Poached Eggs with Black Bean Curry

I guess this would a mix between mexican and indian flavors. Black beans, spinach, peas, carrots, tomatoes, curry, and eggs. I got the idea of poaching the eggs in the beans after watching America's Test Kitchen when they made huevos rancheros, a typical mexican breakfast. I think its a cool way to get extra protein post-training and adds a little twist to the norm

Ingredients
1 Can of Black Beans, drained
1/2 yellow onion diced
3 cloves of garlic
1/2 tbs of tumeric
1 tbs of curry powder
1/2 tbs of cumin seeds
1 cup of diced tomatoes
1/4 cup of minced cilantro
1/2 cup of frozen peas
1 cup of fresh baby spinach
1 med carrot diced
2 eggs
salt and pepper to taste
*chili pepper optional
Heat cumin, curry, and tumeric in a pan until fragrant, 2-3min. Add 1 tbs of evoo, onion, garlic, and carrots. Stir together and heat till fragrant. Add tomatoes, beans and stir together. Add some salt(1tsp) and black pepper. Heat until tomatoes begin to break down. Add peas, spinach. Cover. Stir occassionaly. Might need to add a litle water if it gets too dry. After about 6-8min or spinach has wilted, stir all together. Add cilantro and stir. Now make a spot in the middle of the mixture and crack an egg. Make another spot and crack another egg. Essentially, you should have bean mixture surrounding eggs. Cover and turn heat to med high. Make sure mixture doesn't dry out. You are essentially poaching the eggs in the beans. Eggs are done with the yolks cover is a hazing white, see top picture. Add some extra cilantro when serving. Enjoy!
Very high in fiber, protein. Low in fat, sugar and bad stuff. Ie it fills you up, helps muscles and keeps you regular =)

Roasted Red Pepper and Tomato Soup

After a well received meal from my family on Christmas Eve, I have decided to share part of the experience with all my online supporters. I should have a nice photo to accompany in a few days. I will just have to teach my mom on how to attach files to emails. Love you mom! =)

Roasted Red Pepper and Tomato Soup
this soup is boasting with red pepper goodness and the slight hint of smoke. To get the full effect, you should roast your fresh red bell peppers on a grill or on the indoor range burner. If you want the similar but still tasty version, buy yourself some roasted red peppers in a jar. Available in the italian section or in the can good section.

Serves 8
Ingredients
4 roasted red peppers, sliced up and de-seeded
1 qt of whole tomatoes (prefer San Marzano tomatoes), drain and deseed
3 cups of low-sodium vegetable stock
4 cups of water
Sea salt and black pepper(1-2tbs a piece) to taste
3/4 cup of fresh basil leaves, thinly sliced
2 tbs of italian seasoning
2 shallots, minced
6 cloves of garlic, crushed
1/2 cup of lite cream(optional)
2 tbs of sugar
1 lemon, juiced
cup of bread crumbs(thickener)
1/2 cup of extra virgin olive oil

To process

Heat EVOO in a large saute pot. Add shallots and garlic, pinch of salt and black pepper also. Cook until fragrant. Add the tomatos and red peppers. Mix together with shallots/garlic. Cook for a few minutes. Add the stock and water. Stir everything together. Turn heat to low and simmer for 20minutes. Add herbs, sugar, breadcrumbs and lemon juice. Stir together. Use an immersion blender to puree. Taste. If too acidic, add cream. Mix together so milk doesn't curdle.

Let soup cool and taste again. Adjust flavoring for more heat with red chili peppers. Serve with toasted baguette and enjoy this mouth-watering surprise!

Cheers,
Matthew

Energy Bars

I am back making my energy bars after a long haitus. The increase in training has sparked my interest in it again. And I don't want to eat the run-of-the-meal energy bars. Namely because they are typically too sweet and #2 they are overpriced. Perhaps at some point I will market my creations to finance my global bicycle racing campaign =)

So what I need are suggestions for what you would like to see. Please use the comment section. I will make mass bunches of the ones that succeed through my testing and tasting and will let you name the bar if your bar is chosen as well as I will send you a large quantity of your bar to you. Sounds like a smashing deal ehh?

