Recipes from Gaia's Table

Wakame Salad

Recipe by Libby, as taken to the 2009 Picnic in the Park

This is a seaweed salad with a light fresh taste. You can mix in vegetables of your choice, but make your salad look interesting by using contrasting colours to the shredded wakame.

Salad
½ cup dried fueru wakame* seaweed soaked 5–10 minutes then drained and spun-dried immediately
1 small carrot, julienned
A 50mm section of white radish, julienned
1 cup of fresh enoki mushrooms cut in half
½ a red onion, finely sliced
1 cup of bean shoots with daggy tails removed

Dressing
½ cup of tamari
¼ cup of light sesame oil (not roasted)
1 tablespoon of grated ginger

Mix all dressing ingredients in a screw-top jar.

 Arrange salad on a flat plate. Mix some of the vegetables through the wakame and place the rest on top.

Before serving, drizzle just enough dressing over the top to work its way through the stack.

 *dried fueru wakame can be purchased at some Asian supermarkets or online at Living Appartments http://www.livingapartment.com.au/Products/Food-Supplements-Health-Care

At Food on the Move wholesale shop, Hornsby http://www.foodonthemove.com.au/html/contact_us.html

This is a link to a Google search that contains other Australian supplers
http://www.google.com.au/search?hl=en&cr=countryAU&client=safari&rls=en&q=fueru+wakame&start=0&sa=N

Gay's Vegetable Thai Curry

I don't have an exact recipe for the curry because I tend to just put things together and don't measure.  I buy freshly grated mature coconut at Flemington Market and low temp dehydrate it then grind it into a powder in the Vitamix blender - you can use it fresh as well but it blends smoother if it's dehydrated and made into a "flour".  I put about a cup or two of it in the Vitamix with some cashews, garlic, ginger, lime leaves, vegan thai red or green curry paste (you can make your own fresh if you have time), celtic or other highly mineralizied salt to taste, fresh thai chilis to taste and water to get it moving....blend till smooth and creamy/silky, pour over bite sized veggies that have been tossed sparingly with a little sesame oil and soy sauce (a sprinkle bit so they don't dry out) and dehydrate. Obviously the longer you dehydrate it the softer the veggies get - you can dehydrate them a head of time and put the sauce on part way through the dehydration process or you can just have the sauce on crunchy raw veggies - we like it any way we do it. Hope that's not too vague! It's just a basic coconut/nut creme sauce with curry added.  I have made it with the young thai coconut meat and find it is far too sweet, we much prefer the more subdued, mature coconut.

Oct 9-08 Update: made it again for tonight's DVD night and used one of the wild young coconuts that Steve brought down from QLD.  The water was not sweet and the flesh was thick and firm = perfect!!!!

Melanie's Tiramisu

For September '08 Italian potluck

 

I Am Adoring Tiramisu
from I Am Grateful
Recipes & Lifestyle of Cafe Gratitude
by Terces Engelhart with Orchid    (they're coming out with another dessert recipe book mid Oct08, Sweet Gratitude: A New World of Raw Desserts by Matthew Rogers, Tiziana Alipo Tamborra, it looks like a tiramisu made it on the cover)

 

 

makes a pan 20cmx20cmx7cm    (it actually pretty much filled a 25cmx20cmx7cm container - this is HUGE I'd half the quantities or even down to a third for a sensible sized desert, though the HUGE container looks pretty impressive!)

 

 

The night before
soak 850g almonds
soak 1.5cup cashews (or soak these in the morning if you are making this in the afternoon, almonds need about 4hrs extra soaking)
soak 15g dried irish moss (shake it out very well before putting it in the water, even once it has swollen up again, swish it around a lot - it can get quite a bit of sand on it, you don't want the sand on it) Give the irish moss a GOOD rinse after soaking overnight, make sure the soaked irish moss has no gritty bits on it before using in the recipe, discard the soaking water, you just want the seaweed.

