This soup literally only takes a few minutes to make (pretty much as long as it takes you to get the ingredients out and grate the carrots) and is a sweet/sour Asian delight to eat. And did I mention it is raw and vegan…

Lamb shoulder is one of the best cuts of meat to use for slow cooking. Not only because it is cheap, but it is also very tasty and goes extremely tender when braised.

And if you are looking for a subtle yet profound way to give this Moroccan lamb shoulder an extra boost of flavour then anchovies are your secret ingredient. Please before you hit the ‘back’ button on this recipe know that I am not a fan of anchovies much at all. I assure you that you will not notice them – they will just give the dish a background hum and make the lamb sing in a way that everyone who is left sucking every last drop of flavour from their forks may not fully comprehend.

It is not often that we can sit about praising the bad memory of ourselves or others. Forgetting birthdays, anniversaries, valentines and other such special occasions can often have far reaching consequences; while everyday absentmindedness can be of uttermost annoyance or even compete inconvenience to us all.

Forgetting one’s keys, failing to lock doors or just simply not remembering to buy some milk for your morning coffee can really ruin a day – or a morning at least! It was one such occasion of forgetting to buy milk that left me bereft of my morning caffeine hit. That was until I was forced to improvise and indeed come up with something better from the contents of my pantry: homemade Brazil nut milk.

In fact I can thank more than just my bad memory for discovering brazil nut milk . I must also show my gratitude to the little mammal of the Brazilian rainforest, the Agouti, which tirelessly opens the big pod that drops from the Brazil nut tree and takes out the 20 or so Brazil nuts contained within. The Agouti will then eat a few nuts to reward themselves for their hard work and proceed to bury the rest of the Brazil nuts for a later and leaner time. Luckily for us the Agouti does not have a very good memory and tends to forget where all of their Brazil nut (seeds) are buried. These eventually sprout and turn into trees that can grow up to 50m tall. Without the help of the Agouti and it’s terrible memory, there would’t be a wealth of wild Brazil nut trees (yes the Brazil nuts we all eat are wild!) in the rainforest for us to harvest and then eat!

Oh and before I forget I should mention that the Brazil nut milk has more protein, calcium and unsaturated fats than cow’s milk. It can also cost less than milk to make if you are prepared to buy your Brazils in bulk – but either way it isn’t overly expensive to make!

Brazil Nut Milk Ingredients (makes 1lt):

•  100g brazil nuts
• 1 litre water (ideally filtered)
• 50cm² muslin cloth or a clean tea towel
• 2 tbsp coconut nectar

You can use sugar, honey, dates or any other sweetener you wish – coconut nectar thickens the milk slightly and gives it a great flavour, it is also one of the healthier choices of sweetener.

You can also add 1 tsp vanilla extract if you wish. I personally think it complicates the flavour as I like quite a neutral flavoured Brazil nut milk, but it does taste nice.

Brazil Nut Milk Method:

Blend the Brazil nuts, coconut nectar and the water in a high powered blender until the nuts are ground very very fine – the finer the better! If your blender is not very powerful don’t stress it should still work fine. You may have to try using slightly more nuts to water ratio, but try out this ratio first.

Leave the nut water to sit and infuse for at least an hour. Stir occasionally if you can. Leave it in the refrigerator overnight if possible. If you are short of time you can strain it straight away, but you will just have a slightly more watery Brazil nut milk.

After leaving to sit strain the Brazil nut mixture through a muslin cloth. You can use a clean tea towel if you don’t have any muslin cloth, but it will take a while to strain through. Or failing that you can use a fine tea strainer, but the consistency of your milk will be grainy. Either way it will still taste delicious!

Chill and stir before serving. This Brazil nut milk goes brilliantly with coffee and iced coffee. It is also great in smoothies, cereals or as a stand alone drink.

Of course it is pretty hard to make a bad pizza. Mix cheese, bread and tomatoes with anything and try to get it wrong right (which is why a dessert chocolate covered pizza is one of the few examples of badness)? But to make the perfect pizza, now that is something. And to strive for perfection you have to boil it back to the basics and look at every aspect of a dish – this is a Heston Blumenthal recipe after all.

So there is no better way to both perfect your pizza and achieve perfection than by making thesimple yet elegant Margherita pizza. The triumvirate of tomato, basil and buffalo mozzarella are a match made in heaven in terms of flavour combinations. They are also of such simple simplicity that there is nowhere to hide with a Margherita pizza.

