He Cooks Raw Food Part II

The other day I attended a workshop/dinner with the Javier Medvedovsky, the raw food chef I met at the Fira per la Terra, just before he left to spend the whole summer working in Ibiza.
I had been wanting to learn more about raw food ever since I met him. Although it is still practically unheard of in Spain, the raw food movement is growing (or should I say sprouting?) all over the Western world.
One of the big problems of adapting the raw food movement to the Spanish speaking world is its title. "Comida cruda" or "crudivorismo" is not very appealing, it sounds like an allusion to a failed, undercooked meat. Javier proposes "comida con vida" (literally "live food"), which I rather like, it plays nicely with sound and meaning (the Spanish verb "convidar" also means "to offer" or "invite").

After a brief introduction, Javier spent a few hours "cooking", that is, preparing dinner for us and showing us some of the main the techniques of raw food: sprouting, dehydrating and marinating.
But I was most impressed by how amazing everything tasted.
Upon arrival, he made us a carrot, orange, and apple smoothie to sip on during his intro.
Then we learned about, and tasted, Rejuvelac, a fermented juice, an enzymatic natural probiotic made from sprouting grains, with a strong smell but a citrusy taste.
He then used the Rejuvelac to make almond cheese for the pizza we would try later.
This was followed by a glass of sunflower seed milk, delicious!

The, before the main course, came dessert, a cake in three steps, made with a base of dates processed with almonds, a creamy filling of banana, sunflower seed pulp (left over from the milk -nothing goes to waste here), orange juice, and raspberries, and topped off with more raspberries, cherries, and blueberries. It was truly delicious and I will definitely try this one at home, the kids will love it.
Finally, the main course, a pizza, the dough of which was made mostly from the carrot pulp (left over from the juice), sprouted buckwheat, flaxseed, and oil. The pizza was topped with the almond cheese, lots of veggies, and black Greek olives. He served it with a colorful, flavor-rich salad. No metal was used, neither in the preparation of the food (only ceramic knives -I need some of these!), nor when we ate -only wood: plates, forks, chopsticks. Metal, according to Javier, oxidizes the raw food and should be avoided.

I can't stress enough how delicious it all was (for some reason I guess I doubted it beforehand). The tastiness of it all makes me a big fan of raw food (and of Javier).
But there are a couple of things that don't do the trick for me, and I don't think you'll see me turning into a crudivorista in this life. First, I find that too many ingredients are ground or milled. This is what allows them to play with textures and consistencies. Raw food insists on the food being alive at all times. But energetically, I'm not convinced that grinding it all up leaves it intact, I'm sure there are things that are lost in the process.
Second, if I were on a raw food diet, I'm sure I would miss fire. Summers are probably quite OK with this diet, but winters would be a true test. I love being next to the heat of the stove and oven, and eating hot food when it's cold outside (and sometimes when it's warm, too!).
Also, in order to follow a raw foods diet, you have to know a lot about nutrition, or receive the guidance of someone who does. It's too easy to abuse salads and fruits, and this can lead to serious nutritional deficiencies. I will from now on make it a point to visit raw food restaurants whenever I travel to places that have them, but will remain active next to the heat in the kitchen!

Swiss Chard Olive Quiche

Quiche and savory tarts are my all-time favorite food. They're so versatile, you can pour almost anything into a good crust and chances are it won't fail. I love the contrast between a crispy crust and a moist, chewy filling. However, my quiches need to be homemade. No matter where I go, whenever there's quiche on the menu, I'm always tempted to try it, but have been again and again disappointed when the quiche I am brought is too thick and overdosed in eggs and cream (I never use cream in my tarts, and when necessary only one egg). I like tarts that are thin, and I want to taste the veggies!
Quiches are delicious warm just out of the oven, but perhaps even better cold the next day, once all the flavors have settled. Since the picnic season has started (my year is divided into picnic and non-picnic seasons), I have been making lots of them; they are a picnic-perfect meal.
A household favorite is spinach quiche, but for seasonal reasons, this time I had to go with swiss chard. Because I find spinach more flavorful than chard, I lined the crust with some black olive paste, to give it an extra punch.
Many people boil the greens before putting them into the tart, don't do this! It's unnecessary and adds too much water to them. Just a skillet is fine, even for the chard, just make sure you chop the stems finely.
Usually I'm too lazy to make a homemade crust, but this time I tried a recipe from a recent post by Clotilde at chocolate & zucchini. It was really easy to make, and truly delicious. I especially liked the idea of putting dried herbs into the crust mix. I used some rosemary and thyme I still had left over from a recent trip to my friends Ari and Diego's garden in Montserrat. When the tart was in the oven it gave of a delicious aroma of the herbs. I think I may never buy ready-made crusts again.
On a recent trip to New York I bought this great gadget for tarts called "first slice" at Williams Sonoma. Whenever I remember to put it in under the crust before baking, I am very thankful for that first slice that doesn't break.

Swiss Chard Olive Tart Recipe
Ingredients:
1 tart crust (homemade or prepared)
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 bunch fresh Swiss Chard, chopped
a pinch fine grain sea salt
2 green onions, finely chopped
2 teaspoons black olive paste
1 tablespoon pine nuts, toasted
1 egg
almond powder (or grated Parmesan, for non-vegans)

Directions:
Preheat oven.
Line a round tart pan with the crust and prick it with a fork so it won't rise in the oven. Bake on its own for about 10 minutes, just before it starts to turn golden. Remove from oven.
Heat the olive oil in a large skillet. Add the chopped onions and sea salt, and sauté a few minutes, until the onions become translucent. Add the chopped Swiss Chard and sauté for another 10 minutes or so. Remove from heat. Beat in the egg.
Paint the base of the crust with the black olive paste. Spoon the vegetables into the crust. Top with some powdered almond (or grated parmesan, if desired). If you have leftover crust, decorate the top with strips or whatever shape you wish.
Bake for about 25 minutes. Let it cool down before serving.

Whole Wheat Lemon Sponge Cake

My loved ones just left for three days in Madrid with Israel's family, leaving me home alone (yeahhh!), finally some real time to myself -and, hopefully- my cooking and blogging (can't make promises... life in the hectic lane...).
Right before they left I decided to pamper them with something sweet to snack on during the train ride, so I whipped together this cake with whatever was in the pantry.
I used a non-dairy yogurt to give it sponginess (regular yogurt works just as well), in this case it was an almond one, whose sweetness combines really well with the tangy lemon juice and zest.

Recipe follows:

Whole Wheat Lemon Sponge Cake
As in the recipe for 1,2,3 Sponge Cake, you can use the yogurt container for measuring the other ingredients. The olive oil I used was specially strong, at home we love the taste of it in everything but if you prefer a milder oil feel free to use sunflower.

Ingredients:
2 large eggs
1 non-dairy almond (or other flavor, or dairy) yogurt
1 yogurt-cup sugar
2 yogurt-cups whole wheat flour
3/4 yogurt cups extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon baking powder
zest and juice of 1 lemon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 pinch salt

Preheat oven. Beat the eggs. Add the yogurt. Gradually add the sugar, then the flour, and finally the oil, stirring continuously but gently. Stir in rest of the ingredients. Pour into a greased pan. (This amount yields 1 loaf pan; if you want a larger cake, use 3 eggs, 2 cups sugar, 3 cups flour, 1 cup oil, 2 teaspoons baking powder.) Bake for about 20-25 minutes, until an inserted toothpick comes out dry. Sprinkle with powdered sugar.