Chocolate Avocado Truffles and Concord Grape Sorbet

Ever since making our savoury avocado truffles, we've been thinking about creating a dessert version of this much loved dish. Here is a quick and simple way to prepare an elegant and challenging dessert.

The "truffles" are filled with a light chocolate mousse and coated with cacao nibs and ground pistachios. The silky flavours of avocado and chocolate are complemented by the textural, crunchy coat.

Late summer and early fall in the produce isle means grapes, all kinds of them. We've been thoroughly enjoying grapes for about two months now, making Muscadine grape juice almost daily and obsessing over a heavenly fig, grape, and cinnamon shake (let us know if you'd like the recipe).

Concord grapes are a special treat. They contain seeds, which nowadays seems rare and exciting. Most grapes sold in the States are seedless - a true shame considering the myriad health benefits of grape seeds.

The Concord grape sorbet, besides completing the dish with beautiful jewel tones, adds a nice amount of sweetness to the mild tastes of the truffle and bitter notes of the cacao nibs.

The sorbet tastes a bit like grape jelly and serves as an exciting companion that pleases both eyes and palate.

Chocolate Mousse
1/2 cup meat of fresh young coconut
flesh scooped from centers of 2 avocados (see assembly instructions below)
3 tablespoons raw cacao powder
2 tablespoons carob powder
1 tablespoon mesquite powder

1 tablespoon maca powder
5 tablespoons raw agave nectar
3-4 tablespoons coconut oil
1-2 teaspoons vanilla extract (optional)

Coat
Raw pistachios - ground in a mortar
Raw cacao nibs - ground into smaller pieces in a mortar

Assembly

2 large ripe, but still firm avocados

Head here for step by step assembly instructions with photos.

Cut the avocado in half and remove the pit. With a spoon, scoop some flesh from the center of both halves, leaving enough flesh on the skin for the avocado to be able to hold its shape when the skin is removed. Place the flesh into a high speed blender with the rest of the chocolate mousse ingredients and blend until smooth. Fill the avocado halves with the chocolate mousse, and put them back together. Refrigerate for 1-2 hours, this way the mousse will set and the avocado halves will become glued together. If you don't have time to wait, you can bypass the refrigeration, and slowly peel away the skin from the avocado, it will just take a little more care. Place the ground coating on a flat plate and drench the peeled and stuffed avocado in the coating, carefully turning it to cover its whole surface. Your avocado truffles are now ready to be served, or to stay in a refrigerator for up to one day.

Concord Grape Sorbet
4 cups concord grapes
1 cup purified water
2/3 cup raw agave nectar, or more to taste

Thoroughly blend all the ingredients in high-speed blender, making sure that the seeds have been processed. Strain to remove the solids and discard them. Refrigerate until well chilled, and put into an ice cream maker for 25 minutes or according to the manufacturer's instructions. Freeze for at least 2 hours before serving.

Edible Puzzle

Paloma loves to eat. In that way, we are very fortunate. It's quite a rarity for her to turn down food, and she's always eager to try anything I put in front of her. I'll never forget an impossibly bitter dandelion smoothie that I made. No one could drink it, except for Paloma, who joyfully slurped down a whole glass. I dearly love to cook and feed people, especially family and friends, and her approval makes me one happy mama.

Our days usually start with me cooking breakfast and impatient Paloma sitting at the kitchen table, spoon in hand, narrating my preparations and hurrying me on. It's quite humorous. She is not the calmest of children (a little tornado to be exact) and becomes very excited when food is in sight.

This is where the idea for the edible puzzle stemmed from. I imagined a game that would occupy Paloma, and, since she puts everything in her mouth, be safe and tasty to eat. I thought about the obvious educational qualities of puzzles such as teaching about shape, colour, size, structure, and included two more - flavour and nutritional value.

I started by making various fruit leathers of different colours. Mango, kiwi, blueberry, strawberry, pineapple, kiwi-spinach and carrot-mango to be exact. Then I decided on five basic shapes (circle, triangle, long rectangle, curved teardrop, and straight teardrop) and cut each one out in three different sizes. The simplicity of the shapes allows for much imagination when building a picture, the possibilities here are never-ending. It seems that room for creativity is one of the most important aspects of a children's game, it encourages a sort of intellectual freedom and concentration.

