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sadatx · 12-17-2003, 03:12 AM

I'm sure that at some point all of you have heard of or may even be a part of the Raw Food Movement (my capitalization, there's no actual organization or anything).

For those who haven't, raw "cooking" involves making meals just as you would normally with one exception: You never heat the food over 118 degrees. The idea here being that heating food over that temperature kills the natural enzymes within. These enzymes aid digestion and thus your body doesn't have to work as hard to digest the food you eat (I could argue for and against this theory, but I do believe your diet should consist of some raw foods).

Now eating raw food be it vegetable, fruit, grain, meat, or fish is nothing new. From ancient cultures to eating steak tartare or sushi today, humans have always done it. And we have all eaten raw nuts, vegetables, and fruit.

So what's new? Well the fact that American Cuisine has taken notice. A plethora of raw "cookbooks" have hit the market and raw resturants are starting to pop up in various spots all over the United States.

I was curious myself, so I recently bought RAW by Charlie Trotter and Roxanne Klein. The book, like all Charlie Trotter cookbooks, is filled with delicious looking dishes that are unfortunately, quite complicated to prepare.

The techniques:

I did get the basic techniques of raw cooking from the book however and althought they're not always difficult, they almost always take time.

The first thing most recipes call for is to soak something in water (usually nuts) for sometimes as long as a couple days. I'd say soaking is the cornerstone of raw cooking.

Another raw cooking technique is to dehydrate food (for this you need a dehydrator, a device that looks like an oversized toaster oven). A dehydrator slowly drys out the food by warming it at a certain temperature below 118 degrees. This, if you haven't guessed, takes a long time. 8 hours would be considered a short dehydrating cycle.

The last important technique in raw "cooking" involves blending, smashing, masticating, homogenizing, or juicing your food. For this you need, that's right, more equipment. A high quality blender will get you through many raw cooking recipes, but there are times that you'll need a masticating juicer (centrifugal type juices appearantly don't work as well) which should also be able to homogenize your food, (no Juicemans would make the cut).

It can all seem like a big pain, but I do hope that raw cooking (or uncooking as some raw cookbooks call it) eventually becomes part of mainstream cooking. Though I'd never eat an all raw food diet (certain things, like tomatoes, are proven to be somewhat better for you when cooked since cooking increases the amount of the antioxidant lycopene in them). I do like the fact that it emphasizes all natural ingredients and that it's goal is to bring out the natural flavors (the latter is, at least, Trotter's goal). Although I'm dissapointed that raw cookbooks don't seem to address raw meat or fish "cooking" (probably because of America's not entirely un justified fear of bacteria in raw meat).

So I'm going to start making raw meals, or at least try, but I'm curious to know what all of you think about raw "cooking".

Do you think you'd like to try it? Or does it just seem like too much work? Would you go to a raw resturant? Have you been to one?

Are you doing some raw cooking right now?

Here are some links for those of you who want some more info:

-An excellent article on Raw Vs. Cooked foods:

http://www.beyondveg.com/tu-j-l/raw-...ooked-1a.shtml

-The website the article came from:

http://www.beyondveg.com

-Charlie Trotter's website:

http://www.charlietrotters.com/

-Roxanne Klein's website:

http://www.roxraw.com

-And a few raw food websites:

http://www.living-foods.com/

http://www.rawfood.com/

http://www.rawfoodsnews.com/index.php

http://www.sunfood.net/

12-17-2003, 03:12 AM	#1 (permalink)
sadatx Psycho	RAW: A new type of "cooking"? I'm sure that at some point all of you have heard of or may even be a part of the Raw Food Movement (my capitalization, there's no actual organization or anything). For those who haven't, raw "cooking" involves making meals just as you would normally with one exception: You never heat the food over 118 degrees. The idea here being that heating food over that temperature kills the natural enzymes within. These enzymes aid digestion and thus your body doesn't have to work as hard to digest the food you eat (I could argue for and against this theory, but I do believe your diet should consist of some raw foods). Now eating raw food be it vegetable, fruit, grain, meat, or fish is nothing new. From ancient cultures to eating steak tartare or sushi today, humans have always done it. And we have all eaten raw nuts, vegetables, and fruit. So what's new? Well the fact that American Cuisine has taken notice. A plethora of raw "cookbooks" have hit the market and raw resturants are starting to pop up in various spots all over the United States. I was curious myself, so I recently bought RAW by Charlie Trotter and Roxanne Klein. The book, like all Charlie Trotter cookbooks, is filled with delicious looking dishes that are unfortunately, quite complicated to prepare. The techniques: I did get the basic techniques of raw cooking from the book however and althought they're not always difficult, they almost always take time. The first thing most recipes call for is to soak something in water (usually nuts) for sometimes as long as a couple days. I'd say soaking is the cornerstone of raw cooking. Another raw cooking technique is to dehydrate food (for this you need a dehydrator, a device that looks like an oversized toaster oven). A dehydrator slowly drys out the food by warming it at a certain temperature below 118 degrees. This, if you haven't guessed, takes a long time. 8 hours would be considered a short dehydrating cycle. The last important technique in raw "cooking" involves blending, smashing, masticating, homogenizing, or juicing your food. For this you need, that's right, more equipment. A high quality blender will get you through many raw cooking recipes, but there are times that you'll need a masticating juicer (centrifugal type juices appearantly don't work as well) which should also be able to homogenize your food, (no Juicemans would make the cut). It can all seem like a big pain, but I do hope that raw cooking (or uncooking as some raw cookbooks call it) eventually becomes part of mainstream cooking. Though I'd never eat an all raw food diet (certain things, like tomatoes, are proven to be somewhat better for you when cooked since cooking increases the amount of the antioxidant lycopene in them). I do like the fact that it emphasizes all natural ingredients and that it's goal is to bring out the natural flavors (the latter is, at least, Trotter's goal). Although I'm dissapointed that raw cookbooks don't seem to address raw meat or fish "cooking" (probably because of America's not entirely un justified fear of bacteria in raw meat). So I'm going to start making raw meals, or at least try, but I'm curious to know what all of you think about raw "cooking". Do you think you'd like to try it? Or does it just seem like too much work? Would you go to a raw resturant? Have you been to one? Are you doing some raw cooking right now? Here are some links for those of you who want some more info: -An excellent article on Raw Vs. Cooked foods: http://www.beyondveg.com/tu-j-l/raw-...ooked-1a.shtml -The website the article came from: http://www.beyondveg.com -Charlie Trotter's website: http://www.charlietrotters.com/ -Roxanne Klein's website: http://www.roxraw.com -And a few raw food websites: http://www.living-foods.com/ http://www.rawfood.com/ http://www.rawfoodsnews.com/index.php http://www.sunfood.net/ Last edited by sadatx; 12-17-2003 at 03:15 AM..