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…This is Not the best Salad Dressing in the World. THIS IS JUST A TRIBUTE!

Nutritional Yeast Vinaigrette

½ cup apple cider vinegar

juice of 1/2 a lemon

½ cup extra virgin olive oil

½ cup nutritional yeast

1 tbsp tamari

½ tsp sea salt

½ tsp sugar (or agave nectar)

1 tsp brown mustard

1 tbsp each finely minced capers and onion

1 tbsp finely minced fresh* herbs (parsley, thyme, rosemary, etc.)

1 clove crushed garlic

Combine all the ingredients in a jar, and shake well. Pile some grilled tofu and a scoop of guacamole onto a giant salad....Pour on the dressing...and pretend you're back at Coney Island, getting ready to go see the Tone Unknown at the Hardback.

*according to someone who should know, dried herbs, especially thyme, were essential)

Hard-boiled Eggs in Fragrant Kefir Sauce

I adapted this from a tasty recipe from Madhur Jaffrey's classic, Indian Cooking. I remember being amazed at how delicious this simple dish was the first time I made it. This time, I wanted to use my tangy, raw half & half kefir as the base.

Eggs in Fragrant Kefir Sauce
In blender or food processor, puree until smooth:
1/2 small onion
1/4 tsp garam masala
a one-inch cube or slice of ginger
fresh or dried hot chilies, to taste
1 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp salt
2 teaspoons sundried tomato paste, or 1/2 of a fresh tomato
1 scant teaspoon agave nectar
6-8 hard boiled eggs, peeled and halved.

Gently stir the puree into 1 1/2 cups thick kefir ( I suppose yogurt would work too!). Set sauce aside in refrigerator for flavors to develop.
To serve, arrange egg halves in a dish and pour the sauce over them.
If you like, you can gently warm the dish in a low oven--but not too hot, or you might as well follow Mrs. Jaffrey's scrummy original recipe!

I chose to serve this over a bed of diced, sauteed sweet potato and brown rice. Am I dithering over the whole raw foods thing? You bet I am. As indescribably rich and nourishing as raw flavors are--and I am really enjoying the fresh juices, and salads, and ripe fruit!--I still crave the chewy warmth of brown rice, the soft sweetness of baked sweet potatoes, and yes, the melty delicousness of cheese.
And to be fair there are many schools of thought about raw foods. In Traditional Chinese Medicine, for example, raw foods are often frowned upon as upsetting to the body's balance. Nutrition experts as respected as Dr. Andrew Weil have qualms about raw foods. There are many good reasons humans learned to cook their foods--among them digestibility, flavor and nutrition. To gain some understanding of the ongoing controversy, read here.
And I haven't learned to like sprouted brown rice or raw sweet potatoes...yet. I suppose I am still gradually and experimentally seeking the right diet for me. For example, I find it hard to believe that beautiful, tasty eggs from my own hens, and kefir fermented from raw, pasture-raised raw milk, are poison--as many raw foods purists would have us believe. I suppose, on balance, that I just have a hard time being a fanatic of any stripe.
It's almost 5 o'clock, today, and I have only had two large fresh juices and a few nibbles of fruit & nuts today. I'm lovin' the juice. It feels like pure magic. I feel as if another juice would fill me up for the night--but I'm also ready for a dish of yummy carbs, fiber and protein. That is to say, brown rice, sweet potatoes, and eggs in a creamy sauce.

Raw Walnut, Lentil & Mushroom Pate

I sort of plagiarized this recipe for the Equinox potluck. This simple pate turned out surprisingly, satisfyingly savory, and everyone ate it up. As with most raw foods, there is a little pre-recipe prep but nothing onerous. You will need sprouted lentils (2 or 3 day sprouts) and some soaked walnuts. You may have noticed White balsamic vinegar is making a lot of appearances lately. I find it nicely sweet and complex, and more subtle than the red balsamic. Just the thing to soften and round out these earthy flavors.

