SUPERBOOOOOWL!!

"The spirit, the will to win, and the will to excel are the things that endure. These qualities are so much more important than the events that occur." - Vince Lombardi

I celebrated this past Waitangi Day as any patriotic New Zealander should - by drinking Budweiser and watching the Super Bowl. For those of you that live in a box, the Super Bowl is the greatest event on the American sporting calendar. It is the ultimate in American gladitorial sport - when the NFL culminates in its final match of the year. Two battling titans who may have potentially not even played each other in the current season.

The sport is American Football. It is NOT called Grid Iron as some think in New Zealand, although some in the US refer to the pitch up which they play as the grid iron. Bright lights, huge crowds, colossal brands, exceptional athletes and often some dropping play. Many of you won't understand the game, it can be slow, overly technical, full of advertisements and probably even seem a little over hyped. Like all sports, it takes some time to buy into the culture, and ultimately I am not here to convince you to appreciate the game for its finer points. It is fair to say, though, that for genuine fans of the game it is a huge deal, and a shitload of fun.

So why should you care??

Mostly because it's a good excuse to party. American Football has a great sense of occasion. The smallest ground in the NFL is Soldier Field, home of my beloved Chicago Bears, and holds something in the order of 65,000 loyal fans. Some college games get attendance of 90,000. The Dallas Cowboys stadium holds over 100,000. We are talking about teams, brands and an engrained lifestyle that drives enthusiastic Americans to the brink of Sanity.

Those of us a little more removed from the madness, however, can enjoy the excesses of American culture for just one day. We do this by getting into a bit of game spirit, drinking American beer, and making a variety of snacks we probably wouldn't otherwise bother for. It is the sense of occasion and adventure that brings a more fun and jovial nature to these sporting parties - even for those that don't enjoy or understand the game!!

Here's what we did at our place - a small apartment in Auckland, where we managed to squeeze in 11 people.


DECORATE

PICK A TEAM
This makes ANY sports game more enjoyable. Note, I am a Bears fan, but support any team playing against the Patriots. So ... GO GIANTS! It also helps to throw a little cash at the game to give you a vested interest.

 

You'll note that I chucked $50 on the Giants to win by 6 points or less, paying $4.75, netting a nice little win!


DELICIOUS FOOD
This is the best part of the day. Myself and my flattie whipped up a few delicious treats: Football Meatballs with chilli glaze, pigs in a blanket, homemade guacamole with corn chips, spicy wings with blue cheese dressing, and pizza wheels. A friend of ours also brought some EPIC Cheesecake Brownie. Throw in some Oreos and Budweiser, and you have a recipe for an awesome day!

DRINKING GAME

You can look your one up on the net, however I made one up that required people to draw a player's name out of the bowl, and consume based on how often that player was mentioned or what specific plays happened in the game. Some people will always be luckier than others of course!

Of course all that mattered in the end was that everyone had a good time, but I must say I was pleased with the result and the little cash win. Tom Brady can suck it for another year!!

Foods.

Haven't blogged for ages, but need to be updating a lot more regularly. Simple and short tonight!

Myself, my flatmates and a few friends have recently tried something called the 'Slow Carb' diet. It's an eating plan we got from the Tim Ferris book entitled 'The Four Hour Body'. I won't go into the principles (you can check the links for that), but suffice it to say that almost everyone who has adhered to the plan properly, has lost a tonne of weight - a lot more than initially expected.

A huge negative factor that I have been reading about across various forms of literature is WHEAT, and this way of eating is a fantastic way to avoid wheat. Another is 'Paleo'. Both of these diets rely on reverting to whole foods and eliminating much of the processed stuff we eat today - I really recommend that you give this lifestyle some thought and investigation, as it helps immensely with weight loss, weight management and overall health.

Anyway, my final note on tonight's blog is just a dinner that I had... One of the more delicious Slow Carb meals  I've made over the last few months - but only if you're a fan of fish, I guess! Hah.

