FOOD REVOLUTION DAY

FOOD REVOLUTION is just a metaphor, but it expresses what a lot of us feel: an urgency to wake up the world to the importance, value and future of real food. What is real food? The short answer is anything that your great grand mother may have used in her cooking. The 10 000 ft answer is food that's just one thing: beets, lamb, potato, yogurt, as opposed to a list of ingredients like the ones you see with very fine print at the back of a box of cereal (heck, we believe that real food is THE answer to our health, longevity and quality of life so deeply, that Diana and I called our recipe books The Art of Real Food)!

Today is FOOD REVOLUTION DAY - a day chosen by Jamie Oliver to unite the efforts of chefs, teachers, educators, nutritionists, trainers, moms, kids, neighborhoods and communities all over the world. In our own way, today everyone found a way to express the love for food and the desire to reach out and teach.

In charity events all over the world, the common effort is educate and collect funds to support the foundation, all for the love of food and for the great cause of returning food education to schools! Check out the FOOD REVOLUTION website and find where the funds go!

In Rancho Santa Margarita, Roland and I are holding two events, one today, May 19, where we got kids at a local park and did a super fun fruit and vegetable scavenger hunt, ingredient guessing game, obstacle course, planting seeds, and ladybug release. It was so fulfilling to watch kids get excited about discovering watermelons, pomegranates, yucca, mango and all the other foods we had hidden. Kids will get excited about food, and ANY food, including REAL food, if you give them the right environment to play, discover, create and celebrate! It was a blast seeing the kids walk away with watermelons as a prize instead of a candy bar, it was the height of our day looking at them try a loquat or a jicama for the first time!

Our second event is coming up, so you can still join it if you are local- Stone soup luncheon, is tomorrow, May 20. We are having friends come over for lunch, each bringing a real food ingredient that we will prepare on the spot! We will unleash the creative energy in on the spot recipe creations - Roland, myself and Rupina or zen-trition.com - one of the coolest health coaches in our area who also happens to be a good friend of ours!

Excited about making change happen yourself! Our hope is that all we do is going to spark you to cook, teach and create a shift in the way you, your family, your workplace and community think about food!

Watch Jamie Oliver address the world on May 19 and see how sincere and simple change can be! What will you do to bring real food to the people around you?

Mini salads and chocolate mousse...a Valentine's dinner report

I hope your Valentine's day dinner was as tasty as ours. While everyone was crammed in restaurants or still rushing to get to their reserved table for that special day, we did what we do best - we cooked together.

Roland made some amazing Parmesan crisps while I prepared pepperoni and cream cheese rolls and cut some really good smoked and peppery Mahi-mahi. Meanwhile, for the traditional shots of Bulgarian rakia, we needed some shot sized salads.

Taster spoons are a great way to raise the party spirit, since they make serving and eating anything fun. These particular ones in the shot were a timely gift from Roland, but if you are not so much into tiny cute porcelain objects, you can always get disposable tasting spoons at Amazon (they even have bamboo and biodegradable ones now, so you don't have to feel bad).

shot-sized salad

To make shot sized salad, I used:
10 pear tomatoes
1/6 avocado
1/4 cup cilantro
4 Calamata olives

I chopped everything up very well, added a tsp of olive oil and some salt and divided it in the spoons. You could serve practically any salad this way and really impress your guests.


avocado chocolate mousse with a touch of chile pepper

The chocolate mousse-mousse is an all time favorite from the second volume of The Art of Real Food. We faced a huge culinary challenge in that volume, since we wanted all the meals to be strictly vegan. Avocado came to the rescue, providing the best texture to house the rich chocolate flavor we wanted to experience. For Valentine's day, I added a touch of chile pepper, which is always nice if you want to perk up the chocolate aftertaste.

To make 4 small or 2 large servings, you need:

2 small avocados
8 tbsp water
6 tbsp brown sugar / 3 tbsp honey
8 tbsp cocoa powder
1 inch vanilla pod

In a pot over medium heat, melt the sugar with the water, scrape the vanilla bean inside, and slowly add the chocolate powder, stirring until you get a smooth chocolate mixture. In a blender, blend the avocados and start to add the cooked chocolate. Mix very well. Cool after you have served it in smaller or larger bowls and sprinkle a tad of chili powder on top right before you offer it.

Chocolate mousse always make me think of this guy, and I can't help posting this :)

Happy Valentine's Day and a Valentine's recipe idea

This morning my fiance officially stated ( in the proper Valentine card form ) on Facebook that he loves me more than bacon. I replied, again in Valentine card form that I love him more than cheesecake.

Valentine's day is all about saying what you feel, but sometimes words are not enough. Food ( and drink) come to the rescue as the ultimate way to express yourself.

A couple of weeks ago, on February 3, Diana and I released the third volume of the Art of Real Food recipe cards. We called them 100% aphrodisiacs, because the recipes we collected, invented and adapted, are all based on time proven arousing foods. We talked a lot about the power of good nutrition, but moreover about the power of good intention and how much sharing food really means. I would like to quote someone who said:

'' sharing food is the most intimate act you can perform with your clothes on''

and I hold this to be true in my own life. I feel like putting a ribbon around a home made cookie says more than '' I really care how you feel'' and making cheesecake for a friend the night before their birthday means more than '' I really like to be your friend''. Making food that glows, speaks, shines and flows, melts and invites the next bite is surely the way to a friend's or a lover's heart.

