Keep

After months of inactivity and some pretty dramatic changes in my life I am back and happy to share with you my new finding: Keep an American vegan shoe company which is also based in Rotterdam. Funky or minimal style, it’s your choice. The shoes are also available in stores across Europe (mostly in Belgium and The Netherlands).

THE SHAHEEN Slicker

THE HOMER Lichen

Also check the american site for more styles.

Filed under: Keep, shoes

Raw cannoli

I have been thinking to make cannoli for a while and after some experiments I have finally dished out this recipe, which has been appreciated by vegans and non vegans alike. I am very proud of the final result as (once again) I can show people high patisserie is not animal based. I love when people ask me what “binds it all together” or “how do you cook it?” When it’s a raw dish. The purists will tell you that it’s not Sicilian cannoli, but let’s face it: the purists have such a narrow perception of food (and its ethical consequences) we don’t really take any notice of what they think!

You will need a dehydrator to make the cannoli base, a high-speed blender (I use a Vitamix) to make the cream and some cannoli forms (as in the following photo).

cannoli forms

Ingredients for the cannoli base:

• 1 cup of almonds, soaked in water for one night and dehydrated to make them more digestible
• ½ cup of cashew nuts – soaked and dehydrated
• 1 pinch of salt – I use pink salt as it has a gentler flavour especially in cakes
• 4 or 5 pitted dates – soaked in water, keep the soaking water to use it in the mix. Keep few more handy as their sweetness can vary so you may want to use more or alternatively use some agave syrup to add sweetness to the base.
• water form the soaked dates – keep a little more handy just in case
• Optional: rehydrated blueberries if you like the acidic taste and the red colour (I love them).

Mix all the ingredients in a mixer until you obtain a smooth paste. Keep in mind you may have to add more water than the one you soaked the dates in. The idea is to obtain a thick but smooth paste (when the mixture start rolling around with the blades of the mixer it’s a sign it’s ready). Roll the base onto a non-sticky baking sheet and cut the round shapes that will be rolled around the cannoli forms afterwards. Once you have some nice and round shapes put them into the dehydrator and leave them there for few hours until still malleable but hard enough not to lose the consistency. Roll them around the cannoli forms and put them back into the dehydrator for few more hours, taking care to turn them every now and again.

raw cannoli

Ingredients for the cream:

• 1 cup almonds – soaked in water for a night and peeled to give the cream a smooth white texture. They need to be very cold (fridge col) when you use them so keep them overnight in the refrigerator.
• 2 or 3 spoonful of chia seeds – soaked in water
• 3 spoonful of coconut flour – mix desiccated coconut in a mixer at high speed to obtain a smooth flour
• 2 spoonful coconut oil (more if you want to add a creamy texture and flavour)
• a little cocoa butter
• vanilla essence or powder to taste
• some agave syrup (no fixed amount, but use it to suit your taste buds)

Mix all the ingredients in a high speed blender until you obtain a really fluffy and smooth cream. Adjust the agave syrup to desired sweetness: I personally don’t like very sweet creams so I tend to keep the agave syrup a little low: I like a sweet base for the cannoli and a slightly less sweet cream to compensate the tastes but it’s just my own likings. One the cannoli bases are ready fill them with this cream, set them aside. To garnish mix some hazelnuts in a mixer: keep the mixture very coarse as you need it to decorate both ends of the cannoli. Once the cannoli are filled and decorated keep them few hours in the fridge and hand them over to your guests! Voilà: one more stronghold of the 4C (cooked cruel culinary culture) has fallen.

delicious raw cannoli

Filed under: Italian, Raw, raw cannoli, rawcipes, dessert

Tie-ups: reinventing the belt

TIE-UPS are a 100% RECYCLABLE, light and one-size: cutting edge fashion objects from Italy with a trendy aesthetic appearance.

TIE-UPS

Eco belts to satisfy every fashion tribe: resistant, flexible, soft to the touch, recyclable, safe, waterproof and in a revolutionary new material: Apinat (the non toxic, infinitely customizable eco plastic that can degrade if placed in standard compost).

