Monday, March 26, 2012

Raw Food Diet - Day Six - The End

The sixth day of our raw food diet is also the last one.  Kobe Beef Steak Tartare served with a shaved raw asparagus salad with Manchego cheese.  The salad was inspired on a salad we had at Bar La Grassa last summer that was out of this world.  Large, raw asparagus are shaved on a mandolin on the long end.  Then they are tossed with a fresh dressing (in our case made with some home-made tarragon mayonnaise, yogurt, lemon salt and pepper.)  To that we added some julienne Peppadew peppers and shaved Manchego cheese.  It came out great.

The tartare was good, but the recipe I found resulted in too much orange zest, although the truffle oil was a nice touch.  

All an all, the diet was an interesting experiment, but we found it to be very limiting.  We are food people and can deal with the usual diet that reduces quantities of certain ingredients, but in this case, entire categories were eliminated.  Our stove missed us too much.  The big bad wolf is back!

Kobe Beef Tartare with Raw Asparagus Salad

Sunday, March 25, 2012

Raw Food Diet - Day 4 - A Night at the Ecopolitan

For a Midwest city, Minneapolis has its fare share of good restaurants (making it a cool place in yet another way ;-)  What we did not expect is a place like the Ecopolitan right on Lyndale two blocks passed The Wedge.  This is a restaurant dedicated to organic, vegan, gluten free and raw food.  That applies to every item on their menu.

I have to say I had low expectations.  Sharon and I went there out of necessity.  We were on day four of a Raw Food Diet shenanigan and decided to go there as soon as we heard about the place.  We are used to going out to dinner with some regularity and this raw for diet was making it rather difficult.

For appetizers we started with an easy guacamole and salsa.  Perhaps not much of a stretch, since this is a dish that is never cooked.  The challenge was perhaps on the crackers.  Made in their kitchen, these tostadas are made out of sunflower seeds and a variety of other seeds.  They had the perfect crunch and did not add too much flavor to the guacamole (in my opinion, an issue with the raw flax seed crackers, or at least the ones sold at Whole Foods.)

We ordered a second appetizer that had more of a challenge: humus.  Traditional humus is made with cooked chickpeas that are usually cooked.  Anyway, this particular humus was made with zucchini and garlic (we are leading that zucchini is a staple in raw food, (whuddathonk?) This was DELICIOUS.  In some ways better than the original, with a more vibrant flavor.  This raised the expectations considerably for the entrees.
The Lentil Faux Taco Meat Salad was made with cashew sour cream.  Served with mixed greens, this salad was flavorful and very fresh.  I might have added chopped black olives for an extra flavor kick that would have been well suited to the dish, but overall it was a very successful dish.  So much so, that we made our way to The Wedge afterwards trying to find some of the lentil faux taco meat.  BTW, we couldn't.
Last, we ordered a zucchini Pesto Pasta over spinach.  There is really no pasta on this dish, but rather the zucchinis are cut in long strips like spaghetti.  The pesto was terrific and very creamy (I have a feeling it was not made with pine nuts, but can't say for sure.)  We shared and devoured all the courses and ended up so full that could not go for dessert, although there was a coconut cream pie (vegan, organic, raw and gluten free) that looked pretty good.

The place is most definitely worth a visit (I know we will be there again even after our Raw Food Diet is a funny memory.)  If you go there, know that they have a small parking lot in the back that you access through the alley.

Saturday, March 24, 2012

Raw Food Diet - Day 3 - Finally a Home Run

Day three of our Raw Food Diet was a home run.  Of course it was thanks to Sharon.  Had lots of fruit and nuts for breakfast and lunch was just the leftover gazpacho made for the previous night but dinner was pretty awesome.  Sharon worked some magic with great fish we got at Coastal Seafoods (in my view the only place to buy fish in the Twin Cities).

To start she made a tomato salad with avocado, sweet barnea olive oil and salt.  That hit the spot, and it was just the start.  A seaweed roll stuffed with vegetables (shredded zucchini, bean sprouts, avocado and a soy sauce sauce) was heavenly.  The Atlantic salmon sashimi was heartily and very fresh.  Served with soy sauce (to which she expertly added some sugar, garlic and some other goodness) and wasabi.  But the star of the night was the scallop sashimi.  She drizzle them with olive oil, lemon juice and a little but of salt.  Those were sweet and delicious.  Gotta have them again.

