Ani Phyo's Raw Food Desserts

I've been quite raw food curious lately, reading multiple high-raw blogs and raw cookbooks. Like many of you, I eat a lot of raw fruits and veggies naturally as part of my daily diet, but that's different than the raw food cuisine that we would see at a dedicated raw food restaurant or in the kitchen of a raw foodist. I don't own a dehydrator or a high-speed blender (yet), nor do I have a spiralizer or juicer, which makes it difficult to replicate some of the recipes in raw cookbooks or blogs. However, not all raw recipes require expensive equipment or extensive preparation.

Case in point, the generous Da Capo Press folks recently sent me a copy of Ani Phyo's Ani's Raw Food Desserts. There are recipes for people of all levels, speaking raw food preparation-wise, from Fleur de Sel Kissed Watermelon (literally, watermelon sprinkled with course sea salt) to raw vegan Tiramisu. I chose to make three different recipes for brunch today that suited my current kitchen equipment and that called for neither added oil nor nuts in order to keep them low fat.

My favorite of the three was the Oatmeal Raisin Cookies pictured above. I didn't need anything more than my trusty food processor and a cookie cutter (I used a cookie scoop, which I don't recommend because the stiff cookie "dough" pulled the inner sweeping arm of my cookie scoop out of position and I can't get it go go back) and the most exotic ingredient is Medjool dates (pricey, but easy to find). These are perfectly cinnamon-y, not too sweet, and I like the chewy texture that comes from pulverizing oats and dates. Although I wish Ani had been more specific about how small to process the raw oats, this recipe was so easy. All told, I believe these took about 15 minutes to make.

Since it's still very hot in my area (yesterday clocked in at 109*F), a frozen dessert seemed appropriate. I made the Cherry Malt Chip Blizzards, accepting the option of using my fabulous ice cream maker (the only other equipment was the food processor). I was happy that this recipe gave me a reason to use carob powder, as I love carob, and I've always been a fan of cherry and chocolate together in desserts. The carob really shines in this recipe, as do the ultra-crunchy cacao nibs (leave them out if you feel they're too expensive), but the cherry flavor is pretty much absent, which is a bit disappointing. I thought this tasted better after a little time in the freezer. Using the ice cream maker, this turned out like a really creamy sorbet and was worth the extra step.

The Country-Style Apple Oat Cobbler was the most hands-on time-consuming recipe of the bunch, but only because I had to slice three apples. Otherwise, it was quite quick and easy. The cobbler crust is really just the Oatmeal Raisin Cookies minus the raisins and tastes great with the crisp green apples (I chose green apples, but Ani doesn't specify in the recipe). I'd recommend eating this right away because the apples soften significantly when the dish is left in the fridge and they give off liquid that makes the bottom layer of cobbler crust a bit soggy (I'd eliminate the bottom layer of crust completely next time). Also, Ani calls for tossing the apples in a mixture of agave and vanilla and I think she overestimated the amount of liquid because I was left with close to 1/4 cup of excess. This cobbler is good; I just feel it needs a couple tweaks.

Ani's Raw Food Desserts is an aesthetically cute book with many pretty photos and a nice assortment of recipes. I will definitely return to it and already have a request for an invitation next time I whip up one of the recipes!

P.S. I will be participating in the Vegan Month of Food (VeganMoFo) again this year (see all of November 2007 and all of October 2008 for my previous VeganMoFo posts). It starts on October 1 and you can find more info on Kittee's blog.

Vegan Soul Kitchen

The Hugger Food kitchen turned into a veritable soul kitchen this week as I belatedly tested recipes from Bryant Terry's Vegan Soul Kitchen. You see, several months ago, the kind and generous people at Da Capo Press sent me a copy of VSK and, with the chaos of moving, I'm just now getting a chance to cook from it. That's not to say I hadn't read VSK yet; I read it cover-to-cover like a novel as soon as I received it and it was a great read! Terry has an obvious and deep appreciation for food, wanting his food to "appear bright, bold, and sexy" with "modern and chic" presentation. He writes passionately about the fact that this cookbook could just as well be his autobiography through food. Many recipes are preceded by stories and each is accompanied by a suggested playlist, film, or work of art. VSK is definitely a cookbook that lets the reader know more about its author and that makes it all the more enjoyable.

