About a month before my nephew's April 2013 wedding at the Tappan Hill Mansion in Tarrytown, NY, I wrote to the catering company, Abigail Kirsch Catering Relationships, asking if it would be possible for them to make me a raw vegan meal. They said they would, and asked to see some of my favorite recipes. I sent them a PDF version of my book, The Little e-Book of Raw Vegan Holiday Recipes, hinting that my favorite entree was Coconut Noodle Pad Thai.

I was pleasantly surprised at the wedding to find that they had gone all-out to delight me. During the cocktail hour, while everyone else was drinking alcoholic beverages and eating all kinds of cooked entrees containing meat, dairy or fish, the waiters found me and brought me a variety of hors d'oeuvres, plus what turned out to be a never-ending supply of colorful and refreshing mango-watermelon "mocktails," starting at the cocktail hour and continuing all throughout the dinner.

I especially loved the Beet Ravioli hors d'oeuvres. Following the cocktail hour, my dinner itself began with a bowl of Tomato Basil Soup with an arrangement of Carrot Crackers in the center like a Cubist rendering of an appropriately tipsy NYC skyline, and garnished with sunflower sprouts.

The next course was an arugula salad with very cheese-like strips that turned out to be paper-thin slices of apple in a lemon vinaigrette. Very inventive and flavorful. My favorite course was the Coconut Noodle Pad Thai entree topped with jicama rolls. Dessert was a Blueberry Cardamom Ice Cream Cake that looked almost too beautiful to eat.

I felt like a VIP, not only because of the wonderful custom-tailored raw vegan meal, but because the waiters served me a minute or so ahead of everyone else. (Compare that to my other nephew's bar mitzvah in 2005 at the Copa Cabana, in New York City, whose chefs said they could not accommodate me, and suggested I bring my own food.)

I heartily recommend Abigail Kirsch Catering Relationships for your wedding or other affair. Although they are not a dedicated raw vegan outfit, they are very accommodating and eager to please. I had given them a long list of stipulations (such as which ingredients needed to be organic) that could easily have daunted some other catering company that wasn't in the business of being strictly raw vegan, and Kirsch exceeded my expectations.

Special thanks to Abigail Kirsch's Ed Steinberg, Director of Events; Executive Chef Alison Awerbuch, who designed my meal; and Chef de Cuisine Peter Mamadjanian, who prepared and presented it, and took gorgeous photos.

Here's the menu:

BEVERAGES

WATERMELON MANGO MOCKTAIL

HORS D'OEUVRE

MEDITERRANEAN SALAD RAW VEGAN

ZUCCHINI ROLLS

BEET RAVIOLI
 
APPETIZER

TOMATO BASIL SOUP WITH CARROT CRACKERS

SALAD PRE

ARUGULA SALAD

ENTREE

COCONUT PAD THAI WITH JICAMA ROLL

DESSERT SERVED

BLUEBERRY CARDAMOM ICE CREAM CAKE

Ani's Raw Food Kitchen, by raw food chef Ani Phyo, is a very useful book, not only for its awesome food and easy-to-make, inventive recipes, but for Ani’s many tips for food preparation and sustainable living. I devour raw recipe books to see what new ideas chefs have come up with, and I'm very impressed with several of Ani’s that I’ve had the chance to try. She's found that raw food means different things to people depending on the region, that people in Southern California are into raw food for its weight loss and anti-aging benefits; residents of Northern California turn to raw food for health reasons; and in the Pacific Northwest, people are outdoorsy and active and look to raw food for its physical performance benefits.

Ani, whose mother turned her onto raw foods, admirably lives by her beliefs. Her company uses renewable power from wind, geothermal and low-impact hydro, which costs only eight percent more than conventional energy sources. She points out that there are pedal-powered kitchen applicances (like mixers and blenders) —something I had never heard of, but really appreciate. I wholeheartedly agree with her when she suggests eating local produce in season: "Growing and raising seasonal food encourages traditional agricultural methods, biodiversity, and a better environment. Plus, it promotes better tasting food."

Here’s Ani's recipe for pancakes with mock butter, a recipe that’'s as nutritious as it is delicious and easy to make.

Coconut Breakfast Cakes
By Ani Phyo

(Serves four)

2 cups whole flax seeds, ground into meal just before making recipe
2 tablespoons extra virgin coconut oil (liquid form)
½ cup agave nectar (Ani might agree with many people who have stopped using agave because it's very high in fructose. You can leave sweetener our of the pancakes and simply serve them with a syrup, see recipe below.)
½ teaspoon Celtic salt
¼ cup filtered water

Put all ingredients into bowl and mix well. Form into four balls and flatten into pancake shapes about ¼ to ½ inch thick.

To serve, top with mock butter (see recipe below), plus sliced fruit (such as kiwi, pear, or banana), and a topping. Serve immediately, or refrigerate the batter for up to four or five days. To vary, mix blueberries or pre-soaked walnuts into the batter.

Miso-Coconut Butter

This has a soft whipped butter texture. Use solid, rather than liquid, coconut oil.

¼ cup coconut butter (Refrigerate or freeze for a few minutes if it’s in liquid form, to solidify it)
1 tablespoon unpasteurized white miso (Chickpea miso--which is soy-free--also works well)

Mix the coconut butter and miso with a spoon or fork until well blended. This butter will keep for months in the freezer.

Breakfast-Cake Syrup

For the syrup, you can use raw honey alone, or you can blend that or stevia or soft dates with fresh or frozen fruit, such as berries, and a bit of water to make a syrup.

The LifeFood Recipe Book: Living on Life Force

by Annie Padden Jubb and David Jubb

At the time this review was written, David Jubb, Ph.D., who gives talks and health readings around the world, had a take-out store, Jubb’'s Longevity, in New York City. 
A friend of mine who was scheduled to have his gall bladder removed no longer needed the operation after following a regimen that David suggested. Annie Padden Jubb lives in Los Angeles, where she gives health readings and is a consultant.

In addition to more than 180 recipes that David and Annie developed, this informative 276-page book details the benefits of a living foods lifestyle and makes suggestions for cleansing and fasting. The authors address the downsides of hybrids and the benefits of heirloom and wild produce, recommend kitchen tools, and discuss ingredients such as cold-pressed oils and sea vegetables. There are occasional beauty tips: When you consume fermented foods you will have the most amazing unblemished skin.”

SUCH FABULOUS SOUPS

When it comes to recipes, the soup chapter alone is worth the price of the book. “Sweet Thai Tomato Soup,” for example, is excellent; I wish restaurants would add it to their menus.

Although some of the book'’s recipes are transitional and involve heating, —like the delicious “Coconut Orgasm Soup” (so named because, according to one of the “secret teachings” sprinkled throughout the book, “onions are rich in histamine, an important element involved in attaining orgasm”),— you can easily make them without heating them. A few recipes contain non-raw (Manna bread) or non-vegan (Feta cheese) ingredients as well. Raw food purists will want to read the recipes carefully, as some contain ingredients that can be hard to find raw, like hijiki in the Hijiki & Red Pepper Salad.

SWEETLY INVENTIVE

While most of the recipes are not overly elaborate, they can still be inventive, like "“Sweet Tomato Slices”" that combines tomato and figs; or like the pomegranate vinaigrette dressing. Occasionally a recipe that seems like it would be great is sort of blah, like the Orange Pecan Marinade.

LifeFood is the only recipe book I know of that contains a recipe for a nutmilk using black sesame seeds (“Phat Midnight Milk”). I haven’'t tried it or the “Carob Mint Canolis” yet, but I look forward to making them!  In fact, I bet they’'d be good together.

(Reviewed in 2004)