December 16th, 2011
Whenever I feel especially happy, I often reflect on how fortunate I am to have wonderful friends. They all are different, unique, and largely responsible for who I am. Today I’d like to talk about Zhenya, the one who inspired this gathering.
Zhenya is to the right
Zhenya is incredibly down to Earth, honest, and very generous. She comes from the Altai area of Siberia, where these personal traits are innate in the region’s tradition. She has a rare talent of being a true friend to a wide variety of people and always brings together a very diverse crowd. When Natalie and I began to prepare Zhenya’s birthday party, we had no question about what it should be centered around.
As far back as we can both remember, we were taught to cherish every slice of bread placed in front of us. We were brought up to see bread as a symbol of survival for millions and as a product of hard, meticulous work of many people. Our generation grew up with a strong belief that bread is the Head of Everything. That and other similar folklore never allowed us to throw away a left over piece of bread. It is sentimental and goes deep into the history, culture, and roots of our people.
But we’re certainly not alone. Bread is a staple in so many cultures, the most basic of all foods, yet made with different ingredients throughout the world and complex in its own right.
Stepping away from the subject for a bit, I have to share one more story in order to complete the picture. Recently, we visited Art Basel in Miami, where we met Jennifer Rubell at her yogurt and honey Incubation breakfast installation. Jennifer uses food as her artistic medium, and one of her installations back in 2009 was devoted to bread. That amazing concept, which Jennifer calls Reconciliation, inspired us to build on the subject.
As for her yogurt at Art Basel, it was one of the best I ever tasted – homemade with Bulgarian yogurt grains. The whole experience of that breakfast in the garden, with bees flying around the dripping honey, the perfectly white incubation cube, and great conversation with Jennifer herself was a definite highlight of the trip.
Before learning about Jennifer and starting to prepare for Zhenya’s birthday, I became interested in finding a way to make bread which is truly healthy by most standards and relatively simple in preparation. Although the dehydrator is my stove most of the time, I couldn’t help but notice a large and growing demand for baked gluten-free and vegan bread.
Raw food in general, not to mention raw bread specifically, are not yet common by any means. Health foodies are very much compartmentalized and divided into communities. The gluten-free crowd generally uses eggs, dairy products, and an extensive list of ingredients in their breads, while vegans often don’t mind wheat and yeast. Meanwhile, ingredients like Irish moss are still unfamiliar to most, and there is a general belief that it belongs to the raw food world exclusively. I’m not a big fan of such divisions, and always try to promote food that can suit everyone, no matter their dietary needs and preferences.
My curiosity has lead me to start experimenting with bread, that doesn’t have any gluten, yeast, eggs, dairy, starches, baking soda, gum, but instead some sprouted goodies and a seaweed base. I’ve made this type of bread raw before, but this time decided to take the same approach to a baked bread, in order to make it appealing to everyone. It turned out amazingly on the first try, and I am very excited to share this recipe today.
For Zhenya’s birthday party, I baked many varieties of bread – all gluten-free and vegan.
As we always do when working on 3D events, we worked with three seasonal colours. Brown and creme represented shades of bread, while winter squashes and persimmons gave us that autumn orange, which added a vibrant stroke to our palate.
Natalie spotted this beautiful field by the pond with shady trees and wooden tables that framed our story perfectly. She used vintage American cow bells with little bouquets and ribbons inside, hanging down from the tree branches. The light wind made the ribbons dance around and fly over the tables, and the guests looked beautiful in their leafy crowns.
The birthday girl found a descriptive nick-name for every guest. Natalie used them when converting every guest’s seat into a postal parcel, which worked as a placement card and a fun guessing game as well. Our 3D logo, as well as three signature brush strokes, worked in place of postal stamps.
Those seats reminded us that although we all came from different parts of the world, we gathered to bring parcels of love to Zhenya.
The shapes and flavours of each bread represented different cultures or regions.
A round, crossed bread is served in Serbia for Slava, the holiday that celebrates Family.
The braided caraway was traditionally used in Russia to greet guests or newlyweds, and is also a variety of Jewish challah bread.
The baguettes were made of banana, walnut, and raisin bread, utilizing the beloved French shape, and the flavours that are so loved here in the States.
The small, simple loaves were a reference to a rye Lithuanian bread. I used cocoa, coriander, and caraway seeds to imitate the colour and flavour of that traditional bread.
The rest included garlic, caramelized onion, and persimmon loaves, in shapes that reminded us of childhood comforts.
We served bread with our almond cheese, and raw persimmon-apricot jam. Other friends brought all kinds of tasty goodies like pumpkin soup and pesto. Zhenya herself made several dishes from Golubka.