And of course there is no better place to look for the perfect Margherita pizza recipe than in Naples – the home and birthplace of this pizza classic. The famous Neapolitian Margherita Pizza is served with a simple sauce of San Marzano tomato (any Italian will swear by this special variety of plant that is grown in the volcanically rich soils around Mt Vesuvius and tastes particularly delicious once canned), Mozzarella di Bufala Campana (buffalo mozzarella from the Campania region) and a sprinkling of fresh basil. All cooked in a seriously hot wood fired oven for no longer than 90 seconds (so as not to ruin the basil and to achieve the perfect crust).

These three quality ingredients are not always available to the home cook, not to mention access to a pizza oven! So this recipe creates maximum depth of flavour using easy to find ingredients and teaches you the key aspect of creating the right heat, perfect complex bread flavoured dough and lip smacking delicious tomatoes sauce – skills you can take to make any pizza!

Heston Blumenthal’s Perfect Marherita Pizza

Ingredients (makes 12 small pizzas):

Pizza dough pre-ferment:

• 115g bread flour (high protein 12%)
• 65g cold water
• 1/2 tsp malt syrup
• 2.5g yeast
• 1/3 tbsp olive oil
• 1/3 tsp salt

Pizza dough:

• 350g bread flour (high protein 12%)
• 195g cold water
• 1/2 tsp malt syrup
• 7g yeast
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp salt

Tomato sauce:

• 2kg small vine tomatoes
• 10 garlic cloves
• 4 sprigs thyme
• 10 bay leaves
• 4 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp castor sugar
• salt & pepper

Pizza toppings:

• 500g buffalo mozzarella
• 200g fresh basil

Margherita Pizza Method:

Pizza dough

The same steps are followed in making the pre-ferment dough and the main dough mixture. The only difference is the quantities and the fact that you make the pre-ferment dough 24 hours in advance.

So for the pre-ferment dough mix the flour, water and malt syrup together and knead for 4 minutes in a mixing machine (or 10 minutes by hand). Leave for 15 minutes to rest.

Then put back on the mixer and add the salt, olive oil and yeast and mix for another 4 minutes (or 10 minutes by hand). Rub oil over the pre-ferment dough and cover up with a tea towel. Leave the pre-ferment dough to rise for 24 hours. Follow the same steps the next day with the normal dough mixture.

Once you have mixed all of the ingredients and kneaded for a combined time of 8 minutes (or 20 minutes by hand) with a fifteen minute rest in-between then add the pre-ferment dough that has been left to sit for 24 hours and mix for a further 4 minutes in a mixing machine (or 10 minutes by hand).

Sprinkle the dough and bench in flour and roll the dough into a regular tube about 1 ft in length. With a knife divide the tube into 12 even pieces.

Form into dough balls by placing one of the 12 pieces onto a floured bench and with your hand formed into a dome over the top of it (as seen in image 4). With all of your fingers and thumb touching the bench along with the dough ball gentle roll your hand in a circular motion. This will form the dough into very even circles. Lightly dust the 12 dough balls in flour and leave to rest for 2 hours. Make sure you leave a bit of space between the balls when you rest them as they will double in size as they rest.

Do not EVER roll the dough out with a rolling pin, as this will roll the out the fine air bubbles in the pizza dough that you have just spent the last 30 hours or so painstakingly forming. Pizza bases should only ever be formed by using your hands by gently using your palms to ease the already circular dough into about 1/2 cm thickness. Or if you are an expert you can use the throwing method. But only at your own risk! Make sure you dust the bench and pizza dough liberally with flour as you form the pizza base.

Tomato Sauce

1. Remove the vine/stem from the tomatoes and set aside. Do not throw them out as these will be used later on in the recipe. Vines contain pretty much all of the smell of the tomato so are a great addition to any tomato sauce to enhance the tomatoey smell and flavour.

2. Remove the tomato skins by cutting the eye of the stems out of the tomato and soaking in hot water for 1 minute. The skins should peel of easily after that.

3. Halve the tomatoes (or quarter if you are using medium sized ones) and scoop out the seeds into a pot. Simmer the seeds for 20-30 minutes and then strain the seeds from their membranes – use a spoon to help separate the membrane from the seed. You will now have an intensely concentrated tomato sauce.

