March 28, 2010
week 6- Surprises!
This week Jenny did all the work, and I got to just come over and taste everything and take pictures. Jenny made some amazing dishes. She picked two foods that are complete fakes- or perhaps I should say 'art imitating life'. Bacon and potato salad- so fun! So impossible to make raw! Or so one would think. Here's the 'bacon' (actually marinated eggplant) before it got dehydrated:
and here it is after drying.
It tasted a little bacon-ish, sort of a meat-ish jerky. No one is fooled, but I think it's quite ingenious that it has bacon-like 'marbling'. How did they figure out that eggplant would do that? Matthew Kenney and his friends are some serious food artists/scientists. And Jenny is a seriously good cook.
And here's the potato salad. It's not potato at all, but jicama, with an amazing dressing. Where do they come up with this stuff?
I'm not naturally all that brave about trying foods that I'm not sure I'm going to like, so making and tasting all these foods that are new to me has really challenged me to be more adventurous. I'm really proud of myself for that. I was nervous about trying the jicama, but it was very mild and good, like potato salad, and the dressing was sufficiently creamy. Jicama is sweeter than potato and as crunchy as an apple, though, so I might try making it with smaller jicama pieces and let it sit awhile maybe and see if it softened a little. I think if it was just being itself instead of trying to be potato salad, I would like it more- or maybe just call it a cross between Waldorf salad and potato salad.
Potato Salad
(From Matthew Kenney's Everyday Raw)
2 c diced jicama
1/4 c diced yellow pepper
1/4 c diced celery
1 T minced fresh rosemary
2 T minced green olives
1/4 avocado, mashed
1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
Fresh parsely sprigs, for garnish
Mix it all up, excpet for parsely, of course, which you artfully place on top at the end. First, mix it up with the dressing below, though.
Potato Salad Dressing
2 T tahini
1/4 t ground cumin
1 1/2 T lemon juice
2 T water
2 t fresh parsely
1/4 t nama shoyu
1/4 t agave
Pinch sea salt
Pinch chili powder
Blend it all up in the blender till it's smooth. It will be thick. It will be delicious.
Posted by Bahiyyih at March 28, 2010 11:26 PM