Archives for posts with tag: dips

Spring Seed Wine Co. Four O’Clock Chardonnay

September 28, 2009 //
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A wise man once told me, when in doubt about which wine to choose, pick the one with the coolest label. I swear that’s not what led me to choose an offering from the Spring Seed Wine Company as the first Weekly Wine feature, but I just can’t begin this discussion without drawing attention to the absolutely beautiful bottle. Each wine features artwork from vintage seed packets – my 2008 Four O’Clock Chardonnay has a painstakingly detailed illustration of sunflowers doing their worshipful thing. The label indicates an attention to detail and appreciation for the slower way things used to be done, so before I’ve even taken a sip I’m partial to the drop.

Empty bottle of chardy, keeping company with my leeks.

It’s made by the Bosworth family in McLaren Vale, South Australia, from certified organic, estate-grown grapes from low-yield vineyards. They are into traditional, minimalist winemaking, and, according to their website, aim to “ensure the purity, integrity and flavour of our vineyard” in their wines. Purity, integrity, and flavor: what more can one ask for in a wine? The winemaking techniques are pretty cool too: they picked the grapes in six batches over ten days, then fermented each batch separately to create complex flavors. After the ferment they left the wines on solids to protect against oxidation to decrease the amount of preservative needed. Cool fermentation temperature and the avoidance of malolactic fermentation retain the delicate chardonnay flavors and acidity. The results?

I’m not a wine expert, just an enthusiastic punter, so I’ll describe what I tasted in my own language. A big, sweet opening – incredibly floral, a touch of stone fruit, a hint of citrus – but pretty short length giving way to a crisp, acidic finish. A strong mineral profile which clearly suggests to me a taste of the soil, a true sense of terroir. It’s unoaked, but still maintains a pretty strong structure, with a touch of a vanilla aftertaste.

I knocked back a couple of glasses with my girl Kristina during a collaborate dinner making session. We munched on some crudites with two beautiful dips that I made using a recipe from The Kitchen Dispensary – beetroot and zucchini/avocado. The wine was well suited to the light, bright, clean flavors of Kelly’s recipes, and went down pretty easily as we danced about the kitchen creating and nibbling. Suffice it to say Kristina and I finished the bottle.

Kelly’s dips:

Zucchini & Avocado Dip

1 Large Zucchini

1 Medium Avocado

1 Tsp Sea Salt or Himalayan Salt

Juice of 1/2 a Lemon

1 Tsp Cumin

1 Tsp Tumeric

1/2 Tsp Cayenne Pepper

1 Large Clove Garlic

Chop up the zucchini, avocado and garlic into smaller pieces.
Add with the remaining ingredients to your food processor or high speed blender and blend until smooth.
You can add a little water if the dip seems too thick.

Beetroot Dip

1 large beetroot

20 soaked brazil nuts

Juice of 1 Lemon

1 Large Clove Garlic

1 Tsp Sea Salt or Himalayan Salt

Chop up the beetroot and garlic into smaller pieces.
Add with the remaining ingredients to your food processor or high speed blender and blend until smooth.
You can add a little water if the dip seems too thick.

Both of these dips should keep for a week in an airtight container in the fridge.

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Categories Recipes, Wine

Beetroot Dip

June 4, 2009 //
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Avocado Stuffed with Beetroot Dip

The pace of our lives can be terribly fast, and it often feels like we’re moving in whirlwind with no time to slow down and relax. Running from job to job to errands to meetings to social engagements – this life of speed has come to be a common experience today. I have been experiencing this tornado of activity lately in my life, and while I certainly enjoy being busy, I also miss being home at mealtimes to indulge in the pleasure of culinary creation. Often my lunch has been a salad or bowl of fruit gobbled down at my desk, my dinner has been sneaky bites of veggies in the back kitchen towards the end of dinner shift, and my snacks have been juices, granola bars and teas. These simple foods have nourished my physically, but I find that I’m lacking in the spiritual nourishment that I derive from a little kitchen inspiration.

Today I finally had half a day to myself, so I decided to whip up something creative for lunch. I wanted to make something raw and healthy, but a little bit outside of my recent comfort zone of an amazing big salad with everything on it. Rather than just make something to eat, I wanted to consider flavors and textures, experiment with colors, and use some power tools!

