Goma Salad - Raw Creation Of Raw Chef Yen Lim

Introducing the original creation of newly minted raw chef Yen Lim, my little cousin ;) . She just graduated from Asia's premier raw food training academy Light Love Laughter.  This is one of the dishes she designed for her finals. 

From Yen:

"Here is my version of a quick and delicious salad with healthy goma (sesame) dressing. Unlike traditional Goma dressing which uses Mayonaise and sugar, this recipe uses healthier ingredients:

Dressing:
2 tbs tahini
1 tbs raw honey
1 tbs coconut oil
1 tbs lemon juice
¼ tsp cumin powder
¼ tsp chili powder

Greens:
Organic baby spinach
1 Japanese cucumber (chopped)
Cherry tomatos

Instruction:
1) Combine all the dressing ingredients in a bowl and whisk everything together.
2) Mixed in the greens and combine them well.

I made this during my raw food teacher training class a few days ago and everyone loves it!"

Cacao Mint Bar

Inspired by the talented cook Averie, I tried making a healthier and more Asian version of her Menthe Bars.







































Ingredients:

Base:
1/2 cup ground flax
1/2 cup soaked dried longan
1/4 cup soaked goji berries
1/2 cup ground almonds
2 tbs spoons raw honey

Minty middle layer:
flesh of 2 young coconuts blended finely
3 tbs raw honey
5 drops of peppermint oil
100g Agar powder/ half pack of agar strips soaked

Chocolate top layer:
1/2 cup of coconut or macadamia nut oil (or cacao butter if preferred)
1/2 cup raw cacao
2 tbs tahini or other nut butter
3 tbs coconut sugar or raw honey


For the base: blitz all ingredients in the food processor and press in flat onto a square tin pan. Place it in the freezer covered in plastic wrap.

For the minty layer: blend all ingredients smoothly in the blender and spread atop the base layer. Place in freezer for 20 min till hardened.

Mix ingredients for top choc layer together and pour over the mint layer.

Chill and viola! Minty delight.

Perfect Nut Butters

It is GREAT being a part of a multi-cultural society. It makes us cultural amphibians and gives us access to the wisdoms of the different races.

One example is my recent search for the best way to make fine nut butters. My super powered blender does quite well for oily nuts such as macadamia and pine, but for drier nuts like sunflower, almonds and sesame, I would need to use another carrier oil to coax the blade to run smoothly. These nut butters are generally chunkier than store bought versions too. Those of us with blenders without the stirrers might find this work even more difficult. My blenders are a vitamix and a cheap commercial blender with stirrers which are very good for performing this task already...but the result is nowhere near the runny refinement of my stone-mill.

I remember my childhood days when I watched the neighbours in the kampung grind down rice between two giant granite mortars. I searched the net for modern day equivalents and found this thing called the melanger (about $700 USD) which looks suspiciously like the wet-stone grinders that our Indian friends use for grinding down wet rice for thosai and idli. So, I scooted to little India and got one of those motorised wet-grinders and brought it home ($200) with excitement and trepidation. ("Grind nuts? Noooo, we don't use it like that..." the store-keeper at Karthika exclaimed.)

The first nuts I used is the oily macadamia - it jammed the grinder big time. I took out all the nuts, ran them through the food processor and then trickled them into the stone grinder - I had to wait for quite some time, but after twenty minutes or so, the result was a dream ;-).

I tried hulled sesame next - dry at first but with patience, but glistening smoothness at the end. Then the pumpkin seeds...and then mixtures like black sesame and macadamia, pumpkin and hulled sesame etc....all perfect as perfect can be. These are really better than store bought - I can make these with sprouted nuts and seeds that are free from enzyme inhibitors and oxalates....;-)

Woohoo....wonderful to be in potpourri Singapore.

Pumpkin seed butter

Passion Fruit Superfoods Bar

Superfoods are those wondrous foods that are powerhouses of nutrition. You'd want to incorporate them into your daily diet to get dense goodness out of every bite.

I love the heady fragrance of the passion fruit. It is high in phyto-nutrients, pectin and many amazing benefits that are astounding researchers. Read it here: http://www.fruithealthbenefits.com/passion-fruit-nutrition.shtml


In this recipe, though the passion fruit is not the only ingredient, it beautiful fragrance and tangy taste is most dominant note in this mix of "supers".

Ingredients

3 cups of rolled oats
Pulp of 6 ripe passion fruits
1 cup Goji berries
1 cup cranberries
1 cup of pumpkin and sunflower seeds soaked and dehydrated
Half cup golden flaxseed
quarter cup of chia seeds
1 cup of tahini
2 tbs raw honey


With clean hand of an enthusiastic child, squelch all ingredients together into a sticky gooey mass. Spread into a half inch thickness in a square tin, cover with a plastic sheet and place it into the freeze/chiller.Pat the mixture down with a spatula.



After two hours, take out the tin out if the fridge and cut into the required shape. You can eat it moist and soft like this or put it into the dehydrator to dry for about four hours or more to make a more portable bar.

