Saturday, June 25, 2011

What To Use When You Don't Have Cheese Cloth

Sprouting monggo (left) and fermenting nut cheeze (right)
Somebody doesn't have cheese cloth! Well yeah I do but since I moved in I haven't had time to find it. I'm sure it'll turn up! Til then, good ol improvisation will do!

By the way, if you are fermenting cheeze (this is 2 cups soaked almonds and 1 cup mineral water and several spritzes of calamansi, then blended in a high-speed blender, placed on top of a fridge in 90 C-weather overnigiht) this amount is too much for this jar! (I learned as much the very next day)



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Monday, June 20, 2011

Pineapple - Malunggay Green Smoothie

Ingredients:

An entire ripe organic, non-hybrid, non-GMO, fresh pineapple, skin and eyes removed
A few sprigs to many sprigs of malunggay  (1 sprig if this is your first time to try this recipe)
2 cups of water or more to taste


For high-speed blenders: Blend everything at once.
For regular blenders: Put in the pineapple little by little and pulse until well blended.

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This is not a smoothie to make for a first-time smoothie drinker. For beginners, I recommend this smoothie instead. Once you are ready for a malunggay smoothie, use only one sprig. Then build up your taste buds to take two sprigs the next time, and so on.

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Malunggay can just grow in your backyard if you live in the Philippines. It can also grow in Hawaii. The Philippine consulate in Israel has also tried growing it there - and it has! It sure would be nice if every Pinoy (or the local public school) has this in the yard, wouldn't it?

To prepare, grab a few sprigs and wash carefully. Sidebar: Do you have a 2.5-3 year old at home? Show her how to do this one by one, and sloooooowly.  I guarantee you - you will have a very happy camper! Just be patient! S/he will like plucking the leaves off into a bowl until it is ready to be washed.

I don't soak mine in sukang tuba, because I grow malunggay organically at home.

Malunggay leaves have a waxy coating that deter pests and can be grown pesticide-free!

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An organic pineapple is about P70 each.

Imagine this: for less than P100, you can provide a cancer patient with a pineapple - malunggay green smoothie with the following nutritional, bioavailable benefits:

This recipe has a high amount of Vitamin C, Vitamin A, Calcium, Manganese, Zinc, Selenium, Protein in the bioavailable form of 18 essential amino acids, and trace amounts of:

Copper
Iron
Niacin
Pant. Acid
Phosporus
Riboflavin
Selenium
Sodium
Thiamin
Vitamin B6

When eaten raw (not canned or frozen), and  fresh from the blender, and taken alone (not as an accompaniment beverage to a Standard Filipino Diet meal), your body assimilates this recipe's goodness super fast!

Too often, Pinoys equate pineapples with upset stomachs because to begin with, their stomachs are acidic. Pinoys also equate pineapples with opening a can of ______. (Can anyone say "tricalcium phosphate?!). Preservatives in canned pineapples exacerbate the stomach's reaction to pineapples. Slowly alkalize your body with fruit and vegetables, and over time, you will not find eating organic, raw pineapples upsetting.  In fact, they will have an alkaline-forming effect on your body. Strange but true!





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Sunday, June 19, 2011

Raw fruits and vegetables for a cancer patient

If you have experienced healing from raw fruits and vegetables, please consider sharing this with someone who doesn't have the resources.

http://fruitsandvegetablesformarilou.blogspot.com

Alternately, you can also just forward the link to someone whom you think might help.

Please be warned.  Marilou's "after" pic is graphic. Sorry :(


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Saturday, June 18, 2011

Stuff Raw Foodists Like #8: Not Telling the Guests the Food You Brought to a Potluck is Raw then Watching their Reactions When They Rave About the Food and Ask You How You Made It

There are few people I can play this trick on now, but whenever I have the chance, I love getting the MasterCard "priceless" jaw-drop reactions!

A favorite recipe I love to share (since it keeps so well), is Ani Phyo's Coconut Breakfast Cake, pictured below with dehydrated blueberries that were rehydrated and blended with dates.



Any berry can be blended with dates to make the yummy sauce :D



The "butter" is made from olive oil and some sea salt and then frozen in a plastic mold. It melted by the time I got to the potluck, (Makati traffic will do that to you!) but it was still appreciated.

The "syrup" is any raw sweetener. In this recipe, I used wild Palawan wild, raw honey.

Another recipe I love to share is  Wok This Way Stir No Fry. I've tried the sauce with different combinations of veggies and it is always a winner. I don't use nama shoyu/Bragg liquid aminos, but I always tell the guests they can try it if they want. Instead of agave nectar, I use Palawan wild, raw honey.





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Sunday, June 12, 2011

Independence from Salt!

