Rawsome Caramelised Fig and Ginger Custard Tarts

Fig-ed about it!

Caramelised Fig and Ginger Custard Tarts 
Makes 18 small tarts or one large one)

The perfect Autumnal dessert, this little number gives a good fruit punch with a delicious, crunchy chocolate base! You can have these on the table within a couple of hours, but the topping needs to be pre-made.

For the base:

1.5 cups cacao nibs

1 cup activated almonds

1.5 cups (or around 10) Medjool dates

1 tablespoon vanilla powder

1 tablespoon lucuma powder

pinch of sea salt

Blend everything in a food processor, except the dates, add these slowly until the mixture comes together.

You can use individual tart moulds (with removable base) if you like, or a mini cheesecake tin with removable bases.You can also do this in a large cheesecake mould- I suggest that rather than a tart pan as the filling will be too much) 

Take around 2 tablespoons of mix per mould and press into place, you can bring up the sides a little or leave as a solid base if preferred.

For the filling:

2 cups of cashews, soaked

3 very ripe bananas

½ cup melted coconut oil

3 medium sized figs

1 tablespoon lucuma powder

2 tablespoons of ginger powder

juice of half a lemon

10 soft Medjool dates

3 tablespoons coconut nectar

pinch of sea salt

Using a high speed blender, blend everything until smooth. Pour into the prepared crusts to almost the top of the pan.

Place in freezer to set for a couple of hours.

For the topping:

6 medium figs, sliced lengthwise

2 tablespoons of coconut nectar

2 tablespoons fresh ginger, grated

Place the figs in a glass baking dish, the thinner the layers the better, mix through the nectar and ginger.

Dehydrate overnight

You can chop these up a little more if you prefer, then add around a teaspoon to the tops of your tarts, plus a little drizzle of coconut nectar to complete.

Rawsome Pasta Marinara!

If you're after something filling, fresh and tasty, this is the perfect dish and a great way to use up Zucchini in the Autumn. Kids love helping make the noodles too!

Pasta Marinara

For the pasta:

Spiralise* 4 Zucchini (ratio is about 1 Zucchini per person or more depending on appetite), toss in a little Salt and Olive Oil and set aside.

For the sauce:

1½ Cups Sun Dried Tomatoes (soaked for 1-2 hours)

4 Large Fresh Tomatoes

1 Clove of Garlic

¼ Red Onion

1 Cup of Fresh Basil Leaves

1 Tablespoon fresh Oregano

½ Cup Flat Leaf Parsley

½ teaspoon Chipotle Pepper

2 Tablespoons Olive Oil

1 Tablespoon Coconut Nectar

A splash of Red Wine Vinegar

Salt and pepper to taste

Method:

1)  Blend all the sauce ingredients.

2)  Remove any excess water from the Zucchini and arrange on serving plates.

3)  Top with sauce.

Notes:

·       You can add ‘Parmesan’ cheese to this dish, and also a few Olives are a nice touch.

·       If you’re in a real hurry, you can add a Tablespoon or two of Italian Herbs to replace the fresh, but fresh really is best!

‘Parmesan’

2 Cups of Pine Nuts

½ cup Water

1tsp Olive Oil

1 tablespoon Sea Salt

2 tablespoons Lemon Juice

2 tablespoons Nutritional Yeast

Process all ingredients in a food processor. Spread across a dehydrator sheet or baking paper in a thin layer (around 2-3mm). Dehydrate till firm- about 12 hours. Turn over onto another tray or fresh baking paper and dehydrate a further 24 hours. Remove, cool and break into shards. Store in an airtight container in the fridge. This stuff lasts forever and is a great additional any salad, pizza, you name it!

 * You can buy a spiraliser at most kitchen stores, there are many varieties, you can also buy online http://www.therawfoodstore.com.au/products/gefu-spirelli-duo-spiral-slicer , mine is a bigger model with a handle which I prefer for doing bulk loads, you can also just buy a veggie peeler with small teeth in it. If you like the thicker 'fettucine' ribbons, a veggie peeler will do that just fine too! 

Rawsome Berry Bliss Mousse

If you’re wanting something sweet and fresh (don’t we all!) on a balmy summers eve, you simply can’t go past a nice light berry mousse!

I’ve added raw coconut butter (the blended up flesh), you don’t have to, but it does make it really nice and creamy. You can also add the flesh of one coconut, or not, it's up to you! If you like it a little tangier, use fresh berries rather than frozen, or make layers with a fruit coulis (just fruit,coconut nectar and a squeeze of lemon) 

1 Cup Cashews – soaked overnight, drained and rinsed

2 Cups fresh or thawed berries, I like a mixture

¼ Cup Coconut Nectar

¼ Cup Coconut Butter

¼ Cup Coconut Oil

1 Tablespoon Chia Seeds

¼ Teaspoon Salt

Juice of 1 Lemon

Cacao Nibs and Fresh Berries for the topping

Blend it all up, minus the topping ingredients until smooth and creamy. Pour into jars, add toppings, cover and refrigerate for around 6 hours and voila, there’s dessert!

