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

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

Berlin’s best kept raw secret: La Mano Verde

On my short stay in Berlin I had the chance to dine out at La Mano Verde, a vegan/raw restaurant in the ever trendy German capital. I have been flirting with raw food for about five or six months now and it’s been a rewarding trip in which I learnt to tune (and listen) more directly into my body’s needs. What amazes me about raw food is that it’s incredibly quick to make, it tastes delicious and it does feed your body with everything it needs to keep in good health. I say this from personal experience, not because I have read it on some raw propaganda websites or books. The feeling you get after being on a raw diet even for a short time (a week) is that of increased clarity, energy and concentration. The effects of foods on our psychology have been widely demonstrated so it’s not up to me to show you the ethical and health benefits behind our eating choices. Go out and get all the relevant information or simply try it for yourself: what better way to walk into a raw restaurant and put your taste buds to the test? If you are in Berlin, the choice is obvious: La Mano Verde.

Tools of the trade

So here I am, in a city that is increasingly being veganized, at this nice restaurant hidden away in a pleasant courtyard in chic Uhlandrstrasse, West Berlin. It is marked as a high end vegan restaurant and when I look at the menu I am a bit disappointed by limited choice of raw dishes, it seems like you are somehow forced into choosing between option A and option B on any dish. Stoically I complete my raw order and endure the temptation to side-track into cooked. I try to order the Cannelloni Non Forno, but I am told they don’t make them tonight so, disappointedly I fall back on the Raw Raviol (I had heard of them but I have never experienced).

When the dishes start to come I begin to realize that I am in for a big surprise: we’re talking the high end spectrum of raw cooking here! Everything tastes delicious and leaves me with the feeling of having discovered Berlin’s best kept secret.

Here is what I have ordered. I started with a Lime Almond Gazpacho that tastes simply heavenly, maybe the best raw soup I’ve ever had: a delicate balance of coconut sweetness blended into a soft avocado texture, with hints of chilli and refreshing lime.

Lime Almond Gazpacho

The standards of the dinner are set very high by this more than delicious soup, so I eagerly await the next dish: Raw Mediterranean Quiche made with fennel, mushrooms, pimentos, black Kalamata olives and thyme crust.

Raw Mediterranean Quiche

The taste is fulfilling under every point of view and while I am still wondering how the hell the chef reached such a good balance for the soup. I delve into the quice, a bit afraid to spoil the perfect composition sitting in front of my dish and I indulge into the epicurean (raw) feast: tomatoes, black olives, thyme and nuts hold together by a mix of essential oils. Essential oils in the kitchen: it’s a prime for me and I love it.

I am very curious to know how they make raw ravioli and when the waiter brings this, he gets the wow effect right on the spot: parsnip ravioli with pears, ginger and red cabbage salad.

Raw Turnip Ravioli

If I was afraid to ruin the composition of the previous dish, imagine the guilt I feel to bring my fork and knife close to the plate…obviously it tastes even better than it looks! I want to marry the chef here, so I look into the open kitchen and see a middle age man, he may not be the head chef but he certainly knows the secrets to the soup and the sweety flavour of the ravioli. Not my type but he’ll do if he can bring me to heaven and back.

I am approaching the end of the main dishes with a Timballo of Salsa Verde and Aubergine Terrine.

Timballo of Salsa Verde and Aubergine Terrine

I remember reading raw aubergine aren’t supposed to be very healthy but I am too curious to taste them and pretend I don’t remember what I had read. Once again, nuts, basilic, summer squash, tomato kirsch: it all tastes very good and is cleverly put together by someone that obviously has been practising the art of raw food!

I feel obliged to finish off with a dessert even if I am not hungry anymore. It’s a cashew nuts cheesecake, a bit too rich and sugary. Mine (thanks to Any Phyo’s recipe) tastes better! Little sad satisfaction of a raw chef wannabe like me.

I leave the restaurant and I head back to the hotel, very satisfied with my new Berlin discovery: the whole dinner was incredibly fresh, well prepared and tasted delicious. That’s what I associate Berlin with now: the fresh taste of ginger, lime and coconut of a multicultural city where gourmet food is accessible, and you don’t need a mortgage to shop organic!  Well done Berlin, it’s a city I certainly would like to live in and on my way back to underground I feel sorry for all those people I know that still think culinary art is ruled by strict rules based on animal exploitation and slavery.

Filed under: Berlin, La Mano Verde, Lime Almond Gazpacho, raw food restaurant, Raw Mediterranes Quiche, Raw Ravioli

Vegan Berlin

Imagine the pleasurable surprise to bump into Veganz, a vegan supermarket in North Berlin (around Schönhauser Allee) on your way back from a nice vegan fast-food called Vego where I had a vegan burger with aubergine, fried cheese (obviously vegan) and fries.

Vego burger

Veganz in Berlin

Veganz has everything you can ever dream of: from a rack of raw food alternatives, ready packed for the busy rawfoodist on the go, to pet’s food, toiletries, not to mention the organic

Raw treats from Veganz

fruit and vegetables section and a pretty good counter for the lazy vegan who doesn’t feel like cooking tonight. A lot of the products are organic: a philosophy that is widely accepted and developed in Germany and it’s nowhere near as expensive as in the rest of Europe: Organic food is not a priviledge but a right everyone should afford.

Veganz fast food counter

Great place, great people and what a great place Berlin has become. To plan your stay in Berlin you can get more detailed information on http://www.berlin-vegan.de/. It looks like these vegans are taking over the world*.

* PS: The vegan mafia is very handy in a country where you don’t speak the lingo.

Filed under: Berlin, Raw, Veganz, Vego Fastfood

Strawberriez kream cheezcake by Ani Phyo

This is my first attempt at a raw cake and the result turned out amazing. The recipe is in Any Phyo’s book Any’s Raw Food Desserts: a little raw food dessert bible to own.

For the base you’ll need:
* 1 cup almond meal
* a pinch of sea salt
*1/2 cup of pitted dates

For the cream:
* 1 table spoon grated lemon zest
* 1/2 cup lemon Juice
* 1,5 cup of cashew nuts
* 1/4 cup coconut oil
* 1/4 cup of filtered water
* seeds of 2 vanilla beans

Topping:
* some strawberries
* agave syrup

The crust is obtained mixing the almond meal and the salt with chopped dates: use a mixer to chop off the dates into smaller pieces and work them into the almond meal by hand. Sprinkle a pan with some almond meal and push the “dough” into a cake pan so that the border rises halfway around the pan side. To make the cream combine the cashew nuts, the water, the melted coconut oil, the lemon juice and zest and the vanilla beans into a blender until smooth. Spread the cream onto the crust ad keep the cake in the refrigerator for about two hours. Decorate with fresh strawberries and the strawberry sauce made combining the fresh strawberries and the syrup into a mixer: my suggestion is to make it when yous serve the cake as the taste will remain fresher. Voilà: le gâteau est prêt! Incredibly easy and delicious. Thanks Ani!

strawberriez kream cheezcake

Filed under: Any Phyo, Raw, raw vegan