April 04, 2010
week 7- bright foods!
Mango wraps! Brilliant!
Sweet chili-lime sauce! Dip dip!
Grapefruit cleanser (juice)! Pucker!
That's the short version of last week.
The long version starts with me wanting to make what's on the cover of "Everyday Raw", these crazy looking paper-thin mango wraps around julienned vegetables. Again, I wanted to make the thing that looked the most challenging and unusual, but it was also just what I was in the mood for. Light, juicy and colorful.
The wraps turned out to not be hard at all, just unusual. I just pureed mango and young coconut meat and spread it on the dehydrator's teflex sheets, sprinkled cilantro on top and ran it for 4 hours (practically instant!). And it turned out so pretty!
Here you can see the red pepper, carrots and romaine lettuce all ready to be wrapped up. The sweet chili-lime sauce is in the foreground. Weird looking, I know, but it's so hard to know what to substitute for soy sauce. I just used salted water, but there has to be a better way. I'm going to have to try that again. Anyways, the sauce is for dipping the finished wraps, and it was a perfect complement, flavor-wise, even if not in looks. More about that later.
Here we've cut each tray of wraps into four pieces and layered the veggies on top, with more cilantro.
Then Jenny just rolled it up. Our wraps were a little sticky because I am impatient and we were on a tight schedule that day, so the wraps stayed closed just fine. I imagine if they don't stick to themselves, just a couple drops of water would seal them right up.
Now, here's the thing of it. Dipped in the sauce and popped in the mouth, those things were AMAZING! Oh, yeah! No objectionable tastes. Harmony of crunchy veggies, sweet and creamy mango wrap, limey-sesame sauce...it sang. Laaaa!
So, if you have any inclination toward trying any of these crazy recipes I've been spouting about, make it this one. Someone you know has a dehydrator sitting in their basement. Just put it out there that you need one and it will find you. Make these wraps! They are SO GOOD!
The sauce is practically instant too:
sweet chili-lime sauce
3/4 c nama shoyu
2 T agave
2 T lime juice
1 T sesame oil
Pinch red pepper flakes
Wisk it up.
Here are the wrap ingredients:
Mango Wrappers
4 c chopped fresh mango
2 c fresh young cocnut meat
Pinch cayenne
Pinch sea salt
1/4 c cilantro, roughly chopped
I spread this onto two teflex sheets, but I think making them even thinner (less on each sheet, or more sheets) would have been good too.
Oh, and finally we have the grapefruit cleanser. This is a bunch of fruits, etc put through a juicer. Grapefruit is supposed to be a cleansing sort of food for your body, I guess. I have to say, it was VERY bitter. Maybe I left too much of the white stuff around the grapefruit slices on. It's serious stuff. But it was actually fun to drink! Exciting and invigorating! Really makes you wake up and take notice! Very exclamation point worthy! I failed to take any pictures, but it was pretty weird-looking anyways. You're not missing much there.
grapefruit cleanser
3 grapefruits, peeled
2 apples
2 limes, peeled
3 stalks kale