4. Place the half of the scooped out halves/quarters (approx 1kg) on an oven tray and lightly drizzle in olive oil. Place some garlic slivers, a bay leaf, basil leaf and a sprig of thyme into each tomate half. Sprinkle over some salt, pepper and a little castor sugar and place into a pre-heated oven at 110°C. Cook/dehydrate in the oven for 4 hours.

5. With the other half of the halved/quartered and scooped out tomatoes (approx 1kg) lightly salt and place in a sieve over a bowl to drain for 5 minutes. This is so some of the water comes out of the tomatoes so when you add both the tomatoes and their water to a pressure cooker in the next step you won’t have to add any water to stop it sticking to the pot and thus diluting the flavour.

6. Place the sieved tomatoes along with their water  into a pressure cooker (use a pot if you don’t have one – but a pressure cooker will give better results). Add the separated sauce from the tomato seeds from step 3 and cook under pressure for 12 minutes (or 20 minutes in a pot). This emulates the canning process of tomatoes, which are used in the famous Neapolitan pizza.

7. Pour the slightly cooled pressure cooked sauce into a sealer bag along with the tomato vine stems and leave for at least an hour to infuse or overnight if you can.

Cooking a Pizza in an Home Oven

A proper wood fired pizza oven reaches about 500°C and provides an amazingly even temperature all around ensuring the that pizza dough gets nice and crisp on the bottom and beautifully caramelized on top – all in under 90 seconds so the basil doesn’t get ruined!

So how do you achieve similar results in an home oven where temperature are less than half that, and more importantly, the heat is really uneven throughout the oven. Many people use pizza stones in order to absorb some of the heat from the oven and help cook the base m0re quickly. But the reality is that pizza stones just do not work that well.

The answer lies in a solid cast iron frying pan – one of which you absolutely must own, being relatively cheap to buy, great for cooking with (they hold onto heat brilliantly) and really easy to clean (better than non-stick).

To get the even heat required turn your oven onto its hottest grill setting and heat the cast iron frying pan on the stovetop for about 20 minutes until it is really hot (don’t burn yourself – you may need a tea towel or oven mitt).

Once the oven and cast iron pan are hot enough place the assembled pizza – with the pressure cooked tomato sauce (sans vines), scattered oven dried tomatoes (with the herbs and garlic removed), buffalo mozzarella and basil leaves – on the bottom of the cast iron pan (so that it is upside down) and place it straight into the oven.

The pizza should take about 2.5 minutes to cook which is pretty good. Also make sure that you haven’t made the pizza base larger than the size of your cast iron pan.

If this isn’t the best tasting homemade pizza you have ever tried then I implore you to share your recipe! And while you may not want to make this recipe every time you make a pizza at home – it does take days to make after all – you can easily adapt the recipe to make sure you know that a good dough, delicious tomato sauce and hot, even heat are the most important aspects of a great tasting pizza. The rest is just the endless mix of ingredients you can throw on top to make life endlessly interesting!

Tucked away in the winding lanes of this culture capital is the most amazing organic and raw eatery – Atman Cafe. And one of their best recipes was one of their cacao smoothies. What set this smoothie apart from any other I had ever tasted was the fact that it was extremely thin in consistency (i.e. not that much more thick than coconut water), yet it was so packed full of delicious flavour that it left my senses buzzing and my taste buds roaring with happiness. The perfect drink to energise and vitalise on a humid sunny morning in the tropics.

This raw smoothie recipe is my attempt at recreating this fond memory. However, like the recreation of all fond memories I have to say I have never quite managed to match the pure and amazing wonderment of flavour that I experienced upon many of my morning trips to Atman Kafe during my stay in Ubud. Although, after much experiment I believe I have come pretty close – I guess I am just missing sights and sounds of Ubud itself and the exotic flavour of the jungle which, unfortunately, I just cannot compete.

A couple of the ingredients that were in the original smoothie are not readily available so I have substituted a few ingredients. But if you are interested in copying the exact smoothie recipe (jungle honey and irish moss are both becoming more popular around the world) from Ubud here are the actual ingredients that I think Atman Kafe used: young coconut water, young coconut flesh, raw cacao powder, Indonesian jungle honey (this is a syrupy nectar – much like coconut nectar, which is what I use in my recipe), irish moss, chai spices (black tea not included) and chilli.