TIE-UPS

With so many models to choose from it’s impossible not to find the one you like! Hands up for the Italian company that is reinventing the belt ditching leather altogether: an elegant and minimal design you can modify and make yours through infinite combinations. An infinite array of models to suit every look. I particularly like the Setsu and Shinobu Ito collection with Japanese patterns.

Setsu and Shinobu Ito for TIE-UPS

Filed under: Apinat, belts, bioplastic, TIE-UPS, environment, style

A damn good speech on why meat is unethical.

Why meat should be off the menu.

Filed under: Uncategorized

PETA’s Sexiest Vegetarian Next Door Contest

Yes, it’s that time of the year once again: Peta has announced the new contest for the sexiest vegetaria. This year the number of vegan contestants has increased, especially in the male section: there are so many and all damn hot that it’s a real hard decision to pick the favorite. Some of them have really nice bodies, the kind of perfect fit muscular, proportionate bodies you find on Men’s Health Magazine. They make the idiocy “but how do you get your proteins from?” sound so pathetic. It’s time to rethink the power of veganism at the gym. You’re obviously expected to vote at: http://features.peta.org/Sexiest-Vegetarian-2012/ (the first selection run ends the 16^th of April).

Filed under: Peta, sexiest vegetarian next door

Antispecist group Nemesi Animale steals the spotlight at Milano Fashion Week

On the 26th of February two activists from the Italian antispecist group called Nemesi Animale have managed to break into a Byblos fashion show disrupting the catwalk and attracting attention over animal exploitation at the last Milano Fashion Week.

Nemesi Animale draws attention to animals tortured and killed by the fur and fashion industry (clicking on the pic will take you to their photo reportage of the demo)

The two Italian activists have walked the whole length of the catwalk holding up two banners saying “Leather and Fur are Torture”. The girls were taken away by the security under the flashes of hundreads of photographers who gathered to report over the Byblos fashion show but who bargained for that little extra. On their webpage Nemesi Animale states that the action was not carried out against Byblos but to emphasize the suffering of millions of animals killed and tortured every year in name of fashion. Nemesi Animale is an Italian antispecist group that aims to spread a vegan lifestyle and fight against animal slavery.

On the 25th of February the same group staged a demo at an Armani’s shows bringing the dead bodies of rabbits taken from the intensive farming of Lombardia and presented as “Victims of Armani’s fashion”. Armani is another designer who despite the pledge to go fur free few years ago but has recently turned his back and started to use dead animals’ coats in his recent collections.

The name of the group takes inspiration from Nemesis, “the spirit of divine retribution against those who succumb to ignorance. The Greeks personified vengeful fate as a remorseless goddess: the goddess of revenge based on merits and justice. The name Nemesis is related to the Greek word νέμειν [némein], meaning “to give what is due” [Wikipedia].

Filed under: activism, anti-fur, antispecism, Milano Fashion Week, Nemesi Animale

The French are at it again: Laura and Marie teach us how to go vegan.

• In case you don’t know who Laura and Sebastian are I will send you to this post I publlished some time ago. The French wonder duo is at it again with the opening of Vegan Folie’s, the first vegan cupcake shop in France (rue Mouffetard 53,  75005 Paris). All bio and 100% vegan: everything, from the ingredients to the washing up liquid used in the shop are certified vegan!
  

  Vegan Folie's

  So, next time you are in Paris have a break from all that shopping and try Laura’s amazing vegan cupcakes miracles at Vegan Foli’s! She is constantly coming up wth ideas and recipes, it’s difficult to keep up with her sweet creative genius. It’s pure, unadulterated mouthwatering galore when Laura hits the kitchen, see and taste for yourself!

Choc Norris

Johnny Nutsville

John Lemon

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• Another “personnage” de la Revolution Française is Marie Laforêt, a Parisienne who recently moved to Brussels. Marie is the creative force behind 100% Vegetal, a French blog dedicated to share her adventures in veganland. The blog is not only a repository of great and scrumptious new creative recipes which Marie invents and delivers in her personal style. She is also a photographer and food stylist: the pictures in the book and on her blog have become a sort of trademark. Definitely a blog with a stylish attitude.
  

