iEat Green - Jasmine Fuego & Leah Song - 05.19.16

Jasmine Fuego

Co-Founder of the Permaculture Action Network and Bay Area based Performance Artist. Jasmine is an animated mover, shaker and cross pollinator dedicated to bridging entertainment, education and ecology to bring about a just and generative cultural narrative. Jasmine specializes in social permaculture, currently facilitating at the Regenerative Design institute and also does mindfulness training with elementary students in Richmond, Ca. Her non-profit has hosted more than Permaculture Action Days, HUBS and courses nationwide, bringing ecological education and action to thousands of concert and festival goers across the nation.

http://www.jasminefuego.com/  

www.permacultureaction.org

Leah Song

Rising Appalachia brings to the stage a collection of sounds, stories, and songs steeped in tradition and a devotion to world culture. Intertwining a deep reverence for folk music and a passion for justice, they have made it their life’s work to sing songs that speak to something ancient yet surging with relevance. Whether playing at Red Rocks or in rail cars, at Italian street fairs or to Bulgarian herbalists, this fiercely independent band has blazed a unique and colorful path across the globe. 11 years into their movement, Rising Appalachia believes that the roots of all these old songs are vital to our ever evolving soundscape.

http://www.risingappalachia.com/

Gluten Free Pecan and Chocolate Biscotti

Dough

• 6 tablespoons butter
• 2/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 2 cups GF Flour
• 3 tablespoons fair trade cocoa powder, Dutch-process preferred
• 1 ½ cups ground pecans
• 1/2 cup org, fair trade chocolate chips, mini chips preferred
• 2 tablespoons powdered sugar for sprinkling on top

Directions

1) Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease (or line with parchment) one large (about 18" x 13") baking sheet.

2) In a medium-sized bowl, beat the butter, sugar, salt, vanilla, and baking powder until the mixture is smooth and creamy.

3) Beat in the eggs; the batter may look slightly curdled.

4) At low speed of your mixer, add the GF flour, stirring until smooth; the dough will be sticky.

Add the ground pecans

5) Divide the dough in half, leaving half in the bowl, and placing half on the prepared pan. Volume-wise, half the dough is a about 1 1/2 cups.

6) Shape the dough on the pan into a log that's about 14" long x 2 ½" wide. Straighten the log, and smooth its top and sides; a wet spatula or wet bowl scraper (or wet fingers) works well here. Place the pan in the freezer while you make the chocolate dough.

7) To prepare the chocolate dough, add the cocoa powder to the vanilla dough in the bowl, stirring to combine. Stir in the chocolate chips.

8) Remove the pan from the freezer. Using your wet fingers, spread the chocolate dough atop the vanilla dough, pressing it down.

9) Bake the dough for 25 minutes. Remove it from the oven, and allow it to cool on the pan anywhere from 10 to 25 minutes; just work it into the schedule of whatever else you're doing in the kitchen. While the biscotti are cooling slightly, reduce the oven temperature to 325°F.

10) If you've used parchment on your baking sheet, use it to lift the biscotti off the sheet onto a flat surface. If you haven't used parchment, carefully lift the biscotti off the sheet onto a flat surface. Using a serrated knife or sharp chef's knife, cut the biscotti crosswise into 3/4" slices. Or cut the biscotti on the diagonal — for fewer, longer biscotti. As you're slicing, be sure to cut straight up and down, perpendicular to the pan; if you cut unevenly, biscotti may be thicker at the top than the bottom, and they'll topple over during their second bake.

11) Set the biscotti, on edge, back on the baking sheet. Return the biscotti to the oven, and bake them for 30 to 40 minutes, till they feel very dry and are beginning to turn golden. They'll still feel a tiny bit moist in the very center, if you break off a piece; but they'll continue to dry out as they cool.

12) Remove the biscotti from the oven, and transfer them to a rack to cool.

13) Sprinkle them once they're cool with the confectioners' sugar. Yield: 21 biscotti, about 4" to 5" long.