Here are the rules that each flavor suggestion must adhear to:
1) Ingredient is readily available or can be produced w/o intense labor, remember something that has to be mass produced in my kitchen.
2) The bar is based on rolled oats so keep that in mind
3) Seasonal suggestions are encouraged but not required. Its always good to have bars for all seasons.
4) Fruit suggestions will use dried fruit in most cases due to shelf life.
5) No meats, this is an energy bar not a Belgian breakfast

Deadline for submissions? Lets just try to get the ideas sooner rather than later, multiple submissions are allowed and encouraged. Think outside the box but tried and true suggestions are always good for those on the conservative side of energy bars =)

Chow,
Matthew

Honey and Erratic drivers

This morning I rolled out on the 'ol Trek1000 on my usual ride to work. Decided to ride up 7th to Laguna Honda to get a little more riding in before the day begins. On my way around West Portal School, this VW driver does a uturn into my lane and just stops to let his kids off. Fortunately, my jedi mind skills anticipated such a weak move on his part. Angered and frustrated for nearly being taken out before I had even a cup of coffee in the morning I rolled up to the guys window. I looked him in the eyes and said, "watch out!" He was a little blown away but he needed to be reminded that his kids won't be late and he should take his driving a little more carefully especially when he is performing illegal uturns. Disgusted at such action, I persevered and was soon back to my happy cycling self but I knew that he plastered onto the web as a bad driver, so if you are around West Portal School in the morning hours watch out for an Asian mid-40s male driver in a VW Golf.

My good friend Nettie Kelly and her sister arrived on the red-eye this morning from Honolulu, so I did the airport pickup. The Forester was in full capacity when I left SFO. They were quite impressed with her abilities to haul such quantities of goods. This was a pretty early pickup at 6:23 am. The plan was to pick them up and then drive home and get the bike and get a little breakfast at Squat and Gobble in West Portal. Arrive at Squat and Gobble at about 7:40am and they have a sign that says food only served between 8am-10pm. WTF dude?! What breakfast places only start serving breakfast at 8am? They are dead to me now so I rolled over to Noah's Bagels across the street and ordered a toasted pumpkin bagel. I like the seasonal flavors =) Most go with cc on their bagel, not me I prefer it plain but asked for a little honey to drizzle on the top. When I asked for the honey the attendant, rather than handing it too me, placed it on the counter box just inches from my hand. I was a little bothered on why she just didn't hand it to me. Its like travel companies offering you a sick deal then saying all you need to do is buy this ridiculously priced plane ticket to get here. If people were just a little more courteous with these small exchanges then I think bigger and better changes would occur in the world.

I picked up my 3 Fuji apples from the West Portal Produce again this morning. I am quite the regular. I think they have some of the freshest fruit in the city. The Chinese man who oversees the stocking in the morning always rings me up, $0.85 is the typical charge which I usually give exact change for but this morning it was $0.90, I guess I am a victim of inflation =) He always smiles and is very cordial. When I left he said, "see you tomorrow morning!" Nice guy and good reason to continue to support to local merchants.

The highly anticipated butternut squash ravioli had positives and negatives. The flavor was top notch. I roasted the butternut squash with a little olive oil drizzle over and sprinkled with sea salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg to give a nice fall flavor. After pureeing it in the food processor I sauted up some fresh sage until crispy then chopped it and added it to the squash puree then scooped in a little ricotta and mixed thoroughly. The next part is what I need to work on. I used Asian wonton wrappers. At first I tried doing the triangular fold with a little scoop of squash/ricotta in the middle. I used water on the edges to seal the wrapper. Then I tried the wrapper on top of wrapper square method. I think this was a better result. i used the end of a fork to make the nice ravioli presses on the end. Boiled in water with sea salt. I think I boiled them too long. Ravioli was very translucent and falling apart. I believe the wrapper are just too delicate for boiling. I looked on the web for suggestions. I found that they are probably good at 3minutes. Also need to take each one out and pat dry with a paper towel and not lay them on top of each other b/c the starches make them stick together. I think next time, I will try steaming them or going Gyoza on them, ie panfrying them which will give them a crispy outside. Soooo many methods to try! Perhaps I will have to start making my own pasta. My awesome office-mate Molly suggested I check out this Italian supermarket in the Mission where its possible I could buy some homemade ravioli pasta. Its worth a checkout....

Yesterday I started reading, Think Like a Chef, by Tom Collochio. Head chef on my only reality-tv drug, Top Chef. I thought he was some arrogant tv chef but his background is quite impressive and he earned himself his attitude through a lot of hard work. what I like most about his idea is his resilience to following recipes. I can never follow recipes. He proposes following what your tastes lean too and what is in season etc. His book does contain recipes but its more about how to think about making good food. Something that is always consuming me. I often go to high-end markets just to check out the deli and see how they pair things and getting ideas. Weird? Extremely, but I guess thats my cross to bear...lol...

Just got off the phone with one of my good friends, Morgan Colana, from St. Mary's Catholic School in Johnson City, TN. She just came up with this great idea to have a dinner party over the Thanksgiving break. I told her absolutely then I said its going to be off the hook so be prepared. Pretty much is going to be a fall culinary nirvana!

