Raw Pasta and Pestos

So in keeping with the raw theme that has been happening lately, I thought I'd share how you can make raw pasta. First you need to start off with a raw pesto. Here are a few recipes that I got from Cami to get you started.







Basil and Pine Nut
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil, plus extra to seal
2 cloves garlic
2 T pine nuts, leaves
1 soaked for 6 hrs
4 cups basil leaves
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper

Cilantro and peanut
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil, plus extra to seal
2 cloves garlic
1/4 cup peanuts
1 cup cilantro leaves
1 cup parsley
1 bird's eye chili, seeded and finely chopped (optional)
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper

Arugula and walnut
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil, plus extra to seal
2 cloves garlic
1 cup walnuts
3 cups chopped arugula (rocket, do not use wild)
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper

Tomato and almond
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil, plus extra to seal
4 cloves garlic
2/3 cup unpeeled almonds, soaked overnight and peeled
1 cup diced ripe tomato
1 cup basil leaves
1 bird's eye chili, seeded and finely chopped (optional)
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper

Place all ingredients of your chosen pesto in a blender and season with salt and pepper (putting oil in first will help the blender do its work). Blend until as smooth or coarse as you prefer, check seasoning and transfer to a ceramic bowl or glass jar and add enough olive oil just to cover the surface. Cover and store in refrigerator for up to 1 week. Use in salads, with vegetables or as a spread.

Each recipe makes about 1-2 cups.

Variation: Other nut and leaf combinations could include cashews, hazelnuts, mint or watercress.

To make the raw pasta, the most popular thing to use is zucchini. After peeling it, we make the "spaghetti" by hand using a julienne slicer but you can also use a spiral slicer. Pour a generous amount of salt into the "zucchitini", mix well, and let sit for a few minutes until zucchini is limp and spaghetti-like. Be sure to rinse all the salt out or you will ruin the dish. I am also told that another alternative is squash. For pics of another raw pasta and another recipe, check out this site. Enjoy!

Green Smoothies

Green leafy vegetables are really good for us, but we still don't tend to get enough greens in our diet. I know we eat a lot of greens in our Asian dishes and we eat salads but it's still not nearly enough. A green smoothie, however, is a great way to get a lot of greens in your diet and is full of fresh nutrients. I was introduced to green smoothies when we visited Cami, my sister-in-law in Australia, as I had previously mentioned, and she got Jeremy and I hooked on them. She drinks a whole blenderful of green smoothie for breakfast every morning. I could go on about how full they are of antioxidants, fiber, minerals & nutrients, how they give you a full day of energy and that we know people who suffered with acne for years and after 2 weeks of drinking a green smoothie a day, their skin cleared up but there are plenty of websites out there already. Just look up "green smoothie." The basic idea of the green smoothie is to blend together approximately 60% fruit and 40% greens--and you've got yourself a yummy green smoothie.

This is the recipe that Jeremy and I have been using:

juice of 3 oranges, freshly squeezed
organic kale
organic spinach/swiss chard
2 Medjool dates, seeds removed
handful of goji berries
2 T of flaxseed, ground fresh in a coffee grinder
2 large pears/ 3 small pears
2 medium to large bananas

The trick, if you have an ordinary blender like ours, is to start with the orange juice. Cut the oranges in half and then squeeze out the juice using a citrus reamer. Pour the juice into the blender. We take roughly 2-3 leaves of kale and tear the leaves off the stem and fill the blender loosely full of kale and then blend until smooth. Then we fill the blender full of spinach or swiss chard or a combination of the two and blend again. You can add a little water if it's too thick or your oranges didn't give out much juice. I usually throw in the dates, goji berries, and flaxseed once the leaves have been blended and let it blend together for 2 minutes or so to make sure the greens are blended smoothly. In the meantime, I'm cutting the pears in quarters and cutting out the seeds and stem. Then I throw in the pears and the 2 peeled bananas, blend until they're all smooth and then pour the smoothies into glasses. Jeremy and I usually split the blender and we usually end up with 1 and a half to 2 cups each. The smoothies are really very yummy and I love how green it is because it looks so fresh. I know some people have a green phobia, my brother among them, so if the green color turns you off, you could try throwing in some fresh or frozen berries--it turns the smoothie into a berry shade and you'd never know there was any spinach in there. It's a great idea for kids who won't eat their greens.

