New Class

I'm really excited about how easy it was to prepare raw food while traveling in Costa Rica with my tiny "raw kitchen"..a few tools that made preparing meals in the tropics a breeze (breezes were perfumed with ylang ylang flowers).
This dish is made with a little coconut noodle tool created by UBRaw. I was interested to find katuk leaves and blossoms for this dish.

This dish featured freshly cut heart of palm in a dulce curry sauce, with vegetables and delicious variegated leaves.

These are spiral cut zucchini with a tomato mango sauce (I brought some dried tomatoes with me and used a few fresh ones as well).

This is a mame sapote and is so rich and delicious it can be eaten as is, made into a pudding or ice cream with nothing more added.

These are tree tomatoes. The skin is hard, but scoop them out and they taste just like tomatoes.

Thes little gourd shapes are called jaiba (pronounced hyba) and their taste and texture is a cross between cucumber and summer squash. Here, they are served in a banana flower petal, stuffed with herbed macadamia cheese and garnished with katuk flowers and medium hot yellow peppers (from a tree). Easy to eat finger food.

Little amuse bouche finger food made from katuk leaves. Fresh pineapple and herbed macadamia cheese with chives.

Another amuse bouche...wrap the lettuce around the pineapple with macadamia cheese and you've got a delicious bite! Garnished with bouganvilla blossoms.

One of the simplest lunches on the go: the gorrilla sandwich! Find some delicious looking lettuce leaves and wrap them around a creamy ripe banana and you're good to go. If you are at home and have time, slit banana, add some almond butter and stick fresh blueberries in the butter then wrap. Imagine all of the variations of this meal in 2 minutes!

I was on top of a mountain, in the jungle, and a long way from stores so each meal was an exercise in creativity. This meal was all from scavenging in the garden. A multi green pesto with zucchini and jaiba noodles and lovely tomatoes.

On a visit to the farm next door, Chef Eric made vegetable sushi for lunch.

Making sugar cane juice with Amy and Mattias.

Chris Kendal opening a jackfruit.

I picked the star fruit that garnishes the plate from a tree and created different kinds of vegetable noodles. I particularly liked the softly curried daikon noodles. There is a sauce on the side for the noodles. This dish was for a pot luck with people from the farm next door.

Chris and Karine Ionesco made a tropical orange/watermelon drink that was refreshing and delicious...also a chunky mango salsa and a gigantic salad!

A tropical feast!

What I learned from this trip was how to be so much simpler with my food. Away from my kitchen conveniences I could still make great tasting foods with just a few tools.