Fish & Parsley Salad with Cashews & Mustard Vinaigrette:


Ingredients

• White fish (I scored a nice piece of Trevally for $2.70 from the super!)
• 40gm cashew nuts
• Parsley
• Spinach
• Tomato
• Canned lentils
• Capers
• Mustard
• Red Wine Vinegar
• Olive oil

How

• Sauté your piece of fish gently on a medium heat (pro tip - throw a lid over it to help it steam & stay moist). Should only need about 3min each side.
• Whilst the fish is cooking, finely chop capers, and combine with 3 tblsp each of olive oil & red wine vinegar, 2 tsp of your favourite mustard. Give it a vigorous stir & set aside.
• Drain & rinse lentils in a sieve
• Roughly chop as much spinach as you like, and a whole bunch of parsley, add to salad bowl
• Remove fish from the heat, roughly chop and add to the salad, as well as chopped cashews and the drained lentils
• Pour over your vinaigrette, toss the whole thing together, and serve
• Garnish with a finely diced tomato

Death.

"Battle not with monsters, lest ye become a monster, and if you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you."  

- Friedrich Nietzsche

I guess in everyone’s life there comes a time when they are faced with mortality. This week, I had a couple of family members pass away. Both of them were probably a little young by modern standards, but neither lost out on a chance to live a full life. Both were lucky enough to have children and grandchildren, had many friends and will be sorely missed by their families. I’d like to say I knew them well, but with that intergenerational barrier the relationships were distinctly one of ‘whanaunga’ – which we can liberally translate to mean ‘extended family’.

Coupled with this, a recent friend of mine has become starkly aware of their own mortality, and finding its steely glare to be a little too much to bear. This fear prompts many questions around spirituality, consciousness and a desire for an eternal life of any kind. This has had me thinking quite a bit about what I want from my life, and why our actions should define who we are.

For those that find solace in spirituality and religion, the thought of passing from ‘this world’ (as they put it, clearly I am not of this persuasion) can often be a little less scary. The promise of life eternal can grant believers a feeling of relative ease as the end of tangible consciousness comes to an end (I say relative, because I think we all fear death on some level),  because the life they lead on earth is/was merely just a portal to something better.

BUT... Even the strongest of believers acknowledges that their time here amongst the rest of us has a finite timeline.

The fear of death is not only a pragmatic one (being afraid of the actual act of dying and potential suffering), but it is also the hugely egotistical and personal acknowledgement that your chance to make an impact on the world or those around you must come to an end. In the rarest of cases people leave a legacy that extends beyond a generation, but for the most part we all just become links in the chain of evolution.

One of the biggest ideological problems I have with religion is, and this is especially true with the Judeo-Christian and Islamic faiths, that this life is all but meaningless compared to the next. That one’s whole existence should be aimed at setting up the next – an eternal reward for a life of subservience and dispelling of critical thought. This removes any context from our lives and can often produce horrible results.

However, I am not here to discuss religion.

My main concern with many people, and I am often just as guilty of it myself, is that we lack perspective. There is so much life to be led, so many experiences to be had, and so much happiness to be gained from the world around us, but our own lives and troubles seem to stand in the way of that. Everything seems too much to handle, or stressful, when it doesn’t need to be. Whether you are a believer or an atheist like myself, it is important to give your own life context – because nobody else can.

If you are not doing something to improve your quality of life, measured only by your own standards, then you are doing it WRONG. If you value love and relationships you should be working on those things. If you value activism and the environment, then get off your ass and do something. If you value a career and the bling, then I hope you know enough about the world to be able to make it big, but are also DOING something about it.

The real tragedy comes not from death, but from a life unfulfilled. 

RIP: Splotch & Brownie.

The world has lost 2 of its real characters this week

CPW - Day 4

Ok this one's hopefully going to be a bit quicker - it was a simple recipe, and it's late! Tomorrow's recipe is way more complicated and I need my beauty sleep. Anyway, tonight's recipe was a nice little Asian style ginger/soy chicken dish. Delish.