My mother and brother throw in most of the oranges (the white stuff is also good for you, especially for allergies) and my mom adds carrots as well. Just find what works for you and what fruits and greens are in season. Sprouts are especially great for you. You can put any leafy vegetable but the darker the better. We've found kale to be too thick by itself and that's why we mix it with other greens. It is also recommended that you vary your greens and not always use the same ones. Enjoy the healthy goodness of the fresh and natural!

Raw Chocolate Balls

This recipe is thanks to my sister-in-law, Cami, the raw vegan who lives in Australia with her pretty awesome family. We went down to visit her last October and I was introduced to the concept of eating raw food, a very healthy way to go. Because you're eating fresh, you get most of the enzymes that are removed from heating. Because of her, Jeremy and I have started drinking green smoothies on a daily basis. Tonight, however, I will share a simple raw dessert. Four ingredients, that's it. So simple but so good for you. Did you know that cacao powder has the highest percentage of anti-oxidants? (95,500 in 100 grams in raw cacao, 26,000 in roasted cacao and the next on the list is goji berries--25,300 in 100 grams). Can we say superfood? I didn't have raw cacao powder (processed at no higher heat than 45 degrees Celsius) on hand this time, so I used your ordinary cacao powder which has just a bit more antioxidants than goji berries. I made these for Christmas and they went quickly. Tonight, they're for my chocolate craving.

3 C shredded coconut
1 - 1 1/2 C ground almonds
1 C raw cacao powder
1 C maple syrup or agave syrup

Mix and form into balls.

And that's seriously it, folks. Enjoy this dessert, it's great for you!

Food for thought, raw meals may be the way to go for someone who's nicknamed "Sunogum Luto-um" because she's known for burning food...hmmm....

The Filipino "Chicken Soup": Arroz Caldo

I am sick with the flu. Lying in bed, hacking away and feeling miserable, I remember when I was little, Mom would always make me some lugaw or arroz caldo. Mom's lugaw was always more bland, a hot rice porridge with boiled chicken and broth (back when I still wasn't vegetarian). Coming to the Philippines though, I was introduced to more flavorful arroz caldos so in my mind lugaw always referred to the bland stuff while arroz caldo was more vibrant, colorful, and flavorful. Lugaw is what I want when I have no appetite and can't keep down anything. But today, since I feel like I'm starving, what I am wanting is arroz caldo.. I looked around for recipes and found this one. I was sick, however, and didn't feel like doing it the "long" way and I wanted more garlic, more ginger, and lemon grass for their health benefits and flavor and I wanted lemon juice for throat-soothing reasons, so this is the version that happened today:

1 T grapeseed oil
1/5 medium onion, diced
5 cloves of garlic, minced
1 in ginger, smashed
1 lemongrass, outer leaves peeled, top leaves cut off, bulb hammered and then whole thing tied in a knot
1/2 can gluten or vege-abalone
1 egg, boiled
1 cup rice, cooked
2 cups water
1/2 cube chicken Knorr
salt & pepper to taste (I like to put a lot of pepper)
2 tsp fish sauce
3 T lemon juice
pinch saffron
1 green onion, sliced

Saute onion, garlic, ginger and lemon grass together in oil until fragrant and onions translucent. Add gluten and cook for 3 minutes. Remove gluten from pot. Add rice, water and Knorr, salt & pepper, and fish sauce. Stir and cover part way and lower heat and let mixture thicken to desired consistency. You may add water to thin mixture if it becomes too thick. Add lemon juice and pinch of saffron. Mix. Pour into bowl. Top with sliced egg, gluten, and green onions.