We discussed our menu ideas last night and decided to make an assortment of starters, cheese and some prosciutto, possibly crackers with olives and some amazing smoked mahi mahi we found at the farmers' market this weekend. We'll also make my favorite zabaglione sauce ( a wine and yolk custard sauce) to serve with fruit. I will try to take pictures and see how the dinner idea turns out. We were a bit split between champagne and wine...and shots...but as the day proceeds I am sure we will get even more overwhelmed with the options.

Until tonight, I offer you a recipe idea from our third book.


asparagus wrapped in prosciutto

We made asparagus with prosciutto which later Roland changed to asparagus with bacon, but we seem to like both. I feel like bacon takes a lot longer to cook, since it's richer in fat and thicker than prosciutto, but if you find a way to get it sliced real thin, it will probably work out very well.


asparagus wrapped in bacon

All you need to do for this recipe is find good looking asparagus and wrap one or two stalks, depending on how thick they are, in a long slice of meat. Place over a baking sheet or in a cast iron skillet in an oven heated to 400F (200 C) and cook for 8-10 minutes. Bacon, depending on the thickness, may take longer.

Enjoy responsibly, they go very fast, especially accompanied by some red wine. Our own recommendation would be Malbec for a deeper aftertaste or something light like Pinot Noir, if you would rather favor a more delicate experience.

An Art of Real Food Style Omelet

I haven't been blogging for a while. It would be a large understatement to say that I've been busy. Me and Diana released volume 2 and 3 of The Art of Real food and right after the official release of volume 3, I packed up and left on a trip to the US. Since then, I have been happily engaged, extremely jet lagged and more or less adjusting to the huge change.

I don't have many things I am used to having in the pantry here, and until I stock up, the recipes you will see coming are mostly of the what's-in-the-fridge-type. Yesterday morning I made the apple omelet featured in our first book, but made a few adjustments for ingredients we don't have yet and ones that I really enjoy and wanted to include.

So here it is, a folded apple and cream cheese omelet. Enjoy!



To make 1 omelet you need:

1 small apple
2 eggs
1 tbsp butter
2 tbsp coconut flakes (unsweetened)
dash of cinnamon
4-5 almonds

Grate the apple, squeeze the excess liquid out (and yes you can drink the juice, its delicious). In a pan over medium heat, melt half the butter and cook the apple, coconut and cinnamon, until soft. In a bowl, mix the eggs with the cooked apple and coconut and stir. Return to the pan and cook on both sides in the remaining butter. When done, put the cream cheese and almonds inside, and fold. Cut in half. For a sweet tooth or a post workout meal, you can serve this breakfast with some honey.

Gently spiced sweet and salty cookies

Remember our friends over at MARX FOODS?

A couple of months ago, they asked their fan bloggers to choose three ingredients and cook something with them.

I chose star anise , Madagascar vanilla and Demerara Sugar.

I love the shape and flavor of anise and vanilla gives a soft depth to dishes that nothing else can, sugar is rarely in my kitchen, but in small amounts, it blesses food with occasional sweetness and if used sensibly it can give you a lot of taste and enjoyment without adding anything extra to your waistline.

These cookies are an explosion of flavors, the first bite meets you with Himalayan salt and dark chocolate, and then butter, vanilla, anise and brown sugar melt on your tongue. The aftertaste is sweet and deep and you cannot eat too many of them, which is what I like best.

This recipe will make about 25 cookies.

You can keep it simple and skip the chocolate and salt and have your cookies plain or you can go the whole way and have a flavor feast.

Here is what you need for the dough:

1/2 cup butter, cold and cut in small cubes
1 1/4 cup flour (mix of rye and wheat)
2 egg yolks
1 tsp baking powder
4 tbsp Demerara sugar
12 anise seeds (take out from shells and grind)
1 inch vanilla (scrape out inside)
1 tsp fine Himalayan salt

to coat:
2 oz melted dark chocolate
Himalayan salt crystals

In a large bowl, combine the flour, spices, salt and baking powder. Mix well. Mix in the egg yolks and stir. You will have large flour crumbs as a result. Mix in the butter and use your fingers to combine everything well until you have a soft uniform dough. Place it in the fridge for 30 minutes. Meanwhile preheat oven to 370 F (175 C).

To make the cookies, use a flat surface coated with flour. Roll out the dough and cut out 5 mm thick shapes. Bake on a baking sheet for about 20 minutes. Remove and cool off before coating with chocolate if you choose to do so. To coat with chocolate, dip each cookie in melted dark chocolate (melt over medium heat in a small pot immersed in boiling water or in a double boiler), then place on a sheet to dry and sprinkle Himalayan salt on top.


You can store the cookies in a cookie jar until someone sneaks them all out, and if they survive, probably for about a week. Place some star anise inside, to keep the wonderful flavor alive.

Meanwhile, head over to Marx and yes: