Quinoa Shiitake Pilaf Story link: wwlp.com
How to make healthy truffles: wwlp.com
Leslie's Famous Truffles with Goji Berries
CHICOPEE Mass. (Mass Appeal) – Dark chocolate isn’t just delicious, it’s great for your heart. Leslie Cerier is a Chef and Educator and also known as The Organic Gourmet and she’s here to make a some delicious truffles with us.
Here’s the video of Leslie being interviewed on NBC affiliate Channel 22 in Chicopee, MA
http://www.wwlp.com/dpp/mass_appeal/taste/how-to-make-healthy-truffles
Dark Chocolate Truffles WITH GOJI BERRIES
1 cup grated raw cacao butter
1 cup raw cacao powder
¼ cup extra virgin coconut oil
6 tablespoons maple syrup
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon maca powder
¼ cup goji berries, or combination of ¼ cup shredded coconut, hemp seeds and goji berries
Pinch of Celtic Sea Salt
1. Blend grated cacao butter, cacao powder, coconut oil, maple syrup, vanilla, maca, and sea salt.
2. Taste and adjust seasonings, if desired.
3. Shape into balls
3. Roll balls in goji berries or mixture of coconut, goji berries and hemp seeds
4. Eat or store in a jar on the counter
Copyright recipe Leslie Cerier 2009
To find out more about Leslie Cerier, visit her website, The Organic Gourmet.
Rancho La Puerta's Organic Garden
Teaching at Rancho La Puerta in Mexico
I am looking forward to being back in Salvador’s gorgeous organic gardens at Rancho La Puerta Organic Spa in Mexico. It is always my pleasure to create the menus for all my cooking classes from the local, seasonal harvest. Seed to Table cooking is a celebration of the earth’s bounty. Come celebrate with me!
For more information on my organic vegetarian cooking classes in Mexico and in the United States and also online course, too, please visit my class schedule: http://lesliecerier.com/blog/class-schedule/
Have a great organic feast!
Leslie Cerier, The Organic Gourmet
www.lesliecerier.com
Recipes Below for Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies and Date Nut Treats
Halloween used to scare me. My kids coming home with all that junk food sent shivers through my spine. But with a selection of healthy Halloween treats and snacks, it’s a joy, a chance to play dress-up with the kids, and parade around the neighborhood at night, greeting friends, nibbling on healthy, all natural candies, marveling at carved candle lit pumpkins and houses decorated with creepy masks and hanging skeletons.
Natural food stores are well stocked with natural candies: fruit leather and licorice in many sugar-free flavors: strawberry, raspberry, apple and grape. There are plenty of vitamin C lollypops, peppermints, and fruit juice sweetened sucking candies. You will find little bags of organic pretzels, animal cookies, different flavored potato chips and corn chips, small boxes of raisins, chocolates with scary Halloween caricatures on the wrappers like ugly witches and black cats on a pumpkin.
To add to the fun, you can create your own-bagged delights from the bulk bins with all natural pretzel mixes, malt balls, chocolate covered nuts and raisins. Best of all, you can make your own organic candied apples, chocolate-dipped dried fruits, date nut treats and maple syrup sweetened chocolate chip cookie treats that kids of all ages love.
To make your own candied apples, forget the artificial red dyes and sugary caramel coatings. You can dip your apples in agave nectar or rice syrup and then roll the glazed apples in ground up graham crackers or small chunks of all natural sandwich cookies, granola, chopped up raisins, figs, dates, or calcium rich ground walnuts and almonds.
Dried sliced pineapple, pears, apricots, peaches, and oranges half dipped in chocolate are beautiful and easy to make. Simply melt dairy-free chocolate in top of a double boiler over hot (not boiling) water. Then, put a piece of dried fruit on a toothpick or dipping fork. Dip it half way into the chocolate. Swirl it around. Lift it out, and let the excess drip back into the pot. Stick the bottom of the toothpick into an apple or pear to catch the chocolate drippings, while the chocolate cools and hardens.
When making your own chocolate chip cookies, take advantage of the large assortment of chocolate and carob chips available at your local health food store: organic dark and organic white chocolate chips, vanilla chips, peanut butter chips, dairy-free espresso chocolate chips, vegan carob chips and guilt-free, sugar-free chocolate chips sweetened with malted barley. Feel free to use any of these in the cookie recipes.
Makes 12-18 cookies depending on how big you make them
These cookies are quick, easy and fun to make. I love shaping them with my hands, but you could also use a cookie cutter.
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Put all the ingredients except the olive oil into a large bowl. Mix them together briefly with a wooden spoon; then shape them into cookies with your hands.
To use cookie cutters, flatten some batter between your hands and place it on a pastry board. Press in a cookie cutter and shake gently. Pull away the excess. Repeat till you use all the batter.
Lightly oil a cookie sheet with olive oil. Put cookies on cookie sheet. Bake 10 minutes. Let them cool before eating.
Makes 15 walnut sized balls
Kids love to make and eat these.
Put the dates in a food processor with the water, cardamom, and cinnamon. Pulse on and off until finely chopped. Taste and adjust the seasoning, adding more spices, if desired. Transfer to a small mixing bowl.
