“The creative process is a process of surrender, not control” – Julia Cameron, writer

What does raw food bring to mind? Freshness, health, holism, life and energy, elements of earth and water, and all things green. What does a great food memory include? Good company, inspired conversation, perhaps a sense of discovery. How about dessert? Look but don’t touch, or the best part of the evening?

Early this summer a rustic cottage was filled with a combination of all these sentiments in order to create a book that many people would connect to. Everyday Raw Desserts is the next in a growing line of cookbooks due to hit the shelves spring 2010.

The process behind the shoot was intensive, and the stage was set with all the elements necessary to invoke a natural and cozy sense of imagery. Together we pieced together sweet delights from nostalgic recipes twisting and converting favorites both old and new. The experience, as is the norm with raw food was alchemistic.

Unassumingly basic ingredients transformed in our blenders, processors and dehydrators into whimsical variations of traditional and modern classics. The project was complimented with a talented and creative photographer, and our challenge as a team was to explore and highlight how beautiful raw desserts could be.

Rule of thumb – keep it real, what you see is what you get. Each picture was to be the exact recipe with no fillers or fluff. As one would expect time and temperature weren’t always working on the same side. The challenge of shooting living food dishes are all the natural side effects that come with the territory. Pure ingredients being unrefined or stabilized weep and melt – they practically ask to be eaten often before the shoot is complete. We worked quickly and embraced all the poetically perfect imperfections. Unexpectedly, some of the best shoots were the ones that ended up improvised. We all ended up most pleasantly surprised when we surrendered, simplified and allowed the light of the creation shine through.

These sweet results led me to consider how manufactured our visual modern experience is, and how deeply conditioned we can be to associate beauty with engineered perfection. This stands for the human form, as well as the food we put into it.

The project was blessed with the right environment and team for a concept people can connect to on an everyday basis. There is something for cozy snack, or some more creative entertaining (look for en entire chapter on raw chocolate.) It’s designed to demystify the most exciting side raw food. These are the creations you pass around to win over the skeptics. The recipes taste as good as they look. They are simple and what will eventually grace the pages of ERD is tangible in your kitchen (or cottage.) The images will show how wonderful the final results really were, and hopefully the inspiration that was in that cottage early this summer will be felt long after its over.

Vladimir Horowitz “Perfection itself is imperfection”

“Knowledge is a process of piling up facts; wisdom lies in their simplification.” Martin H. Fischer

“The crucial variable in the process of turning knowledge into value is creativity.” John Kao

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White Corn Filling

• 12 corn husks
• 5 cups white corn kernels
• 2 medium tomatoes, seeded and minced
• 1 red bell pepper, seeded and minced
• ¼ cup sun dried tomatoes, chopped
• 1¼ cups pine nuts, soaked 1-2 hours
• 1¼ cups cashews, soaked 1-2 hours
• 1teaspoon sea salt
• 1 teaspoon nutritional yeast
• 2 tbs. minced red onion
• 2 tbs. chopped fresh cilantro
• 1 clove garlic, peeled and minced
• 1/2cup lime juice

Place 3 cups of the corn, the tomatoes and the red bell pepper in a bowl; set aside. In a food processor, blend the remaining ingredients until very smooth. Pour into bowl with other ingredients and mix well with hands.

Serrano Spiced Portobello

• 4 Portobello mushrooms, cut in half and into 8 slices per side.
• 1 Serrano Chili, Seeded and minced
• 3 tbs. olive oil
• Salt and Freshly Ground Black Pepper

Toss mushrooms with olive oil, Serrano and salt then spread on Teflex sheets to dehydrate for 12 hours. Mix corn filling with Portobello.

Raw Cacao Mole

• 6 dried ancho/chipotle chilies, soaked 2-3 hours and drained
• ½ cup chopped red onion
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 2 tbs. sunflower seeds, soaked 4-6 hours and drained
• ½ cup almond butter
• ½ cup raisins, soaked 20-30 minutes
• 6 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 cup water
• 2 tbs. agave
• 2 tsp. ground cumin
• ½ tsp. ground coriander
• 1 tsp. salt
• ¼ tsp.cayenne
• 1 cup cacao powder

Blend all ingredients in vita-mix until smooth.

