Monday, July 25, 2011

Abeba The "Krazy Kracker Lady" Shares Raw Vegan BBQ Chip And Onion Ring Recipe At Sebastopol 2011 Raw Health Expo

These are the most delicious and healthiest BBQ chips you'll ever eat!

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I Finally get to Meet Abeba!
Until today I had never met Abeba, the famous Krazy Kracker Lady, even though she had been a big influence on my cooking for almost a decade. 
I had heard about her the very first time I attended a raw food potluck. We all met in a park in San Jose and someone brought out a basket of thin, delectable chips that had the flavor of pepperoni pizza. Being new to raw food, I was shocked to find out that these chips were raw! I immediately bought 2 of her books (she now has 4) and learned how to perfect raw chips and crackers. To this day, her techniques inspire and influence many of my recipes!
So this weekend, while attending the Raw Health Expo in Sebastopol, Ca, I was THRILLED to find Abeba on the schedule of events. I attended both of her classes: one to make her "new and improved BBQ chips and onion rings" and the second on "quick and easy dehydrated breads". 


I was thrilled to finally meet Abeba and watch her demo!


How Fun!!
I've been to lots of cooking demos but who would have thought you could have this much fun?
Abeba's joy is infectious! She's funny, entertaining and you can tell she's enjoying what she does immensely. The audience laughed hysterically as Abeba dramatically mixed her onion rings with a gooey BBQ mixture with her bare hands to the tune of  "2001 A Space Odyssey" blasting in the background. 


With the boom box blasting out "2001 A Space Odyssey", Abeba dramatically mixes her onion rings.


She Shares her Secret
The secret to making light, thin and crisp chips is how she drops the mixture off a spoon onto the dehydrator sheet. It's also getting the consistency just right. I will tell you from experience, if the mixture is too thick, it won't drop off the spoon. If it's too thin, the mixture will lie on the dehydrator sheet like a puddle of water and the chips will fall apart. So Abeba spent a lot of time showing us the proper consistency of the mixture. Without further ado, let me share her BBQ chip recipe. You can find this recipe in her latest book, "Abeba's More Lip Smackin Favorites". Her famous Pizza Kracker recipe can be found in "Absolutely Abeba's Krazy Krackers". You can buy these and her other two books, "Absolutely Abeba's Edible Treats" and " Absolutely Abeba's Lip Smackin Favorites" on her website.


You can order all of her books on Abeba's website


Abeba's New and Improved BBQ Chip and Onion Ring
[recipe fills 6 to 7 trays of BBQ chips or 3 1/2 to 4 trays of onion rings]
2 1/2 cups water
1/4 cup sundried tomatoes *, soaked 30 minutes (save soak water)
1/4 cup raisins, soaked 15 minutes
2 Roma or medium tomatoes
1 carrot
1 celery stalk
1 teaspoon sea salt, or to tast
1 clove garlic
7 to 8 white onions only **, thinly sliced (if making onion rings)
Dash chipotle or cayenne
1/4 teaspoon cumin powder
1/4 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon Frontier salt free Mexican seasoning ***
1/2 cup flax seeds, soaked overnight in 1 cup water (yields 1 cup after soaking)


* Not oil packed
** Use white, Walla Walla or Vidalia onions but not yellow or red onions.
*** Not certified gluten free but Frontier "follows strict Good Manufacturing Practices to minimize the potential for cross contamination but does not test for the presence of allergens to the final product".


Put all ingredients in blender except flax seeds and onion, blend well and adjust seasoning to taste. Blender should be about 1/2 to 3/4 full.
Add 1 cup flax seeds to the blender and blend well. Mixture should be slimy like a pancake batter but not to thick, just a little soupy. If a little thick, add a little of the sundried tomato soak water.
If making BBQ chips, drop by spoonfuls on Teflex sheet, dehydrate at 105 degrees F. for 10 - 12 hours. Flip chips and dry another 6 - 8 hours or until desired crispness is obtained.
For making onion rings, put sliced onions in bowl and pour most of mixture over onion rings. Coat the onions well by mixing with your hands. This amount should fill 3 1/2 to 4 trays.
Put on Teflex sheets and spread them where they lay on top of each other but spread over the entire sheet of Teflex.
Dehydrate at 105 degrees for 10 - 12 hours, flip onion rings and dry another 6 - 8 hours or until desired crispness is obtained.


Abeba's note: There will be some batter left in bowl and you can slice more onions to finish the batter or make more BBQ chips or bell pepper chips, or just be creative and come up with a new krazy kracker!
(In the demo, Abeba also used some of this excess mixture to pour over the onion rings once they were on the Teflex sheet).


The next day she showed us how to make two types of raw bread. "Go Green Bread" made in a blender and "Carrot Bread" made in a food processor. These recipes can also be found in "Abeba's More Lip Smackin Favorites". 

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