Grind walnuts in the food processor, or coarsely chop them up. Mix walnuts into the dates and shape into walnut sized balls. Drizzle on and coat with brown rice syrup or honey.
Grind almonds into a meal in the food processor. Pour ground almonds onto a cutting board or plate. Roll date nut balls in almond meal and serve or wrap up to give away.
Leslie in Bliss Teaching at Esalen Institute
Here is just one of the yummy dishes that I am going to be teaching you how to cook. After feasting, can’t you just feel yourself relaxing in the hot tubs overlooking the Pacific Ocean. I can and I will see you there March 18-25
Click Here for Info and to Register for Great Meals with Great Grains March 18-23 2012
Click Here for Info and to Register: Improvisational Cooking for Health and Vitality March 23-25 2012
Vegetable Stir Fry with Madagascar Pink Rice and Thai Peanut Sauce
Leslie
Quinoa Corn Waffle, Gluten-Free and Yummy with Strawberry and Raspberry Sauce
YUM! I love having waffles for breakfast, don’t you?
Corn Grits with Kale and Goat Cheddar Cheese
Chewy, moist, creamy, hot, sticky steamy, rolled, wrapped, stacked; Whole Grains are sweet, easy, versatile, nutritious, delicious, high-fiber, low fat, filling, satisfying, and energizing!
Organic Fruit Crisp
Whole grains are one of nature’s gifts that have nurtured people all over the world for centuries. These powerhouses—loaded with vitamins, minerals, fiber, and antioxidants—offer energy, great taste, and worlds of healthy eating pleasure.
Kasha, amaranth, teff, bulgar, cous cous, quinoa, corn grits and rolled oats cook quickly: 5-15 minutes. Besides the standard boil and simmer, you can toast, marinate, bake, sprout, sauté, and even presoak grains to produce different textures and flavors. Kasha, quinoa, oats, and amaranth are complete proteins and gluten-free. Other gluten-free grains are corn, millet, wild rice, sorghum, teff, and numerous varieties of rice.
A fabulous variety of whole grains provide culinary excitement without hours of labor. You can cook grains alone and together with other grains, in infinite combination with spices, vegetables, nuts, and seeds. Once you know the proportion of liquid to grains you can make up your own combination. Sometimes it may require a little math because some grains require more cooking liquid than others. Don’t let the math stop you. Go a little wild and improvise. Add cooked grains to a salad, stir fry, soup, or garnish with fresh herbs or toasted seeds.
Organic and Gluten-Free Feta Cheese and Quinoa Salad
Some Grains need to be rinsed. Place a measured amount in a pot, or large bowl. Cover grains with three to four inches of water. Swirl grains with a chopstick or wooden spoon. Pour off any floating debris, grain hulls, twigs, etc. Repeat until the water is clear. Some grains such as barley, oats, and millet are dustier than others and require a longer rinsing period. Spelt, and kamut are fairly clean and rinse quickly. Don’t bother rinsing teff. It is too tiny, and has already been cleaned before packaging. I also never rinse kasha (buckwheat groats) or flaked or cracked grains like rolled oats, spelt flakes, kamut flakes, corn grits, bulgar wheat, or cous cous. Do rinse red, tan and black varieties of quinoa unless the package says pre-rinsed.
Special Ways of Cooking Grains
1- Dry roast rinsed grains before cooking them
* Alone or with:
* Spices
* Vegetables and Spices
* Nuts and/or Seeds
To make them fluffy, light, individual, dry and nutty flavored.
2- Sauté rinsed, uncooked grains
* Vegetables
* Spices and Herbs
To make them moist, tender, individual, rich and flavorful.
Use sesame, extra virgin olive, extra virgin coconut oils, butter and ghee
3- Soak rinsed grains in their cooking liquid overnight or 6-8 hours before cooking them. This makes them easier to digest and softer.
Want to be deeply nourished? Eat whole grains! Loaded with B vitamins, vitamin E, magnesium, iron, fiber, and valuable antioxidants not found in fruits and vegetables, whole grains give you tasty protection against cancer, stroke, heart disease, diabetes, and obesity. In fact, I actually lost weight without trying by eating lots of gluten-free grains and gluten-free pastries.
Whole grains are important to everyone’s diet-and in my upcoming workshop, Great Meals with Great Grains. March 18-23 2012, Esalen Institute, Big Sur, CA http://webapp.esalen.org/workshops/11140
888-8-ESALEN (888-837-2536)
I’ll show you how to mix and match whole grains with fresh harvested organic vegetables from Esalen’s Organic Farm and Garden. And we will feast on whole grain dishes and lots more overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Please join me.
Have a Great Organic Feast!
For more information on Leslie Cerier’s Cooking Classes, please click on this link
Mocha Rice Pudding Garnished with Fresh Strawberries
The seasons change and with them the availability of fresh, local produce. Crisp fall apples, tart cranberries, juicy summer strawberries, fresh figs — would they be so special if we could eat them all year round?
