I had a special request to write this recipe down right away so I don’t forget it. It is indeed delicious, but I think it is more the care put into finding good ingredients than the precise measurements described in the recipe given below. I’ve recently been reading about the Sikhs and their culinary traditions as well as the culinary traditions of the milk belt in general. In this process I found this wonderful blog describing a langar feast:

A langar is a Sikh ‘free kitchen’ and eating there (and working there to help prepare the communally produced food) is one of the Three Pillars of Sikhism.

The photos and description of the feast is just fantastic and it sounded a lot like the free kitchen run by Food not Bombs down at #Occupy Vancouver. In my understanding the food prepared at the langars is the best quality, treated right and respected both while it is being grown as well as while it is being prepared, the beautiful energies put into the food makes it even more beneficial for your body than we really understand at all in our modern world.

I recently scored a delightful bonus when Tropical Traditions sent me a free bottle of their Gold Label Virgin Coconut Oil to review. I had a bottle of another type of coconut oil that I was just finishing up and decided to do a taste test. I was worried, since I had a pungent curry cooking, that the smell would cover up any taste difference.

As soon as I put that bite of Gold Label virgin coconut oil in my mouth there was clearly no question which was the better product. The other brand had no flavor at all. Gold Label just burst with coconut delight, even the texture is smoother and creamier. Basically it just feels all around good. Taken care of. I laughed and shared some with my man, he had the same concern about the overpowering smell in our kitchen, and was equally astonished by the burst of delightful flavor.

What perfect timing to get a large bottle of extra-good-for-you coconut oil! So I set off to make my favorite treat in an extra special way. I got some local dried cherries and honey-hazelnut butter from the farmer’s market (pictured above), some fresh dates, and some soaked and slow-roasted almonds and cashews and took a batch of dates to donate to the kitchen down at #Occupy Vancouver. I get worried about those people down there, many of them probably need to be on therapeutic diets and most likely have issues with candida among other things. They probably also need all the good fats they can get. A snack of soaked nuts, good fat and dates as opposed to refined sugar is better than a highly processed alternative. I also took down homemade fermented veggies.

I have another larger batch of cashews in the oven at the moment and tomorrow night I’m making more truffles. I’m gonna use my bottle of coconut oil for some of the truffles and some local butter for some of the other ones. Although the Food not Bombs kitchen prefers to be vegan they are happy to accept any food that is ethically prepared and when I told them I owned the cow my butter came from they really appreciated it.

Here’s the approximate recipe, which is a good example of a local global recipe.

• 1 box of fresh dates
• 1 T Gold Label virgin coconut oil
• handful dried cherries
• 1 T hazelnut-honey butter
• 1 c cashew pieces
• 1/2 c almond flour
• 1/2 t honeyed lemon zest
• dash salt

Roll in almond flour or cocoa powder.