These are: NOT Macaroons! (The actual macaroon recipe is here.)
Ingredients included: Coconut shreds that probably weren’t raw, a pinch of Himalayan salt brought over from the USA, Turkish figs from the city. And acai powder because, well, I bought some when we went all the way to the city for the coconut shreds!
The last several hours of my life feel like a really deranged “Seinfeld” episode, yet this is truly what newbies to This Raw Food Thing deal with, beginning the moment they go from cooked to uncooked. Every day. Every recipe. Every ingredient.
Ingredients are not just ingredients, after all. They’re “Now where do I find that?” or “Is this really raw?” or “Are there preservatives in this?” or “What is that?”
I’ll start with the beginning. I just wanted to make the Macaroons.
Early this morning, like we do every day, we posted a new recipe to uncooking101.com. They were macaroons. I already knew the recipe was coming and wanted to make it. I took a glance at the ingredients and figured, “Ah, I can figure these out. I’ll just substitute a few things.”
But later in the day, I got busy trying to figure out how I would actually make them. Every single ingredient, without exception, presented a challenge.
Luckily, none of these issues were new to me.
I did not want to pull my hair out. I did not feel like I “couldn’t” do this. I did not feel like health was now out of my grasp. But that’s how a lot of people feel, because it’s such a SHOCK that eating so SIMPLY could seem so COMPLEX.
I kept trying to fudge my way around the ingredients, and work it out. I was sure I could do it. I was wrong. In fact, I photographed the result, much to my mild embarassment. And I have also lovingly named my creation “Not Macaroons”. Because, well, they are so not macaroons.
Here is the funniest part.
This is actually quite a simple recipe as raw food recipes go! But for me, this was not a simple task, to say the least. I’m going to share the issues with each ingredient, one by one. While I’m at it, I’ll cover the equipment. Because I had issues with that too!
So, here are the ingredients.
Just a quick note first. I spent 6 months raw in Budapest, Hungary, nearly 4 years raw in the USA, and am now I am raw here in Brazil. I figured it might be a help to share some of the details from each place even though my current “adventure” was here in Brazil.
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* 3 cups of desiccated or shredded coconut
How can you get this raw in Brazil? Or can you? In the USA, I could special order coconut dehydrated at a low temperature, which it took me several months to find out, but here that is not an option. I bought shredded coconut, hoped for the best, and called it “done”.My coconut is probably not actually raw. Please don’t tell the Raw Food Police. They are already on my case.
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* 2 cups of almonds
Here in Brazil, almonds are INCREDIBLY expensive (double what I paid in the USA), but they are not pasteurized. Well, I don’t think. No one really knows when I ask.In the USA, this crazy pasteurization act passed in 2007 that has left raw food enthusiasts scratching their heads ever since. Now for USA Americans, the options include: 1/ eating pasteurized (read: not raw) almonds, 2/ ordering almonds from another country, 3/ buy straight from a farm, or 4/ find a farm which will break the law and send unpasteurized almonds.
I finally decided I would use peanuts, which I had on hand. But that was useless without a food processor or blender! (Ha! More info on the equipment below.)
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* 1 cup of chopped dried apricots
I was not able to find apricots here. I found raisins in town, which may or may not be raw. I found Turkish figs in the next city, which are obviously not apricots, but that’s what I found.
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* 3/4 cup of agave syrup (maple works well too)
I have been to MULTIPLE health food and specialty stores in town and in the city nearby which is much larger. They do not sell: maple syrup, coconut nectar, or agave nectar. They don’t even know what those things ARE!Maple syrup was easy enough to find in Hungary. ALL these items were available in the USA either at a health food store or special ordered, but none of them were at regular grocery stores.
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* 1/2 cup of almond butter
This is not sold anywhere I have found in Brazil. In the USA, thanks to the hooey around pasteurization, pretty much all almond butter is pasteurized. Yes, that includes the ones labeled “raw.” But you can’t just go into an ordinary grocery store and find it.Even the nonsensically pasteurized almond butter in the USA is either special ordered or in only health food stores or specialty grocers.
I remember they also did not have this anywhere I looked in Hungary.
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* 1 Tbs vanilla extract
I did not find this in any store here, although there must be a place that sells it. I have ground vanilla beans that I brought from the USA, which would work fine, I’m sure.
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* 2 tsp lemon juice
Brazil does not grow lemons. Most Brazilians don’t even know what lemons are! But limes are plentiful. I imagine most of South America would be similar.
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* A pinch salt
I assume regular table salt would not work here. It’s assumed in raw recipes that don’t specify, that “salt” is sea salt which is not overly processed, or other specialty salts like Himalayan or Celtic salt. I have never seen either Celtic or Himalayan salt anywhere in Brazil. Sea salt is only in the city. Luckily, I have Himalayan salt that I purchased in the USA and brought with me.
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* Blender
Carlos happened to have been skateboarding and closed up the cafe, which is currently hosting my VitaMix. And I think my food processor is at home, because I looked everywhere for it at the office with no success. So, I did not have access to either the blender or the food processor when I was ready to do finally throw some things together.
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* Mixing bowl
Got it. I guess they have those in Brazil.
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* Dehydrator – Optional
My dehydrator is in a box on a big ship on a big trip, coming to me soon enough. I’ve now been without a dehydrator for 3 months. That means no bread, no crackers, and no dehydrated macaroons.I have not met one person in Brazil (with the exception of at an expensive raw foods workshop in the capital) who either owned or knew where to find a dehydrator. Most people here have never even heard of a dehydrator.
In the USA, only 1 dehydrator I know of is sold in main-stream stores, and even that is often not in stock. Dehydrators have to be special ordered to get a good one with temperature adjustments.
When I was in Hungary, they did not have any decent dehydrators there that I could find. So, I had one specially built, and then Carlos brought it in his luggage when he came to visit. In fact, he called himself my “mule” because he had to bring sooo much raw food stuff to Budapest for me!
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So finally, you know what I did? I looked at what I did have, and I just shoved it all together in a little bowl. Funny enough… It hit the spot!
Sometimes things are more complex or more simple than they seem. SURE, I am going to thoroughly enjoy this recipe properly one day. But today? I feel dang vibrant and did my best!
xxo Eva