WHAT.

About 1kg chicken, thigh cutlets are best - bone IN.
1/3 cup soy sauce
1 tbslp oyster sauce
2 tblsp sesame oil
2tbslp apple cider vinegar
Fresh chilli - seems like every dish I cook is spicy, so I toned it down here. 2 chillis, no seeds
4 large carrots
1 bunch of spring onions
Garlic
Ginger - about 2 inches
Brown rice
Bok Choy
Cornflour

(Pic fail once again... *sigh*)

HOW.

This recipe is super easy. Season and brown off your chicken. While this is happening, slice carrots on an angle, about .5cm pieces. Finely slice spring onions and garlic. Peel and grate your ginger. Add about half of that vege mix to the bottom of your crock pot. Here is the generic browning pic! Haha

Once it's nice and coloured, add the cutlets in to the crock pot one at a time - try not to let too much fat come in, there can be quite a bit of fat left at the end of the day's cooking from this tender meat. You could even pat them down with paper towels if you so desired. Anyway drop them into the pot one at a time, and cover with the rest of the veges.

Combine all your wet ingredients and pour over the top. Again do not be tempted to add more liquid. This is plenty. Whack the lid on, turn it to low and walk away... I left this recipe in the cooker for about 10hrs... The chicken was crazy soft.

Bok Choy is pretty easy to cook too - finely chop some more garlic, combine in a mixing cup with a good dash of soy sauce, 1tsp of oyster sauce, 1tblsp of fish sauce and some rice wine vinegar. I actually keep most of this shit in my pantry but if you don't have one or two of the ingredients it's not a big deal. Then add a dash of water, you want about half a cup of liquid all up. Add some cooking to a hot pan, and throw in your bok choy. You'll need at least 4 bunches for 4 people, and make sure you cut the bases off so the leaves are separate obviously! Once it starts to heat up you'll see the leaves begin to shrivel, add in the liquid and let it reduce and steam the leaves.

Serve the chicken on some brown rice with your bok choy on the side. Boom boom, shake the room

Whilst not as good as last night's recipe, it's still great, and was a nice variation from the Western style comfort food. Wasn't spicy at all, but had that air of ginger about it for some tang.

7/10

Crock Pot Week - Day 3.

Oh yeah... Day 3 of CPW brings us 'pulled' pork.

What is pulled pork Nathan? I hear you ask. Well, when you slow cook a big chunk of pork it pulls apart to delicious, moist, stringy pieces of meat which is great for such things as burritos - you can buy a pork 'carnitas' burrito at Mexicali Fresh. They are delicious.

My plan was to do a pulled pork sandwich or roll of sorts - and I recently discovered some very tasty Ciabatta rolls from the supermarket, so they seemed like a natural choice. They make a good portion size, and have a great texture and flavour. To match the pork I made a coleslaw for the roll, and served it with a balsamic tomato and bean side salad. It was pretty damned awesome, if I do say so.

WHAT.

Big cut of pork, you want shoulder or rump. I grabbed a cut about 800g (incl. fat)
1 cup chicken stock
1/3 cup ketchup (there's an awesome Tuimato sauce on sale in NZ now. Do it.)
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
Big tblsp of mustard powder
About the same amount of garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon of smoked paprika (used in Monday's recipe - definitely worth buying!!)
1/4 cup brown or raw sugar
Chilli flakes - to taste, I used about 1tsp which gave it a nice, mild spice
Salt, pepper, cooking oil (as usual)
White onion
Red onion
Half a cabbage
1 large, or 2 small carrots
Dijon mustard
Mayonnaise
Sour cream
Crushed pineapple - small can, about 250g I think
Cherry tomatoes
Round beans
Balsamic vinegar
Olive oil
Ciabatta loaves

(Sorry for another shit pic, I tend to be doing this first thing in the morning so a bit all over the place!)

HOW.