Raw Smoothie Ingredients (serves 2):

• 1 young coconut – the coconut water and flesh (do not use the flesh unless it is from a young coconut)
• 2 tbsp raw cacao powder
• 2 tbsp coconut nectar (you can also use agave, honey, maple syrup or any liquid sweetener 0 but coconut syrup taste the best as it has a delicous caramel flavour) *add more or less depending on your preference for sweetness
• 1/4 tsp chai spice mix (black tea not included i.e. equal parts of cinnamon, cardamon, cloves and ginger all ground)
• 1 pinch cayenne powder – you only want a hint of chilli so err on the side of caution
• sometimes I also add a few spinach leaves – but try it without first, because it changes the consistency and that is what I want you all to experience
• cacao nibs to garnish (again optional)

Raw Smoothie Method:

Combine all of the ingredient together in a blender and mix until it reaches a completely smooth consistency. You can vary the amounts of ingredients to taper them to your particular tastes – some people like more chilli for example.

Try refrigerating the young coconut before you open it to get a nice and cool smoothie. You can also add ice to chill it slightly.

If you think about it Christmas cake is mostly dried fruit and nuts and is quite dense. So this vegan raw Christmas cake recipe adapts very well. Linseeds and coconut oil are used as the binders instead of egg and nut flour is used instead of wheat flour. It really is very easy to make…

Vegan Raw Christmas Cake Ingredients (serves 10):

Wet ingredients:

• 100g figs
• 50g goji berries
• 50g raisins
• 50g cranberries
• 50g pumpkin seeds
• 50g almonds
• 50g brazil nuts
• 50g hazelnuts
• 50g cacao nibs
• 50ml brandy or whisky (I used Armagnac)
• 2 orange juice + zest
• 2 lemon zest

Combining Ingredients:

• 50g coconut oil (2 tbsp)
  
• 1/3 cup linseeds
• 2 cups water

 Dry ingredients:

• 100g brazil nuts
• 100g almonds
• 100g hazelnuts

Garnish:

• 10g goji berries
• 10g desiccated coconut
• 10g cacao nibs

Vegan Raw Christmas Cake Method:

This recipe is actually quite flexible. As long as you adhere to the simple principles of combining wet ingredients (ground nuts – any variety that you want) and wet ingredients along with the combining ingredients you can mix and match the types of dried fruits and nuts as you wish. So feel free to use less varieties of ingredient to help keep the cost down – just make sure you increase the measurements if you cut down on ingredients.

Put all of the dried fruit along with the lemon and orange zest (and juice) with the brandy and leave to soak while you continue with the other steps in the recipe.

Put the linseeds into a pot along with the 2 cups of water and boil on a low heat for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes strain the ‘liquid’ (it will actually be a gooey consistency at this stage) from the seeds. Throw the seeds away – or dehydrate them along with some sundried tomato and salt to make delicious raw crackers!

Whip the linseed goo in a mixing machine for 15 minutes on high speed. Check out our post on vegan whipped eggs for more detailed instructions if you wish. The goo should turn white and fluffy much like whipped egg whites. If you don’t have an electric beater you can do this by hand, but you won’t get very good results. But don’t worry, the whipping just makes the cake slightly lighter. If you can’t whip the linseed goo you will just have a more dense cake.

Blend the dry ingredients up until they have reached a meal (or flour) consistency.

Add the nuts from the  wet ingredients section to the brandy soaked dried fruit along with the dry ingredients (i.e. the ground nut flour). Mix them in a food processor by pulsing. You can also add in the coconut oil at this point. Pulse the cake mixture until the dried fruit and whole nuts combine and reach the texture that you ideally want in your Christmas cake. I like the fruit and nuts to be reasonably chunky, but not whole.

Fold in the whipped linseed goo (vegan whipped egg white) and put the mixture into a cake tin. Put into the dehydrator for 4 hours. If you don’t have a dehydrator, just put your oven onto its lowest setting (usually 50°C) and wedge the door slightly open with a steel dish cloth or something.

Once the cake has finished dehydrating you will notice that some of the oil will have risen to the top. Poke some holes in the cake to let it soak back in and then smooth the hole over with a spoon.

Sprinkle over the garnishes.

Refrigerate the cake for at least half an hour before serving.

Merry Christmas everyone. I hope you all have a happy and healthy New Year : )

Many people shy away from duck because of the high fat content and a fear of not knowing how to cook it.Well fear no more – duck is actually very easy to cook (the fat protects the meat from drying out far more than chicken) and if the correct technique is used, you actually render out most of the fat out of the dish in the cooking process.

