to some other chef friends (as they looked at me as if I had lost my mind)!  We all bit into our pieces, and the moment of silence was shocking.  With a combined 58 years of cooking knowledge not one of us had experienced RAW butternut squash.  The flavor (we all concluded) was a cross between sweet potato and apple.  This launched a excellent dialog and brain storming session!

Butternut-Papaya Squash Soup

(see below for the recipe we put together)

(more…)

Raw Food for “RAW”-na-vores

The natural energy was in flowing after day 4… everyday was a new adventure in food!   Away from the granola hippie style of RAW.. I had to push the cuisine into new realms. Kicking off with the veggie spring roll found in most Vietnamese restaurants (typically with shrimp or pork), which would have made at least one of us happier.. but you know doing my best to stick with the integrity of the challenge into RAW.

I must say some days felt like we were in search for the holy grail… because raw nuts and fruits were quickly becoming extinct much like my desire to wait 36 hours to dehydrate papaya and other various goodies just to have a snack.  Yet, will power prevailed and here we are… a few more of the veggie/RAW inspired creations.

Raw Food Snacks

For me, it is not about writing on  meaningless topics & nonsense (especially critiquing restaurants) .. it’s about sharing things that have expanded my knowledge, inspired my creativity, or bring back an emotional tie.  In addition, educating others from my experiences is my goal-whatever the topic may be.

My ultimate goal is to inspire others to–TRAVEL. COOK. & EAT.

“Un-cooked” madness-

After 2 days of nipping at raw seeds and nuts, I realized I needed to put together some “snacks”.. this being a bit challenging because most people grab the box of wheat thins and kick back in front of the tube…  Not this week—it was all about that wonderful food I was set out to create all with the wonderful and challenging factor of that magic 120 degree mark!

Some of the snacks that were basic and fairly tasty were…

Cinnamon and nutmeg dehydrated banana chips (make sure to use raw bananas!), papaya chips, Asian marinated beef jerky (which turned out more like crackers…) I was a big fan, but had mixed reviews from the co-pilot.

The preparation time for each item took between 24-36 hours.… tisk tisk.. there is no question I should have started preparing these items in advance.

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