First you want to remove the skin from your pork. Don't be afraid to keep a bit of fat, but the skin itself does not do well for slow cooking and will be a bit gross at the end. It's easy enough to trim off, and obviously try not to cut off any of the precious meat!

Next up, you guessed it - brown off the meat. Fire up your pan to full temp as usual. If you are unfortunate enough to have a ceramic cook top or you struggle with achieving maximum heat, then make sure you get your pan on early. Don't be afraid of it getting too hot, because obviously that won't be a problem! Don't forget to season the meat before it goes in the pan, and fry fat side down first.

The browning process will take at least 5 minutes, so you have time to cut up your white onion and half (of your half) of the cabbage (yes, that means a quarter of a whole cabbage). Don't worry about doing it finely, just rough cuts about half a cm all the way through. Dump the onion and the cabbage in the bottom of the crock pot. Once them meat has a bit of colour, throw that in too.

Next, combine all your wet ingredients except for the chicken stock into a cup. I have one of those measuring cups that allowed me to measure out the liquid. I don't bother measuring with dry ingredients, but I have found that cooking with the slow cooker retains a lot of liquid, so probably needs to be reasonably measured. Tuimato sauce, Worcestershire, apple cider vinegar (essential, don't use other kinds, especially not MALT.). Then add your spices and give it a good stir with a fork. Throw it over your pork / cabbage / onion.

The reason I didn't use the chicken stock in the original mix was so that I could put it into the mixing cup to help clean out all the good spices and flavours that might be stuck in there. Like so:

About a a cup. But you could definitely get away with less, this recipe will produce a lot of liquid at the end. Throw it all in to the pot - it will look like there is not enough liquid, but do not be tempted to add more. There is plenty.

Lid on. Cook for at least 10hrs. I think in the end I had it in for about 13! Owing to the fact that I had footy training and my flatmates wanted to wait for me. Good cunts. When you come back to it after 10hrs or so, your pork should still be in large chunks, but it will be really moist and soft. Just break it up with a fork and ensure it's stirred through the liquid entirely. Really get stuck into it. It should look a bit like this:

Coleslaw is EASY. This is a great recipe that is perfectly suited to this dish. Finely chop (as finely as you can) the other 1/4 cabbage and the red onion. Grate the carrot(s) into the mix. In a separate bowl add a large tblsp of the Dijon mustard, 2-3 tbslp of mayo, 1 big tblsp of sour cream (that's all I had left from Monday haha!), and about 2 level/small tblsp of the apple cider vinegar. AGAIN do not use a different kind of vinegar - it costs like $4 from the supermarket - buy some. Also drain the crushed pineapple and add it to the bowl. Stir it thoroughly and then dump it into the veges - stir that thoroughly and you have yourself an excellent coleslaw. Usually I wouldn't put pineapple in it, but it goes great with the pork, so take my advice damn it! It's fucking delicious.

The salad is even easier, and you can have it warm or cold. Cut the ends off your round beans. I could only find 'strawberry' tomatoes at the super which are a little larger than your average cherry tom, so had to cut them in half. Heat pan to a medium-high, add some olive oil this time (try not to let the pan get to max heat here, olive oil works better at slightly lower heat), then add your tomatoes and beans. After about 1min of cooking, add in a generous splash of balsamic vinegar. Just enough to coat everything in the pan. Cook off for another 1-2min, then put it in a serving bowl.

To serve, make sure you toast your ciabatta. It's just better. I fan grilled on max heat for a couple of minutes on each side. Too easy. When you're taking the pork from the cooker you WILL find that it has a lot of liquid - just use tongs or a draining spoon and let the majority of the liquid drain off. Be generous with the meat, this recipe could do 6 rolls. Spoon on some of the coleslaw, and top with the other half of the bun. Add some of your side salad, and serve with your favourite beer.