I opted to create an original dip – a forgiving palette on which to experiment with different elements. Jayson has been buying some lovely vegan dips lately, and I’ve been thinking to myself how easy it would be to come up with raw versions. So today’s challenge was to create a raw beetroot dip with all the depth of flavor of a cooked dip, but way more nutrients. Chopped beetroot, tomato, red onion, garlic, parsley, sunflower seeds, lemon juice, olive oil, apple cider vinegar, mustard and a pinch of himalayan salt all went into the food processor. Then I played with seasonings a bit until the taste was just right. The surprising ingredient in here is actually carob powder, which adds both sweetness and depth to balance the acidic flavors.

Beetroot Dip Prep

I was going to eat this with crudites, but then I saw two ripe organic avocadoes purchased at CERES market yesterday that were just calling my name. So I filled half of one with the dip and ate it over a bed of greens from the garden with a few plump, juicy Mt. Zero olives. I think there are endless ways you could use this dip – as a sandwich spread, thinned out with a bit of water and poured over salad as a dressing, tossed with zucchini pasta, over steamed sweet potatoes and quinoa, or just as is with some raw crackers and veggies.

Beetroot dip with crudites and garden greens

Taking the time to nourish myself with inspiring flavors, and to enjoy the process of creating loving food for myself, is so important to keep me on track on so many levels. I know that no matter how busy I am, culinary creation is a priority.

Beetroot Dip

1 cup raw beetroot, roughly chopped
1/4 cup red onion, roughly chopped
1 packed TBSP fresh parsley, roughly chopped
1 tomato, roughly chopped
1 clove garlic
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
1/4 cup olive oil
juice of 1/2 lemon
1 TBSP apple cider vinegar
1 tsp brown mustard
1/2 tsp himalayan salt
1 tsp cumin powder
2 heaped tsp carob powder
freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Combine all ingredients in food processor and whir whir whir until you achieve a smooth, creamy consistency. Adjust flavors to taste – add cayenne if you like a spicier dip, or a bit of agave/honey if you like a sweeter dip. I like to add lots of black pepper for a little surprise zing.

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Categories Recipes

Dips: Creamy Capsicum, Mushroom & Rocket Pesto

February 24, 2009 //
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Creamy Capsicum and Sunflower Dip

Just like any other cuisine, it’s easy to get in a rut with gourmet raw foods. You know the scenario: preparing the same limited repertoire of dishes over and over again until you’re bored sick. While I don’t think I’ll ever get sick of big salads, I do need some variety from time to time as well. So I got to thinking of other ways to make eating raw veggies a little more fun.

The answer? Dips! The beauty of dips as a raw food eater is that not only can you pack lots of veggies and greens into the dip itself, but you can also use different veggies and greens as the dip vehicles, so to speak.

Rocket in my veggie garden

I love celebrating seasonality, so I’ve developed a few new dips using the best of local summer produce. First is a simple rocket pesto, made from the bounty of my garden. The wild rocket in my garden is ultra peppery, with a much more spicy and juicy flavor than the kind you buy in a shop. I like to balance this with some sweet sundried tomatoes, crunchy pumpkin seeds, and intense local olive oil. It’s lovely as a dip with crisp veggies sticks, makes a great condiment for marinated portobello mushrooms, and can be tossed with some zucchini pasta.

The second dip is all about capsicum. As any Italian cook knows, roasting capsicum really intensifies and sweetens the flavor, but it turns out that dehydrating does the same thing! To make a creamy dip similar to the ubiquitous dairy-rich version, I used germinated sunflower seeds. Lots of lemon juice and a generous application of spices creates a symphony of flavors.

Mushroom Dip

Finally, creamy mushroom dip was inspired by these amazing swiss brown beauties that have been grown just down the road at CERES. I’ve been lucky to play with these lovelies all summer, and this is my favorite dish so far. It tastes even better on the second day, as the mushroom flavor just seems to grow overnight. The texture is creamy – you’d swear there was cheese in there!

I like to serve the dips with a variety of vegetables and greens for dipping. Cucumber rounds are great with the mushroom dip, rocket or spinach leaves compliment the capsicum dip, and any sturdy vegetables match the rocket dip.

Rocket Pesto
2 cups fresh rocket, tightly packed
1/2 cup sundried tomatoes, soaked to rehydrate
1/4 cup pitted kalamata olives
3 Tbsp olive oil
3 Tbsp pumpkin seeds
juice of 1/2 lemon
1/2 tsp sea/himalayan salt

Combine all ingredients in food processor and pulse until fairly smooth (leave a bit of texture). Voila! Super easy.

