Recipe of the Week: Snowdrop's Blonde Fruitcake

I'm gonna cheat a little and share with you a recipe that I have yet to try, but is on my 'to-do list' for next week. I'm doing this as I have no doubt that it will be scrumptious, and wanted to make sure you'd get a chance to add it to your Holiday menu.

Snowdrop has once again put her Chef's hat on and has come up with a raw rendition of this festive treat. How about joining us this coming Thursday, as several of us on Raw Freedom Community will make this cake simultaneously as our next 'Project Raw Around the World'.


Snowdrop's Blonde Fruitcake
Posted by Snowdrop on Raw Freedom Community

Cake
Soak 1 hr:
¾ c dates (packed)
½ lemon juiced
½ orange juiced
2 t almond extract
pinch sea salt

Grind, sift, & set aside in bowl:
1 c almonds
1 c dry coconut shreds
½ c cashews


Fruit filling 1
Combine in any ratio to equal ¾ cup total your choice of the following dry fruits:
raisins, cherries apricots, pineapple, cranberry, currants, in similar size cuts

Soak ¼ c of fruit juice of your choice (or brandy, rum…) in the dehydrator for 1 hr

Fruit filling 2
1” fresh ginger root sliced & slivered
1 T lemon zest
1 T orange zest
2 T agave

Put in bowl in dehydrator for 1 hr

Candied Nuts
1/3 c walnut halves
1/3 c pecan halves
2 T maple syrup
½ t cinnamon
pinch sea salt

Toss in small bowl then put on teflex sheet in dehydrator for 1 hr

Lets put it together!

Cake: After the hour of soaking, take the ginger bowl & just drain the juices into the dates (set ginger citrus zest aside)…take the date mixture and blend into a smooth puree.

Pour into the ground nut mixture and stir lightly till combined. Set cake batter aside.

Fruit & Nuts: Drain the fruit and put onto cake ‘batter’, also add the ginger citrus zest. Set aside the nicest dozen pecan halves for the garnish and break up the rest of the nuts into the cake batter into small enough pieces. (Remember, if the nut pieces are too big… the knife will have trouble slicing the cake neatly… ask me how I know...)

Cake: Stir the additions lightly till combined then press into your 5-6” cake mold. (Use plastic wrap lining to make sure you can get it back out again.)

Plate your cake and decorate.

Snowdrop's Notes:
~ I used ground coconut & lemon zest powder with a little agave and enough water & 1 T coconut oil to make it workable... It's not a recipe that is perfected yet, but it worked well enough for tonite.

~ To make it a spiced cake, you have to add things like cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, ginger... to the nut flour before adding the wet ingredients so it gets mixed thoroughly.

*~*~*~*
Photo Credit
Fruitcake by Snowdrop

Recipe of the Week: Crimini Mushroom & Tarragon Risotto

I was gonna make the yummy-looking mushroom risotto recipe that Fairygirl posted last week, but decided to play around a little and came up with my own. It turned out really well; yet another keeper!

I'm particularly happy to have found a great way to eat acorn squash raw - something I've been meaning to try for months. It's a bit of hard work, due to the acorn's uneven shape, but was well worth the effort. If you don't feel up for it, butternut would probably work good too.


Mushroom & Tarragon Risotto

Serves 4

Risotto
1/2 large acorn squash, peeled and roughly cubed

Marinated Criminis
2 cups crimini mushrooms, sliced
1 tbs olive oil
1 tbs tamari
2 tsps lemon juice

Creamy Tarragon Sauce
1/3 cup cashews
1/3 cup macadamias
1/3 cup pine nuts
1/2 cup water
1 large garlic clove
2 tbs lemon juice
1/2 tsp salt
Pinch cayenne
-
1 tbs dried tarragon

For Serving
2/3 cup red, orange or yellow bell pepper, cubed
1/2 cup parsley, chopped
2 green onions, chopped (optional)


For the risotto, grind squash in food processor until rice-like. Set aside in large bowl.

For the marinated criminis, toss the mushrooms in olive oil, tamari and lemon juice, and let marinate for at least 1 hr.

For the sauce, blend first 8 ingredients until smooth, then add tarragon, bell pepper and parsley by hand.

To assemble, mix the risotto with the marinated mushrooms, Creamy Tarragon Sauce, bell peppers, parsley and green onion (if using).

Variation:
~ I had some left-over Tarragon Sauce so I served it the next day on top of zucchini linguine, along with the other veggies. It was also delicious.

Two Raw Divas, One Kitchen - The Adventures - Part II

OK, I'm back! Now where was I?

Let's Crank Up the D!
Day 3 of our Raw Diva Extravaganza was a much awaited 'D day'. We were ready to rawk, babe! We went pretty much non-stop from morning to late afternoon, filling the dehydrator right up with savory goodies. Man oh man... The smell coming out of there!