So if you are going to be TN and want to sync up shoot me an email...I will keep you posted as the menu develops but its going to be full-blown =)

Chow,
Matthew

Two Bean Curry Vegetable Chili

I created this cold, fall weather treat last Friday afternoon. Nothing is too exact but I think thats what makes this dish fun because freebasing is fun right??? =)

Matthew's Two Bean Curry Vegetable Chili
Trader Joes Roasted Corn (1.5cups)
Trader Joe's Organic black beans (1 can)
TJ's Organic Garbanzo beans (3/4 can)
Bell Pepper (roasted in the oven till skin peels) (1/2 pepper)
Yellow Onion (1.5 cups of sauted onion)
Garlic (4 cloves), sauted with onions
Zuchinni (1 cup) diced up and sauteed
Basil (fresh, 1 cup)
Oregano (1 tbsp)
Chili Powder (2 tbsp)
Cumin (2 tbsp)
Curry Powder (1.5 tbsp)
Vegi Stock (1/2 cup)
Whole Can tomatoes(16oz can, blended up in food processor or blender)
balsamic vinegar(1 tbsp)
Pepper & Salt (to taste)
Crushed Red Pepper for heat (to taste)
EVOO (1 tbsp)

Sauteed onions & garlic until golden. Add curry powder and cook until fragrant. You can add a little balsamic to deglaze the pan. Chop tomatoes in food processor then add to pot with onions. Turn heat low to simmer. Add a pinch of salt and stir. Add cumin and chili powder and stir. Add black and garbanzo beans after draining them. Stir ingredients together. Heat remains on simmer. Add stock and stir after 10min of cooking. Now add the sauted zuchinni and roasted corn. Stir and simmer for another 20min. Add water if needed. continue to stir. Add chopped roasted red peppers and chopped basil. Add EVOO also. After 10min, add crushed red pepper and oregano. Stir for another 5min and add any water if necessary. Now serve =)

Can be served alone or with some rice...

Pumpkin Curry Recipe

This being the season of the harvest and pumpkins, I want to share a recipe I created last fall. It received great reviews from my Westchester County surrogate family, yes the same county of my hospital stay and my close friends here in SF. Remember, the freshest ingredients always make for the best taste...Enjoy!

Peanut Pumpkin Curry Sauce(serving size of 4):
2 tbsp of peanut oil
2 cloves of garlic
1 finger-length of ginger
1/3 yellow onion
1.5 tbsp of good peanut butter (I prefer the crunchy Trader Joes brand)
2 tbsp Sweet Soy Sauce (specifically sweet soy sauce)
1 16oz can of pure pumpkin puree
3 tbsp of Coconut Curry Sauce (found at asian market)
1 tbsp of red curry paste (more or less depending on how spicy you like)
1 8oz(small size) of Chao Koh coconut milk
2 tbsp of shaved palm sugar (or 1.5 tbsp of brown sugar) (palm sugar is found in the asian market. Usually its in a small disc shape but is very hard).
1/3 cup of chicken stock
1 med size red bell pepper
1 med size green bell pepper
1 carrot
1 handful of cilantro
2 cups Jasmine rice
1 container of tofu or 1 large chicken breast or other preferred meat. If you use fish, recommend cooking the fish separately.

Directions:

Prep(most important):

If you have a rice cooker, mix 4 cups of water into the 2 cups of rice and start. Always use, a 2:1 water/rice mixture. Smash and cut garlic. Finely chop ginger. Cut onion into small pieces. Cut bell peppers into small pieces along with carrot. Cut tofu or meat into small pieces. Finely chop cilantro. Set veggies and meat aside so as you are ready to add when needed.

Cooking: If you have a wok, use it. If not a deep dish non-stick frying pan works well too or a paella pan. Use a medium heat. Add peanut oil. Let warm. Then add, onion, garlic, and ginger. Be sure to stir so as to prevent burning. Once the onions begin to cook and the garlic becomes fragrant, add the peanut butter. Pour the soy sauce onto the peanut butter. This will cause the peanut butter to begin to separate. Quickly stir it all together then immediately add the pumpkin puree. Stir all together so that everything is infused. Should turn from bright orange to a darker orange. Let sit for 1 min. Now add the curry sauce and curry paste. Stir together. Sauce should be very thick now. Add the coconut milk and stir in. Turn heat to medium and add tofu/chicken and carrots. As sauce thickens slowly add chicken stock in small increments to keep the sauce from getting to thick. Cook for 4-5min. Now add the peppers. Stir in additional chicken stock and add the palm sugar. Stir all together. Let sit for another 1-2min over low heat. Taste and determine whether you want more heat. If you like it. Turn off heat. Sprinkle cilantro on top of sauce when serving. Serve with fresh rice or you can mix the sauce with rice noodles or pasta noodles to have a curry-noodle dish.