Well, it was a hit. Paloma is a little too young to be able to construct her own images, but she liked watching us do it, naming all the animals and things, and loved the fact that all the pretty puzzle pieces could be eaten.

This type of puzzle would make for an interesting homemade gift. Or it could be a way for a more finicky eater to learn about the taste, scent, and colour of different fruits and learn to like them through playing a game.

Bunny rabbits, cats, birds, tigers, bears and other animals, snowmen, butterflies, flowers, sailboats, the sun, pine trees, bees, and landscapes.

You name it.

Fruit Leather

You can find many fruit leather recipes on the internet. Here, I just blended the fruit in a food processor. Then sweetened it to taste with raw honey or agave. Spread it quite thickly on Teflex-lined dehydrator trays and dried at 115F until leathery. Peeled off the Teflex, flipped, and dehydrated some more until completely dry. I made hard templates of each shape and used a knife and kitchen scissors to cut out the pieces.

Multi Purpose Mango Cones with a Green Papaya Salad

The idea behind this post is quite simple. During my childhood back home, street vendors sold all kinds of snacks in small paper cones - toasted sunflower seeds, berries, nuts, candy, and other homemade treats. The food varied depending on the season and the part of the country. The cone is an inexpensive, simple container that was usually rolled and filled right on the spot.

During recess at school, we would often run across the street to a small market and buy whichever snacks were sold that day. Then we would proceed to sit in the schoolyard with our paper cones, gossiping and munching away.

Inspired by those memories, we had the idea to serve salad in an edible cone, just like ice-cream. We wanted to create a cone that would reflect the colours and flavours of the salad and add a nice crunch to the overall effect.

We imagined a cone that would work just as well with savouries as it would with sweets. Mango is a wonderful fruit for such situations, so we used it as a base for our cones. There are a few exceptions to the no-local-summer-produce rule in Florida, and Florida mango is one of them. Because they are grown locally, the fruits are never treated with hot water, unlike the mangoes that are imported from Mexico. We've been lucky enough to get some very fresh, large and sweet ones that worked perfectly for the project.

For the filling, we used a mango and green papaya salad with a chili dressing and candied Brazil nuts. Green papaya is famous for its healing powers and numerous therapeutic effects, as it contains a significant amount of proteolytic enzymes. Its health benefits are too many to be mentioned in this context, but I'm especially interested in facial application of green papaya paste. It's said to have a magical effect on your skin, and I'm going to try it soon. Back to the cones, since then we've tried filling them with a simple green salad and with homemade ice cream. Both ways presented delicious results. The cones proved to be multi-purpose.

This way of serving, where the container is to be eaten together with the food it holds, could be wonderful for a party. You'd need one less set of plates, and your guests would have a great time with this unusual and tasty presentation.

Mango Cones
3 cups mango flesh - chopped
meat of 1 young Thai coconut
1/2 cup almonds - soaked overnight, skins removed
3/4 cup golden flax seeds - finely ground
2-3 red chili peppers - finely chopped
Thai basil leaves

In a food processor, puree the mango, coconut and almonds. Add the flax seeds and blend until smooth. Spread the mixture on Teflex-lined dehydrator trays and sprinkle with the chopped chili peppers and small Thai basil leaves. With wet hands, pat them lightly to embed the chili and basil into the mass. Dehydrate at 115F for 3-4 hours, or until the surface becomes dry and the underside can be easily separated from the Teflex sheet. Flip the cracker and peel the Teflex sheet away. Providing that your tray is 15"x 15", cut the cracker two times horizontally and once vertically to make six equal rectangular parts. Place the sheets into the dehydrator without the Teflex for another 30 minutes, or until dry but still pliable. Roll each sheet into a cone, using a little bit of water to "glue" it together. Line each cone with parchment paper and place them inside one another, forming 4-5 cone stacks. We made a cone out of hard bristol paper and put it into each stack to ensure that the cones hold their shape. Put the stacks on the bottom of the dehydrator, and dehydrate until completely dry and crispy. Keep refrigerated in air-tight containers.

