(click for more views and to enlarge)

Ingredients
Milk:
* 2 tsp rose water
* 1 handful cashews (~1/2 cup)
* 2 tbsp agave nectar
* 4 green cardamom seeds – powdered
* water

Rusgulas (balls):
* 2 handfuls cashews (~1 cup)
* 2 handfuls almonds (~1 cup)
* 5-6 soft dates

Directions
Milk:
Place all milk ingredients in a blender, and add water until total volume is just over 2 cups.  Blend it all together.

Rusgulas (balls):
In a food processor, grind down 1 handful of cashews and 1 handful of almonds into a fine powder.  Again using a food processor, grind down the other handful of cashews and almonds into small granules.  In a large bowl, mix ground nuts with dates by hand until evenly distributed.  Add 2 tablespoons of the milk into the mix and mash further. Next, shape the mix into 1 1/2 inch diameter saucers, and set aside.

Finally, place the rusgulas in a bowl, and pour the milk over them.  Allow everything to sit for 7-8 hours so the rusgulas soak up the flavor from the milk and soften.  Before serving, top with crushed pistachios.

Now go make yourself some!

Please check out 2 new projects we are running focused on LOCAL FOOD:

Follow the ‘local’ movement:

Our home, which we have converted into a suburban farm:

–Rishi

This weekend I went out to an Indian restaurant with my friends, and after eating dinner, a few them decided they were still up for a dessert.  The restaurant had a big array of Indian sweet meats, and so I stood and explained to everyone what each one was.  After everyone had finished scarfing down all the desserts, I realized that I could probably replicate them pretty well.  There are many types of Indian sweat meats(ludoo, rusgula, gulab jamun), but out of all of them, my favorite is barfi.  Barfi is traditionally made with boiled down milk, jaggery (home-made evaporate cane sugar), and ghee (clarified).  Basically, this stuff is heavy, really heavy.  If you can imagine what solidified poisonous deliciousness tastes like, that’s barfi.  So now, with my barfi, you can enjoy all the wonderful flavors of barfi, with none of the common side effects (brick feeling in your stomach, immediate sleepiness, general malaise, etc.).  Enjoy this one!

Ingredients

* 1/2 pound almonds
* 1/2 pound cashews
* 4 cloves cardamom or cardamom powder (to taste)
* 1 1/2 tbsp agave nectar
* 1/2 tsp salt
* cacao powder (optional)

Directions

Using a food processor, grind down the almonds and cashews until they are as close to a powder as you can get them.  Shell the cardamom cloves, and grind down the seeds to a fine powder using a mortar and pestle.  In a large bowl, place the almond powder, cashew powder, cardamom powder, salt, and agave nectar.  Mash everything together with your hands until all ingredients are evenly distributed and nothing is sticking to the bowl.  Lay the mixture out on a large cutting board and flatten in down to about 1/2 inch thickness.  Cut in whatever shape desired.   (Optional) Roll individual pieces in cacao powder.  Top each piece with whatever you’d like.  I suggest cashews, almond, walnuts, pecans, dates, or bananas.  Next…. oh wait, thats it.  I forgot it was that simple.

hehe… enjoy it!

New blogs that we are working on:

- Coverage of the local food movement -

 - Our home, which has been converted into a suburban farm -

–Rishi

Hi everyone! Well, here it is, my first recipe post since I got back from India.  After traveling around for three long months, I learned a lot about how Indian food is put together and what all the spices can be used for.  I also learned a lot about the different styles of Indian cooking.  Food really differs from state to state in India, almost as if each state is a different country with a different culture (each state also has its own set of dominant languages).  Most of the Indian food you are probably familiar with (such as Tandoori Paneer or Naan or Paneer Makhani) is from the state of Punjab (my families home state), but there is so much more variety in Indian food that most people in the West are unfamiliar with.  So I’m going to try to bring some of that variety here, and of course, do it raw!

To start with, I’m bringing you an all-over-Indian all-time favorite known as halva.  Halva is usually made out of semolina, but there are dozens of other varieties like almond, carrot, jackfruit, and strawberry.  Halva was something I grew up with, and it was always one of my favorite desserts/breakfasts.  Its sweet, spiced, buttery, delicate and just overall amazing.  If you’ve ever had freshly made homecooked halva, you know what I’m talking about.  I really tried to capture that traditional halva taste in this raw halva, and I think I hit this on the head.  I hope you all try this one out and enjoy it. And to all of Roshi’s Indian followers who have given up this tasty treat, I hope this brings you back to your childhood like it does for me.

