Team Caletti Pumpkin French Bread Pudding

A few weeks back the Caletti cyclocross team had a training camp. You can check out the camp summary here http://teamcaletti.com/news-2/
I was able to cook a few meals for the hungry crew. My pumpkin french toast bread pudding was a big hit. Left overs became the perfect pocket ride food for our trip home.
This recipe really came about from a family bread pudding recipe and a friends pumpkin french toast .
Pumpkin is one of those perfect sources of energy. It is high in complex B vitamins, vitamins A and C. It also is a good source for potassium, calcium and iron. The fact that pumpkin is a high fiber carbohydrate it helps to balance hour glucose levels.
I have left a few variables open to you to fool around with. You may make the pudding richer if you choice.by using 1/2&1/2 instead of milk and adding the cognac.


Prep time: 1/2 hour
Soak time. 1.5 hrs. Preferably over night
Bake time : 1 hour
Ingredients:
8-9 eggs
4-5 cups milk or half& half
1 Tbs Vanilla extract
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup sliced almonds
16oz can pumpkin purée
1/2 cup golden raisins or chopped dates
Zest of 1/2 orange peel
Cubed and dried french bread
1/2 cup cognac (optional)
1 cup sugar

Optional streusel topping:

1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup cinnamon
1/2 stick of butter
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Soak the raisins in the cognac.
Combined the eggs, pumpkin, milk , sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon and vanilla in a large Bowl. Whisk until smooth.

Butter 9x13 pan add your bread cubes. The drier the bread the more it will absorb.

Pour about 1/2 of the batter over the beard. This will be absorbed by bread .
sprinkle the raisins ( or dates) and orange peel zest on top of the bread.

Cover the bread and the batter and place in the fridge.
Check on the bread periodically and add more batter as its absorbed.

Once your read to bake you may add the sliced almonds or the optional streusel topping *.

Cover pan with foil and bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes. Remove foil and continue to bake for about 15-25 minutes more. You may check the pudding with a
Knife. It should be clean when inserted into the pudding.

Remove from oven and let rest for 5 minutes. Cut and serve.

* combined flour,cold butter, and brown sugar in a food processor until ingredients corymb together. You can mash it together with a fork like I do.

Wanted: stove top waffle iron

I want to take my liege waffles mobile
this next cyclocross season. I am looking
For a Griswold cast waffle iron. If you are using one for a door stop I would love to have it.

Bottoms Up! Pineapple

It's pineapple season and the are so good. I have been using them a ton for different things. I keep going back to juicing pineapple, kale , spinach and carrots. Yum.
The thing to remember about having a awesome and juicy pineapple, is to cut the top off and let it rest bottoms up before you use it. This allow the juices to flow back to the top.

Phony Abalone

I heard about this recipe when I was about 10 years old.  It was the era of 8-track tapes and AM radio. My step dad had a powder blue metallic Firebird. I felt smokey and the bandit tough in that car.  We were driving down the road,the radio was tuned to AM810. They were covering a story of a San Francisco restaurant that had been defrauding its customers for years with a dish they claimed to be abalone.
That story has stuck with me for years. I have been lucky to have eaten my share of this rare delicacy. Living on the coast most of my life I've always had friends and family bring me abalone. For awhile I took it for granted, It seemed like I always had a chunk in my freezer.  It's been a few years and the current market price for abalone is $70.00 a pound.  I have no plans of ever eating real abalone again. It is one of those things that is key to the survival of marine life on the California coast.  Poaching has become common practice with such a high demand in mainly overseas markets.

This is a fun easy recipe.  It does not take much prep time maybe 20mins, It must marinade least 16 hours, 24 is prime.  If you are to fool your guests there is one step you must not mess up.

Phony Abalone

Ingredients:

Skinless chicken breasts

Bottle of clam juice or 2

Tools:

cutting board

smooth pounding mallet

plastic wrap

sharp knife 

large Ziploc bag

Slice your chicken breasts into 1-1.5" rounds.  Do not fillet the breast. If you are to fool your guests this is one step you must not mess up.  Grain structure is key for your final product. Otherwise you just have fishy chicken.

Stand the round on end so the direction of the tissue grain is up and down and cover with a sheet of plastic wrap

You are ready to flatten out the rounds. Gently pound out the chicken with the smooth side of your mallet in to a medallions.  1/3 of an inch thick is perfect.   

Be careful not to break the chicken up

Now rinse your chicken medallions and pat dry.

Place your chicken in the ziplock bag and add your clam juice.

Let marinade for 16-24 hours.

Your now ready to cook 

 I'm leaving this up to your imagination. Any way you enjoyed Abalone in the past you can cook your medallions the same way.