For the cake
1.5cup well packed finely chopped dates (450g of seeded dates) (you need another 0.3cup for the chocolate mousse, so will need about 550g of seeded dates in total)
0.5cup coconut butter
2.5ml salt (used 1.25ml)
30ml vanilla (not quite sure what kind of vanilla, so I just used 1 bean)
850g of almond flour (I used 850g of unsoaked almonds, soaked them, then made the milk required later had lots of milk left over, and then used the leftover almond meal wet as the almond flour)
250ml cold-processed espresso (I did not have raw coffee, I only had 1tblsp on roasted coffee, I've never drunk coffee, so haven't bothered looking for it raw, and only had 20ml of roasted coffee in the house, put it in 250ml of cold water and let it sit for 2 days, looked dark brown enough to convince me, not sure if it would convince a coffee drinker though.  If there wasn't an Italian theme, a berry or chocolate sauce could work well instead of the coffee)

 

Puree the dates in a food processor.  To make a fine paste you may need to add a bit of water (I used a bit of the coffee)
In a mixer with a flat paddle at low speed, mix the date, coconut oil, vanilla, and salt until smooth. Add flour and mix at higher speed until well incorporated.  (I actually mixed date, coconut oil, vanilla and halved the salt in the food processor then added it to the almond meal by hand)
Separate into two equal portions.
Form an even layer on the bottom of the pan using one portion. Soak this layer with half of the espresso (125ml). Allow espresso to soak in (I scored the top of the cake layer with a 3cm grid, then poured on the espresso, it soaked in quickly.

 

For the cacao mousse
15g dried Irish Moss
360ml Almond milk
0.3 cups (heaped quarter cup) finely chopped dates (quarter cup + 1 teaspoon)
60ml Agave
30ml of vanilla (used 1 pod)
0.6ml (1 eighth teaspoon) salt (used a pinch)
80ml cacao powder
30ml lecithin
120ml coconut oil

 

Blend the soaked irish moss with 120ml almond milk, until dissolved, smooth and thick (this takes a while, if you check it before it is ready, you will wonder how it will turn into something edible...)
Add remaining almond milk, dates, agave,vanilla, salt and cacao powder, and blend until smooth
Add lecithin and coconut oil and blend until well incorporated.
Pour onto cake layer.  Set in fridge (30-60minutes)

Once set, layer the remaining cake portion on top of the mousse and soak cake with remaining espresso.
Return to fridge while you make the whipped cream....

For the whipped cream
540ml coconut milk (blend the flesh of one young coconut with enough of the coconut water to make up 540ml, if you're just a bit short, add a bit of water, if you're very short, open another coconut)
1.5 cup cashews soaked
150ml agave
30ml vanilla (I used 1 pod)
0.6ml (1 eighth teaspoon) salt (used a pinch)
30ml lecithin
160ml coconut oil

 

Blend all ingredients except lecithin and coconut oil until smooth.  Add lecithin and coconut oil. blending until well incorporated.
Pour onto cake and set in fridge (about 60min)

 

Garnish
Once set dust with cacao powder (about 2 tablespoons, is plenty, recipe says 4 tablespoons!)

Savoury Nori Snacks by Joy Mozzi

Adapted from a recipe originally posted on http://www.raw-pleasure.com.au

My variation:

9 nori sheets

1 cup each soaked sunflower seeds & walnuts (2-3 hours soaking). Drain and rinse

juice from 1 lemon

1 tsp sea salt

1 tablespoon Tamari (naturally brewed soy)

2 cloves garlic

Put all ingredients into a food processor. Adjust seasonings to taste until you have a thick pate'. Add a touch of water if you need to or extra lemon juice if mixture too dry.

Put one nori sheet on a board, spread pate' over it, place another nori sheet on top, spread more pate', add third sheet. Pat down gently and using scissors cut long strips and then into bite size pieces. Can be eaten like this or dehydrate 2-3 hours till crisp. They only stay crisp for a short time so eat immediately.

Serve on a bed of bright green baby spinach or other lovely green salad leaves.

Gay's Pecan Pear Torte

Okay - I'm not one for keeping track of what I do and I often make my recipes up as I go along - as so many of us do! So here I go with a first run vague description of this very successful dessert! Will post proper measurements later...if i can work them out, but honestly, once you've made any raw pie it's pretty self evident...

Dehydrate a pecan/cinnamon/date crust until firm - made with unsoaked pecans and the other ingredients in the food processor and pressed into an 11 inch torte pan with a removable bottom.

