Living Rawesome

Day #14 Basil Wrappers and Portabello Meat filling pg. 148, Portabello-Meat stew with Yellow “rice” pg. 184, Truffles pg. 168 entertaining in the raw

Boy, I was in the mood to prepare food today!! Probably because it was my day off. I am so used to preparing food everyday at work, I guess I was missing it today, more than usual. I decided to make some recipes for tomorrow night. I didn’t know what picadillo was until I read the recipe. The picture is stunning, as all the photos are:) Picadillo is a stew-like dish served in Latin America, traditionally made from beef. The cuban version has olives. M.K. explains that the stew can be eaten with rice or taco shells. In this recipe, he uses jicama for the rice. At first I wanted to make the yellow “rice” alone but I figured I would make the picadillo too. I had the itch to prep food today. So, I decided to make the red pepper soup recipe but it has several steps involving dehydration so I made the dehydrated recipes today then I will do the soup tomorrow. I have been wanting to make the basil wrappers with the meat inside. This meal looks extremely delicious and fun to make.
The first recipe I did was the picadillo. I started with the mushrooms and yellow peppers. M.K.’s (Matthew Kenney’s) recipe calls for green peppers but I don’t like green peppers at all:( I added olive oil to them and put them in the dehydrator for 45 minutes. Then I added black olives, sun-dried tomatoes, raisins (I used Himalayan golden raisins), sea salt and put them in dehydrator for 30 minutes. I made the jicama rice and the yellow sauce while they were dehydrating. The yellow “rice” sauce recipe calls for coconut meat so I had Jason open the coconuts, I had four, but only three turned out to be good. I still have the thai coconut water, I love when Jason makes me a lemon slushy with it. Maybe he’ll make me one tomorrow:) The sauce also called for carrot juice, agave, turmeric, salt, cayenne and lime juice. I tried the yellow “rice” and I am sorry to say I didn’t like it:( I am hoping tomorrow when all the ingredients are together it will taste better to me. When I took the “stew” ingredients out of the dehydrator they still looked very light colored. They looked nothing like the photo in his book, so I pulsed the ingredients in the food processor. As you can see in the photo it has a darker appearance after pulsing it. I will get the plantains tonight, so they will be somewhat crisp tomorrow night. Tomorrow I will make the macadamia nut “sour cream”.
The filling was really easy to make. I marinated portabello mushrooms and onions for 30 minutes then pulsed it in the food processor with cashews and dried thyme. It tastes very good. I can’t wait to try the basil wraps with the “meat” The basil wraps were easy to make after Jason opened the coconuts for me. At first the vitamix wouldn’t mix it up. You have to have enough ingredients in the vitamix so it will make the contents liquid. I had to add a little more water than the recipes calls for and then it mixed. I tried the mix and it is going to be soooo good after dehydrating. I can’t wait! They are dehydrating right now. I am worried they may not come out as good as they should because I don’t have teflex sheets. I usually use parchment paper but it doesn’t lay as flat as the sheets do. I am concerned that the wraps will have creases in them. But it is my first time and I will get better. I can’t wait to make these little dumplings. The basil wrappers hold the “meat”. Then they rest on the red pepper soup.
After cleaning up I still had soaked cashews to use. Christian decided to make the truffles on page 168 with me. My kids fell in love with them. They wanted to eat all of the mix. As you can see in the photos. The recipe calls for raw cacao (I use Divine Organics, we sell it at Rutabaga’s), soaked cashews, coconut oil (I love Nutiva), vanilla extract, sea salt, raw agave, and mesquite powder. I left the mesquite powder out. I figured my kids loved it so much I didn’t want to mess up the recipe for them. These truffles are part of a several recipe dish. M.K. usually has several steps in his meals. It’s so much fun for me, they are challenging but it feels so when they are complete. And most of all they are absolutely delicious:p
Christian made the truffles into balls. I am so proud of my little raw chef!