Creamy Capsicum and Sunflower Dip
2 large red capsicums (bell peppers), chopped and dehydrated 8 hours
2 cups sprouted sunflower seeds*
1/4 red onion, chopped
juice of one lemon
1 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp cumin
pinch of cayenne
up to 1/2 cup water

Combine all ingredients in food processor and whir until smooth, adding water as necessary to achieve a very smooth texture.

*For info on sprouting, see my post on Sprouted Wheat Salad with Tangy Tamari Dressing. In this case it is sufficient to soak the seeds overnight, but you’ll get more nutrition out of them if you leave them a day or two until they have tiny tails.

Mushroom Dip
12 swiss brown button mushrooms
1/2 tsp sea/himalayan salt
2 Tbsp olive oil
3 leaves fresh sage
1/2 tsp dried thyme
3 Tbsp nutritional yeast
3 Tbsp cashew butter, or 1/4 cup really raw cashews, soaked
1 Tbsp tamari

Reserve 2 swiss brown mushrooms; finely chop the remaining 10 and place in a bowl with salt, olive oil, sage and thyme. Let marinate for 1/2 hour or longer. At the same time, cut the remaining 2 mushrooms into thin slices and marinate in the same mixture but in a separate bowl.

In a food processor, combine marinated mushrooms along with the marinade and juice, nutritional yeast, cashews or cashew butter, and tamari. Whir until very smooth. Place in a bowl and top with the marinated mushroom slices.

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The Giving Tree

July 4, 2008 //
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One day, while strolling in the Adelaide Botanic Gardens, I happened upon a large tree heavy with golden fruit. No, this is not the beginning of a fable, but rather my introduction to the tangy tree tomato, or tamarillo. Being a curious and fearless raw foodist, I went ahead and plucked a ripe fruit for tasting. Beneath a slightly bitter skin lay a sweet, juicy interior with a pleasant hint of tartness – a flavor and texture like a cross between a passionfruit and a tomato. I simply couldn’t let this bounty go ungathered, so I returned the next day with a sack and a lookout and picked myself enough tree tomatoes for hours of culinary experimentation. This was urban foraging at its finest.

While it has many traits in common with its vine-grown namesake, such as an abundance of seeds and classification as a fruit, the tree tomato is actually much sweeter and better suited to desserts and chutneys. Hence its 1967 rechristening with the much sexier name “tamarillo” by the New Zealand Tree Tomato Promotions Council. Though the fruit is native to the South American continent, it is cultivated commercially for export in New Zealand, and also widely grown in a dozen other countries scattered through the globe. The fruit’s new name is actually more than a cosmetic image boost; it is an expression of the globalization of one humble foodstuff. It reflects its South American origins by incorporating the word “amarillo,” meaning yellow, its significance in New Zealand with the word “tama,” meaning leadership, and its similarity to the word “tomato.”

A lot of my fruit gets eaten whole, as a snack, or mixed into smoothies. But I found the outer flesh of the tamarillo a bit too bitter to enjoy it by itself, and the occasional hard seeds unsuited to smoothies. So it was time for me to get creative.

First off, I took its South American origins as inspiration and created a salsa. Not a traditional vegetable salsa, but a tangy-sweet fruit salsa, that could be eaten as a condiment or a side salad. Pear was my choice as a subtly sweet counterpoint to the tamarillo’s tartness, and I dressed the combination up simply with fresh flavors of coriander, red onion, and apple cider vinegar. This recipe is simple, versatile, and delicious. What more can you want?


Tamarillo and Pear Salsa
2 large red sensation pears, cut into 1/4 inch dice
8 tamarillos, cut into 1/4 inch dice, hard seeds carefully removed
1/2 bunch fresh coriander, minced
1/4 red onion, minced
1/2 tsp dried coriander
2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
dash of Himalayan salt

Chop pears and tamarillos into 1/4 inch dice, being careful to remove the hard seeds from the tamarillo (located in the flesh along the sides). Mince coriander and red onion and toss with fruits. Add dried coriander, vinegar, and salt, and toss to coat. Serves 6-8 as condiment, 4 as a side dish (shown here with Mexican corn salad – a post for another day).

My next idea was to make a chutney, inspired by tomato-ginger chutneys I’ve enjoyed in the past alongside Indian food. This was made to accompany my caulibroc curry, and it served as a sweet flavor counterpoint to the spicy curry.