For dessert we had some yogurt with raw granola (make from sprouted grains), honey and fresh berries.

I badly needed a meal like this.  It gave us encouragement to continue with this experiment.  Go Sharon!

Sharon's Awesome Sashimi Dinner

Raw Food Diet - Day 2

The second day of our Raw Food Diet adventure was tough.  Somehow breakfast and lunch were not very satisfying.  I was OK with the breakfast of fruit and nuts and the salad lunch, but really craved a little piece of bread with the salad.  By the way, you can eat A LOT of lettuce before you can say you are full (I tried and didn't reach that point).  

Anyway, I was looking forward to dinner and that turned out fairly successful.  We started with some home made gazpacho.  That is always good (although I missed the croutons).  The dehydrated sweet potato chips from Whole Foods proved a major disappointment.  Nota good sign when you miss baked potato chips (never a big fan.)

The star of the night was the barramundi ceviche.  I used 1/2 pound of small diced barramundi, lots of lime juice, tomato seeds (discarded from the gazpacho), red bell pepper, cilantro, jalapeño and salt & pepper.  Not bad at all with the avocado.  I found the flaxseed a tad too string, but Sharon likes them.  

Not bad, but need to fine-tune.  Satisfaction level is only mid-point.

(clockwise from the top left) Sweet Potato Chips, Ceviche,
Gazpacho, Flaxseed Chips and Avocados

Going Raw for Milano City Marathon - Day 1

Next month is the Milano City Marathon (yep, that's Milan Italy, totally psyched).  So Sharon and I decided to prepare by going on a raw food diet, a diet based on uncooked and unprocessed food.  No item can be cooked above 104 degrees.  

Our plan was to cleanse our bodies, lose a couple of pounds (which we will most definitely pack during our trip to Italy) and in general discover a new (although temporary) way of eating.  We both have friends that have tried them before and decided to give it a go.  (If any of them reads this, please feel free to offer some recipes.  That goes for you Tim.)

Literature on this diet is plentiful on the internet, and there is also opposing views as to whether animal protein can or cannot be included.  Most sites include a diet rich in fruit and vegetables, nuts, raw grains and legumes, free of alcohol and caffeine and that may include eggs and milk products (as long as unpasteurized) as well as raw fish (sashimi, ceviche) and are meat (carpaccio, tartare).  Of course, chicken is out :-)

What I like the most is the challenge.  It really forces us to look at food completely differently.  A trip to the grocery store is very different when you can skip most of the aisles.  As we were planning it, I headed to Whole Foods for some help.  Almost by accident and right at the entrance I found a whole shelf of raw products.  Power bars, flaxseed crackers, granola, sweet potato chips (dehydrated rather than fried or baked), nut products and even cookies (made with dehydrated fruits, pressed nuts and carob).  I loaded on those at a pretty penny, but for sure the idea was to use those as a treat, to make it fun.  The full intent is to focus on fresh produce as well as lots of fresh fish and some raw beef tartare.

The cheese shop at Whole Foods was conveniently labeled indicating what cheeses had been made with pasteurized milk.  The selection of unpasteurized cheeses was small but sufficient.  We have been drinking almond milk for some time now, so we are good there, but were completely unable to find yogurt made from unpasteurized milk (I will confess that that is the one item we decided to cheat on... I was not ready to give up having a little bit of plain yogurt with berries, honey and granola after dinner.)

Day one was good.  Fruit for breakfast, a salad for lunch and found a good recipe for Raw Zucchini Pad Thai (pictured below).  This was actually delicious.  Shredded zucchini, bean sprouts, red bell pepper, chopped almonds, cilantro, lime, olive oil, salt and pepper.  We will make it again and probably add some jalapeño.  

Raw Zucchini Pad Thai

A good start, but certainly challenging in that it is very limiting.  More so for us that will eat just about anything and enjoy eating out.  Will we last three weeks as planned?  Stay tuned.