It should also be pointed out that duck fact actually has a higher mono-unsaturated (good fat) content that saturated (not so good fat). Throw in some innovative and delicious home-made kumara (sweet potato) noodles and an easy to make pea mash into the mix and you have a protein packed, nutritious, delicious meal.

To make the kumara (use sweet potato if you can’t get kumara – they are essentially the same thing) you will need a spiralizer or a spirooli. If you don’t own one of these, just use buckwheat noodles instead. They will be equally delicious in this recipe. But if you have a spare $50 I strongly suggest you buy a spiralizer or spirooli – they will transform the way you eat your veges!

Ingredients (serves two):

•  2 duck breasts
• 1 medium kumara (or half sweet potato – approx 200g)
• 1 cup frozen peas
• 1 cup stock
• Juice of 1 orange
• 2 star anise
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1 thumb ginger
• 1 red chilli (mild or hot depending on preference)
• 1 tbsp tamari or soy sauce
• 2 tbsp black sesame seeds
• salt
• pepper

Method:

How to cook duck breast:

slice through the skin of the duck (not quite all the way to the flesh) about 2cm apart.

You can skip this step if you wish, but trust me, it will result in even crispier skin. Bring a pot of water to the boil.  Using a pair of tongs, submerge the breast into the boiling water skin side down. Only submerge the skin and not the flesh. Leave in the boiling water for 1 minute. Then pat the skin dry with a paper towel.

Lavishly sprinkle both sides of the duck breast with salt and pepper – be particularly generous on the skin side.

Heat up a good pan (cast iron if possible) and add a little bit of oil. Make sure the pan and oil are hot before adding the duck breast skin side down.

Fry the duck breast skin side down for 8 minutes on a medium heat. Keep draining the pan of the duck fat into a bowl as you go – we will use some of this fat later on, so don’t throw it down the sink. Then turn the breast over and fry the duck breast meat side down for another 2 minutes. Then put the duck breast into a 150°C pre-heated over and cook for a further 10 minutes.

Leave to rest for 10 minutes minimum before slicing.

Kumara noodles:

Kumara are New Zealand varieties of sweet potato that are smaller but similar tasting to most other varieties of sweet potato.

In a spiralizer or sirooli turn your peeled kumara or sweet potato into noodles – if you don’t have a spiralizer or spirooli just cook up some buckwheat noodles. Put the kumara noodles into a pot of boiling water and bring back to the boil. As soon as the water begins to boil take the nooldes off the heat, strain and run under cold water. This will keep them firm and stop them going mushy.

Heat up a good frying pan (preferably cast iron) on low. Add the black sesame seeds and stir occasionally to stop them burning. Dry toast the black sesame seeds for 5 minutes and then put aside in a bowl to cool.

Slice up the garlic, ginger and chilli and fry off in 4 tbsp of duck fat (you can do this in the same pan as you just toasted the sesame seeds in). Cook on a medium heat until the ginger turns golden brown.

Turn the heat of and add the kumara noodles and sesame seeds, along with the tamari (wheat-free soy sauce) or soy sauce. Mix together and serve.

Pea mash:

Juice the orange into a pot and add the stock, along with the star anise. Turn on the stove to a medium heat and reduce the stock and juice until it has reduced by half.

Put the frozen peas into the pot of boiling water (you can use the same one as the dipped the duck breast if you wish). Leave for 30 seconds or until they are warmed through.

Add the stock reduction (with the star anise now removed), peas and 4 tablespoons of duck fat (use butter instead if you wish) together and blend until smooth. Season the mash as you wish.

To serve twirl the kumara noodles with a fork and put onto the plate. Put a bit of mash down next to the noodles and place the rested duck breast on top of the pea mash. The star anise and orange flavour in the peas go perfectly with the duck and the asian style kumara noodles only add an extra flavour of the orient.

And there you have it – delicious, fusion style duck breast, kumara noodles and pea mash.

You would never guess that this drink contains the refreshing, yet complex, flavours of cucumber and tomato with its crystal clear colour. And the amazing Mediterranean triumvirate of cucumber, tomato and basil can surely match the majestic olive in offering a match made marriage with gin or vodka. It is refreshing and subtle enough to suit those that dislike their martinis dirty. Yet this is not to say that the dirtiest of cocktail enthusiasts won’t be intrigued.

