The Live Food Experience… In your very own kitchen!

Recently I prepared an in home dinner for 4 in Jacksonville, Florida. I have to say this is one of my favorite ways of introducing people to the magic of living foods. I’ve done a few these dinners in the past they all have been a great success. Most of the time there is a skeptic in the bunch or at least someone who doubts they will enjoy or feel satisfied with the meal. So far I’ve been able to leave everyone satiated, satisfied and smiling. Now there’s no telling whether or not they throw a pot pie in the microwave or thaw out a pizza once I’m out the door.

Thai Miso Soup

The menu from the other evening began with Thai style miso soup. Here’s the basic procedure:

1. Start by warming 3 Cups filtered water on the stove, not boiling just hot to touch.
2. Transfer the water to a blender. I had brought my Vitamix but any blender will do.
3. Add 3 T of unpasteurized miso.  I used my favorite chick pea miso from South River Miso to make the broth. Add 1/2 an avocado, 1/2 or a full bell pepper (yellow preferred), 1 T of Thai Curry Spice from Mountain Rose Herbs,1-2 cloves of garlic, 2 t lime juice and 1-2 t of fresh ginger..
4. Blend for for 30 seconds.
5. Cut up some fresh basil add to blender and blend for 5 seconds.
6. Pour into cups and add fresh cucumber batons, shredded carrot and bell pepper chunks.
7. Garnish with a fresh basil leaf.

Next on the menu was a veggie medley Pad Thai creation. I used kelp noodles from Sea Tangle Noodle Co., spiralized zucchini and carrots and diced jicama to make the noodles. The sauce consisted of:

• almond butter
• water
• unpasteurized miso
• tamari
• lemon juice
• olive oil
• palm sugar
• ginger
• hot pepper

Pad Thai with Almond Miso Sauce

I’m a big fan of this sauce. To me it’s good enough to drink straight. After I blend up a batch I swish water in the bottom of the blender and drink what’s left. Nothing goes to waste in the live food kitchen.

Dessert was the next order of business. I like to keep things delicious and easy at these dinner parties. I chose to make a mango banana sorbet. The sorbet is a easy 1, 2 recipe… 1. cut up and freeze fruit 2. pass frozen fruit through a masticating juicer with the blank plate… done.

I did make a special sauce to top the sorbet with. It was an agave cinnamon sauce. It consisted of:

• agave
• maple syrup
• almond butter
• agave powder
• cinnamon
• salt

I blended this mixture and put it in a squirt bottle. The agave came across very sweet to me and in the future I’d probably make this again with soaked dates or palm sugar instead of agave… regardless, it was still delicious! Schedule a Dinner Experience in your home today.

Making Sorbet

Mango Banana Sorbet

JaxRaw Potluck June 27th

Pie Time!

For those of you who have watched the Banana Lama Ding Dong series, here is the event the pie was created for. There were tons of yummy raw cuisine at the potluck… good times and good food.

You like’a da juice?

Students often ask me what juicer I recommend. Now mama taught me it’s rude to answer a question with a question but that’s usually the case. “Do you want to be able juice wheat grass and make ice cream and sorbet?” is the question I respond with. There are 2 common types of juicer and one uncommon: Centrifuge, which spins and Masticating, which crushes and chews.

Centrifuge Juicer

Centrifuge juicers work great with root veggies and hard fruits. The softer the fruit you put in the juicer the less efficient it juices. Leafy greens don’t juice well in centrifuge juicers. The Jack LaLane juicers are this spinning type. The pulp is separated from the juice and collected separately. This can be a messy process.

These quotes are from the Omega Juicer website:

A centrifuge holds the pulp inside the basket in order to continue to spin the pulp and extract juice. Centrifugal juicers are highly efficient and the easiest to clean. Perfect for small families and individuals.

Masticating Style – A Masticating Juicer is a low-speed unit that can juice the same items as Centrifugal and Pulp Ejection while also having the ability to juice Wheatgrass and Leafy Greens. Our masticating units also have non-juicing functions. Pasta Extrusion, mincing, grinding and nutter butters.

Masticating Juicer

Some popular brands of masticating juicers are Green Star, Champion and Omega. Green Star is considered the top of the line and uses twin gears. While they make great juice and are really efficient, the Green Star is bulky and is more complicated to clean and assemble than the Champion and Omega. I’ve used all 3 juicers mentioned extensively and each has its benefits and drawbacks. My personal choice is the Omega for ease of use, compactness and cost.

Got Ice Cream/Sorbet?

The one perk that you get with the masticating juicer is the ability to turn frozen fruit into instant sorbet. The only condition you need to consider is that the frozen fruit is cut into pieces that will fit into the juicing chute. Frozen mango, papaya, banana and pineapple are tops on my list for sorbet making. I also mentioned ice cream. Check out this little trick.

1. Prepare your favorite vegan ice cream recipe in the blender.
2. Pour the mixture into ice cube trays.
3. Freeze.
4. Put frozen ice cream cubes through the juicer.
5. Enjoy

Champion Juicer

http://www.omegajuicers.com/

http://www.greenstar.com/index.asp

http://www.championjuicer.com/

The uncommon type of juicer is the Norwalk juicer, created and named for Norman Walker. This juicer is unique in that it uses a grinder to break up the fruits or veggies and a separate hydraulic press to extract the juice… fun stuff. This method is apparently the best method for reducing oxidation and decay of the juice. Unfortunately Norwalk Juicers cost over $2000. There are some DIY methods of creating your own Norwalk type setup if you’re motivated to do so.

Norwalk Juicer

http://www.nwjcal.com/