You could simply bake or fry according to the directions on a box Panko bread crumbs

Saute in butter white wine and shallots

Brush on a teriyaki glaze and grill it up

Have Fun!!

Chow for the Caletti Cross Crew

I love riding bicycles, admittedly I'm very not fast.  My goal this year was to not use my health or my bikes as excuses for why I'm the last one up the hill. That lasted till about August.

When Jerimiah Kille told me he designed a t-shirt for the new Caletti Cyclocross team, naturally I had to get one. After all I am a proud owner of a Caletti  bicycle. John Caletti hand builds each frame right here in Santa Cruz. Some how I was sold the bate and switch. I went from buying a t-shirt to committing to race 5 races with Team Caletti. I tried to tell people I'm racing my way in to shape. To mask my top of bottom 3 finishes I have developed a diversion tactic. I am proud to serve the crew the best track side cuisine at anywhere.

American cyclocross races are always a homage to its roots in Belgium. The smell of Grilling sausage and drinking beer is a common sight. Not quite the best race foods, but they do add to the party atmosphere.
My goal is to provide fresh clean vegetarian food that aids recovery. The last race I borrowed a recipe from a great cookbook by Dr. Allen Lim and Chef Biju Thomas called the Feed Zone Cookbook. If have not tried Skratch Labs exercise hydration mix it's great stuff. According to Dr Lim eating within 30 minutes of exercise is vital to speeding up the recovery process.

Recovery Grilled Cheese

• I fire roasted red bell peppers and Italian zucchini on the spot with my portable yakitori grill

When you roast peppers and the skin is nice and black place them in a paper sack and allow the pepper to steam.  When it cools a bit you can easily peel the skin off.

• A nice ciabatta roll was sliced and the inside toasted 
• I chose 3 nice melting cheeses; Cheddar, Provolone, and Queso Fresco. Nothing to overpower the veggies.   
• After laying down the cheese I added the red peppers, sliced zucchini and the arugula 
• This was was lightly dressed with a fresh orange champagne vinegar. 
•  I'm assuming most people know have made a grilled cheese before.   I grilled these in olive oil in a stainless pan over medium heat.  A lid is helpful to speed up the melting process.

When cooking out doors clean hands still apply.

If you would like to support the team Caletti,  visit the website  or come see us in San Francisco on Nov. 10th and 25th

https://www.facebook.com/teamcaletti

The great "donut handup" engineered by me and captured by photographer Paul Doran

SUPER GREEN SOUP

I've decide to eat and juice a lot more greens. Trying to work on the lunch muscle a bit. It may not feel like it but winter is heading our direction. Winter urges us to eat heavy foods, here is something lite and clean. This super green soup is something I've been cooking quite a bit. My girls have termed it " baby poop soup" behind my back.

This recipe is very close the mushroom soup I posted earlier.

This soup can be made with any green leaf veggie, kale, red or green chard, spinach, dandelion arugula, you name it.

Cook time is about two hours, but that  may very depending on how hardy the greens you choose.  Like any soup its always better the next day.

4 onions
2 bunches of green veggies
handful of carrot
2-3 Tsp of Ambrosio rice
OR 1/3 cup lentils
4 cups water
pepper
salt
cayenne pepper
2-3 Tsp Olive oil

Caramelize the onions in the olive oil. The secret here is do it in your stock pot on low heat with the lid on.

From Chef Boy Am I Hungry

When you think they are ready let them go another half hour. Almost a onion jam.

Add your carrots and greens and cover for about 15 minutes stir occasionally. This were the lentils or rice comes in. They are a thickener, and rice will add a creamy element. I really like the lentils because of the nutty flavor they add.

Pour in your water and bring it up to a simmer. Cover, stir occasionally What your looking for is the rice to cook through so it will blend thoroughly and bring a nice creamy texture to the soup.

                                                                                                   

 Blend the soup with a immersion blender. season with salt, pepper and cayenne to taste. Don't be afraid of the heat of the cayenne, it brings out the sweetness of the onions.

Dish up and drizzle fresh uncooked olive oil on  to the soup.

Autumn Pantry Omelette

I'm so lucky to live in an area that has such great local produce. I picked up these spanish patron peppers at New Leaf market along with spanish chorizo links.

Patron Peppers are commonly cooked in olive oil with salt and served with eggs. Since I all ready had these amazing Chantrelle mushrooms at home the gears were turning.

Onion in the pan first. saute for a few minutes. Add your mushrooms

cook your peppers

Looking good

2 eggs, queso fresco, small amount of chorizo

Eat up