Just for fun - any raw food disasters?

[English Tracy]

There are so many good recipes and ideas posted but I thought it would be interesting to see if anyone willl admit to any raw food disasters. I'm fairly new to raw and apart from a batch of soggy dehydrated carrot and pecan burgers (because I made them too thick), I've been OK so far.

I'm all for a bit of light relief at the weekend (today is Saturday!!) after a hard week at work.

Is anyone going to be brave enough to admit to any kitchen disasters or embarrassing moments?? :rolleyes:


Tracy

[karenisraw]

I made raw crackers and put them on a flat glass pan without sides. The crackers were glued to the pan. I guess you have to make them on something flexible so you can peel them off. Also, when I poured the cracker puree onto the plastic sheets, it looked thick, but when the dehydrator dried it, the crackers were so thin that they break easily.


k
:) :) :)

[Sunshine9]

Oh i've made so many!! I think its how you eventually come up with the best recipes.

For example, I made a raw pumpkin pie for Christmas dinner, and i wasn't worried since I had done it before. Well i don't know what happened but it tasted like pine nuts mixed with nutmeg, it was yellowish brown, and it didn't gel. I don't think it gave my family a great idea of raw desserts hehe...

I've tried to make up a number of really unpleasant salad dressings. My carrot ginger was basically a bright orange goop that didn't taste anything like carrots or ginger and was just kind of weird.

oh and a friend of mine once tried to make pesto using a jar of dried basil flakes... yikes!

[theresaann]

made alissas key lime pie, and must've had sour limes or something-it was SOOO sour and the white pith never really ground up in the blender-blech. Next time, just to be safe, I am not going to use whole limes ( I did peel the green outer skin first also), just the juice

made enchiladas and of course, used the fresh corn instead of the frozen she recommended, and that didn't taste very good (like she said!) lots of time and effort and couldn't eat it-I hate when that happens! but live and learn!

[JennaBoBenna]

I got food poisoning from using old olive oil in a salad dressing. I still can't eat salad :(

[Shivananda]

made alissas key lime pie, and must've had sour limes or something-it was SOOO sour and the white pith never really ground up in the blender-blech. Next time, just to be safe, I am not going to use whole limes ( I did peel the green outer skin first also), just the juice !The white pith on all citrus is bitter. You will always get a sweeter juice if you squeeze the fruit rather than blend or process it.

The little brightly colored two-handled citrus squeezers that have popped up in all the food stores lately in 3 sizes (green=limes, yellow=lemons, orange = oranges) for about $12 each are exceptionally good for the price. The big trick with them (that some people miss) is not to place the round side of the halved fruit into the round cup of the squeezer, as one might intuitively do, but to do the opposite, placing the flat side of the fruit down into the round cup. Placed this way the fruit is actually turned inside out when you squeeze, extracting the maximum juice. And with no bitterness from the white pith.

Also, authentic key limes (also know as Mexican Limes), which are very small, will give you much better flavor and aroma than the larger plain old garden variety supermarket limes (known as Persian limes, the primary US variety). They used to be almost impossible to find, but now I see them regularly at supermarkets in sacks of about 20 for $2-3. Thay are worth the extra trouble to cut and squeeze.


made enchiladas and of course, used the fresh corn instead of the frozen she recommended, and that didn't taste very good (like she said!) lots of time and effort and couldn't eat it-I hate when that happens! but live and learn!Here's something I learned early, growing up in Indiana... some corn is sweet, some is not. Sweet corn is grown for table use, and is more fragile in transit, and far more prone to molding than the other kind ("field corn" ) which is more starchy and grown as animal feed, and is tough and a lot cheaper at market. But unscrupulous folks sell field corn as table corn, and unwary city folks buy it and eat it, never realizing they have been had. But even sweet corn gets tough and loses sweetness rapidly after being cut. Local grown is general best, if it is available, just because of the shorter field-table times.

Real fresh sweet corn, which you can only buy during hot summer months in this country, is sweet enough that you can eat it raw and love every bite. I taste the corn I am thinking of buying to make sure it is sweet and milky and fresh to the taste. Then... and here's a fave food trick... I shell the raw corn off the cobb into a bowl then spritz lightly with a squeeze of lime juice, and add a splash of safflower oil, plus salt and pepper to taste. The lime accent is Mexican, the safflower oil is buttery tasting, and people love just love it. In off months I'll do the same with frozen corn.

[suemt]

We are not 100% raw, but want to incorp more raw foods into our diet. I knew there was more to raw than just salads, so why not go to the experts! We bought a book by Carol Alt - seemed to be for beginners. My partner is a good "cook" so I encouraged him to make something that he'd really like - Banana Tiramisu. It tastes good, but came out like pudding - a gloppy mess. So could have probably gotten the same good taste without the laborious process the recipe called for. I hope he isn't too discouraged by this - I should have steered him to something easier and more likely to be successful.

That's how I found you - a google search where a year ago someone mentioned the same recipe.

My goal is to try at least one new thing each week and slowly build up our repetiore (and supplies for the food pantry) of new raw ideas.

Sue

[RowanC]

Theressann, I did the exact some disaster!

The thing was, I had made this pie before and it was awesome.
Then I tried to do it in a workshop, in front of 10 people and it was practically inedible. Sooooo embarrassing! The limes didn't blend well. The avos weren't ripe enough... it was just total disaster.

I think success on this recipe really does depend on having the perfect ingredients! :confused:

[juliebove]

So far, both of the recipes I tried were not tasty. First I tried sprouted hummus. Now granted, I do not have a food processor. I tried using an immersion blender and I think it just wasn't strong enough. I could not get a good smooth texture to it no matter what. And I put waaaay too much parsley in it even though I used far less than the recipe called for. All I could taste was parsley.

The other thing I tried was a lentil salad. Sounded good. I like all of the ingredients. But put together, it wasn't good. I should have known though. I really don't like salad dressings and there are very few salads with dressing that I actually like.

All of the sprouts I've made have been good. I just seem to prefer eating them plain. I love raw veggies. Again, I seem to prefer eating them plain or in a chopped salad with no dressing of any kind.

[dread_head]

i found a recipie in one of my raw "cook books" for zucchinin chips. at the time i had a cheap dehydrater ( like you can get at a department store) so i cut them really thin like it said in the book. a couple of hours later, i looked at them and they where stuck to the tray i could not get them off :mad: so next time i cut them thicker....

[levamssg]

I accidentally put a tablespoon of cayenne pepper in a recipe instead of 1/2 teaspoon -- took a big mouthful ... wow -- That was a memorable experience!

[karenisraw]

I made chocolate nut balls last night and gave one to my roomate. She had a funny look on her face. I was thinking, "how could she not like it. It is just nuts, chocolate and honey". I asked her what was wrong and she said she could taste garlic in it. It turns out the blender had garlic smell that transfered to the nuts when I ground them up.

k
:)