It was hot & sour, good for the throat, full of garlic, ginger, & lemongrass--all good for your health. Perfect comfort food for when you're sick.

New Year Brunch

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE! I was craving good ol' Filipino food today. I just needed some rice and ulam (what we call any dish we eat with rice). I appointed today as Get Rid of Stuff in the Fridge Day, most specifically the bag of Brussels sprouts I had been planning on cooking for a while, the black tree fungus that I was going to throw in the Christmas dinner stir-fry that I had forgotten about and had been soaking in the fridge since, and a half can of puso ng saging, banana heart or banana blossom in English.

Brussel Sprouts
I threw a cup of jasmine rice in the rice cooker and started to look for Brussel sprout recipes and came across this Golden-Crusted Brussels Sprouts recipe from Heidi. Click on it for the whole recipe but it's simple. You need Brussel sprouts, olive oil, and salt & pepper. Wash the sprouts, take off the loose leaves, cut off the stems and then slice sprouts in half. Rub the flat end with olive oil and start heating a pan with a tablespoon of olive oil. Then you place all the Brussel sprouts on the pan flat side down for five minutes until the flat side is golden. Sprinkle with salt and black pepper to taste and after it's golden, toss them a few times to brown other side. And I don't know why I typed all that when the actual recipe is much better written. I skipped the sprinkling with cheese since we use cheese sparingly in this household and they were still pretty yummy. I was popping them into my mouth like snacks while waiting for hubby to get out of bed.

Fried Tofu with Toyo-Ginger-Garlic Sawsawan
My favorite fast and easy ulam. Slice a block of tofu in 1/2 inch slices, heat a tablespoon of oil in a pan until hot and arrange slices in pan and fry until golden brown. It's important to use just enough oil to prevent sticking, too much will result in soggy tofu. The tofu slice is easy to turn once the side is golden. Fry on the other side until golden brown and then transfer to a plate with paper towels to absorb any excess oil. My favorite sawsawan (Filipinos have a lot of different dipping sauces with everything) is a simple toyo or soy sauce with a clove of garlic, peeled and crushed. Today I also added a small piece of ginger, peeled and crushed, just to be different. I love all the sawsawans we have in Filipino cuisine, you can click here to try others. The problem with being vegetarian is there's not a lot of possibilities for using sawsawans. I usually arrange sliced tomatoes with the tofu slices, or else dice the tomatoes and sprinkle them on top of the tofu and then top with sliced green onions.

Puso Ng Saging with Tofu & Black Fungus Strips
And this is where it gets a bit crazy. I needed to use my puso ng saging but I couldn't find any ulam recipes, they were all for salad. So this is what I threw together.

1 T grapeseed oil
1/3 medium onion, sliced
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 ginger, peeled and grated
1 large tomato, sliced or diced
3/4 can of banana blossom (or a whole can will do fine), sliced in strips
2 T of lemon juice
1/3 block of tofu sliced in 1/2 inch slices, fried until golden and sliced into strips
1/2 cup of rehydrated dried black fungus mushroom, sliced in strips
1-2 T of soy sauce
salt and pepper to taste
dash of patis or fish sauce
3-4 green onions, sliced

I'm still not sure how to work with canned banana blossom. Usually you're supposed to soak the fresh one in vinegar or lemon juice first to get rid of the sap. I sliced them in strips and then rinsed them with water, then soaked them in the lemon juice just to be sure. Heat oil until hot in pan. Throw in onions, garlic and ginger, until slightly brown. Add tomatoes, banana blossom, tofu and mushrooms. Throw in the soy sauce and salt & pepper to taste. I threw in a dash of fish sauce as well just for fun. I think it took about 3 minutes on medium heat for flavors to mix and then topped the whole thing with green onions.