Everyday Raw Desserts

Following on from my previous post (ahem, lecture) ...

As the temperature rises so does my raw percentage (in the most light-hearted of ways), so I thought some pictures from my most recent raw purchase might just fit the bill.

As is no doubt patently clear, I remain far more interested in eating locally than rawfully and Kenney’s recipes always seem to fit the bill for ‘local’ adaptations. For example, if you don’t want to use lemons I’ve found the juice of a sour cooking apple to work a treat (or start growing your own lemon tree). Similarly, and as I mentioned in my last post, try honey or stevia (grown from seed) mixed with rapeseed oil to make a liquid sweetener consistency similar to agave (as called for in various recipes).

Everyday Raw Desserts, following in the Kenney tradition, contains pictures which will have you drooling ... and no wheat, animal fats, refined sugar, etc. I love it!

Lazy girl blogging

Thanks to Jenny for the blog title. I am, undoubtedly, a lazy girl blogger, i.e. someone who talks about their latest ‘favourites’ rather than weaving the words about their own life. Sometimes, it’s just all about the influences ... these are some of my current favourites.

The team behind My Little Earth and the Little Earth Cafe have a new guise, Brown Sugar. The drinks on their blog are proving endlessly inspiring to me.

I have just finished reading Animal, Vegetable, Mineral (again). It’s really touched a nerve. From the off, I’ve always considered tropical fruit a treat rather than a staple (although I have a coconut weakness which I’ve slowly corrected this year). I hate the phrase ‘falling off the wagon’ when it comes to raw, simply because, for me, it’s always been about so much more than the percentages, and indeed the food, but saying that, my greatest struggle has always been over the winter months and the dilemma about imported foods/superfoods. This year has increasingly seen a shift in my local food consumption (although there are still tweakings to be made). We’ve always grown our own produce, but it’s stepped up a gear or three this year. Being creative with food produced within a 5 mile, 10 mile, 50 mile radius is really where I’m at (with the occasional raw pudding frenzy which is anything but - that’s what I mean by tweakings). If you’re at all interested in this then Animal, Vegetable, Mineral is a good place to start. In terms of instant transformation (if you’re a *bee*gan rather than vegan) why not replace dates/agave/maple with honey from a 10-mile radius? Baby steps ...

The Raw Model’s push to grow his own produce and Matthew Kenney’s focus on the seasonal continue this theme. In particular, check out the Raw Model’s pictures of Kenney’s new restaurant 105 degrees. Perhaps not truly seasonal but YUM! Nigel Slater’s latest, the very wonderful Tender, wholly focussed upon the seasonal is also proving endlessly inspirational and was designed by my wonderful friend Mrs Wolfson (not that I’m biased or anything).

Continuing the theme of it’s more than the food ... the latest edition of Get Fresh. It’s worth buying for the article by Roz Graham alone. Please, Fresh Network, bring her back into the magazine’s fold on a permanent basis. Also, fabulous to see Holly’s thoughts on diet and brain chemistry featured. Can’t wait for her forthcoming book!

Finally, the November issue of Runner’s World has a great feature on Percy Cerutty (pictured, hugging the runner Herb Elliott), a coach who believed in a high-raw diet and trained Olympic gold athletes in the ‘50s and ‘60s. It's inspired me to pull on my trainers. Not so lazy after all...

Photo © Time Inc.

Synchronicity #1

Isn't it funny when the universe responds to musings? I was lamenting recently to one of my closest friends who is a hot-shot graphic designer of cookbooks (Nigel Slater, Ottolenghi, Angela Hartnett etc.) about vegan and raw books published in the UK. I'd love it if as the raw market grows these books looked like some of the classics she's crafted (not too chef-y, not over-designed, but not too kooky and fall-apart paperbacks that have tiny print runs either!). Lo and behold, through the post arrived the very beautiful Great Chefs Cook Vegan (admittedly US published), a book by chefs (the majority neither raw or vegan - thus no rampant didacticism) who outline their enthusiasm for grain, vegetable and fruit based dishes. A few of the recipes are through and through raw, and because the others are vegan they're very easy to adapt. It's given me some great new ideas ... Thank you to the very generous person who sent it (you know who you are - xxx).