Raw Walnut, Lentil, and Mushroom Pate

Soak one cup of walnuts 4 hours, or overnight. They'll swell to roughly 1 1/2 cups.
6 good sized raw baby bellas
1 heaping cup lentil sprouts
2 cloves garlic
2 tablespoons of kalamata olive spread, or about 1/4 cup pitted kalamatas
Fresh herbs such as celery leaves, parsley, thyme, or basil
1/2 small onion
a little olive oil
a little white balsamic
celtic sea salt, to taste
black pepper
about 1/4 of a nutmeg, freshly grated
1/2 cup nutritional yeast

Grind everything in a food processor. Once the pate is smooth, sprinkle and blend in the nutritional yeast to help bind and thicken. It's delicious right away, but the flavor & texture will deepen if you have time to let the pate get to know itself a few hours or overnight.

Creamy Carrot & Ginger Dressing

The best thing I've done for my kitchen in years is to invest in a good blender. This dressing wouldn't be possible without it.

4 cloves garlic
3 inches of ginger (a "thumb"), roughly chopped
1/4 cup soaked almonds
1/2 cup water from soaking sea vegetables
2 carrots, cut up
juice of 3 lemons or limes
1/3 cup tahini
1 tbsp toasted sesame oil (okay, so that's not raw...)
2 tbsp tamari
1 or 2 tbsp raw agave nectar

Blend the garlic and almonds with the sea vegetable water. While the blender is still running, drop in the pieces of ginger and carrot a few at a time so you don't choke the blades.. Now add the lime juice, tahini, sesame oil, tamari, and agave. Taste and correct seasonings if needed. Because of the raw vegetables this dressing won't keep long. Keep refrigerated and use it in 3 or 4 days.

Serve over a big salad containing mixed lettuces, shredded napa cabbage, cucumber, tomatoes, slivered fennel, sprouts, and the soaked & drained seaweed (arame is nice).

Raw Hummus

1 1/2 cup sprouted chickpeas
1 cup soaked almonds*
juice of two lemons or limes (more if desired)
1/2 to 3/4 cup raw tahini*
1/3 bunch cilantro
3 or 4 cloves of garlic
1/2 tsp coarse Celtic sea salt
about 1/2 cup of water
drizzle of olive oil

*Raw nuts have become problematic ever since the big salmonella epidemic a few years ago. It is still possible to buy truly raw almonds, but they will cost you an arm and a leg. Most of the time what you will find in bulk bins are "pasteurized raw," which obviously aren't really raw and won't sprout. It's still recommended to soak them before eating. Raw tahini has only recently come back on the market after many years.
In your blender or food processor, combine all the ingredients except the water and olive oil. Drizzle in water as needed to keep the mixture soft enough to blend, and finish with a splash of good olive oil. Serve garnished with a dusting of paprika and a swirl of olive oil.

Broth

Almost any cookbook I've ever loved, starting with Betty Crocker and with no end in sight, has a dead spot in it.
I always skipped the broth and stock chapter. First of all, who has time? Second, why waste all those veggies making broth? Just eat 'em! And third, who in the world wants to go to the trouble of making a recipe for broth? No one will ever know you did it!

Just heave a bouillon cube into that puppy and get on with your day.

But lately, following a difficult encounter with the flu, I embarked on an immune building project. There are many immune enhancing foods. While I'm sick, or if I feel run down, I like to make Medicine Soup, which incorporates some of the most potent: shiitakes, seaweed, miso, and garlic. It's a mushroomy, brothy, garlicky, miso soup with plenty of vegetables and sea veggies. It all starts with shiitake mushroom stems. Not only are shiitakes delicious, they also have profound immune building benefits. Most of the good stuff is in their stems, and can be extracted by simmering gently. In other words, by making broth.

