Submit your tropical vegetarian, vegan and raw recipes! | tropical ...

About Clare and tropical cuisine

Many of you probably already know me, but a quick intro for those who don?t and some info too about this project.? In November 2010, after two years of research, recipe development, writing, editing and publishing, I released my cookbook tropical cuisine: cooking in clare?s kitchen.? Just after its release I was astonished to receive the Gourmand World Cookbook Award for Best Innovative Cookbook in Australia.? I then went on to reach 4^th place internationally in the same category at the Awards ceremony in Paris, March 2011.

If you have seen tropical cuisine, then you will know that I don?t talk a lot about the philosophies that lie behind my approach to food, preferring to ?do? instead.? I follow Stephanie Alexander?s perspective of providing people with straight forward recipes and sound cooking and preparation advice that produces flavoursome food.? If this works, as it seems to be doing thus far with tropical cuisine: cooking in clare?s kitchen, then I am happy, because the outcome is increased use of fresh, local, un-processed non-proprietary products.

I am of the view, as many of us increasingly are, that there is an alarming and unnecessary amount of highly processed and proprietary food (or more accurately, ?food-like substances? as Michael Pollan so correctly describes them) in our food chain and food choices.? Even in organic and health food stores there is an increase in more highly processed products.

Being creatures of appetite, as we humans are, my contribution to switching people back onto cooking-from-scratch and produce-based eating is to provide reliable, easily used advice and recipes that make it easy for people to cook from scratch with fresh ingredients and end up with fabulously tasty food.

People can make this switch with or without ideological, philosophical or economic reason for doing so.? I want to reach a broad range of people, including those who have no relationship with local food, vegetarian, vegan or raw food movements, and I have done so with my current cookbook.? From my perspective, the more people who are eating well and eating locally sourced foods, the better for them, and for us all.

Diet ? the ways we choose to eat ? is influenced by such a broad range of factors, from sensory preference, ideology, culture, tradition, spiritual practices, geography, environment, economy and health requirements.? I personally eat a lot of fruit, vegetables and herbs and also eat meat.? I mention this so you can choose whether you wish your recipe to go into a collection compiled and edited by an omnivore.

I respect the many good reasons people choose to be on vegetarian, vegan, and raw food diets, which is why I?m compiling this volume.? And I also respect that some may not want to contribute to this volume with an omnivore at the helm.? I hope that this collection will contribute to our local tropical food economy and encourage more people to use (and maybe also grow at home) more of what is available in our incredibly lush part of the world.

Tropical cuisine: vegetarian

Tropical produce including tropical fruits from all over the world have been widely established in Far North Queensland now for over 40 years.? Both traditional owners and post-colonisation residents of tropical Australia have also made use of our many indigenous foods.? There are individuals and families all across tropical Australia who have long been creating recipes and cooking with particular produce, and have developed great techniques and recipes for dealing with particular fruits, vegetables, greens, fungi, grains, seeds, root crops, sea vegetables, herbs and spices.

What we don?t have much of, however, is forums to share this precious body of knowledge.? In the research for tropical cuisine: cooking in clare?s kitchen I became really aware of this fact; how there is so much knowledge out there, but it is very hard for someone new to the tropics to access this body of culinary wisdom.? If we are going to develop a stronger, more vital and sustainable local agricultural, horticultural and food supply chain in Far North QLD and tropical Australia more broadly, it needs to be way easier for people to get to know and use the sort of produce which grows brilliantly in our climates.

Thus I decided to put a call out to recipe concocters and cooks of tropical Australia to contribute your vegetarian, vegan and raw food recipes to a collection I will publish as tropical cuisine: vegetarian.? It will be published as an ebook to manage costs and speed the availability of the book to readers.? Visually it will be as rich, tempting and well designed as tropical cuisine: cooking in clare?s kitchen.

Tropical cuisine: vegetarian will be a comprehensive collection of recipes, from pickles, preserves and sauces through to snacks, salads, soups, drinks, mains, side dishes, desserts and baking.? It will also contain a vegetarian version of the produce encyclopaedia that is present in tropical cuisine: cooking in clare?s kitchen.

Benefits to you

Every recipe contributed that gets into the ebook or on my website (if there are too many contributions to fit into the ebook) will receive:

• a copy of the ebook package.? The ebook package is a PDF version of the book (which looks like an electronic version of the printed book, with double pages spreads) and a Kindle OR ePUB version of the book (for reading on e-readers).
• a head note (the paragraph under the recipe title that says a bit about the recipe) that names the contributor
• if you have a website that relates to food and gardening the head note can also include a live link to your website
• this means if people wish to they can click on it and be taken to your website (further guidelines on appropriate websites are available by giving me a call).

In this way the ebook will not be a static production, but a dynamic network of information and links across people, businesses and communities in tropical Australia who are involved with tropical produce and vegetarian, vegan and raw food living.? It will be a way of giving locals easier ways of finding out about likeminded people and businesses.? It will help you share your passion or business with local and international likeminded individuals.? It will give your talents international exposure, as the ebook will go for sale on the international market.? If you are interested in publishing your own recipe or similar book it will give you a taste of the process involved, and connect you to your potential audience.