I am going to try to be salt-free in the dishes I have control over from here on out.

Instead of salt, I am going to experiment with the naturally-occurring salty taste in seaweed (dulse, kelp, wakame, nori, and the Philippines' very own lato).

I still have a jar of evaporated sea salt for soaking nuts and seeds with, but this will be purely for soaking now.

Of course, if I am at a raw food potluck or resto, I won't have control over the salt used, but I won't fret over what's outside my sphere of influence.

What kind of ingredients are you seeking independence from?

Happy Philippine independence day! :D

What's on my spice shelves? Top Shelf: sukang tuba, expeller-pressed olive oil, two jars of  seeds, Epsom salt, rosewater. Lower Shelf: VCO, organic vanilla (this one has alcohol though. no alcohol-free versions in the Philippines-boo!), Angel seaweed, evaporated sea salt, cinammon and paprika, capers, another bottle of olive oil, tree bark tea, raw cacao nibs

2017 Update: I am taking sea salt again!

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Saturday, June 4, 2011

Stuff Raw Foodists Like #7: Flexible Chefs at Non-Raw Restos!

What's better than being allowed to bring raw baon to a resto that doesn't have raw food selections for you? Restos with flexible chefs!

When I first read that Victoria Boutenko (of 12 Steps To Raw) flashes a raw card whenever she eats out, I wondered if such a thing would ever work in the Philippines. (Has anyone ever tried this?)

I haven't. But I have tried calling a resto in advance, asking what happens if someone in the party had a lot of food restrictions. (Take note, that I have never come out to say that I was it! He he :)) Sometimes I would get a sympathetic head waiter who would tell me to look for him so I could be accommodated. Sometimes I don't. But at least I can adjust accordingly (read: bring my own baon).

So when someone else does the asking for you, in advance, it's nice.

My sister did just this when she booked us a table at Blackwood Bistro in Venice Piazza one Sunday. She forwarded to Chef Goody Jose my raw food guidelines, and Chef Goody gamely rose to the challenge. She told me later it was her first time to encounter this kind of food restriction.

What did she serve?

For starters, she provided shiitake mushrooms on fresh zucchini with olive oil and citrus zest salt on the side.









For my main course, she steamed (ok, not really raw but allowable under the circumstances) asparagus, and served the other ingredients raw/fresh. The onions were really sweet.







For dessert, assorted fruit. The mangoes were yummy. Chef offered a yummy-looking sherbet to the meat-eaters. 

As for my meat-eating companions, I know they enjoyed their meals. Huge servings for the meat eaters, I must say. The salmon looked particularly appetizing, but oh well. :D

(Just a sidebar- if you are in Venice Piazza on a Sunday evening, stay outside so you can watch whatever outdoor show they have on. When we went, they had a Mardi Gras. They also have other events. Thursday is ballroom night, I believe. Do ask first because I could have heard wrong.)

Thanks a lot Chef Goody for the accommodations! 

The other time I enjoyed a raw meal was at Rainmaker at CVC Law in Bonifacio Global City. This resto is catered by Gaita Fores, one of my culinary inspirations when I was still into cooked food. (Fun memories of Cafe Bola, Pepato and Cibo!) She wasn't there though, so I couldn't be all fan-girlish.  

Chef Gerald Montelibano was there and he received not just my raw food guidelines, but some recipes from Gone Raw and a few of the Dahon Kusina classes I attended. (My sister insisted) 

 From these, he chose to do my beginner's breakfast green smoothie (bottomless!!!!), his own take on raw salad, and Thai-inspired papaya rice. 


(Tsk, tsk, someone flunked the marshmallow test for "wait until after the picture before you drink". And this was already after the second glass. Quadruple tsk.)




Thai-inspired papaya rice

It was awesome to have a non-raw chef interpret a raw dish!

Other non-raw restos worth checking out for their accommodations to raw foodists: Cyma, Cafe Mediterranean, Jasmine (at New World Hotel) and the room service at East Asia Royale Hotel in General Santos. None of them are raw restaurants, but quite accommodating. Jasmine and EARH might bargain with you to lightly steam the veggies. I think that is OK. Just remind EARH not to use butter/Star margarine. Steaming for a few minutes only partially removes the nutrients, compared to grilling (which adds carcinogens from the blackened parts of food) or frying (which uses trans fat). 

Disclosure: Chef Goody Jose is related to my brother-in-law. My sister is senior partner at CVC Law so of course the chef at Rainmaker had no choice but to do what she said! I don't have any connections with Cyma, Cafe Mediterranean, Jasmine or East Asia Royale Hotel in General Santos and I don't receive any discounts/favors for these mentions.



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