Next spread a layer of Nut Creme filling made in the Vitamix Blender with cashews, the flesh from a couple of young thai drinking coconuts, agave, mesquite, lucuma, a wee bit of psyillium powder for setting it up (you don't want too much as don't want jelly) a pinch of nutmeg to taste and a little water to keep it turning over (I didn't have any vanilla but that wouldn't go astray) into the dehydrated tart shell and layer with thinly sliced ripe pear (I sliced it the thin setting on the V slicer) - repeat this until tart shell is full.

Refrigerate until set/firm and then...

Trim with thickened nut cream (just add a few more cashews to remaining nut cream in the blender and re-blend) piped into a border.

Glaze the top of the tart with a mixture of agave and cinnamon and continue to decorate with dehydrated pear slices (I did them on the thin side of the V slicer) and soaked pecans that had been coated with agave and cinnamon and dehydrated until crunchy (makes lots they're addictive). I left them whole for border decoration and chopped some up

to fill the gaps. I think the pear slices for decoration would've been even more impressive if they'd been brushed with agave and thoroughly dried.

All to taste - what tastes good to you!

Greek Rice (couscous lookalike)

Made by Christine.

6 parsnips peeled and roughly chopped
2 carrots finely chopped
¾ cup red cabbage finely shredded
6 sticks of celery finely chopped
1½ cup pine nuts
1 cup dried unsulphured apricots (soaked for minimum 2 hours)
4 Tbsp sesame seeds
8 Tbsp flaxseed oil
½ cup lemon juice
2 tsp Celtic sea salt
4 Tbsp fresh parsley, finely chopped
1 tsp freshly ground pepper

1. Place parsnip in the food processor and pulse until it resembles rice in consistency.

2. Transfer the parsnip to a large bowl. Put the pine nuts in the processor and pulse until they are roughly chopped and add to the bowl.

Add the remaining ingredients to the bowl, mix together and serve.

Corn chips

Made by Joy at the 2006-02 Second Picnic

6 ears of corn
½ an onion
Optional: shredded carrot, butternut and seasonings.

1. Scrape kernels off corn. Use food processor and blend with onion and salt or other seasoning. I used Mexican chilli powder in one of them and added a handful of chopped butternut to one batch, shredded carrots to another.
2. Dehydrate 10-16 hours and if possible, remove from Teflex sheet or tray half way through and flip over to dry other side. They do harden more on cooling. Break into chips and store in zip lock bags to keep crispy. Serve with avocado and nut cheese.

Source: Living on Live Food by Alissa Cohen, p347

Nut cheese

Made by Joy at the 2006-02 Second Picnic and the 2007-01 Asian Picnic

1. Soak cupful of macadamia nuts and ½ cup almonds overnight in water. Can remove skins from almonds or leave them on – optional.
2. Using food processor mix nuts with squeezed lemon juice and garlic cloves. Add Celtic salt and dash of Tamari (naturally brewed soy sauce). If too lemony and you need more liquid use juice of half an orange.

Avocado – using hand held beater, whip until creamy with fresh lemon juice and seasoning.

Source: Idea from Alissa Cohen.

Falafel

Made by Marilyn Golden at the 2006-09 Middle Eastern Dinner.

One cup of macadamia nuts soaked in water overnight
½ to 1 clove garlic
1 cup of parsley
2 Tbsp tahini
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp sea salt
Dash of black pepper
1 tsp of ground cumin
Juice of one lemon

Source: (c) Marilyn Golden 2004

Mango Pie

Made by Jamie Louise Bloom at the 2007-01 Picnic.

5 Mangoes (preferably ripe Kensington Pride)
1 Passionfruit
1 cup raw organic almonds
1 cup raw organic cashews
1 cup raw organic pecans
6 Medjool dates, pitted

Base:
In a food processor, process the raw nuts. Keep half aside for use in the pie, and add the pitted Medjool dates to the food processor and process until the base mixture becomes a ball.

In a pie dish, sprinkle some of the nut mixture to stop the base from sticking to the dish. Then flatten out the base mixture into the dish.

Pie:
Thinly slice the mangoes, and layer the slices with sprinkled nuts (the nuts help hold the pie together). On the top layer, sprinkle with nuts and then scoop the passionfruit into the middle.

Enjoy!

Source: (c) Jamie Louise Bloom 2005 inspired by Eating without Heating -- recipe for frozen Divine Mango Pie.