This special technique of making tomato and cucumber juice and pairing it with basil will actually satisfy the ‘virgin’ drinker as well. So if you are not in the mood for a naughty alcoholic drink, this recipe with equally satisfy and quench the palate and a hot summer’s day served virgin style.

So get out your tuxedos and dinner dresses, slap on some sunscreen, roll up your hems and get into a classy summer vide with this refreshing drink. Be prepared to be both shaken AND stirred by how good it is!

Ingredients (serves 1):

•  1/3 telegraph cucumber
• 1 medium tomato
• 1 shot gin or vodka (depending on your taste)
• 1 shot dry vermouth
• 1 basil leaf

Method:

Peel your cucumber and juice it along with the tomato. It would probably pay to make a large batch of this juice. It tastes delicious anyway, and you are probably going to want more than one of these drinks.

Strain the juice through a muslin cloth or clean tea towel. This will remove all of the colour from the juice yet maintain all of its flavour. This is what makes this drink so surprising.

Pour in the gin or vodka and vermouth along with the cucumber and tomato juice into a shaker filled with ice. Use a jar if you don’t have a shaker. Shake vigourously. Of course you could just stir instead of shake the drink – but trust James Bond – a martini is better shaken not stirred!

Strain the drink so as not to get any ice in the drink and serve in a martini glass.

Put the basil leaf in your hand and clap you two hands together i.e. smashing your basil leaf to help release the flavour. Put the smashed basil leaf in with your Mediterranean martini.

If you want to serve this drink without any alcohol just leave it out and follow the rest of the steps exactly the same.

I believe that the technique I used here is unique. And while it may look and seem difficult at first, like many recipes it is actually quite easy once you get the hang of it. In fact if you think about it, you can get away with only using five ingredients to make this recipe – although I used about seven. There are also some fantastic raw cooking techniques and recipes that will teach you how to make raw chocolate, raw caramel, raw whipped cream/eggs and raw nougat – all vegan too I might add. How can you go wrong!

This recipe is dedicated to all of those people that give poor children a piece of fruit as a treat to those trick-or-treating kids on Halloween. A piece of fruit is not an appropriate treat! And it certainly isn’t a good trick. Not that I am holding any baggage here. But pick your act up and make something that is still healthy but actually a true treat…

Vegan raw snickers chocolate bar chocolate mixture

Vegan Raw Snickers Chocolate Bar Ingredients:

Vegan whipped egg/cream

• 1/3 cup linseeds
• 3 cups water
• 3 tbsp panela (aka rapadura or evaporated cane juice) or equivalent substitute

NB: for this recipe I used coconut sugar. But you can easily substitute this throughout the recipe for normal sugar (any sort), coconut nectar (this would actually be amazing but I didn’t have any), maple syrup or agave.

Vegan raw snickers chocolate bar caramel mixture

Raw Chocolate

• 100g cacao butter
• 100g coconut oil
• 80g cacao powder
• 60g-80g coconut sugar
• 1 tiny pinch salt

You can use either 200g of cacao butter or coconut oil if you only wish to use one type of fat in this recipe. I prefer using a 1/2 and 1/2 mixture. Also, without cacao butter the bars will be more susceptible to temperature and will have to be served straight from the fridge.

Raw Chocolate Nougat

• 2/3 vegan whipped egg/cream mixture
• 1/3 melted chocolate (you should only use a maximum of 1/2 of the chocolate mixute – so use less vegan whipped eggs/cream if necessary or make another batch of chocolate mix so that you can coat the bars in chocolate later)

NB: This part of the recipe is done by ratio rather than exact quantities as the amount of vegan whipped cream you get can vary wildly. You may have to make more chocolate mixture or not use all of the vegan whipped cream. Sorry I can’t be more exact.

Raw Caramel

• 30g activated almonds
• 20g dates
• 40g melted panela
• 1 tbsp mesquite powder (optional – but it lends a fantastic caramel flavour)
• 1 tiny pinch salt

Vegan raw snickers chocolate bar chocolate mixture

Vegan Raw Snickers Chocolate Bar Method:

Before we start I would like to say that the measurements are quite approximate in this recipe. You will have to use your intuition quite a lot along the way. The reason for this is the fact that the yield from the vegan whipped egg/cream can be extremely variable depending on the linseeds and at what temperature you boil them at and therefore how much of the water evaporates. But don’t worry, I will give you ratios in the recipe also so you can adjust the recipe as you go along. And don’t worry this is raw cooking so it is far more forgiving than baking. The only real thing you ABSOLUTELY MUST be careful of is not overheating the chocolate. But if you don’t feel confident you can always buy chocolate and just melt it – but it is actually very easy to make and highly rewarding!