As for the bread, the banana and nut kind won the popular vote.
I don’t know about you, dear reader, but I felt in love with that day, the light and the sun, the smell of freshly baked bread, and with my friend Zhenya – Happy Birthday to you!
Last, but not least – I was not the only photographer at this gathering, young and talented Anastasia M. helped us out very much by capturing some beautiful moments. Thank you, Anastasia!
Our official charity 3D event for Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution will take place around Valentine’s Day. It will be held for couples and inspired by Argentinian Tango. The theme is broad and complex, and so is our menu. We decided to devote several posts to the event, as we develop our dishes and concept prior to the actual gathering. We’re planning to start right after Christmas, so stay tuned.
Basic Bread
1 cup mixture of raw oats, quinoa, buckwheat, amaranth, millet – preferably sprouted (or just soaked overnight) and dehydrated. You can use any combination of these, or other gluten-free grains. You can also use just one kind, or even store-bought flours.
1/2 cup golden flax seeds
1 cup sunflower seeds – preferably sprouted and dehydrated
1/2 cup hemp seeds
1 cup psyllium husks – you can find them in bulk at any health food store
11/2 cup purified water
juice of one lemon
1/4 cup Irish moss gel
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon honey
1/4 cup olive oil
In a high-speed blender, combine the grains and flax seeds, grind into a flour, and pour into a food processor. Next, grind sunflower seeds into a flour in a high-speed blender, at a lower speed, taking care not to turn them into butter. You can also use a coffee grinder and work in batches. Add the sunflower flour to the food processor, followed by hemp seeds and psyllium husks.
Combine water, lemon juice, Irish moss gel, salt and honey in a high-speed blender until smooth. With the motor still running, add olive oil to incorporate. Turn the food processor on, mixing your dry ingredients together, and start slowly pouring the wet mixture into the dry one through the tube. When the mixture becomes completely incorporated, your dough is ready. Make a loaf, or several loaves of the desired shape, spread with honey and sprinkle with seeds. To make sure that your bread bakes evenly, use a pizza stone if you have one, or just place an oven-proof dish with water on the rack underneath your bread. Bake at 350F for 40-60 minutes, or until it looks brown and ready.
Cool down on the wire rack before slicing.
For the banana-raisin-walnut bread, add two very ripe bananas, and some extra honey to your wet mixture. Optionally, add cinnamon, nutmeg, and ground ginger to taste. When wet and dry mixtures are well combined, transfer your dough into a bowl, add chopped walnuts and raisins to taste. Form into a loaf and bake.
For the onion-garlic bread, add some onion powder and garlic chips into a food processor along with the rest of the ingredients.
For the caramelized onion bread, use this recipe to make caramelized onions, and add them to the basic dough before baking.
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June 12th, 2011
Here are some snaps from Paris. These are just snippets, some tiny details I managed to catch on camera. The whole experience was so much larger and grander, like the city itself. I’ve never seen so much beauty condensed in ten days.
Beautiful spices at the open air market in Montmartre.
Fauchon cakes on display, I raved about them here.
Lunch at the fresh market in the south Latin Quarter, Rue Mouffetard, my favourite area.
Figs from the same market.
Rouge berry sorbet at Georges Restaurant on the roof top of the Centre Pompidou. The most captivating overlook of the city.
Fruit tart from my favourite bakery in Marais on Rue Verrerie. From there, if you cross Rue de Rivoli and walk towards the Seine, you will find the most beautiful picnic spots with delightful views of the islands.
We went a bit wild at Fauchon, took it all to go and had an unforgettable picnic at Jardin des Tuileries.
Red currants from still the same market in the Latin Quarter. We never get currants in Florida, and it’s one of my favourite berries, so this was exciting.
Vegetable Napoleon from Fauchon.
Some things learned in Paris:
♥ Don’t stress about maintaining your usual eating habits, for you are in one of the food capitals of the world. Even the most guilt-ful food in Paris is so unbelievably fresh, that it’s almost good for you.
♥ Refer to David Lebovitz and other insiders to find unique spots in Paris. Tourist books are only good for certain things.
♥ Even if your French is atrocious, don’t be afraid to learn and use as much of it as you can, it will earn you many smiles and much kindness.
♥ You never know when Eric Kayser will run out of passion fruit eclairs, so plan accordingly.
♥ Don’t underestimate the flavour of mogador macarons at Pierre Hermé. Stock up – you will not find ones that equal them in taste, nor will you ever be too full for one more.
