Saturday, November 14, 2009

La Vida Loca

The last couple of classes have focused on "rawification" of different types of ethnic foods. The first cuisine we visited was LATIN!

We embarked on preparing a raw version of tamales and a tostada. There was a ton of chopping, blending, and dehydrating that went into our finished products, but (as you can see) it was totally worth it!

Below are raw corn tamales garnished with a jicama mango salsa and mango guacamole served upon a raw mole sauce...


The salsa was possibly the best I've ever had! It is a combination of fresh mango, jicama, red onion, cilantro, thai chiles. and lime juice. It was crisp and refreshing, and I managed to consume almost the entire bowl with just a spoon... Who needs chips???

The guac was a pretty similar. It consisted of avocado, mango, red chili, lime juice and salt... As my hubby knows, I will eat avocado with just about anything so this was definitely another favorite recipe!

The tamales and mole were a bit more complex... And when I say complex I mean 17 ingredients, but they were also very yummy. Although, I would have to say that the tostada we made next was probably my favorite of the two latin dishes.

Here is my finished tostada! It is a compilation of yellow pepper cream, blue corn tortillas, marinated portabella mushrooms, avocado, heirloom tomatoes, sour cream, and cilantro...

We took pictures of our plated dishes and then sat down to an enormous lunch! Unfortunately, by this point, I had already eaten my weight in salsa and wasn't too hungry, but I had lots of delicious leftovers for dinner!

After lunch we settled in to prepare our finale for the day. While it was in no way related to our latin theme, I was nevertheless excited to undertake the challenge! Behold, the deliciousness that is RAW PUMPKIN PIE! (The recipe is in Matthew Kenney's Entertaining in the Raw)

These were incredibly easy to make and tasted unbelievable. They would be even better topped with a little raw whipped cream (i.e. soaked cashews, vanilla, and maple syrup or agave).

You better believe that I will be making this recipe again for the holidays. I think they give traditional pumpkin pie a run for their money.

Tomorrow... Indian!

Hope everyone had a wonderful and restful Sunday :)



1 comment:

Elizabeth said...

These are definitely "must try" dishes. Thanks for sharing!!!