Vegan whipped egg/cream

Boil the linseeds in the water on a low heat for 20 minutes. It is possible to just soak the linseeds to keep this recipe completely raw. Read the full article VEGAN WHIPPED CREAM: An Amazing Technique Using Linseeds for more detailed instructions.

Once the linseeds and water have been boiled, strain the brownish goo from the linseeds and beat on a high speed for 5-10 minutes using an electric beater (this may take longer if you have an older/less powerful machine). Either way, beat the mixture until it has reached a stiff peak. It should in fact look very much like stiff peak beaten egg whites i.e. fluffy and white and does not drip off a spoon if you grab a spoonful. Add the sugar about a minute or two before the end.

Making Vegan raw snickers chocolate bar on the bench

Raw Chocolate

In a bain marie melt pour in the panela with about 2 tbsp water and stir until it is completely dissolved. This should take a couple of minutes. Scrape out the bowl and place the mixture to the side.

Now melt cacao butter and/or the coconut oil in the bain marie. Once it is melted add the cacao powder and a tiny pinch of salt (very tiny!). Don’t add it all at once. Just keep adding it until it dissolves in the fat and should have the consistency of melted chocolate.

Add the dissolved panela, again a bit at a time. Keep stirring and make sure the heat is low. You may have to take the chocolate mixture off the hot water quite often. Remember that you don’t want the mixture to go above 45°C if you want to keep it strictly raw. But you also absolutely do not want your chocolate mixture to go above about 54°C, at which point the solids in the cacao will separate from the fats and your mixture will go all lumpy and be completely ruined. If this happens you can still eat the mixture, but essentially you will have to start again. Mixing thoroughly during the process will definitely help protect you against this.

Leave the chocolate mixture to cool at room temperature and keep stirring every once and a while.

Raw Chocolate Nougat

Split half the chocolate mixture into a separate bowl. Mix in a little bit of the vegan whipped eggs/cream into the mixture. Then fold in the rest of the vegan whipped eggs/cream, making sure to lose as little of the air from the mixture as possible. You want to have about 2/3 the volume of vegan whipped eggs/cream to the chocolate mixture.

Refrigerate (do not put in the freezer otherwise the fat in the mixture will coagulate and ruin the texture) for at least 20 min. You can refrigerate for longer if you wish. This will give the nougat time to firm up.

Raw Caramel:

In a bain marie put the panela on with a tablespoonful of warm water and leave to completely dissolve.

Meanwhile blend 20g of the activated almonds into a fine meal. Add the dates and blend until it forms a kind of sticky dough. I didn’t have access to a processor at the time so had to make a much larger quantity of raw caramel in my blender. It can be used to lots of things so you can do the same if you only have a blender like me.

Add the dissolved panela, a tiny pinch of salt and mesquite (if you are using) and blend some more. You should have a not completely smooth caramel coloured and flavoured mixture by now. You don’t want it to be too runny – think of the consisitency of the caramel in a snickers bar. Add more water or dates to either loosen or thicken the mixture accordingly.

Vegan raw snickers chocolate bar close-up

Assembling the Vegan Raw Snickers Chocolate Bar

Take your cooled nougat mixture and form into a bar shape. Lay them evenly out onto a flat tray that will be able to fit into your freezer laid out flat. The size you make is entirely up to you. I just stuck with a general snickers bar size, but they are very rich so smaller would work great too.

Spoon the raw caramel mixture on top – you can put as little or as much as you wish, but again think about a snickers bar. Then crush the final 10g of activated almonds into large pieces and sprinkle over the top of the raw caramel. You can also use activated hazelnuts or indeed any nuts or peanuts if you wish. Of course in a snickers bar they use roasted peanuts. So activated almonds or hazelnuts are the best (and in my view even better) raw substitute.

Now lavishly pour over some of the left over of the chocolate mixture (or make some more if you don’t have enough left) over the bars and put into the freezer to cool for a couple of minutes to firm. You may have to do this a number of times to properly cover the nuts.

