Blueberry Lavender Gelato, Warm Enchiladas And An Update On My Raw Food Chef Classes!

Blueberry Lavender Gelato over a Pecan Blueberry Cookie. I learned to make this gelato recipe during my chef training class at Grezzo Restaurant in Boston on August 31st. So this past Saturday I was very excited to make this at home! The above photo is my very successful result!

Joyce’s Notes: This is fabulous! I was very happy with the consistency and texture. This was my first time using lavender and I thought it tasted very sophisticated with the blueberries. We are not supposed to be posting any Grezzo recipes online that we learned in class. However, a Grezzo recipe book is expected to be released in the beginning of next near. That’s very exciting!

I can tell you what went into the Gelato. It wasn’t anything super unusual or different from the usual raw vegan ice cream recipes posted online and in other recipe books. This gelato consists of young Thai coconut meat, cashews, a few fresh lavender leaves, coconut water and agave. Plus I mashed up fresh blueberries and added them into the ice cream maker after the gelato.

Here’s a photo of myself making the gelato in my Vitamix at home. I learned this mixing technique at the Grezzo class which kept this large amount fully blended:

The Pecan Blueberry Cookie is my own recipe as I wanted to have a base for the gelato. Here’s the recipe:

• 1 1/2 cups of pecans, dehydrated overnight and most of the following day
• 1/2 cashew pieces, dehydrated overnight and most of the following day
• 3/4 cup of dried wild Maine blueberries (found with other dried fruit at City Market Co-op)
• 2-3 tablespoons of agave syrup

Blend all ingredients up in the food processor using the S blade. Form into cookie shapes and place on teleflex sheets. Dehydrate for a few hours (about 4-5), flipping after a couple hours.

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We both really liked these cookies! The dried wild Maine blueberries were so good in this mixture. You could make your own dried blueberries in the dehydrator, but I just happened to find them already dried in our co-op. I had one of these cookies as a snack today and totally enjoyed every bite!

My husband went to Healthy Living Market to look for lavender last Friday. A kind woman picked some leaves from a plant hanging outside, free of charge. Finding fresh lavender leaves was not easy and my usual shopping places didn’t have any. I did buy dried lavender flowers at City Market which you can see sprinkled about for decoration :-)

Warm Veggie Enchiladas with Guacamole and Corn Salsa. The Enchilada is one of the recipes we learned to make in Alissa Cohen’s Level Two Class on Saturday August 29th. The recipe is in Alissa’s book, Living on Live Foods, which is a must-have for those starting out on a raw vegan diet.

Joyce’s Notes: This was really good! My super awesome husband loved this one! Scott actually said it was wonderful! The one I had at Alissa’s class was even better and the tortilla almost had a cheesy taste. And her filling tasted more like black beans, probably due to having more mushrooms. Mine was still very tasty but just different than Alissa’s. She says that the recipe needs to use frozen corn so perhaps different types of corn freeze differently?

I followed her recipe to the T. The tortilla calls for frozen organic corn, ground flax seeds, garlic, orange juice and sea salt. Alissa used brown flax seeds and I used the golden ones. The veggie mixture was simply diced up veggies: red pepper, spinach, mushrooms and zucchini. These veggies were marinated in olive oil, sea salt, a tiny bit of cumin and chili powder. Next time I might use more cumin and chili powder for a more Mexican flavor. We found that sprinkling a bit of sea salt onto our finished product enhanced the lovely mild taste of the veggies. I also liked it with my guacamole.

Here are some shots I took as I was making the enchiladas. Hopefully this will be helpful:

Here’s the tortilla above before going into the dehydrator

Here’s the tortilla after being dehydrated and cut down the middle with a pizza cutter

Half the marinated veggie mixture gets put down the middle of each

Then both are rolled up and placed back into the dehydrator for another couple hours.

So pretty!

The Corn Salsa was my own simple and tasty recipe:

• 2 cups of fresh or frozen corn (thawed)
• 2 medium tomatoes, chopped
• 4 or 5 tomatillos, chopped
• handful of cilantro, roughly chopped
• juice of half a lime, or more to taste
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil
• 1 teaspoon of cumin
• 1/4 teaspoon of sea salt or more to taste

Combine everything in a bowl

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Photos from my Alissa Cohen & Grezzo Restaurant Classes, August 28 – 31, 2009

I had a wonderful time at these classes and met some lovely people who also share a passion for raw and living food preparation. It was amazing to meet so many like minded people who traveled far and wide to learn about raw foods and the lifestyle.

From Friday to Sunday, we had classes at Alissa Cohen’s Bed and Breakfast in Kittery Maine: Living on Live Food Teacher Certification:

Alissa’s lovely Bed and Breakfast where we had class

Alissa is cutting up her AMAZING calzone! Oh my gosh, I can’t wait to make this one! It was incredible!

Calzones fresh out of the dehydrator! They were warm and unbelievable! This would be so good for a Thanksgiving dinner!

Pizza and Chili!

Lunch!

When the power went out on Saturday afternoon due to a storm, Alissa kept her cool and finished the class by candle light.

Grezzo Chef Training Class in Boston, MA on Monday, August 31, 2009.

Grezzo is in the famous Italian section of Boston, the North End

A beautiful crepe made of bananas, agave and rosemary. I believe the inside was a coconut meringue. This was our delicious breakfast!

Here’s Grezzo’s Chef Leah Dubois showing us how to make the gelato!

These brownies were made for us to take home (we all ordered a bunch of take-out from Grezzo.)

Check out this dehydrator. Grezzo has several of these!

Making Apple Lucuma cheesecake!

Lunch! This was the best salad ever with Grezzo’s homemade fermented nut cheese, homemade croutons and pickles! Delish!

Leah is showing us how to make those incredible croutons

We all just loved Leah. She is fantastic!

Butternut squash ravioli

Tomato ravioli

Lobster Mushroom Fettuccine

Land and Sea - locally harvested maitake, yellow oyster, black trumpet, hedgehog and honshimeji mushrooms. Smooth lemon ricotta, dulse and Maine coast kelp. This was one of my favorites!! So good!!

Star Anise Crusted Papaya Steak. (fish free!)

The final feast and celebration!

Mocha Mousse and raspberry gelato. I loved the mousse!

The cheesecake is to live for! They use their own house made fermented cheese! I can’t wait to make my own!

Alissa is so pretty! She has the most beautiful skin I’ve ever seen. She’s 42 and looks like she’s in her twenties! No exaggeration! Raw food rocks!

The Grezzo class was amazing and we learned so much in one long 12 hour day. Leah Dubois is a brilliant and super creative raw food chef. I think she’s a genius with raw gourmet foods. I feel so lucky to have spent a day in her kitchen learning how to prepare such beautiful living foods! Thanks Alissa, Leah, Sam, Stacie, Janet, and all my lovely classmates for such an epic life experience! I enjoyed meeting everyone and feel so grateful!

This weekend I am on my own as Scott will be off camping and hiking with his buddies. So I will have all day Saturday to create more of my own beautiful raw food. I’m hoping to have some fermented cheese to work with. Currently I’m sprouting rye and wheat berries for the rejuvelac……..stay tuned ;-)

Thanks for visiting and check back again soon! Hugs to everyone, especially to my new raw food friends I met in class!