Another important building block we discussed this week was herbs and spices. First, Laidan gave us on overview of the properties of many of the most commonly used herbs and spices.

Next, we all went about making our own five spice blend. I used a little cumin, celery root, turmeric, cardamon, and coriander. Ladan showed us how to make a marinade using the spice blend.

Next, we marinated some veggies and put them in the dehydrator.

While that was going, we set about our next lesson for the day…the magical properties of the coconut. Part of this lesson involved opening a case of coconuts.

I lucked out and got a perfect case of coconuts. The coconut water was pristine.

And the meat was beautiful!

We used the coconut harvest to make red pepper wrappers to go with our marinated vegetables.

We made a delicious almond cheese using almonds, celery juice, and fresh nutmeg (among other things).

We used a microplane to grate our fresh nutmeg. It looks pretty interesting on the inside. I’ve never gotten so up close and personal with a nutmeg.

Once we had all our mise en place ready, we went about assembling our vegetable rolls.

Voila! Ladan said mine looked kind of like an enchanted forest. I thought it looked a little like the Starship Enterprise.