Once the nuts are covered properly with chocolate, putting into the freezer between each pour in order to firm it up, cut round the bottom of the bars and lift them away from the spilled over chilled chocolate mixture on the tray. Scrape up the erroneous chocolate mixture off the tray and re-melt it. Again you may have to do this a few times during the process.

Lay the bars back onto the tray upside down and pour over some more chocolate to cover the bottom of the bars. Again put back into the freezer to firm the chocolate bars up.

They will be ready to serve after about 15 minutes. These vegan raw snickers chocolate bars are best served chilled from the freezer for the best shape. Because the chocolate has been tempered it will melt at a relatively low temperature.

Enjoy : )

This recipe uses the same technique as the Crispy Southern Style BBQ Pork dish. A technique well worth learning for any kind of slow meat cooking – and makes a delicious BBQ sauce to boot! And this cajun rice pilaf is a great way to cook a flavour packed rice dish!

Cajun Pork Ribs & Southern Rice Pilaf Ingredients (serves 4):

Cajun Pork:

dry rub (you can make up loads to use excess next time)

• 8 tbsp brown sugar (I had no sugar so ended up using 1 cup apple syrup which worked great!)
• 3 tbsp salt
• 1 tbsp chilli powder
• 1 tbsp Cajun spice mix (or 1/2 tsp each ground black peppercorns, coriander powder, sweet paprika, smoked paprika, garlic powder, dried thyme to make your own Cajun spice mix)

Braising liquid

• 1 cup white wine
• 2 tablespoons cider vinegar (or any vinegar)
• 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce (or soy sauce or failing that 1 tablespoon of salt)
• 1 tablespoon honey (or sugar)
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped

Southern Rice Pilaf:

• 2 cups of long grain rice
• 1 tbsp of Cajun spice mix (or 1/2 tsp each ground black peppercorns, coriander powder, sweet paprika, smoked paprika, garlic powder, dried thyme to make your own)
• 4 cups chicken stock or water
• 4 tbsp butter
• 1 onion
• 1 green capsicum
• 2 stalks of celery
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 can (400g) black or kidney beans
• 1 handfull fresh coriander
• 1 Pinch sea salt and pepper

Cajun Pork Ribs & Southern Rice Pilaf Method:

Cajun Pork:

Massage the dry rub into the meat all over. Do this vigorously so that the meat is amply covered, don’t be shy! You can do this by putting the meat into a plastic bag first so that you don’t get your hands dirty.

Leave the pork to marinade in the dry rub overnight or at least for an hour in the refrigerator.

Once the meat has finished marinading make up the braising liquid by adding all of the ingredients into the pot and heat gently to melt the honey. Make sure it is done gently and that you take it off the heat as soon as possible. You don’t want the liquid to evaporate.

Take the pork out of the refrigerator and wrap it up in aluminium tinfoil. Do this by tamping across the top of the foil where it meets, leaving the two other sides open. You can close one of these sides, but leave the other open. This is where you are going to carefully pour in the braising liquid. Make sure you transfer the aluminium wrapped meat onto a baking tray before you add any liquid. This will reduce the chance of the foil tearing.

Securely finish wrapping up the meat so there is no leaks and put into an oven preheated to 90°C. Leave of at least 2 1/2 hours and preferably 3 hours.

Carefully take the meat out of the aluminium foil being careful to not spill the braising liquid and to not to burn yourself! Pour the precious braising liquid into a saucepan and put over high heat to reduce it by half. This should take about 15 min and it is not done until you notice the sauce bubbling like caramel sauce. This means that the sugar in the sauce is caramelizing into a thick sticky yummy goo! Once you notice this happening leave over the heat for another 2 minutes.

Southern Rice Pilaf:

Put the rice, water/stock and spices into a pot along with 1 tablespoon of butter. Bring to the boil on a high heat on the stovetop and then turn to a medium/low heat until all of the liquid is absorbed into the rice and the rice is cooked. This should take about 12 minutes.

While the rice is cooking chop the onion, green capsicum, stalks of celery (these ingredients are called the Holy Trinity in Cajun cooking) and garlic into small pieces. You can use a blender to chop them if you have one.

Once the rice is cooked leave it to sit while you heat the rest of the butter in a frying pan. Add the chopped Holy Trinity and garlic to the frying butter and cook on a low heat for 5 minutes until they are soft and translucent. Then add the cooked rice and the can of black or kidney beans (rinsed thoroughly).

Season appropriately and serve with freshly chopped coriander.