Mango-Chili Salad

(Adapted from Raw Food/Real World)
1 medium green papaya OR 2 green mangoes - peeled and thinly julienned
2 teaspoons sea salt

4 large ripe mangoes - 3 peeled and cut into thin strips, 1 peeled and chopped roughly

1 handful Thai basil leaves - cut thinly
1 small red chili - seeded and roughly chopped
2 tablespoons lime juice

In a mixing bowl, toss the julienned green papaya or mango with salt. Let sit for 30 minutes. Mix in the 3 striped mangoes and basil.
To make the dressing, blend the flesh of the 1 roughly chopped mango with the red chili and lime juice in a high-speed blender. Season with salt to taste.

Candied Brazil Nuts
1 cup Brazil or other nuts - soaked for 1 hour and sliced
agave nectar - just enough to cover the nuts
pinch of salt

Mix all the ingredients thoroughly. Spread the nuts on a Teflex-lined dehydrator tray, and dehydrate at 115F for 24-48 hours. Keep refrigerated. Sprinkle on the salad when serving.

Rosemary Plum Crumble

Autumn is coming and there is no stopping of it. We're excited - in the world of food that means more savouries, comfort food, and deep, earthy flavours. September is here and we'd like to give it a proper welcome. For a smooth seasonal transition, here is a crumble that utilizes fresh plums, yet, with the help of rosemary and oats, makes for a warm and cozy meal.

Paloma and her papa are more than fond of plums. While they sometimes seem too sour to me, those two eat them up no matter how ripe or tart the fruits are.

Essentially, this crumble was for my plum-lovers. But I have to say that I too enjoyed it tremendously, especially with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and a cup of tea.

If you're opposed to foods that have a sour note, you can make this recipe with apples or peaches.

We grow rosemary at home, Paloma being the chief gardener. It's much softer and milder than the store-bought equivalent, so if you're buying the herb, you might want to adjust the amount to taste. Plums and rosemary always become friendly in dishes and work together very well.

This crumble takes some time and love (find a simpler recipe here), but so do most good things in life.

Rosemary Plum Crumble

Crisp

1 cup pecans or walnuts - it's always better to soak and dehydrate nuts, as it makes them easier to digest

1/2 cup sprouted oat flour (see recipe below)

1/2 cup rolled oats

1 cup almond flour

1/2 cup vanilla date paste (see recipe below)

zest of 1 lemon

2 or more tablespoons fresh rosemary - chopped

1/2 teaspoon salt

Plums

16 ripe medium plums

1/2 cup vanilla date paste

In a food processor, blend the pecans or walnuts until fine. Take care not to over-process the nuts, as they will turn into nut butter. In a mixing bowl, combine the nuts with the rest of the crisp ingredients, mix thoroughly. Spread on Teflex lined dehydrator trays and dehydrate at 115F for 24 hours. Break apart to make a crisp.

Cut a cross on the top of each plum and place them into a colander. Pour some boiling water over them, then quickly transfer the plums into ice water. Peel the skins, which should come off easily after the blanching. Slice the plums and mix them with the vanilla date paste. Spread the plums on Teflex lined dehydrator sheets and dehydrate at 115F for approximately four hours. In a food processor, puree half of the dehydrated plums.

To serve, put the plum slices and plum puree into a bowl, top with the crisp. You can warm up the crumble in a dehydrator or serve cold.

Sprouted Oat Flour

Soak the desired amount of oats overnight or sprout them for two days. Dehydrate at 115F overnight or until completely dry. In a coffee grinder, process the oats until they turn into flour. Keep refrigerated or frozen. There are many uses for this, you can find all kinds of cookie and dessert recipes that call for sprouted oat flour.

Vanilla Date Paste

2 cups dates - pitted

seeds of 1 vanilla pod

This is also great to have in your refrigerator, it keeps well and is a good sweetener. Soak the dates for 1-2 hours. Reserve the water. In a food processor, blend the dates, adding 1 tablespoon of water at a time until the mixture becomes paste-like. Add the vanilla and blend until smooth. Keep refrigerated.

Vanilla Ice Cream

2 cups meat of young Thai coconut

1/2 cup water of young Thai coconut

1/4 cup purified water

1/8 cup coconut oil

1/2 cup raw agave nectar OR pitted dates to taste

1 vanilla bean - both seeds and pod

In a high speed blender, combine all the ingredients until smooth. Chill well and put into an ice cream maker for 25 minutes or however long your brand of ice cream machine suggests.