I'd stem the shiitakes, set the caps aside and simmer the stems. You can do this while you're making dinner--it takes very little attention. I was on a mission to rebuild my immune system by eating shiitakes and/or their broth every day. Before long I was throwing in a nice piece of kombu, some wilty carrots, the butt end of a head of celery. Then I recalled something Anna Thomas said about garlic skins making the most flavorful broth--so in they went. Onions skins, potato peelings, zucchini trimmings, the tough parts of the collards, the seedy hearts of bell peppers, those little tiny garlic cloves that are too small to peel. Squishy tomatoes, wilted lettuce, a dried up half an onion you forgot about. If it's not actually spoiled, you can chuck it into the broth. (The only downside is that the chickens aren't getting as many scraps as they used to!) Add a pinch of Celtic sea salt and a spoonful of apple cider vinegar to help dissolve minerals into the water.

If you end up with a lot of broth, you can strain it into jars & freeze it. Just a cup or two will almost magically enhance the flavor of your next stew, soup, pot of beans. Or you can keep simmering, reduce it down, and thicken it for gravy. As the weeks go by I find myself tossing new things into the broth like a handful of crab boil, or a thumb of ginger, or a spoonful of peppercorns. And I honestly can't believe how much better things taste with homemade stock.

Medicine Soup
1 largish onion, sliced
4 cups assorted vegetables like broccoli, carrots, rhutabaga, beets, zucchini, potatoes, corn, greens, etc (really whatever you like)
a 3- inch piece of kombu or a small handful of your favorite seaweed
some grated fresh ginger
6-8 cups of water, broth, or any combination thereof

Saute the onion until browned in healthy oil of your choice (coconut is excellent). If using Shiitake caps add them now & saute a few minutes to bring out their flavor. Add veggies and broth and simmer until they are just tender. Remove soup from heat.

Mix 3 tbsp miso ( I love chickpea miso--it's creamy and mild, and not soy) with a little cool water to make it liquid. Wait until soup has cooled slightly before you stir in the miso--it's a living probiotic food and you don't want to kill it.
Before serving, to each bowl add one or two cloves of crushed raw, garlic and a dash of Sriracha if you like it.

Almond and Artichoke Pesto

Technically, pesto is olive oil, pine nuts, basil, garlic and maybe a little parmesan. I didn't have all that stuff, so I winged this. We ate it tonight, rolled up in Belgiosio's Mozzarella Roll with a few capers and a bit of kalamata olive spread, accompanied by toasty bread and a great big salad.


Almond and Artichoke Pesto
1 cup whole raw almonds
2 tbsp pine nuts
1/2 cup artichoke hearts (about 6 small)
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 bunch of fresh parsley
2 or 3 cloves of garlic
1 tbsp fresh oregano leaves
1 1/2 tbsp white balsamic vinegar (or lemon juice)
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
a grind of black pepper

Grind all ingredients to a paste in a food processor. If possible, allow to cool and thicken overnight before using to stuff the cheese roll.

Banana Rum Spice Cake

BANANA RUM SPICE CAKE

Sift together in a bowl:
1 cup quinoa flour
1 1/2 cups all purpose gluten free flour
1/2 cup walnuts halves
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp allspice
Whirl in a blender until smooth:
3 eggs
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup coconut oil
3-4 bananas
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Rub the inside of a spring form or bundt cake pan with coconut oil.
When oven is hot, add the banana mixture into the flour bowl and stir batter just enough to combine ingredients. Pour the batter into cake pan and bake for 50 minutes.
If using a bundt pan, top off the cake by mixing a little sugar with some chopped walnuts and lining the pan with them.

Rum sauce:
Just before the cake is done, combine 1/2 cup butter or coconut oil, 1/2 cup brown sugar, and 1/4 cup water. Bring to low boil and simmer on low for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and add 1/2 cup dark rum (spiced rum is extra delicious). Test cake for doneness and remove from the oven. With a toothpick, poke holes all over the top of the cake. Spoon the rum sauce slowly over the cake, allowing it time to soak in.
Decorate with coconut and/or a little cinnamon glaze. Best if you can let it sit 24 hours before serving.