Weekend Alone with Fermented Nut Cheese, Cheesecake, & An Oriental Feast

Scott was off camping and hiking with his buddies this weekend in the White Mountains of New Hampshire so I had plenty of time to make some beautiful raw and living food!

Macadamia nut cheesecake with real fermented nut cheese. Raspberry sauce and fresh local blackberries. I made this cheesecake from the double batch of fermented nut cheese I did over the last week. (I’ll talk about the cheese later)

Joyce’s notes: This was my first attempt at making a cheesecake using fermented/cultured nut cheese and it turned out very good! I followed a basic recipe that we learned at the Grezzo Chef Training class a couple weeks ago (see last week’s post for more details on the class). Because we are not supposed to be posting the Grezzo recipes we’ll have to wait until their recipe book comes out in 2010. I do plan on creating more of these cheesecakes with different flavors and perfecting them to the perfect ‘cheese taste’. So keep checking back with my progress :-)

For the crust I used mainly cashews, pecans, dried coconut and dried cherries. This I loved! I made a bit too much for the 8 inch springform pan and have some leftover which would make a good cookie or snack!

The filling consisted of my fermented macadamia nut cheese, soaked cashews and macadamia nuts, agave syrup, vanilla beans, lemon juice and coconut oil. I found the filling to taste very nice and cheesy. And while both Scott and I liked this very much I do feel it could be even better. Next time I want to try it with more fermented cheese and less of the soaked nuts.

The sauce was simply fresh raspberries, agave to taste and a bit of lemon juice blended up in the Vitamix. I didn’t bother to strain for the seeds but for a party or guests I would strain it.

More cheese!

Because I made a big batch of rejuvelac for the cheese, I decided to make two batches of fermented cheeses. I was lucky enough to have enough nuts for this. The above cheesecake was made purely with macadamia nuts for one batch. The second batch of cheese had about 1 1/2 cups of macadamia nuts and about 1/2 cups of cashew pieces. When I made this batch of cheese, I decided to experiment and added 3 vegetarian probiotic capsules to the nuts and rejuvelac. This worked nicely as the cheese was slightly more tart or cheese-like.

Macadamia Nut Boursin Cheese with Rustic Carrot crackers and Onion crackers. I actually made this little platter for Scott when he came home from work today. He absolutely loved this cheese and also the onion crackers.

This cheese flavoring was inspired by one of Chad Sarno’s cheese recipes but I altered it a bit to suit our tastes and it worked out so well. I used nutritional yeast, onion powder, fresh chives, shallot and sea salt. This is soooo delicious and simple! One of my best cheeses yet! I’m going to be experimenting with more cheese flavors and coming up with some originals which I hope to use for a special project ;-)

The carrot and onion crackers turned out great. They even got a ‘thumbs up’ from Scott who has never enjoyed a raw cracker or bread recipe very much. He hates any taste of flax meal and these crackers didn’t taste at all like ground flaxseeds were added. I did use a little bit but the flavorings covered up that dreaded flax taste! Although both crackers are really good, they are still a work-in-progress and I hope to use my polished recipes for the ‘special project’…stay tuned :-)

 

My Oriental Feast!

With Scott camping all weekend I decided to make a few raw food recipes that Scott normally doesn’t fancy. He hates anything that tastes ‘fishy’ or from the sea. And he doesn’t care for eggplant. So I found the perfect recipes to treat myself!

Nori Rolls with Pecan Pâté. Spicy Miso, and Fresh Veggies! Recipe is by Vanessa Sherwood and found HERE on Gliving. Also CLICK HERE to see the recipe posted by Carmella on the RFC website :-)

Joyce’s Notes: This is a great raw vegan ‘sushi’ recipe that’s very easy to prepare and tastes delicious! I highly recommend checking out the link and seeing Vanessa’s photo and recipe. Scott hates sushi and does not like the nori sheets since they do have a strong ‘seaweed’ flavor. But if you’re like me and like the taste of traditional vegetarian sushi or California rolls, you’ll love these! I had my eye on this recipe for a while and finally it was the perfect weekend to try these!

The Pecan Pâté was good on it’s own! It consists of pecans, red onion, parsley, lemon juice, garlic powder, nama shoyu, cold pressed sesame oil blended up in the food processor. Scott actually liked the left over Pecan Pâté and took some to work today with some crackers. It’s a good versatile pâté  for many uses. Use it on a sandwich, with crackers or wrapped in collards! Delish!