To Prepare Corn Husks

Soak corn husks in warm water for 1 to 2 hours. Dry carefully. To assemble, lay the corn husks flat and place about 1/2 cup of the corn mixture onto the center of each. Fold the bottom up over the filling and then fold the sides over. Using the husk strips tie the tops of each tamale. Place the tamales in the dehydrator for 2 hours.

Guacamole

• 3 ripe avocados, peeled, pitted and roughly chopped
• 1 large handful cilantro leaves, finely chopped
• 2 tablespoons lime juice
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/2 scallion, finely chopped
• 1/2 red chili finely minced
• 1 jalapeño, seeded and minced

Place all ingredients in a small bowl and mash well with a fork.

Assembly

• Cacao Powder for garnish
• Cilantro Leaves

Spoon a generous amount of mole sauce on each plate, and set two tamales on sauce. Spoon Guacamole on top and garnish with cacao powder and cilantro leaves.

Recipe excerpted from Entertaining in the Raw, published by Gibbs Smith Publisher, 2009. Click here to purchase online.

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Spring Rolls, so named because they are typically eaten during Chinese Festivals in the Spring, are normally filled with crispy vegetables and sometimes cabbage or mushrooms.  They are not always vegetarian, but quite often are.  The wrapper in this recipe makes use of one of my favorite techniques and embraces, rather than overpowers, the filling.

INGREDIENTS

Wrappers

• 2 Cups flax meal
• 2 Cups yellow squash
• 1 Cup chopped Thai coconut meat
• 2 Tbs. lemon juice
• 4 Cups water
• 1/4 Cup agave
• 1 Tsp. sea salt
• 1 Tsp. ground coriander
• 1 Tsp. ground cumin
• 2 scallions, thinly sliced on a diagonal

Filling

• 1 Cup julienned carrots
• 1/4 Cup sliced scallions
• 1 Cup shredded napa cabbage
• 1 1/2 Cups dried shiitake mushrooms, soaked 1 hour and dehydrated for 2 hours
• 1/2 Tsp. sea salt
• Black pepper to taste
• 1/4 Cup olive oil

Tofu

• 1 Cup cashews, soaked 1-2 hours
• 1/2 Cup fresh young Thai coconut meat
• 1/2 Cup raw carrageenan
• 1/4 Cup water
• 1/4 Tsp. sea salt
• 1 1/2 tsp. ancho chile powder
• 1/4 Tsp. cayenne pepper
• 1/4 Cup cilantro

Chile Sauce

• 3/4 Tsp. chipotle chile powder
• 2 Cups cashews, soaked 1-2 hours
• 1/4 Tsp. sea salt
• 1/4 Cup nama shoyu
• 1/4 Cup plus 1 Tbs. water
• Sweet Tamarind Sauce
• 1 Cup dried tamarind paste
• 1/2 Cup raw agave
• 3 Tbs. lime juice
• 1/4 Cup coconut water
• 2 Tbs. water
• 1/2 Tsp. salt
• Garnish Cilantro leaves

METHOD

Wrappers

Blend all ingredients except scallions in a Vita-Mix until smooth; stir in scallions. Spread thinly into 6-7 inch rounds on dehydrator teflex sheets. Dehydrate 5-6 hours until very dry but very pliable.

Filling

Fold all ingredients together.

Tofu

Line the bottom and sides of a small pan or square container with plastic wrap. Blend all ingredients except cilantro in Vita-Mix until completely smooth; stir in cilantro. Pour into lined pan (tofu should be about 1 1/2 inches thick): cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate about 2 hours until firm. Remove tofu from container by lifting plastic wrap out of pan and gently transferring to a cutting board. Cut tofu into 2-inch squares with a butter knife.

Chile Sauce

Blend all ingredients in a Vita-Mix until smooth.

Sweet Tamarind Fondue

Blend all ingredients well in Vita-Mix. Strain though a chinois.