So many of the recipes looked interesting that it was difficult to choose what to make. I knew I would have to make some modifications because 1) many of the recipes were very complicated, requiring things to be prepared a day in advance or requiring time that I didn't have to spare and 2) Terry is a chef who loves to use oil (sometimes to the tune of 1 cup per recipe) and I'm a home chef who shies away from oil and added fat completely when possible. That meant I was looking for recipes that could be adapted to both save time and eliminate oil. Here's what I chose:

Rosemary-Roasted Tofu Cubes without the oil and cut into smaller cubes than called for in the directions. Terry appropriately describes these as "crispy on the outside and creamy within." I'm absolutely folding this easy and delicious way to prepare tofu into my repertoire. Not only was the tofu perfect right out of the oven, but right out of the fridge, as well.

The Creole Hoppin'-Jean called for soaking both beans and rice (separately) overnight. I had a can of black-eyed peas in my pantry, so I skipped the bean soaking. I did soak the rice overnight, as directed, but I only had short-grain brown rice, so I substituted that for the long-grain in the recipe. As usual, I omitted the oil completely. Shallots are on my "no thank you" list and I substituted a clove of garlic instead. I followed the rest of the recipe as written and it turned out really well. The dish was very creamy and had a nice kick of spice at the end. Although I would omit the salt next time because it was a little saltier than I'd like, overall, I enjoyed it.

Making Sauteed Jalapeno Corn was a no-brainer since I love corn and I love spicy food. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I omitted the oil. This recipe was quick, easy, and good.

The Spicy Smothered Green Cabbage (minus the oil and I used date sugar instead of raw cane sugar--next time I would omit the sweetener altogether) was fantastic. This would be a great dish to serve to people who don't think they care for cabbage.

I'm very grateful to Da Capo Press for sending me cookbook and for publishing so many wonderful vegan cookbooks! Of the 13 vegan cookbooks they currently have listed on their site, I own 9, making it pretty obvious that they know what they're doing. I'm sure we have a lot to look forward to in the future from their presses.

Ice Cream Trials

I've already written about salads, the healthful summer staple, so I thought it was only fitting to write about the not-so-nutritionally-dense summer staple that is ice cream. This summer, I've tried three new (to me, at least) ice creams and this is what I thought.



First up is Blueberry Cheesecake soy ice cream by So Delicious Purely Decadent (photo borrowed from Purely Decadent's website). It's still a mystery as to why I chose to try this flavor since a) even though fresh blueberries are my favorite food, I don't generally care for blueberry-flavored things and b) I don't care for cheesecake. Maybe I've tried all of the other Purely Decadent flavors and thought I'd give the odd-man-out a shot. This ice cream tasted like blueberry yogurt rather than an indulgent treat. The "heaps of whole blueberries" touted on the website were more like tiny dried blueberries instead of big, plump ones. That was a bit disappointing. I did, however, enjoy the crunchy pieces of pie crust scattered throughout and wished there had been more of those.



Next on the list was Coffee Biscotti hemp milk ice cream by Living Harvest's Tempt line (photo borrowed from the Living Harvest website). I had never tried hemp milk ice cream and was very pleased with the light, just-a-little-more-dense-than-mousse ice cream. The texture was really lovely, as was the coffee flavor. My only complaint was that the biscotti pieces, while abundant, were very soft. Since biscotti is very crunchy by nature, I figured these pieces would be just as crunchy as the pie crust pieces in the Blueberry Cheesecake ice cream, but alas, they had no bite whatsoever.

I've saved the best for last and urge you to immediately click on this link (after you finish reading this post, of course) for the spectacular Brown Bread Ice Cream posted and created by Alix of Cute and Delicious. Never before have I tasted ice cream so richly caramel-flavored, so velvety, and just plain amazing. I happened to be lucky enough to try a batch that Alix had made herself and brought along to a fabulous Quarrygirl-hosted pizza party I recently attended. Fortunately, Alix very generously posted her recipe, so you can try it, too! It's one of the best ice creams I've ever eaten.

Now that my sweet tooth has been satisfied, it's back to my big, beautiful salads...

Salad Days

This summer of chaos has kept me out of the kitchen for the most part. You have no idea how difficult that is for me! I'm hoping that will change very soon and I can resume testing fabulous recipes for Terry Hope Romero and Julie Hasson. For now, though, my stove and oven are sadly neglected and I've been taking advantage of the abundance of blueberries, Rainier cherries (I'd never tried these before this summer and they are great!), apricots, and the other fresh fruit that's available to me.