First, we worked on creating a buckwheat and veggie dough that we would use both as pizza crust and for our next project: mini-pockets. We were really excited about experimenting with these - something I'd been meaning to do for months, ever since trying Alissa's calzone. The possibilities of fillings are endless, but we decided to make 3 different kinds of pockets: Italian, Greek and Asian (recipes now available in The Best of Raw Freedom Community ebook).

Here they are, freshly out of the D

While Heathy worked on that night's dessert, I prepared Snowdrop's Sesame Nuggets (featured in my Recipe of the Week post here.)

We also came up with a burger recipe of our own that we formed into both patties and balls - the latter were meant for yet another new creation.

Diva Burgers on their way in...

Lastly, Heathy had brought some dried porcinis with her so we got to try the Crab Cakes featured in the latest Purely Delicious that everyone had been raving about on Raw Freedom Community. Somehow, we misread the instructions and dehydrated the cakes at too low a temp, so they weren't fully ready in time for dinner. Ah well... They were superb nonetheless.

We served the crab cakes along with a tartar sauce, and a mixed green salad. Delish!

To my surprise, I found out that Heathy has never been 'the soup type'. At least, she certainly landed among the right folks to give her a taste of how delicious raw soups can be. It looks like it worked; my and Don's passion for raw soups rubbed off on her a little. In fact, we started that evening's meal with a lovely creamy Mushroom Soup that Heathy and I created. We were both super stoked at the result.

Marvelous Mushroom Soup

Dessert was Fairygirl's wonderful Strawberry Lime Mousse Cake, which we were testing for her book. In fact, she told me that, of all the desserts she's come up with, this one is her favorite, which is saying a lot! The pie that she submitted at the Simply Raw Pie Contest in Ottawa last fall was based on this recipe. Lovely, as you can see.

Strawberry Lime Mousse Cake

One more day zoomed right by!

Snowed In?
I forgot to mention that we woke up to our first snow of the season that morning. Yay, the return to lovely Winter Wonderland! Once everything got safely tucked away in the dehydrator, we couldn't resist taking a short break to go for a walk amidst the freshly fallen snow. Beautiful!

As you may recall, we live up a mountain. In fact, the road is so steep that you need a 4X4 to drive up the hill in winter. We couldn't help wondering how the snow would affect the upcoming potluck on Sunday, and Heathy's return the next week.

In the meantime, that also meant that it might affect our trip to Nelson the following day, as John's car wouldn't make it back up the hill under snowy conditions. However, we had a 'Plan B' up our sleeves, and were prepared to walk and get the bus in, as we had to pick up a few more grocery items for the rest of our uncooking marathon.

Three Raw Divas...
Once again, the weather cooperated; it rained throughout the night, and by the time we got up on Friday, the snow was virtually gone. Perfect! Heathy guided us through a few yoga postures, then we headed towards town for the afternoon. As soon as John dropped us off, we went straight to Rawfreshing Cuisine. Heathy had been wanting to eat at Chantale's raw deli ever since I wrote about it last summer.

I knew Chantale was planning a trip to Quebec sometime in November and wasn't sure whether she'd be around. Thankfully, as it turned out, she wasn't going until the following week, so we got a chance to chat with her to our hearts' content.

Heathy with yet another Canadian Raw Diva

Everything Chantale makes looks so yummy, but in the end, we settled for the following...

Pizza Wrap

A soft veggie wrap filled with pine nut ''ricotta'', pizza sauce, pesto, veggies, lettuce and sprouts.

Mediterranean burgers

Sunflower and pumpkin seed burgers on sesame-onion ''toasts'' with veggies and Rawfreshing sauce - a sort of blend between ketchup, mayo and mustard.

Here we are, getting ready to enjoy a mega raw treat!

But that was only for starters... Next came desserts!

Chocolate Mousse Torte

On a macadamia-coconut crust with bananas and strawberries.

Strawberry Shortcake

Chantale thought she was out of her personal favorite, Cashew Cheesecake, but then remembered she had a few pieces left over from a catering order. Lucky us!!!

Cashew Cheesecake

On a pecan-raisin crust with a raspberry coulis.

We could see why Chantale likes this cheesecake so much: it's so creamy it literally melts in your mouth. She sure had us puzzled over its delicate taste; you should have seen us trying to figure out what was the secret ingredient! lol

We had a fabulous time, spending close to 2 hours in Chantale's raw haven. As we were munching away on her delicacies, Heathy and I toyed with a tempting idea: wouldn't it be awesome if we were to be raw food critics, touring raw restaurants all over North America? Ahhhhhhhh! Bliss, I tell ya! Not sure if our bodies could take it though. lol

Wondering how we managed to eat all that food? Me too! We were sooooo full when we walked out of there! In fact, we ended up having just a light dinner: Don's wonderful Green Celery Soup (which I just can't get enough of), and a modified version of Kate Wood's Sauerkraut Salad. Huh, and a teeny dessert later on. Does that count?

Coming up next... Our 'Sweets' Day and Raw Potluck