ASSEMBLY

Fold the chile sauce into spring roll filling, add tofu and adjust seasoning. Place a large tablespoon of filling on each spring roll wrapper and spread it out in a row. Fold wrappers tightly. To serve, cut each wrapper on a bias lengthwise, lean one against the other, and garnish with Sweet Tamarind Fondue and cilantro leaves.

Related posts:

1. Sweet Pepper Soup, Basil Manti and Hazelnut ‘Yogurt’
2. White Corn Tamale
3. Raw Mochi

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3. The Skinny on Everyday Raw Desserts

Its a dark late summer afternoon in Maine, under soft rain drops, and I’m really enjoying the fact that my ‘work’ consists of standing in the middle of a blueberry field, sneaking a few when I can and listening to the field’s owner denounce the integrity of the New Jersey blueberry, a very distant cousin to these tiny gems. He doesn’t appear to be your typical organic fruit expert, and other than his perfectly matched blueberry-blue house and the ‘Blueberry Association’ patch on his chest, I’d probably guess he was more of a bourbon aficionado than a professor of enzymes and antioxidants. But, appearances aren’t everything and he certainly knows his product. The occasion is the first day of a three day photo shoot, our next to last session for my upcoming book, Entertaining in the Raw. I’m worried about the weather, and its impact on the exposure, but I soon learn that it is ‘nearly perfect light for shooting’. When my own camera fails after three shots, I also realize why I am a chef and not behind a lens.

The extraordinarily talented photographer, Miha Matei, and I are working together on some outdoor shots, which may be used for chapter introductions of the book. The recipes and format of Entertaining in the Raw are far from traditional and the photography is just as unique. Whereas my last book, Everyday Raw, followed a more restrained format, with straightforward chapter names such as “desserts” and “salads”, my publisher was kind enough to allow me a great deal of freedom with this one. The result is my most creative project to date, and one which I am equally proud and nervous about. Each detail is important and it’s often difficult to stop making adjustments.

Miha is a genius, capturing imagery that most eyes would not register. She works patiently, methodically, and is both relaxed and comfortable, but also an extreme perfectionist. Her skills go well beyond the photo itself – in fact, she is a driving force of many of our settings and has a very resourceful way with styling as well. I’ve found her ideas for this group of shoots to be perfectly aligned with the book’s focus. As she shoots, I listen (to the blueberry man), and take a walk into his blue house, where he shows me an old soda fountain that he imported from somewhere, pointing out the perfect lines of the marble slabs on its front and top, and going into a deep explanation of the trouble with having stools secured into the floor. The reason a blueberry processing plant needs a non-functioning soda fountain eludes me, but I like quirkiness. Meanwhile, Miha has captured a few rolls of the moist plants and their plump berries that will hopefully appear in our “Blossom” chapter.

The other chapters are titled “Inspiration”, “Revolution”, “Contemporary”, “Spice”, “Radiance” and “Meaningful”. The recipes in each have an abstract relationship to these concepts, but at the same time, are chosen for their direct affiliation with a certain aspect of history, art, experience or even feeling. Blossom is the easiest to explain and what we are shooting today. For someone who grew up in Maine, the brief appearance of the fresh wild blueberry among the rocky coastal hills is as symbolic of the seasons as anything.

Whereas my last book took a more straightforward approach to food preparation, focusing on recipes for day to day raw foods, Entertaining in the Raw is more elaborate, with many recipes that are upscale and often longer. As the interest in raw food continues to grow, the need for both styles grows with it, and as much as many of us need quick day to day recipes, raw food is also now much more common at special events, celebrations, and meals designed as an experience in and of themselves. This creative approach extends well beyond the recipes all the way to our choice of photography in some cases.

Rather than focusing only on entertaining photos of a dinner or cocktail party, we are trying to let the food speak for itself, and are working to utilize these chapter introductions to celebrate the spirit behind each chapter. Today, we celebrate the Blueberry and its representation of “Blossom”, as well as the charming owner Mr. Stewart, who asked me to be sure not to confuse him with Martha (trust me, I didn’t and you won’t). He was, in fact, wonderful.

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