Marathon Meals

As I’ve said on many an occasion to my sporty friends, my sport of choice is cake-baking. As such, when it came time for this past Sunday’s London Marathon I lent my support in the only way I knew how, by cooking. FM was running and for the past 6 months I’d been privy to hearing about her somewhat busted knee (which was fixed in time to run) and been woken up by the front door opening and closing as she headed out on her many early morning runs. I must say it was admirable. I’d snuggle deeper into my covers, role over and proceed to sleep for at least another hour before getting up for work.

I wasn’t entirely sure what a good post-marathon meal would be but I decided something with protein and carbohydrates would do quite well. Oh, and truffle oil. Every good marathon runner needs a bit of truffle at the end of a gruelling 26.2 miles.

Finished with triple chocolate cookies, it might not have been the meal a nutritionist would have prescribed, but it still managed to do the trick.

Herbed Chicken and Shitake Mushroom, Leeks, and Truffle Risotto

In typical fashion I’ve taken a recipe I’ve found and changed it to my specifications. As it read, it seemed much too heavy for a post-marathon runner, so off I went tweak, tweaking away.

In a nutshell, incorporate the following into the recipe hyperlinked above.
1. Replace the cream with semi-skim milk
2. Replace the butter with olive oil (if butter is a necessity, finish the risotto at the end with a bit – it’s not necessary with the mushrooms)
3. If you are not using freshly shaved truffles, triple the amount of truffle oil you use and finish the dish at the end with a little swirl on top
4. I used chicken stock instead of vegetable stock, just because it’s what I had available (and I was cooking chicken to serve with the risotto anyway)
5. Pass on the “chopped fresh parsley”. Seriously, it’s not going to add anything but a bit of greenery (of which I just served dinner with a green salad instead)

Herbed Chicken -This might be the easiest recipe ever…and it was FM's favourite part of the meal.

1. In a small bowl mix together bread crumbs (I used Japanese panko crumbs), chopped garlic, and fresh/dried herbs (I used thyme and oregano)
2. Take skinless/boneless chicken breast and coat with a thin layer of olive oil (I had a little bit of hummus left over so I used this as well). Once coated, dip in crumb mixture and cover chicken. Repeat if necessary.
3. Bake in an oven at 350° F or 175° C until cooked through – about 35 minutes
4. Serve with risotto

Triple Chocolate Cookies

I definitely had something in mind when I was making these cookies but because I couldn’t seem to find any of the ingredients I wanted or needed they ended up taking on a life of their own. Somewhat cake/brownie like instead – they still managed to be moist and quite flavourful. I brought the leftovers to my eager team at work. When I opened the container the smell that wafted out was so delicious and chocolaty that I was told to immediately close the lid or I should expect them to all be gone in the next few minutes.

I’ll definitely make these again – they were more popular than I would have imagined when I first took them out of the oven.

8-10 ounces (225-285 grams) semisweet chocolate
1/2 cup flour
4 tablespoons cocoa (I used Cadbury)
¼ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
3 eggs
2 tsps vanilla extract
8 oz (225 grams) white chocolate broken into chunks
½ cup milk chocolate chips

- Preheat oven to 350°F / 175°C.
- Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper
- Melt semisweet chocolate, set aside to cool
- Mix flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt
- With electric mixer, beat sugar and butter in another medium bowl until well combined
- Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition
- Continue to beat until 3-4 minutes more until light in colour
- Add melted chocolate and vanilla and beat together
- Fold in flour mixture, white chocolate chunks and chocolate chips
- Place a tablespoon full of batter onto cookie sheets, space at least 1 inch from each other
- Bake cookies, 1 tray at a time, for about 10-12 minutes per tray
- Cool cookies

Dill up in my Grill

My recent trip to Moscow left a few distinct impressions on me.

The city is quite beautiful but most importantly filled with terrific food. The beauty however, is more of the "rough around the edges" variety, and hid behind a fair bit of grit and grime. Basically, like the copious amounts of potatoes they use in their food, the city could do with a good scrubbing.

In Moscow, the people aren’t particularly friendly at first, but the vodka makes up for it in the end. More shocking than the burning sensation of home-made vodka scorching my throat was just how expensive everything was. Never-ever did I think London would be a pauper cousin to another metropolis. Low and behold – here was Moscow, strutting her stuff and waving her big chops around. They say ignorance was bliss, and when I wasn’t converting my purchases I was AOK. However, it wasn’t until KC and I were walking down the street with a green tea and cappuccino in hand that the internal calculator turned on. I’m hoping our drinks were brewed in gold and dusted with magical powers because I realised that the two drinks had just cost us $26.00. And no, my nose is not growing.

Traveling to Moscow was the first time I’d really had an opportunity to eat Russian and Ukrainian food in excess. It was also the first time I was as close as I’d ever come to some of the traditional foods I’d grown up with. I’d always just thought of them as family recipes - typical “Jewish” foods – but I realised they were less about being “Jewish” (as the pork in a few dishes should have hinted at) and more eastern European – Russian influenced. I mentioned to a few people that I loved the food in Moscow and more than a fair few were quite surprised. Maybe it’s the ¼ Ukrainian in me that made it come out – but KC loved it too. And her heritage is of a random variety of Western European countries. And she's from Texas to boot - so I doubt it.

Still, the connection was made for a few reasons:

Dill - My mother, grandmother before her, and now me has had a love affair with dill all of our lives. It makes its way into many home-made soups and salads that have been made countless times over the years.

Potatoes – The body is approximately 60% water, I think the rest of mine is made up of mashed potatoes. I’m addicted to them and must eat them in some capacity nearly every day. These little diamonds make their way into nearly all old-school family recipes in some way, shape, or form. Even when you don’t expect potato (e.g. Meat Knishes) it’s hidden in there unexpectedly (in the case of the said Knishes, in the dough).

Vodka – I love it. My mom loves it. My grandmother, bless her, was known to take a sip or two on occasion.

Over my 4 days in Moscow I had two favourite foodie delights. The first was the Russian tradition of chasing vodka shots with dill pickles. Never in my life have I found a more perfect match. People talk about meeting their perfect match, their “soul mate” – I think it’s really all about meeting your “dill pickle.” On so many different levels that just sounds wrong - I know, but honestly – it’s just so right.

My second favourite is the infamous beetroot soup, borscht. When I was younger borscht didn’t materialise too often because my father is a Borscht hater. However, my mom would still make it for herself on occasion. In my youthful ignorance the only bright-pink items I’d let near me were hair scrunchies, bonnie-bell watermelon lip gloss, or my lee press on nails in “bubblegum.” Borscht was totally bogus, man.

Living in London one can get some fancy delancy beetroot based soups, but funnily enough it’s never actually called Borscht (case in point my refrigerator currently contains a lovely container of “Duchy Originals Organic Fresh Beetroot Soup with Dill”) and hence I was still living in the dark thinking I was a borscht hater. This trip to Moscow showed me the light. I, Dana E. B. am the biggest borscht-lover ever. The sweetness of the beets, mixed with the smokiness of a bit of pork, and a big ol’ dollop of sour cream is...well…as Belinda Carlisle once sang, “heaven is a place on earth.” For me, it resides in a big old bowl of Borscht soup.