For veggies I julienned some cucumbers and red peppers. I also sliced up avocados. And finally I added some sunflower sprouts which are always pretty and taste great. (my favorite type of sprouts) I had some wasabi powder which I mixed with hot water from the faucet (we have good well water). The wasabi and the nama shoyu was delicious with the nori rolls!

The nori sheets I use are raw and usually have to be ordered online (I ordered them from Alissa Cohen’s store). They are expensive at $24 but you get about 50 sheets which lasts a while. Usually the ones in the stores are toasted.

I’m embarrassed to say that I ate that whole plate of Nori rolls over the course of a day! I suppose I was really missing my veggie ‘sushi’ rolls as I haven’t made them in ages!

 

Sweet and Spicy Chinese Eggplant! Original recipe is by Rene Loux and then modified by RawLeah from the RFC website.

I modified this recipe as well, so I’ll post it here with my own changes:

• 6 small 5-6 inch Chinese eggplants (they are the specialty kind)

Sauce

• 4 tablespoons of cold pressed sesame oil
• 1 tablespoon of toasted sesame oil (optional but I recommend it)
• 1 tablespoon of white/light miso
• 2 tablespoons of maple syrup
• 2 tablespoons of agave syrup
• 1 teaspoon of Ume Plum vinegar
• 1 large clove of garlic, minced
• 3 scallions (spring onions), minced loosely
• 2 or 3 serrano chilies, minced (I used 2 but next time will do 3)
• water to thin out just a bit

I whisked all the sauce ingredients in a bowl. I chopped up the eggplant into thirds and then into fourths and marinated them in the sauce for about 30 minutes. Then I put the mixture with most of the sauce onto a teleflex sheet at 105. I kept this in the dehydrator for about 2 1/2 hours.

For serving, I put the mixture plus the leftover sauce into one large Chinese style bowl since I love having a lot of sauce on the eggplant

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Joyce’s notes: This was very tasty! The sauce is a true winner and I would make it again for other things as well. The eggplant itself was good but not super. I found the darkest eggplants were a tiny bit bitter and not as soft. The light purple and white eggplants were the best and I’d only use them next time. The dehydrator worked well to soften up the lighter eggplants a bit and I might leave them in longer next time. Below is a photo of the 6 eggplants I used for this recipe:

 

And for a delicious seaweed salad:

Japanese Wakame Sea Salad. Inspired by Cafe Gratitude

I love wakame (a sea vegetable) and don’t eat it enough. It’s incredibly nutritious with all the trace minerals and very tasty too! Scott won’t touch this stuff, so I made it this weekend for a treat to myself.

Joyce’s notes: This is a delicious sea salad! I used the dried wakame from Maine Coast Sea Vegetables which can be found in most co-ops and health food stores. I soaked the wakame in warm water for an hour. It’s fun to see how it expands so much and softens up. The salad consists of nama shoyu, agave syrup, lemon juice, toasted sesame oil, garlic, ginger, and jalapeno. I loved this and ate most of it in one sitting! Not good being on my own all weekend! ;-)

 

A few treats I made for Scott’s Camping Trip:

Caramel Coconut Cookies, Brownie balls and my own ‘Joyce’ bars (better than the Larabars in the store)

These were all appreciated by Scott and his buddies, Chris and Jeff while on their hiking and camping trip this weekend The true hit was the Caramel Coconut Cookie recipe. Check out the link above in green! I found this recipe on the goneraw website. It’s one of the best raw cookies I’ve made so far! The guys ate them up, but brought home a few of the brownie balls and a couple of my own energy bars which I thought were pretty good! Oh well….I probably made too much as usual :-)

My ‘Joyce’ bars are normally leftover nuts, dates and/or dried apricots that are blended up in the food processor and dehydrated overnight. It’s a great way to use up leftover ingredients. The ones I made for the guys were this:

• 1 2/3 cups of cashew pieces
• 1 cup of pecans
• 1/2 to 2/3 cup of dried coconut
• 1 heaping cup of soaked apricots
• about 8 dates
• 3 teaspoons of vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon of almond extract

Here’s a photo of the Bond Cliffs in New Hampshire where they hiked:

Looks like Vermont!

That’s all for now! Thanks for visiting my blog and come back again!