How to contribute

The notes below may look a bit daunting, but they?re not really.? What I explicate below can be summed up briefly in the statement ? don?t muck with nature.? This is a recipe collection to celebrate the flavours, textures and sheer goodness of our tropical produce ? our fruits, vegetables, greens, fungi, grains, seeds, root crops, sea vegetables, herbs and spices.

The recipe must be your original material.? A very general rule of thumb is that if you have written up the method in your own style or ?voice?, and/or if you have adjusted the ingredients in some way (a bit more or less, translated from imperial to metric, added or removed an ingredient) then you can say that it is your recipe.

If you have general tips on the use of produce that you may not see as a recipe (such as ?try black sapote with a squeeze of lime juice?) please still contribute such information.? This collection is about providing straightforward recipes and flavour combinations for people to try, although there will certainly be room for some more complex recipes if the final product is seductive, delicious and/or nutritious enough for the reader to warrant the extra effort.

You must live (or have lived) in the tropics or subtropics and grow (or be able to grow) the main ingredient/s at home and/or be able to source them in your region from other local home-gardeners or farmers.

Brand name ingredients? Nup. ??You might own a local food brand, and as mentioned above you are welcome to submit your webpage to be embedded as a link in the top of a recipe, but the ingredient list itself must give generic terms for the ingredients (such as ?dehydrated mango?, or ?raw cacao chocolate? or ?biodynamic milk?).

Highly processed ingredients? Niet.? ?This point needs a bit of exploring, particularly in regards fats and oils, because that means no margarines, no treated oils (ie. no ?light? olive oil for instance) no rice bran spread.? Straight rice bran oil, virgin olive oil, nut oils, coconut oil, butter, etcetera ? all fine.

This point also therefore excludes ingredients such as condensed milk.? The general rule to follow if trying to work out whether one of your ingredients is highly processed or not is to ask ?if I, or the reader, had access to the right information and produce could I/they produce this ingredient themselves at home??

I also like Michael Pollan?s general rule for determining the difference between food and food-like substances (highly processed derivatives of foods):

• if it has an ingredient list that includes things the ordinary person wouldn?t have in their pantry (like high fructose corn syrup, or xanthan gum);
• if the ingredient list includes three or more number codes or incomprehensible ingredient names;
• then it?s a food-like substance.

Foods are things our grandparents and great-grandparents would recognise such as fruits, vegetables, greens, fungi, grains, seeds, root crops, sea vegetables, herbs and spices and the simple products (ground meal, flours, etc) that come from them.

Proprietary kitchen gadgets or machines? No.? ?That means for instance that Thermomix fans will need to provide recipes in a format useable in a standard kitchen.? On top of hand held manual kitchen gear, the range of kitchen gadgets and machines you can presume are in the readers kitchen include such things as: hand or electric beaters; bench top blender and/or hand-held stick blender; food processor or a range of manual alternatives (such as graters, hand beater, whisk, etc.); kitchen scales; and measuring cups, jugs and spoons.

The focus is on produce and pantry staples.? Produce may be fresh or simply processed such as by being dehydrated, ground, milled, rolled, dried, pickled or frozen.? Any treatment the produce has undergone (dehydrating, pickling, etc) must be a process the reader can do at home themselves if they choose to. Pantry staples are all the basics ? herbs, spices, salt, pepper, flours, legumes, pastas, noodles, rice etc. ? and traditional compound products.? Compound products are mostly traditional sauces and condiments ? things such as chilli sauce, fish sauce, miso, Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, tamari, mirin, vinegars.? They are made up of natural ingredients and people can and do make them at home if they feel inclined.

Haven?t got a website ? get one now, it?s easy!??? It is very easy these days, and free, to set up your own website ? just go to http://wordpress.com/ and click on the ?get started here? button to start setting up your blog.? Why?? So that the people who love your recipe can contact you.? So you can share with other food bloggers in the tropics, and anywhere for that matter.? So that the cooks and gardeners of tropical Australia can find each other, share our experiences, tips, recipes, gardening advice, and generally enrich one another?s lives.? So that it is easier, when someone arrives to live in the tropics from other climes, to connect and find out how to best find, enjoy, eat and grow the vast array of plants we have available to us.

When will the book be released??? Because we are working with seasonal ingredients, and I need to test your recipes, it will be at least a year.? Cookbook writing and publishing are big projects!

Writing up your recipes?? When it comes to preparing food and cooking we are all individuals, with different styles and sleight of hand when it comes to measuring, mixing and cooking.? For this reason I will be recipe testing all recipes to ensure they provide a consistent standard for the reader, and not one contributor?s lean tablespoon and another?s exuberant one!? ?If your recipe includes produce that may not be easily sourced via retailers (and I encourage you to submit such recipes) please let me know if you are able to provide it to me for the recipe testing, and over what period it is available (eg. from December to February).

So send your recipe in, and then I will get back to you with some more detailed information about how to write up your recipe so that it fits the consistent style and method of the collection.? Looking forward to hearing from you!

Regards

Clare ? ? ? info[at]tropicalcuisine[dot]com

Source: http://tropicalcuisine.com/2012/03/01/submit-your-tropical-vegetarian-vegan-and-raw-recipes/

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