♥ Mandatory with a fresh croissant at Angelina is their hot chocolate, which tastes like actual chocolate, melted into your cup.
♥ Markets, markets, markets. Freshest, cheapest, tastiest.
♥ Don’t be frustrated with the métro and their ticketing system. Use your sense of humor. Even if you are locked inside a station with no one around, you will always get to where you are going. Eventually.
Tags: food, life, travel, travel notes
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June 6th, 2011
Hello there, I’m fresh off the plane from Europe, London-Cologne-Paris-London. Home just in time for my friend N.’s 60s themed birthday tea party.
You may remember N.’s son’s birthday that we posted about a while back. N. throws the most beautifully thought-out parties, where every detail is pitch perfect and fun. It goes without saying that I’m always excited when she asks me to make the dessert.
Tired because of jet lag and the overwhelming amount of memories I carried away from Europe, I wanted to make a cake that is unfussy in preparation, but still elegant and tasty.
My choice fell on pudding cake, a simple dessert perfect for afternoon tea.
N., an interior design ace, often starts with a colour story and builds a whole world around it. This time it was green, white, and black.
For the cake, I went with green and white stripes. The pudding is initially off-white, its main base being macadamia nuts, coconut milk, and banana. And what better way to achieve the green colour than by adding matcha (green tea) powder? Quite appropriate for a tea party.
The dome shape and minimal decoration was inspired by Fauchon cakes that I saw in Paris. Fauchon is a sort of luxury food supermarket, where much emphasis is put on packaging and design. They carry both sweets and savouries, and their patisserie is mind-blowing and very innovative. In addition, the food is delicious.
Fauchon’s cakes are unlike anything I’ve seen before. The shapes are often extremely simple – domes or very flat rectangles. The decorations seem to be placed instinctively, with a sort of raw confidence that I wish I had more of when it comes to decorating and plating food. One side of a Fauchon cake may be completely covered with edible gold leaf, while the other one remains bare. There is no visible strategy, an effortless feeling that makes for some of the most elegant desserts I’ve ever seen.
I worked with a dome shape, a thin pistachio crust, and very minimal decoration with strawberries, letting the striped cake speak for itself.
I really enjoyed the party theme, 60s. I’m almost embarrassed to admit what a huge Mad Men fan I am. Any excuse to put a Bardot tease in my hair and paint my eyes like Twiggy seems like a good one.
There were beautiful vintage gloves, clip ons, sweetheart necklines, and bright lipstick. A girls’ paradise – it’s a good thing it was girls only this time.
The pudding cake is light, nutritious, with subtle hints of matcha, ideal for green-tea ice cream lovers. Alternatively, the pudding can be easily eaten for breakfast.
The birthday girl was happy with the cake, and the guests seemed to enjoy it as well. All good fun, the best possible way to fight jet lag.
Striped Tea Time Pudding Cake
(adapted from Living Raw Food)
This amount is for a dome mold 8 1/2″ in diameter and about 5″ deep (we used a regular mixing bowl)
Pudding
4 1/2 cups macadamia nuts – preferably soaked and dehydrated
4 1/2 tablespoons coconut butter
6 grams or about 3/4 cup Irish moss – soaked in hot water for 10 or more minutes and drained
3/4 cup raw agave syrup or more if you like sweeter
1 1/4 cup sliced banana
2 1/4 cups coconut milk – see panna cotta recipe
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 vanilla bean – seeds
matcha powder – to taste
Crust
about 1 1/2 cup raw pistachios
1/2 cup dried coconut flakes – untoasted
1 teaspoon matcha powder – optional
2 tablespoons raw agave syrup or more until sticky
In a food processor, blend the macadamia nuts and coconut butter until smooth. Place the macadamia mixture into a high-speed blender and combine with the rest of the ingredients, except the matcha powder. Divide the mixture in half. Leave one half white. Add matcha to the other half and combine in a blender to achieve the desired colour and taste. Take care to add the matcha in small portions, as it’s very strong in colouring and taste. A little matcha goes a long way.
For the crust, combine all the ingredients in a food processor.
Pour the two mixtures into your mold, alternating between green and white to achieve the stripes. Refrigerate for a few hours or overnight.
If you are using the type of cake mold, which you’ll have to flip (like we did here), distribute the crust onto the bottom after refrigeration and before flipping. If you are using a springform pan, which requires no flipping, form the crust first, pour the mixture over it, and then refrigerate. When set, the pudding should slide right out of the form. Optionally, garnish with fresh berries and ground pistachios.
Tags: dessert, food, inspiration, life, natalie, raw food, recipe
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