C-Day + 7

For you all who didn't catch the WWII era lingo, the title means Crash Day + 7. Feeling much better this Friday than I did last Friday. Of course it not too difficult to find a more pleasurably day when you are comparing eating asphalt at 27+mph. I took off Monday and Tuesday from riding namely because I came down with a cold on Sunday. I have a feeling that it started before Sunday, but Sunday's give everything and leave nothing on the table type of ride sent my immune system down the river so to speak. I went for a nice 2 hour ride to Mill Valley on Wed under my coach's strict rules of easy spinning. Getting on the bike Wed afternoon felt weird. I was so eager to go riding but the body felt weird getting on the bike. I would think that I would be so use to it after all the kms I have ridden this year. But good sensations in the legs came around. Some moto rider pulled up to me in Mill Valley and kept staring at me. I was quite perplexed then he flipped up his visor and tried to get me to go faster. I looked and smiled. Not today pal...Thursday was another good day on the bike. Went for 3.5 hours on Paradise and out to San Anselmo. Legs felt good in the beginning but I was pretty hungry by the end. Should have brought some food with me. Rode to work today and did some shopping at the Parkside Market which by the way has the best fruit and produce anywhere I have found in the city. Prices are excellent too. I highly recommend jumping in on the yellow peaches and fresh nectarines. They are both in season now and are excellent!

I have been following Le Tour via the live text feed on VeloNews.com b/c I am without cable. Not too much exciting going on but it was sad to hear Dave Zabriskie drop out. I have always liked his style. Very dry sense of humor. He lost 30min the other day. Reminds me of my 25min loss on the last stage of Cascade. Its reassuring to know that even the most trained athletes can have terrible days. He will be back soon enough as will I. On another note, the GC will see a huge shakeup tomorrow in the TT. Latest news out of the Rasmussen file seems a little sketchy. Former friend and riding partner told VeloNews back in 2002 that Rasmussen asked him to carry a box shoes his flight back to Europe for him. Only the shoebox carried what appeared to be bags of blood. He emptied them in the trash after speaking with a physiology friend to see what exactly they might be. Now Rasmussen has denied any wrongdoing but its not good right now for his story or cycling. Given the statements were taken back in 2002, i think adds a little more credibility than the he said accusations going on today. I hope its not true for cycling's sake.

Back to non cycling news...Since I finished cascade on Sunday morning, my appetite has just not been there. I have always found it very hard to eat during racing. Mostly b/c I can't put food down very well when i am riding hard, something I will need to work on. But since I finished my appetite has been not very high which is atypical after a multiple days of hard riding. During stage racing, food becomes a means to get through. Its no longer about taste, its about calories and energy. You eat to ride. It becomes a job to a certain degree if you are racing for 3 or more days in a row. Its often a complaint of Tour riders. Eating the same muesli, baguettes and pasta every day gets boring. I haven't had pasta since last Saturday which is quite different for me b/c I typically eat a lot of pasta, mostly b/c I enjoy it. This week I made a nice broccoli-sundried tomato-mozzerellla risotto on thursday and curry couscous on Wed. I hardly ate any of the couscous and was able to bring some to work the next day. But the risotto was the first decent meal i was able to eat in a matthew portion. I have been eating lots of spinach salad this week with fresh veggies and fruit. Tonight I ate a spinach salad with fresh peaches, red bell peppers, cucumbers, gorgonzola and balsamic. And I made some homemade sourdough croutons. See recipe below. I learned how to do it the other night from my german roommate Kristof. It was super tasty. But I also ate a salad for lunch. What is wrong with me?! I do love salads but I was just too exhausted this evening to make the indian curry I was thinking about. Ohh well, something to look forward to tomorrow night.

Try this on your salad next time for that extra bit of taste and culinary fun..

Garlic-Herb Croutons
Heat 1 tbsp of EV Olive Oil over Med-High in a saute pan
Cut a cup full of fresh bread(good baguette, or other tasty bread) into small pieces
Add one clove of crush garlic to oil
After 1 min, toss the bread in the saute pan
Sprinkle fresh basil, oregano, or rosemary or a combo of herbs to your liking over the bread
Pinch of salt and pepper
Toss bread in pan to make sure herbs are evenly distributed
Cook until golden brown
Now lay them on your salad or store them in a closed container in the fridge(probably a 1-2 day life)


Chow,
Matthew