I always bring my own lunch to work and, these days, lunch has been a big salad (and my requisite daily red grapefruit). The salad you see above consists of corn, spinach (I prefer spinach to lettuce), broccoli slaw (I find broccoli slaw easier to eat in a salad than raw broccoli), shredded carrots, black beans, raisins, 4 green pimento-stuffed olives, and sliced jalapenos*. I drizzle white wine vinegar over the top of the salad and bring along 1.5 tsp of ground flax seeds to sprinkle on top when I'm ready to eat. I've also added sugar snap peas, arugula, and baked tofu (instead of black beans), all of which are delicious, but this is an end-of-the-week salad and my veggie supply is dwindling.

*I'm always cold and the jalapenos do a nice job of warming me up a little.

Worldwide Vegan Bake Sale Recap

Whoa...I started writing this post 3 weeks ago! I won't make excuses about my absence; I'll just say that I've been busy working on a project that's finally nearing completion. One side effect of this project is that I've been checking out a new (to me, at least) yoga studio and it's been so much fun experiencing different teachers and even a yoga style that's new to me. This is a vegan blog, which is why I rarely discuss my yoga practice here, but I'm sure some of you have noticed that my nom de plume is Vegyogini and I thought I'd give you this little peek into another part of my life.



Let's be honest, though; you're here for the vegan food! So, we shall proceed with the post I started writing 3 weeks ago. L.A.'s branch of the Worldwide Vegan Bake Sale was a smashing success! Thanks to Afsoon's efforts (she posted about the bake sale here), we set up in front of Locali on June 28 (and also on June 21, although I wasn't able to be there that day).



I brought batches of my two most requested cookies, both of which I veganized earlier in the year after years of putting it off (I was afraid of disaster, which, fortunately, didn't happen). Above are my snickerdoodles and below are my chocolate chip cookies, all happily stacked on baked-goods display stands, just waiting to be purchased.



It was so much fun spending time with Afsoon, some wonderful vegan non-bloggers, the amazing Celine and Joni, who drove all the way to L.A. to participate (you can pre-order their cookbook here!), and my fabulous friend who writes Sick of Lettuce and just launched her very own The Fakery Bakery (believe me, her baked goods are incredible)! In addition to baked goods from the people I just mentioned, a couple generous bakers, including Shojin and Kim of C'est la V, dropped off goodies to sell.



Besides my cookies, we sold several different kinds of cinnamon rolls (including pumpkin and peanut butter), gluten-free cookies and brownies, Afsoon's lemon-rosemary cupcakes and hand-made chocolates, Celine's Cheezy Quackers (these were my only purchase, as I'd been dying to try them ever since she first posted the recipe), chocolate cake, and chocolate pumpkin cake, Joni's lemon-poppyseed cake, espresso chocolate chip cake, and garlic flatbreads (I tried one of these, as well, and they were great), The Fakery Bakery's Crispy Peanut Butter Rice Bars, cupcake-sized cheesecakes, whoopie pies, and so much more (I'd high-tail it over to the Fakery Bakery's website, linked above, if I were you!).



Thank you to everyone who dropped by to purchase baked goods and support some amazing organizations and thank you to everyone who baked and sold and hung out that day!

Vegan Latina

Terry Hope Romero, fabulous co-author of Veganomicon and Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, is writing a new cookbook called Vegan Latina and I'm lucky enough to be testing recipes for it. I've been quietly testing for a few months now and I figured it was finally time to share a little of what has been going on in my kitchen lately. What you see above are Potato Chickpea Enchiladas with Green Tomatillo Sauce and Pine Nut Crema.

Mango Jicama Chopped Salad

Arroz con Gandules

There's much more to come, but from what I've tested so far, this cookbook is going to be loaded with flavorful, delicious, and innovative recipes. I'm becoming acquainted with ingredients and techniques that are new to me and I'm enjoying every moment!

Worldwide Vegan Bake Sale L.A.

A plethora of talented L.A. bakers will be participating in the Worldwide Vegan Bake Sale tomorrow, June 21, and next Sunday, June 28. Come out to support some worthy causes and to meet some of your favorite California vegan bloggers! I will definitely be there on June 28, but tomorrow is still up in the air for me because it's Fathers' Day.

I'll be back soon with cooking posts and cookbook and restaurant reviews.