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

Bomb-Diggity-Dogs: The Sultan

Perros. Caliente. Here is the first of my bomb-diggity-dogs recipes I'm sharing with you my interwebs friends. I start off with some local links from el Salchichero.

Steam them buns. Hot!

I add some mayo below and Rooster sauce on top.

Top with the slow cooked pepper, onion, garlic, olive mix. (see recipe mix below)

I give you The Sultan. Served with sweet and spicy flax seed chips from R.W. Garcia

Sultan Topping
Ingredients
onion
40 cloves of garlic (peeled)
red bell pepper
kalmata olives
tomato
1 cup sherry
1/2 cup sugar

Directions

Cut up all your veggies and place on a foil lined cookie sheet.

Salt and Peper

place in a oven heated to 250 degrees for about 2 hours.

You want the veggies to reduce in size with out getting mushy

Turn the oven up to 375. Mix the sherry and sugar together

cover the veggies with the veggies and turn so they are always covered.

Place back in the oven for another 20 to 30 minutes. Turn the veggies

so they caramelize evenly.

Let cool and serve

Spanish influences

This is one of my favorites. Perfect served cold with old crusty bread

Slow roasted dry farm tomatos, red peppers, olives, garlic, and white onion, finished with sherry

Think I may need to use this to top hot dogs from el Salchichero.

Fall Fungus

We had our first rains a few weeks ago, and the mushrooms have started pushing there way through the thick duff.

The start of the fall gold rush has began. Mushrooms are big money and people very rarely share there secret claims. I don't know enough about wild mushrooms to feel confident to hunt by myself so I normally await invitations for meals cooked with bolete's or chantrelle from friends who are in the know.

Last week I recieved a call from the leader for the SLVMLO (San Lorenzo Valley Mushroom Liberation Orginization) He goes by Jack. He offered to take me on a harvest hike, and I couldn't refuse. So after a long hike blind folded, playing a game of "sink the Bismark" and being verbally broken by his cohort we got to "the Spot".

I came home with enough chantrelle mushrooms to create a few dishes.

Could I get back to"the Spot"? I'm not telling

My intentions we to show case my find with a simple soup

2lbs. Mushrooms

1 white onion

4 cups chicken broth

zest of one lemon and some juice

Once you have combine all the ingredients and let simmer for about 45minutes you should blend. This could be served hot or cold. I think soup is always better the second day so I let mine sit a day before serving

Chris Rene - Audition 1 - THE X FACTOR 2011

I put the fork down to rep a local kid