Raw Food Luncheon

The first Charlie Trotter book that I ever read was called "Raw". I had gone to the book store before work that night and wanted to gain some inspiration from some of the new cookbooks, a really cost effective way to decide if you want to buy them. I was blown away at the high level of cooking this book offered and the pictures were amazing. The book was based on a cuisine called the "raw food diet". The diet was exactly that, everything you eat is raw and nothing is heated above 118 degrees to ensure that the natural nutrients are preserved. Today I was challenged to create a small luncheon based around this concept. Creating a meal from only raw foods is extremely challenging and my chef hat goes off to anyone who manages to stay true to this lifestyle. I did four different dishes that were all within the raw guidelines. I started the meal with a pickled vegetable salad with asparagus, fennel, carrots, radishes, beets, and bell peppers. The next course was raw cauliflower cakes with heirloom tomato and watercress salad. The main course is salt cured salmon with jalapeno, jicama, and cucumber avocado puree. I finished the meal with a pineapple springroll filled with honey, pecans, mango, pear, and berries. I am glad to have taken on this educational challenge and learn a few new tricks when approached about raw "cooking".