Raw!
Today was a blast. I got up too early (any morning hour is too early on a weekend), grabbed a quick shower, and headed downtown to the Kitchener market to meet K. We found each other, and then spent a pleasant hour or so wandering around, restocking on fruits and veggies. Eventually we headed to her place to drop off our things and say hi to their adorable dog Sammy, and then it was off around the corner for our raw food workshop.
The workshop was two hours of numminess, with a side helping of good company. We were joined by around eight others, plus our instructor. She started us off with edamame hummous dip, which was quite fresh tasting. Then we each received a plate of several samples:
Clockwise from the bottom, you’re looking at bean-free refried beans, mango salsa, dairy-free sour cream, corn tortillas, and guacamole.
How did they taste? Fantastic, both individually and together. Seriously, the ‘refried beans’ were amazing, and the tortillas made me want more. The ’sour cream’ was downright surprising — a little sour, a little creamy, an interesting texture. The guacamole was most surprising of all, though. For those who don’t know me, I [a] loathe avocados, and [b] avocados loathe me right back (i.e., they do terrible things to my stomach). But I wanted to try everything, and wow, this guacamole was great! The only sad thing was knowing that I couldn’t eat all of it, for fear of gastric repercussions.
Next up was a grapefruit-avocado-fennel salad. Mine fortunately didn’t have any avocado in it, and the grapefruit and fennel proved a tasty combination. Our instructor recommended trying to combine all five tastes (sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and umami) when creating raw meals, to produce a balanced and satisfying experience. This was the dish that really drove home the effectiveness of that strategy for me. (Naturally this would work for non-raw meals too.)
Following this we sampled several power snacks that were available for sale after the class. The cherry-almond biscotti were interesting — not nearly as hard as traditional baked biscotti, and quite tasty. The fennel-infused almonds really caught my taste-buds though. I left with two bags of those, and I’m snacking on them now. The flavour combination is very…Indian. And slightly sweet. Someone may need to take them away from me.
Wrapping things up, she revealed her secret weapon…as if such a thing were needed. What was it? Chocolate mousse. Chocolate avocado mousse. Personally I was a little sceptical (avocados!), but fifteen minutes later I was a convert; the mousse proved rich, chocolatey, decadent, and offered just the right amount of sweetness. (The recipe at the bottom of this page looks like what we tried.) We had it with frozen raspberries (yum), and then tried a less chocolatey version frozen into little truffles. The latter came with a bit of cayenne for dipping, for anyone spice-inclined. The combination proved utterly fantastic — I’ll definitely be trying this with truffle-like desserts of all kinds in future. If made thicker, I think the mousse would make an excellent icing…now I want to make chocolate avocado cupcakes. 
Also, now, sadly, my stomach hates me. But hey, in one afternoon I found not one, but two ways I like avocado, so it was worth it. And the rest of the food was super tasty. I can’t wait to get the recipes, which she’ll be e-mailing everyone soon.
A random assortment of things I learned:
- Agave syrup is useful when cooking for diabetics. Most sugars are very high on the glycemic index, but agave syrup scores range from 11 to 27 . That means it is officially low GI!
- Maple syrup and cocoa powder are not considered raw.
- Some brown sugar is actually just white sugar with molasses added! Ack! For raw sugar, look for dehydrated cane juice.
- Soaking almonds and other nuts overnight really does make a difference, even when they’re destined to be ground afterwards. I always used to just skip the soaking and go straight to the grinding, but apparently the soaking instigates chemical changes and creates a different texture…both of which are desirable. Soaking it is, then.
- To use your oven as a dehydrator, prop the door open with a foil-wrapped pencil and set it to its lowest setting. Aim for roughly 115F (an oven-safe thermometer can help). I’ve done this for making tofu jerky before, but after this workshop feel a bit more confident about trying it for things like the corn tortillas.
- The book Living Cuisine (by Renee Loux Underkoffler) seems a good choice for raw food ideas.