It may not look like much in the pic, but this meal was proper awesome. If you're going to repeat anything from this week's slow cook escapades, then I think this is the one. Great combination of flavours and textures. Consensus in the flat that this one was the best yet, and for a hearty, home cooked, winter meal I don't think you could ask for too much more.

9/10

(I'm hesitant to mark it that high, but I had to mark it relative to the others, so perhaps the others should be slightly lower!)

Crock Pot Week - Day 2.

Alrighty!

Day 2 of CPW has lamb shanks on the menu. A traditional winter favourite, but actually not something i have cooked before, or really even eaten that much. I've had it a couple of times in London pubs, but haven't really had a the chance to have it home cooked too much. Thankfully my flatmates had a 4-pack of shanks delivered as part of a meat order from Grab One (keep an eye out there, great pack for about $60 with shitloads of meat). Anyway... on to the important stuff... the food!

WHAT.

4 x lamb shanks (no idea what they weighed,  plus we can only fit 4 in our cooker)
2 onions
Button mushrooms
Garlic
1 large carrot
Dry red wine (got a great Gunn Estate Pinot Noir on special for $10 down from about $18)
Balsamic vinegar
Wholegrain mustard
Fresh rosemary (so much better than dried, don't skimp)
Fresh parsley
Salt (quite a bit) & pepper, cooking oil
Beef stock cube
Cornflour

(Sorry about the shitty pic, doesn't have a few ingredients in there)

HOW.

Brown your lamb shanks. Much like last night's recipe, do not be afraid of the heat - you are not trying to cook the shanks at all, just get a nice caramelisation on the outside. Brown it up! Season with plenty of salt and pepper before putting into the pan. 

You want a good 3-4min on each side on full heat. Whilst you are doing that, you want to take your 2 onions and cut them into wedges. I read a few recipes online that recommended I find mini onions, like the ones they pickle, but they weren't readily available at the supermarket. When you're cutting your wedges try to keep the bottom of the onion in tact, this helps them hold together and gives quite a different sweetness to their flavour, I think. Like so:

Next you also want to make sure your carrot is nicely diced into approx 1cm pieces, and your garlic is finely chopped. I'm a big garlic fan so use a lot of it in my cooking - I think I used about 4 cloves this morning. From there, throw 4 of the wedges (one onion) into the crock pot, and keep the other 4 ready to go into the pan with your other fresh ingredients. Remove the shanks from the pan and put them in your crock. 

Into the pan go your carrots, garlic, onion wedges and mushrooms. Do not clean out your pan or empty out the oil, it all adds to the flavour. Also bear in mind I went to the trouble of selecting nice, small button mushrooms so that I didn't have to cut them. The bite sized mushrooms have a nice texture to eat, I think. Don't forget to season.

This should take about 5min tops, so during that time you want to combine about 1 cup of the red wine, a generous splash of balsamic, 3tblsp of wholegrain mustard and your finely chopped rosemary. It will look like a disgusting soup. Add it to your pan, with everything still on high heat. Adding liquid to a hot pan like this will help you get the delicious flavours off the bottom - "de-glazing".

Once you've sizzled this off for a couple of minutes, pour it all over the top of your shanks, chop up half your parsley and add that to the mix too. Put the lid on, and you want to cook it on low for 8-10hrs.

Now here's where a bit of cooking experience came in handy. When I came home about 10hrs after cooking, I found a couple of things. Firstly that there wasn't *quite* as much liquid as I wanted, and the liquid I did have was a bit watery. So I took the shanks out of the pot, plated them on the mashed potatoes...

(Served with some yummy mash. If you're always wondering about how to make creamy mash, then just experiment a little. Try not to add too much milk, and add a bit more butter. Don't be afraid to "over" cook the potatoes, and make sure the water is heavily salted. Also add 3-4 cloves of peeled garlic when you're boiling. Final tip is to add in an egg when you're mashing, and really get stuck in. All of this produces a nice creamy texture. I also added a chopped handful of the remaining parsley to add a bit of extra flavour. Yummy.)