The Juice on Juicing

I LOVE JUICING! It is the fastest way to literally FLOOD your body with vital nutrients. Be careful that you’re not flooding your body with sugar though (as you would if you’re buying juices from juice bars).

Drinking a ‘fruit juice’ from one of these places, could mean the equivalent sugar from say 6 oranges, 5 apples, 1 beetroot. That’s A LOT. The sugars in fruit are designed to be eaten AS fruit, the fibre helping slow down the process and not overload your poor old liver with fructose!

So, the juice I have 90% of the time is GREEN, chock full of chlorophyll which has the same make-up as human blood except blood has iron in the middle and chlorophyll has magnesium. It is the fastest way to get the body going in the morning, (I venture faster than the fastest espresso!) because it goes straight into the blood stream, starting I the mouth (through the porous mucosal tissue) and then from the stomach. Sure, you need to EAT greens too, but when you juice them, you can juice LOADS more than you’d ever eat, and it’s a super way to get the best out of some veggies that are harder for some people to eat- such as kale.

If you don’t have a juicer, don’t worry, I can show you the cheapest way to juice on the planet!

But here’s a couple of notes on juicers:

1)     Centrifugal juicers (like the Breville Juice Fountain) are not a bad starting point but the centrifugal juicers don’t break down the cell wall fully and A LOT of goodness is sent away with the pulp. They are also next to useless with green leafy veggies.

2)     Cold press juicers are good, they are a bit $$ and a bit slow, but essentially, they crush the goodness out of the plant. I have one but I don’t use it because I find the pulp is too wet, which makes me wonder how many nutrients I’m not getting. You also have to put hard veggies through to keep it moving and I mostly ONLY have greens.

3)     A juicing bag (sometimes called a nut mylk bag) made from tulle (from the fabric shop or you can buy them ready made). Use a good high speed blender such as an Optimum or Vitamix which will break down the cell wall, add a cup of water and fill with your greens. Strain them through the bag, wringing the bag well and you’ll get a nice dry pulp.

If I’m training hard or have a special occasion, I’ll make other than green juice for different times of the day.  Here are some ideas:

Green Means Go Juice!

First thing in the am, this baby will flush out your cells with goodness, enrich your blood and get you ready to go go go! I would drink about 1 litre of this and I would keep a litre in the fridge for the next day.Your’re looking for a total of about 1.5kg of greens but you’ll work it out based on how much you make as you experiment. Most important note here is VARIETY, don't juice the same thing every time.

• ·      Kale
• ·      Spinach
• ·      Lettuce
• ·      Bok choy
• ·      Coriander
• ·      Fennel tips
• ·      Parsley
• ·      Mint
• ·      Dill
• ·      Celery
• ·      Edible weeds!
• ·      Ginger
• ·      Turmeric
• ·      Cucumber
• ·      Lemon (your worm far or compost won’t like the pulp with citrus I it so add at the end)

·      You may want to add an apple to sweeten this up the first few times.

Purple Monster

A great tonic before a big night out (and after), beetroot is great for your liver!

• ·      2 Beetroot
• ·      1 little apple
• ·      ½ Carrot
• ·      Ginger
• ·      Lemon

Cheeky Tart

Small amounts of this one will suffice, but I LOVE it after a big ride with some ice cold water. You’ll feel it hydrating you instantly and it’s so refreshing on a hot day!

• ·      1 whole grapefruit
• ·      1 peeled grapefruit
• ·      1 peeled orange
• ·      1 whole orange
• ·      1 whole lemon
• ·      1 peeled lemon
• ·      ginger

·      You could add some fresh herbs to this if you like.

Please, where possible MAKE SURE YOUR PRODUCE IS ORGANIC or at the very least, reliably spray free. With the quantities I juice in, I sure as hell don't want to be exposed to all those chemicals in a concentrated form. I grow heaps of veggies, it's not that hard, I totally recommend it!

The juice bag method takes max 15 minutes, but you can make 2-3 days in advance and keep in a sealed jar in the fridge. Yeah, sure, in an ideal world, we’d juice every day, and of course, it’s not as good on day 3 as on day one, but do you have time to juice every day? if you do, good for you! Remember our mantra at Raw Ambition: Do what you can do, and what you WILL do. Don’t raise the bar so high you give up on it.