Is it just me, or is the human race going to hell in a handcart? There are a couple of bits of insanity at the moment involving the serving size of over sugared sodas.

In America one of the fast food chains has come up with what they must have thought was a good idea in the face of public concern over childhood diabetes.  Simply put, if you supersize your over sugared concoction of chemicals, mysteriously called a soda, they will donate a dollar to the childhood diabetes charity.  I just can’t believe that an idea as stupid as this one ever made it out of the marketing meeting, what were they thinking? Is the search for profits so great that they can absolve themselves of any blame in the proliferation in diabetes and obesity?  Again to put it simply, if you make a habit of drinking more than your recommended daily sugar intake in one drink then you are going to need the services of the diabetes research people sooner rather than later.

Now I know it’s a personal choice, but on the basis that if we can prevent just one person from developing Type Two Diabetes we will save our local economy half a million dollars…and that’s just the financial cost, the personal cost for each sufferer is immeasurable. What bites me with this is the cynical approach of a so called food retailer to look for a genuine concern of their clients and potential clients, then instead of actually helping they use it as a sales tool.  Don’t get me wrong KFC the diabetes charities need your money, mainly to fight the very practices that you survive on.  Perhaps it would be a more socially acceptable thing to actually try to cut the sugar level or am I just being picky.

Now speaking of cynical approaches who do you think is organising the protests against Mayor Bloomberg in New York?  Is it really hundreds of thousands of hard-bitten New Yorkers – or perhaps the very lobby groups that work for the fast food industry?  Banning drinks that contain more than your daily recommended sugar intake sounds perfectly reasonable to me, because drinking an extra 16 oz of sugary crap on top of the 16 oz you’ve already consumed is just what you need. Give me a break this is not a personal freedom issue, if you drink 32oz of sugar and chemicals you’re a dumbass and probably don’t deserve any personal choice.

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Always a problem, what do you cook on a busy night? Well tonight is that night with Anne running late with a meeting and Alex at rugby training. Nothing else for it, Fraser and I are on dog walking and diner.

Its so easy to let good cooking slip when time is short, the trick is to have a few things up your sleeve or in this case in the freezer. Risotto isn’t ideal in the freezer as it tends to dry out but needs must and you just need to add some fun stuff to keep it moist.

In this case a bit of panfried Bok Choy with soy and some prawns with coriander and garlic, all topped off with a perfectly poached egg fresh from the neighbors. Finally a bit of seasoning ad a drizzle of good olive oil

Easy Risotto

The main point to remember when making risotto is that any liquid which you use, whether it is stock, wine or cream, should be boiling hot before you add it to the rice.  This will stop your risotto from “clumping”.

For 2 – 3 main servings:

1 cup Ferron risotto rice

2½ cups stock, boiling

½ onion or 2 shallots, chopped

1 – 2 cloves garlic, chopped

Extra virgin olive oil

100 ml white wine

Salt and pepper

Parmesan, grated

Extra hot stock, olive oil or butter

Method

Heat the wine gently (and saffron, if using.)  In another large pan, heat a little olive oil and sweat the “soffrito” slowly – garlic, onion and any other root vegetable being used (e.g. carrot, leek).  Add the rice and heat through for 1 – 2 minutes (called toasting).  Add wine and allow to reduce.  Add the boiling stock all at once, bring back to the boil and add seasoning.  Cover and simmer for 15 – 18 minutes.

Add flavourings, rest for a few minutes and then stir through parmesan, a little extra stock,  gently heated cream, extra virgin olive oil or butter – the amount depends on how ‘allonde,’ or creamy, you like your risotto.

Suggested additions:

Porcini: Soak 15g Gigante porcini in 250ml warm water for at least 20 minutes.  Strain and use some of the stock in risotto.  Add sliced porcini at half way point.  Add heated cream at the end, along with parmigiano and chopped Italian parsley.  Drizzle with Ceruti Truffle oil.

Smoked Mushrooms: As above, but use Aromatics Smoked Mushrooms instead of porcini.

Smoked Salmon : Add chopped leek to the initial ‘soffrito’.  Before adding parmesan, add chopped, cooked Aoraki Smoked Salmon.

Chorizo & Saffron : Add a pinch of crushed saffron to the wine/stock and, before you add the parmesan at the end, fold through 2 cooked, chopped chorizo sausages.

Pumpkin: Cook cubed pumpkin slowly in EVO with garlic and some red wine and add with the parmesan.

Lamb, Feta & Capers: Add 1 – 2 seared lamb fillets, marinated in Giusti  Balsamic Vinegar and Olivo Infused Olive Oil (Lemon or Porcini) plus 2 tablespoon salted capers, soaked and rinsed and 100g cubed Zany Zeus Creamy Feta.

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This has been bouncing around the internet and for me highlights some of the problems with the food industry.

In New Zealand we have only 2 supermarket brands that effectively control what we all buy and at what price.