To thicken the sauce and add some flavour I put a tbslp of cornflour and half a beef stock cube into the bottom of a mug, added about 1/3 of a cup of boiling water and mixed to ensure no lumps. Added it to the shank-sauce and through it all in a saucepan on HIGH... Not ideal but I had to work quickly owing to the fact that I had plated up the shanks & spuds already. Anyway you'll find that your sauce will thicken up nicely and reduce a little over a period of about 5min or so, and your shanks won't get too cold. then just spoon the mixture over the top.

Although not the best picture, it was fucking delicious. This recipe was absolutely perfect for 4 people, having one generously sized portion each. The lamb was so tender it fell off the bone, the sauce was just right (in the end!) and the spuds were velvety and decadent. Universal praise.

8.5/10

Crock Pot Week - Day 1!

This week I am going to do 5 nights of recipes in the Crock Pot, or slow cooker. Winter here has been reasonably mild, but with a bit of a turn to the colder recently, it's nice to have some comforting meals for dinner. The Crock Pot is an awesome way to prepare a hearty winter meal with not too much effort, although it obviously requires you to be prepared in advance of the following morning. I'm hoping to get a decent variety across the 5 nights, although the temptation is obviously there to make variations on a stew every night! There are 4 of us in the flat, so usually I'll be cooking for 4, although most of the time there will be leftovers.

So the first night I'm making Chilli. Or some people call it Chilli Con Carne I suppose. Beef based, nice and spicy.

WHAT.

Prime beef mince - I used about 600g
250g Beef & Garlic Kransky (or similar smoked sausage)
Garlic
Onion
Capsicum
Tomato paste
2 x canned tomatoes
Jalapeño chillis (I used about 2 tblsp, these are the pickled kind)
1 x can of black beans
About 20-30g Dark chocolate (darker the better, I used 85% cocoa)
Smoked paprika
Cumin
Ground coriander
Chilli powder
Raw sugar
Sour cream & fresh coriander for garnish
Cooking oil, salt & pepper etc for seasoning (this stuff goes without saying obviously!)

HOW.

Make sure you pre-cut your fresh ingredients in advance - it makes working with a hot pan a lot easier. I also pre-sliced the kransky into about 1cm pieces (no pic sorry).

Fire up your pan - don't be afraid of the heat, especially with mince meat, otherwise it can tend to release too much liquid and start to stew the meat. You want it to brown really nicely. Get it cracking hot and brown off your beef. It doesn't need to be cooked thoroughly, you're just giving it a bit of colour and flavour. Make sure you season with salt and pepper whilst it's cooking. Then empty it into your crock pot.

In the same pan (don't clean it, but you might need to add some more oil), throw in your fresh ingredients and your sliced kransky. Again you don't really need to cook it thoroughly, so throw it in on high, soften up your veges and get some colour on your sausage. Then dump that in the pot too.

Once it's all in the cooker, you need to throw in your dry spices and canned ingredients. This is about personal preference really, I don't like to work to strict recipes or amounts of this kind of stuff. Smoked paprika is a really nice spice and adds a level of flavour that is sometimes missing from our cooking. I used about 1tsp each of smoked paprika & ground coriander, and about 2 heaped tsp of chilli powder & cumin. Don't forget to chop up your jalapeños and finely grate your dark chocolate (hat tip to Mr Towgood for finding this mystery ingredient). Throw these in with about a table spoon of raw sugar - the chocolate and sugar will offset a bit of the saltiness and enrich the tomato flavour. Then finally your canned ingredients & tomato paste. Give it a bit of a stir, then turn that sucker on LOW, and leave it!

I ended up cooking it for about 10hrs - if it's on low you really don't have to worry about it overcooking. There is plenty of moisture in there and it could easily go on for hours as long as you leave the lid on. I served it with some brown rice and garnished with sour cream and freshly chopped coriander.

I must say it was pretty delicious. Got all round praise from the flatties and thoroughly enjoyed myself also.

8/10.