Ingredients

* 3/4 pound almonds
* 1/2 cup white sesame seeds
* 6-7 whole green cardamom seeds (or to taste)
* 2 tbsp agave nectar (or to taste)

Optional Mix-ins:

* 1 handful almonds
* 1 handful raisins

Directions

Put all the almonds into a food processor until they are ground down to be as powder-like as possible. Put the sesame seeds and 3 cups of water into a blender on a low setting.  Don’t allow the blender to run too long because you’ll need the sesame seed pulp.  Using a very fine strainer or cheese cloth, separate the sesame seed pulp from the water.  Take the sesame seed pulp and mix it together with the almond powder by hand.  Skin and grind the cardamom seeds into a powder and add to the mixture.  Next add the agave nectar.

Mix-ins:

Some people like their halva straight, others like a little variance.  For the almonds, crush them up a bit and then mix them into the halva.  For the raisins, you can mix them in straight, or soak them first and then mix them in to give them a more cooked texture.

And that’s it!

Simply the best raw halva you’ll ever try.  We promise!

Pictures from India

I’ve uploaded a select few photos from my trip to India for everyone to see, and by few I mean around 150.  They all have a little caption, and if you follow the link to Google’s Picasa, you’ll be able to see on a map exactly where each picture was taken.  If you’ve never been to India, I hope these pictures will give you an incentive to go there.  It’s really such a wonderful country filled with so much knowledge, mystery, and beauty that everyone needs to see at least once.

–Rishi

(click for more views and to enlarge)

Ingredients

* 1 carrot – grated
* 2 bananas
* 1/8 cup raisins
* 1/4 cup pecans
* 3 tbsp agave nectar
* 2 tsp cinnamon
* 1 tsp salt
* 1/2 tsp red chili powder (optional)

Directions

Take one banana, 1 tsp of cinammon, 1/2 tsp salt, and the optional chili powder, and mash them together with a fork.

Next, take the carrots, raisins, pecans, and agave nectar, and mix them together.  After thoroughly mixed, add 1/2 tsp of salt and 1 tsp of cinammon.

To serve, put some banana mixture into a small bowl (I used orange and grapefruit halves), and top with the carrot mixture and pieces of the remaining banana.

–Rishi

(click for more views and to enlarge)

Strawberry Freshtart

Ingredients:

Filling
* 12-15 strawberries
* 1 avocado
* 1 tsp vanilla extract
* 3 tbsp agave nectar

Tart Crust
* 8 oz cashews
* 8 oz walnuts
* 4 oz soft dates

Directions:

Throw all the ingredients for the filling into a food processor and let it run for a good 10-15 minutes.  The filling should be thick and creamy, very similar to a yogurt texture.

For the tart crust, first mash up your dates in a food processor or by hand.  Then throw all your cashews and walnuts into your food processor for about 12 seconds.  They should reduce to a nice crumbly mixture pretty quickly.  Using a bowl, mix the dates and nuts together, kneading them like you would dough.  Once all the dates have been distributed evenly through the nuts, you should have a semi-solid bread like mixture.  Shape some mixture into whatever kinds of shapes you’d like, leaving an indentation for the filling.  Place the tart crusts into the freezer for a good 20 minutes so they firm up a bit.

Take the crusts out, filling them up with the filling, and top however you’d like.  I used a simple slice of strawberry and cacao nibs.  Simple. Delicious.

–Rishi

Seems that lately the only fruits I’ve been able to buy have been bananas and strawberrys, so I’ve been trying to get creative with what I can do with these fruits.  I wanted to try to make something similar to a crepe filling, since crepes used to be one of my favorite desserts.  After I finished making it, one of my roommates commented that it looked like I stabbed the banana and it bled on the plate, hence the name.  I made a couple of these for my friends and everyone said it was really good, so I hope you all enjoy it too.

Ingredients:

* 1 banana
* 10 strawberries
* 3 tbsp agave nectar
* 1 tbsp soy lecithin
* 1 tbsp cacao powder

Directions:

Toss the strawberries and 2 tbsp agave nectar into a food processor and let it run for a good 10-12 minutes.  That should give it a nice smooth texture.  Then add in the soy lecithin; it adds a bit of thickness, along with a nice flavor.  That does it for the strawberry topping.

For the chocolate topping, just stir the cocoa powder and a tablespoon of agave nectar until its thick and smooth.  You can add more agave or cacao depending on how sweet you like it.

To finish, simply lay the banana on a plate and drizzle the strawberry and chocolate over it.  Garnish with some mint leaves and a few nuts of your choice.  Real easy and real elegant.  Just how I like it.

–Rishi