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Every monday night the boys take it in turns to cook, tonight it’s Alex’s turn and he’s decided to do fajitas.

As much as it is important to eat together as a family, it is also vital that we pass on the cooking skill to our children. My dearest wish is that by the time our boys leave home they are both more than capable of looking after themselves. They’ll be the most popular students at university and who knows, they might be able to earn a few dollars on the side.

To often these days the family meal is not taken together, not in our house. I love the Italian idea of all eating together, after all how else do we find out about everyones day. It’s more than being nosey though, this is family time and it’s so important to us all.

Now to the recipe, this is a tricky one as it’s not mine and to be honest I have no idea what Alex put in. Except for the Bok Choy, which he didn’t want to use but I insisted, to use it up.

As I’m writing this the aftermath of a family meal is going on with Anne and the boys chatting excitedly by the fire. It just makes me smile that our two are just blabbering away about their day with no edge or attitude.

Enough for now, I’m off to join in, this is too good to miss.

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Just thought I’d share this

Thank goodness the authorities have busted these hardened front-yard garden criminals

High-tech kitchen garden evangelist Roger Doiron says: “If this garden is deemed illegal, we’re in deep you-know-what.”

Earlier this year, Josée Landry and Michel Beauchamp of Drummondville, Quebec planted the front yard of the future: a gorgeous and meticulously-maintained edible landscape full of healthy fruits and vegetables. Now they’re being ordered by town officials to remove most of their gardens (town code states that a vegetable garden can’t occupy more than 30% of the area of a front yard) in the next two weeks to make their yard conform with newly harmonized town code. Front yard kitchen gardens are not the problem; they’re part of the solution to healthier and more sustainable communities.

Thank you Mark for making this public, I know it’s in Canada but can you really believe that your council wouldn’t do the same thing!!!!

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Check out what this small town in England is achieving at www.incredible-edible-todmorden.co.uk.

Let this be an inspiration to us all, we can make a difference!!!

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Sports Nutrition in the Real World with The Bay of Plenty Steamers

Lets start with the generally accepted definition of sports nutrition, this time taken from that font of all knowledge, Wikipedia.

Sports nutrition is the study and practice of nutrition and diet as it relates to athletic performance. It is concerned with the type and quantity of fluid and food taken by an athlete, and deals with nutrients such as vitamins, minerals, supplements and organic substances such as carbohydrates, proteins and fats. Although an important part of many sports training regimens, it is most commonly considered in strength sports (such as weight lifting and bodybuilding) and endurance sports (for example cycling, running, swimming).

Now before we all fall asleep lets move this book out of the science and into the real world, because lets face it when was the last time you popped to the supermarket and bought 500g of protein?

The idea behind this blog is quite simply that although there is a plethora of scientific tomes published on sports nutrition there is a sad lack of an easy to use handbook on how to feed elite sports people.

We will demystify the science and look at the real food that the Bay of Plenty Steamers and their sporting friends use and enjoy while fulfilling their training and event needs.

Fish “En Papillote” with Tapenade

Serves 2

2 fish fillets, e.g. blue nose, swordfish

½ onion

½ leek

2 cloves garlic

1 tbsp tapenade

2 tomatoes, sliced

Handful flat leaf parsley, chopped roughly

Lemon juice & zest

1 cup white wine

Method

Put fish with onions, leeks, garlic, tomatoes and flavourings in two parcels of tin foil.  Place on a hot baking sheet and bake at 230˚C for 10-12 minutes.

Papardelle with Char-Grilled Chicken & Green Beans

Serves 2

1 x 200g chicken breast, thinly sliced

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

1½ garlic cloves, finely sliced

Sea salt & freshly ground black pepper

1 batch tagliatelle (see ‘speedy pasta’ recipe above)

1 tablespoon olive oil

100g baby green beans, topped (not tailed) and sliced from end to end on the diagonal

65ml (¼ cup) chicken stock

Good quality parmesan cheese, grated

25g basil leaves

Method

Place the chicken, EVO oil and garlic in a bowl and stir to combine.  Season with salt & pepper.  Cook pasta in a large pot of rapidly boiling salted water until ‘al dente’ and drain well.  Meanwhile, 5 minutes before pasta is cooked, place a large frying pan over a high heat until hot.  Add olive oil and heat for 5 seconds.  Add chicken with marinade and sear quickly for 30 seconds.  Add beans and reduce heat to medium.  Cook for another 2 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Return heat to high, add the stock and simmer for 30 seconds.  Add pasta and toss to combine.

Divide pasta evenly between two bowls and top with freshly grated parmesan cheese, basil and freshly ground black pepper.

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Food for elite sports people is an incredibly complex area to talk about, and to be honest I’m not a dietician. What I am is a chef who can translate the complex science into the real world so that our elite and future elite sports people can achieve their dreams.

Over the years I’ve had the pleasure of working with all manner of sports people from professional rugby players.

to ocean yacht racers

I’ll keep posting every time I find something new.

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