Tahini Magic

To see a world in a grain of sand,
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour.
William Blake;
- Auguries of Innocence


 







Sometimes the smallest things in the world packs in the greatest punch. The humble sesame seed is one of these. Rich in minerals, antioxidants and vitamins, they are especially nutritious. I put this magic seed into anything and everything mainly through the use of a homemade tahini. Before you hop on to the recipes, take a read of the fact sheet from Nutrition and You website to realise what a powerhouse this little seed is:



1. The seeds are especially rich in mono-unsaturated fatty acid oleic acid, which comprise up to 50% fatty acids in them. Oleic acid helps to lower LDL or "bad cholesterol" and increase HDL or "good cholesterol" in the blood. Research studies suggest that Mediterranean diet which is rich in mono-unsaturated fats help to prevent coronary artery disease and stroke by favoring healthy lipid profile.

2. The seeds are also very good source of dietary proteins with fine quality amino acids that are essential for growth, especially in children. Just 100 g of seeds provide about 18 g of protein (32% of daily-recommended values).

3. In addition, sesame seeds contain many health benefiting compounds such as sesamol (3, 4-methylene-dioxyphenol), sesaminol, furyl-methanthiol, guajacol (2-methoxyphenol), phenylethanthiol and furaneol, vinylguacol and decadienal. Sesamol and sesaminol are phenolic anti-oxidants. Together, these compounds help stave off harmful free radicals from the body.

4. Sesame is amongst the seeds rich in quality vitamins and minerals. They are very good sources of B-complex vitamins such as niacin, folic acid, thiamin (vitamin B1), pyridoxine (vitamin B6), and riboflavin.100 g of sesame contains 97 mcg of folic acid, about 25% of recommended daily intake.

5. Folic acid is essential for DNA synthesis. When given in expectant mothers during peri-conception period, it may prevent neural tube defects in the baby.Niacin is another B-complex vitamin found abundantly in sesame. About 4.5 mg or 28% of daily-required levels of niacin is provided by just 100 g of seeds. Niacin help reduce LDL-cholesterol levels in the blood. In addition, it enhances GABA activity inside the brain, which in turn helps reduce anxiety and neurosis.

6. The seeds are incredibly rich sources of many essential minerals. Calcium, iron, manganese, zinc, magnesium, selenium, and copper are especially concentrated in sesame seeds. Many of these minerals have vital role in bone mineralization, red blood cell production, enzyme synthesis, hormone production, as well as regulation of cardiac and skeletal muscle activities.

Just a hand full of sesame a day provides enough recommended levels of phenolic anti-oxidants, minerals, vitamins and protein.

Basic Tahini Magic Recipe



500g of white hulled sesame, soaked for six hours and dehydrated in the oven or dehydrator
Half cup of olive oil or any cold pressed nut or seed oil (my favourite is macadamia)

Blend till smooth in a power blender and store in a jar in the fridge.

This basic recipe has true mileage. The magic begins:

- A spoonful of tahini with honey and filtered water blended together makes a lovely milk.

- tahini and vinegar and honey makes a creamy salad dressing

- it can form the base of beautiful dips for crackers

- did I mention that it guys into my energy bars as well?

Go in to try it. You'll be so had happy with all the magic you can make.

Chips! - Assam Leaves, Sour Spinach, Roselle Leaves

We usually choose a resilient leaf to make a chip, or else the hours of dehydrating will yield a papery mass. I like Kailan, but I decided to try out chip making with the nondescript local leave called Assam Leaf (at Sheng Shiong). It is actually called sour spinach elsewhere and actually a member of the hibiscus family that we in Asia know quite well....the Roselle!

Known for its anti-hypertensive properties, the Roselle plants is well used in Asia - for its succulent fruits and flavoursome sour leaves and flowers. The leaves are really cheap - a giant pack just for a Singapore dollar. Don't let its looks deceive you, the leaves look resilient but yield a delectable crunch in the mouth and is used for many an Asian salad from Cambodia to Sarawak.

I am a strong proponent for eating close to home and uncovering the treasure trove of local greens that has sadly fallen off the radar of many Singaporeans trained to eat mundanely by limited supermarket stocklists. Many local greens thrive on poor soil and grow so profusely that it makes a laughing stock of all the crazy effort that it takes to grow a foreign green like romaine.

This chip is savoury and tangy - for those who love to make the lips pucker in delight.

Ingredients
1 big bunch of roselle leaves cleaned and stems discarded

Dressing:
2 cloves of garlic grated
2 tbs of tahini
1 tbs miso
1 tbs honey

Method
Mix the dressing in large mixing bowl
Coat the leaves with the dressing, lay it out on mesh and dehydrate till crispy - about 8 hours.

Kale (or Kailan) Chips

I love kailan and I love my miso hawthorn vinegar dressing - so why not combine both?
The result is a very very addictive crispy chip that you cannot put down.

Key ingredient
Organic Kailan or Kale (1 kg) use only the leaves. Keep the stalks for juicing or feeding the turtles :)


Dressing
1 tbs of barley miso
2 heaped tbs of tahini
1 tbs of honey
2 tbs of hawthorn vinegar

Putting it together
Mix all the ingredients for the dressing really well in a large mixing bowl. Tear the Kailan into large pieces (remember it will shrink down to half its size). Using your hands, dig in and coat each leaf with the dressing. Put it in the dehydrator and dry till crispy (about 12 hours).

Enjoy the crackle. Feed it to your kids.