Reinventing a recipe keeps it fresh and enjoyable. For example, you can make Apple Blackberry Pie in fall, Pumpkin Pecan Pie in winter, Lemon Tart in spring, and Blueberry Crumb Pie in summer. For variation, use the same pie crust and change the filling. Create a new variation to the pumpkin pie filling by adding sweet potatoes, or substituting butternut, or kuri squash. Use more cinnamon or cloves. Change the pie crust, too by switching the flour, oil, or sweetener.
Likewise, keep your basic minestrone new and inspiring all through the winter by swapping vegetables. Use butternut squash instead of carrots, leeks for onions for example. Other times change the beans from pinto to kidney to other beans. Cook the beans from scratch with a sea vegetable, like kelp. Another time, switch the sea vegetable to dulse, or skip the seaweed, and just use spices. And of course, you can vary the herbs, too. Finally, flavored oils can take the place of some herbs and spices.
My enthusiasm for creating new recipes and menus comes from the local harvest. For instance, in June the markets near my western Massachusetts home yield strawberries, spinach, baby red kale, arugula, radishes, lettuce, mustard greens, and mizuna (an Asian green leafy vegetable that you can eat like spinach). Perennial herbs like chives, oregano, garlic chives, sage, and sorrel abound. Simultaneously harvested, they become the natural choices to mix and match into savory salads, dressings, quiche, scrambled tofu, sushi rice rolls, and pasta dishes. During summer, crunchy fresh string beans, cherry tomatoes, and sweet baby carrots are wonderful in salads dressed with aromatic basil. The first zucchini and eggplant inspires me to fire up the grill. Come fall, collards, red peppers, and cilantro, revitalize the tofu scramble. The vibrant cool weather leafy kale, moist to the touch seduces me in winter when spinach is out of season. Kale becomes the green to use in quiche, soups and stews. When we take our cues from Mother Nature, she gives us plenty of guidance.
The weather affects our cooking methods, too. In hot weather, you may want to stay away from the stove. Quick grilled vegetables and tofu, refreshing smoothies, marinated salads with corn, berries, and chevre cool you off. To beat the heat, cook beans, pasta, or grains in the early morning or the night before when the house is cool. Cold winter days are ideal for long simmering soups, garlicky roasted vegetables and spicy stews made with the vegetables of the season: potatoes, carrots, winter squash, and yams. An attractive garnish can enliven any dish. For example, decorate summer pasta salads with yellow calendula flowers and bright red bee balm for a splash of color. Toasted nuts and seeds on top of green salads add a contrasting texture. Chopped herbs on cooked rice give a delicate fragrance. These simple pleasures charm the heart.
Recipes are not etched in stone in my kitchen, nor should they be in yours. The more you cook, the easier it becomes to improvise. Calm and confident, you can focus; choose ingredients, rinse and chop, mix and taste. Your inner wisdom will tell you when to follow pure intuition and when to stop and think it out.
Excerpted from Going Wild in the Kitchen by Leslie Cerier, © 2005, Square One Publishers, Inc. Used by permission
Bee on Flowering Marjorami in Leslie's Organic Herb Garden
Herbs and spices are Mother Nature’s versatile gifts. Herbs are the leaves; basil, thyme, and cilantro are good examples. Spices are the twigs, stems, roots, and seeds such as garlic, cumin, cinnamon, and ginger.
Before adding herbs and spices to a dish, smell or taste them to make sure they are fragrant and potent. Dried herbs can be stored for about a year, spices longer. Generally, you can add hearty spices in the beginning of cooking a dish. Delicate herbs, whether fresh or dry, are added at the end of cooking.
Every culture has its blend of sweet, sour and pungent flavored herbs and spices (Ethnic Herb and Spices, Global Flavors Chart below). Paired with beans, grains, vegetables, fruits, oils, wines, and cheeses; herbs and spices deliver ethnic flair, support our health, and reduce our need for salt. As garnishes, herbs whet our appetite with a stylish hint of what is to come.
Bay Leaf, Mediterranean Marinated Dried Tomatoes and Olives Decorate Organic Vegetable Stir Fry
Various herbs and spices cross borders and appear in more than one ethnic cuisine. Ginger is common in Indian, African and Asian dishes. Dill is a regular in Eastern European, Indian, Mediterranean and French cooking. Cumin is standard in African, French, Indian, Mediterranean and Mexican cuisine. These herbs and spices called carminatives aid digestion. They contain volatile oils that absorb intestinal gas, relax stomach muscles, increase peristalsis and reduce flatulence. Thyme, cinnamon, fennel, chilies, anise, caraway, cardamom, mint, and turmeric are also carminatives. Before scientists could explain their restorative virtues, cooks worldwide intuitively cooked with these herbs and spices.
Reprinted from Going Wild in the Kitchen by Leslie Cerier, (c) 2005, Square One Publishers, Inc. Used by permission.
Photography by Leslie Cerier, (c) 2011
Leslie teaches private and group cooking classes worldwide.
She will be teaching Spice It Up, Creative Cooking with Herbs and Spices March 2-4 2012. For more information and to register for Leslie’s
Vegetarian Cooking Classes, please click on this link.