Tamarillo Chutney
1 cup tamarillos, finely chopped and hard seeds removed (approx. 6-8 tamarillos)
2 Tbsp minced or grated fresh ginger
1/2 bunch fresh coriander, minced
1 tsp fresh chili, minced
1/2 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp clove
1/4 tsp dried coriander
1 tsp honey
1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 tsp oil (olive, safflower, sunflower, or other mild oil)

Finely chop tamarillos. Add minced ginger, coriander, chili and spices. Mix thoroughly. Whisk together honey, vinegar and oil. Toss with tamarillo mixture coat. Stir chutney until it becomes paste-like, and allow to rest for at least 1/2 hour before serving for flavors to develop. Serve with vegetable curry. *Variations: if your curry is very spicy you may wish to omit the chili in the chutney. The chutney can be made sweeter, to taste, by adding more honey. Or add one minced clove of garlic if you dare!

Happy with my salad and condiment experiments, I wanted to try using the tamarillo in a dessert to really highlight its sweet, gooey interior. This time I looked closer to home for my inspiration. Since the fruit grows so well in Australia and New Zealand, why not draw upon the world of Kiwi and Down Under desserts? And why not use the tamarillo seeds like passionfruit? My first thought was of the ubiquitous passionfruit-topped pavlova, but creating a raw version of the meringue-like cake baffled me. Scrapping the pavlova idea, I decided that carob would be a good flavor match for the tamarillos, if I could find the right platform. My next thought was to create something reminiscent of a self-saucing carob pudding, topped with tamarillos. Again, I just didn’t know how to create a raw cake with a hard exterior and soft interior.

Finally, I saw this carrot cake recipe posted at goneraw.com. Eureka! The moistness and natural sweetness of a carrot cake was exactly what I was looking for. With a few changes and the addition of carob powder, I had my cake base. In between cake layers and for a beautifully tempting top, I added a simple cashew cream icing and lots of tamarillo seeds. This is a pretty special cake: very raw, very Australian, and very serendipitous.


Carob Carrot Tamarillo Cake

Cake
3 cups grated carrot
1 cup pitted dates, preferably California (if not the soft Cali kind, soak them in water for an hour to soften)
1/4 cup ground flax seeds
1 cup shredded dried coconut
4 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup agave nectar
1/2 cup ground cashews
6 Tbsp carob powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp salt

Topping
1 1/2 cups cashews, soaked in water to cover at least 2 hours and drained
2 Tbsp agave nectar
2 tsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
water as needed
15 tamarillos

Grate or shred carrots (I use the grater attachment on my food processor for this – saves time and your knuckles compared to the old-fashioned hand grater). Place grated carrots in a fine mesh seive and press out as much liquid as possible. Pour the carrot juice into a glass and drink up (you need your energy while unbaking!). Alternatively, if you’re a juicer, save the pulp from juicing carrots and use that instead.

Place dates in food processor and process into a paste. Add all of the remaining cake ingredients and process until well mixed. You will probably need to do this in 2 batches unless you have a really huge food processor.

Rub 2 springform cake pans with a little oil (I like coconut). Divide batter evenly between pans and spread smoothly using a rubber spatula. Dehydrate at 45 celsius/115 farenheit for 4 hours (this can be done in large tray dehydrator or oven, if your oven can be set at low temps). Remove sides of springform pans and invert cakes onto plates. One at a time, slide a large blunt knife or pie serving utensil along edges and under cakes to remove them from the bottom of springform pans. Place cakes, plate and all, back into dehydrator for another 2 hours.

Meanwhile, make your icing. Place soaked and drained cashews, agave, lemon juice and vanilla in food processor. Process until smooth and creamy, adding water as need to achieve a rich yet light consistency.

Cut the tamarillos in half lengthwise and scoop out the seeds, making sure to avoid the hard seeds in the fleshy lining. Place the seeds into a bowl and set aside.

Remove both cakes from the dehydrator. Spread 1/3 of the icing over one cake with a knife or spatula. Top with 1/2 of the tamarillo seeds. Carefully place the second cake over the first. Top with another 1/3 of the icing. Spread the remaining 1/3 of the icing around the sides of the cake. Top with cake with the other 1/2 of the tamarillo seeds. Cut as desired and serve!

Have a square, or three! I brought this cake to a raw potluck so we cut it into squares for easy sharing. Good thing I took a photo of it before I left home (in dismal nighttime lighting), because it was consumed quickly! Thank you, tamarillo tree.

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