Fiamma's Road to Raw

[Kitteh]

Yes! I am going to order some because Ani Phyo has an ice cream recipe and apparently it tastes caramelly

[JC]

I tasted it straight out of the packet, it's kind of like an almond flavoured malt powder - if you can imagine that!

[Kitteh]

Sounds intersting, I keep forgetting to order some but you've reminded me

[Quantum Mechanic]

This is from: http://www.rawfoodtalk.com/showthread.php?t=46347
from a poster named spicyfull:

Note: To make date paste, place 1/3 cup water and 1 cup soaked pitted dates in a food processor and process until smooth. Yield: 1 cup. Stored in a sealed container in the refrigerator, date paste will keep for 2 weeks. Makes 4 servings.

*Thank you to Cherie Soria for this recipe.

Almond Cream
1 cup whole, raw almonds, soaked 8-12 hours, drained, and rinsed (about 1 1/2 cups after soaking)
2 cups water
2 tablespoons date paste
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Place the almonds, 1 1/2 cups of the water, the date paste, and the vanilla extract in a blender and process until smooth. Add the remaining 1/2 cup water and blend again. To separate the “cream” from the almond skins and pulp, squeeze the blended mixture through a double layer of cheesecloth or a mesh bag. Serve at room temperature or chilled. Stored in a sealed container in the refrigerator, Almond Cream will keep for five days. Makes 2 cups.

Me, I'm not very good at following instructions, so I just looked at the ingredients and kind of winged it. For the date paste part, I didn't know what was meant and just put in three pitted dates (minus the pits!) and blended them up until there weren't big pieces left.

The almonds, now I got about 3/4 cup to a cup (didn't measure really but something like that), and put it in hot water, though I don't think it was boiling or anything like that. Maybe it was too hot to be considered technically raw anymore (they were raw almonds to begin with for sure), and after soaking for maybe 30 minutes or an hour I popped each of them out of their outsides...more like I finessed them out.

Anyway, then put the water that had soaked up all that almondy-flavor into a cup and made sure it was covered and that's where I stored the old outsides. The almonds were soaking in water another 30 minutes to an hour.

Then I put them in the blender with the dates (already blended) and a splash of vanilla, and about half a cup of water (to make it clear - the water I used was water that soaked up the almond flavor, but which didn't have much fibers in it beyond the negligible). I blended it until it was mostly creamy, but still some small chunks of almondy- goodness left! I stirred for awhile, about 20 minutes in fact (forgot, got carried away), as I didn't want to wear out the blender and was talking on the phone, and then blended it again, for another 30 seconds or so, took a spoon through it to see that it was creamy. It wasn't smooth like cool whip, but I wasn't expecting that! Didn't have a strainer, cheesecloth, etc. either and don't mind a little texture, looked through it to make sure I didn't miss bigger chunks. I didn't add any water mid-way through as advised.

BTW, I used this almond cream to make that blueberry chocolate mousse I mentioned. Raw mousse usually uses avocado to make it creamy, but I dunno...if you got the almond chunks thin enough/strained...might be tough competition (the chocolate I used wasn't raw, but you could use raw chocolate, and the blueberries were raw - so I don't see a raw version being drastically different from the one I made.

[*live*&*let*live]

Hi Fi

Are you still going with the Raw Experiment? Did you find the road a rocky one?!

Just wondered if that soup you made - the thai coconut one - would be ok heated? I don't fancy it cold. Do you have anything hot when it is raw? Or is it all cold? Sorry if that sounds ignorant the only raw meals I have is salads, fruits etc Hope you are doing ok. :smile:

[fiamma]

^I found the one with the landslide blocking the way

You wouldn't have things hot on a raw diet; it would defeat the purpose as cooking destroy the enzymes. What I did occasionally with soups was to heat them very gently, but they really shouldn't go above body temp, certainly not above 40°C. I tried using a body temperature thermometer but it didn't seem to work well - what I'd do is heat the soup so it is just tepid if you don't want it cold. Or leave it at room temp for an hour or so.

I would like to go back to being raw, maybe 80/90%. If I do I'll start another thread, or continue this one

To answer your question, yes you could gently heat the coconut soup. Just don't overheat. Also eating things cold isn't actually as bad as you might think - you get used to it

[*live*&*let*live]

to the landslide comment!
DUH Silly me of course you don't heat things! I must have been having a vacated mind moment I have them quite often these days!

I never heat stuff to boiling or anything to a really high temperature anyway, if I have to cook say potatoes they simmer. Veggies I usually steam or blanch. Spinach and watercress is added to my soups right at the last minute as it's removed from the heat. I will try the coconut soup but take your advice and just heat it a bit.
Cheers Fi!