  100% Végétal

  Marie has just brough out a book: 100% Végétal et Gourmand, published by Editions Alternatives and also available via Amazon. This book is going to be my favourite way to learn French, so no excue for  me now. As usual (when Marie is involved) great graphics, amazing pictures and innovative recipes from one of the rising stars of la Revolution Française. It can’t miss in your library.

  

  100% Végétal et Gourmand

  Marie is also the co-author with Laura of some pdf books Pique Nique Ethique and Vegan Solo available through 100% Vegetal and VG-Zone.

Filed under: 100% Vegetal, Laura Veganpower, Marie Laforêt, Sèbastien Kardinal, Vegan Folie's, Marie Laforêt

Blegium Goes Raw talks about my raw food experiments

Marta of Belgium Goes Raw, has blogged about my raw food experiments. I am very flattered by what Marta said about my cooking, something I do really enjoy to share with my friends. For anyone who doesn’t know Marta, she is very active in promoting the raw lifestyle through her blog in a country where the raw food movement is beginning to gain momentum. Her blog is full of tips on how to adopt and stick to a raw diet. She is also the admin of an interesting Facebook page  which has managed to bring Belgian raw food communities together and has introduced the idea of raw potlucks to Belgium, something I enjoy very much. Thanks for your pioneering work and enthusiasm, Marta, your work is greatly appreciated.

Filed under: Belgium Goes Raw, Raw, Belgium Goes Raw, Lui là bas, raw diet, raw lifestyle

Stella McCartney’s take on leather.

Listen to Stella McCartney explaining why she dropped leather and animal skins from her collections. Leather is a material which is not only cruel towards animals but environmentally devastating as well. Not to mention the health hazard it causes to people involved in the tanning process (or living near tanneries) given the high amount of toxic chemicals used to arrest the decomposing process animal skins have to undergo before being commercialized.  As amply demonstrated by studies around the world (Italy, Sweden and India to mention a few) leather is NOT AN ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY PRODUCT despite the vegetable tanning process some companies tries to pass as such.

In Italy for instance, the area around Vicenza famous for its long tradition of tanneries registers one of the highest incidence of cancer due to heavy chemical pollution caused by chromium and other hazardous chemicals used in the tanning process. Here the land has been vastly polluted and its ecosystem destroyed by the sludge local tanning factories reverse into the environment, as shown in this pdf sposored by the Europena Geoscience Union in 2006 and carried out by Venice and Florence Universities.

The good news is that you can make a difference for animals, the environment and the unlucky people living or working near tanneries deciding to buy leather-free goods. Next time you are out shopping ask yourself the question: “Isit ethical? And what are the consequences of my purchase for animal welfare, the environment and the people involved in the production of this item?”.

Filed under: leather, Peta, chemical pollution, environmental pollution, hazardous chemicals, PETA, Stella McCartney

Bam(boo) essentials

My last life changing discovery is bamboo socks: I got a pair from Vegalife.nl in Amsterdam a couple of weeks ago and they are great: warm, soft, almost silky at touch. I want more now! I went for the boring black design: BAM the brand I chose,  has interesting colours, not to mention the underwear. I wonder how it feels like on the skin: is bamboo the vegan equivalent of cashmere? We’re onto something big here!

Bamboo socks

If you don’t know it yet bamboo absorbes and evaporates sweat in a matter of seconds, it’s breatheable and doesn’t stick to the skin. It is also antistatic and antifungal, perfect for sensitive skins as the fibres are round and smooth and it’s not treated chemically (unlike rayon, the chemical processed version of bamboo massively available on the market). Bamboo is also fully biodegradable and requires a minute amount of water to grow compared to cotton. The wonderfiber is here to stay.

Filed under: BAM bamboo clothing, bamboo, BAM, bamboo, sensitive skins