As some of you might now I'm a poker player and I therefore naturally have a lot of time to cook. Cooking(and eating of course) has become a big hobby of mine(I started getting into cooking around 15 years ago) and I'm trying to explore new cuisines as often as possible.
In this blog I want to share this journey and the discoveries of outstanding taste I make along the way.
I'm currently trying to get more into japanese cuisine and have made good experiences with it so far(really like its mix of asian and the more "traditional" western cuisine) and will certainly try to make some own creations based on some of the things I have learned from it already.

As someone who does a lot of sport and looks out out for a balanced and healthy diet I usually "plan" my meals in my head a day in advance(i have counted calories for years so I can estimate the numbers in my head fairly accurately very easily now) and often pre-prepare meals hours in advance so I don't have to cook too long after football/gym.

anyway will share a lot of pics of delish food and obviously provide recipes/nutritional value if desired.

dinner today i'm not 100% sure yet, either
- sepia with pasta & self-made pesto calabrese or
-deboned chicken drumstick with skin with mediterranean couscous

Since you do a lot of sports I guess it doesn't matter but from a purely dietetic perspective isn't pasta pretty bad ?

Started getting interested in health till not so long ago and I'm still looking for that nut side that can go with meat/other things and pasta doesn't seem to be one, seems so high on calories and carbs.

pasta itself doesn't provide much nutritional value(basically just white flour or flour + some egg) and there obviously are carb sources with far better nutritional profile but that doesn't really matter if you overall diet is balanced and provides you with the necessary nutrients and micro-nutrients.

however for a cut (diet with the goal of cutting body-fat therefore requiring a calorie deficit) I would recommend low-ish carbs and as little white flour as possible for most people as that makes things a lot more easier(hunger is a lot easier to control)

couscous/oats are pretty good carb-sources for a cut because they "swell up" and provide volume
oats also very good nutritional value
potatoes also low in kcals for reasonable volume

subscribing! post food pics ASAP

busy week(have 2 pre-season games this week) so dinner will always be relatively simple

lunch i had penne w/ pesto calabrese(delicious and versatile pesto mainly based on ricotta and bell pepper) with sepia.(and broccoli on the side)



I feel sepia very underrated by a lot of people because they got put off by wrong preparation(sepia requires an extremely low cooking time and gets stringy like chewing gum if cooked too long)
and is not too dissimilar to scallop in taste(where low cooking time is also key btw)

for post-football dinner ill be making a very simple but delicious japanese dish called tamago gake gohan or sth like that, cooked rice with raw egg, soy sauce and different toppings(ill be adding some blanched zuccini/green onion, nori and katsuo bushi)
the raw egg "cooks" somewhat in the hot rice and gets a nice creamy texture

that pasta looks delicious man

as the toppings of it can vary a lot I decided to bring some mexican into it(as chorizo fits very well with eggs, rice and soy sauce), seared green onion/garlic/chorizo, added some fresh ginger, cayenne pepper and cumin and mixed in some soy sauce and a blanched zucchini, sprinkled with katsuo bushi to serve


delicious

consistency looks like this when mixed btw

Id def like the recipe for that. Looks tastey.

wash rice, let it swell for 30 mins then cook it(needs less water after the swelling, i cook it with 1,5x water at low heat for 15 mins after boiling it up once and then let it set another 10 mins without heat but closed lid)

in the meantime sear 1/2 an onion(chopped or green onion) until glassy, add 1 chopped glove of garlic and like 50g of chorizo and sear until chorizo gets crispy(watch out with the heat though because garlic burns easily and then turns bitter)

blanch 1/2 chopped zucchini for around 2 mins while you are at it

add like a teaspoon of fresh, chopped ginger, around a teaspoon of cumin and around 2 teaspoons of cayenne pepper to the chorizo mix, sear for around 10 secs and add the blanched zuccini.
taste with like a tablespoon of soy sauce, some balsamico and some pepper

put the rice and the chorizo mass together into a bowl, top with a fresh egg, some more soy sauce and katsuo bushi if you have it/like it

another "fusion" pasta idea and I have to say it is really convincing and just a fantastic combination



teriyaki* shrimps with spaghetti and sesame-basil-ginger pesto


*teriyaki sauce is simply a mixture of soy-sauce, mirin and sugar

ok tried out a new idea again


chicken breast with chocolate-red wine-cassis sauce(and dried apricots and almonds) and mediterranean couscous

first off the mediterranean couscous has become a stable in my diet(i really perfectioned it to suit my personal taste and it's orgasmic really)
as it is extremely versatile(fits with beef, lamb, chicken and fish)

the chocolate sauce was alright but not the "explosion of taste" I hoped for
would also fit a lot better to beef, lamb or venison(i originally planned to make lamb but didn't get any)

first off would appreciate some feedback
secondly, I just discovered that I "accidentally" gained around 12lbs in the last 2 months despite football around 3-4x a week and gym around 2x week, woops have to turn it down a little :/

with food I had a very pleasant surprise today, made a pilaf as side for lunch today and wasn't really convinced.
served the leftover as main-dish for dinner only adding a spicy chicken in butter and BOOM suddenly out of nowhere a food orgasm, this will probably become a stable in my diet!

spicy chicken with potato-pea pilaf

subscribed

does the pilaf have turmeric powder in it?

ye turmeric powder, (self-made) garam masala, cayenne pepper, cumin and chili

Looks very indian but not like the stuff you'd find in an indian restaurant but more what my home cooked meals look like. I guess pilaf is part of the South Asian/Middle Eastern cuisine but that color is bang on for what a meal with turmeric + garam masala should look like

How many meals are you cooking a day and approx how many min/hours per day are you spending making the meals?

usually 2 bigger meals and 1 small one(snack)

lunch(a few hours before football or work-out) is usually my cooked meal
post-workout/football I either cook something quickly based on my lunch(i often make a double portion so I don't have to cook too long again for dinner) or something else that is quick to make or that I could have prepared already before training(like oats or something).

on the rare "free" day I often cook twice(different meals), overall I would say I cook on average 45 mins a day or something like that

**** man, your cooking legit.

Going to try this with GF next week, I'll report back

want the recipe?
can probably still put it together fairly accurately

+1

Looks delicious and relatively easy and would love to try it as well.

quantity's are all rule of thumb estimates

pesto: (6-10 portions)
1 glove of garlic
100g of parmesan/gran padano or pecorino or something similar
50g sesame
50g tahini(if you don't have that just use more sesame)
1-2 tablespoons of chopped ginger
3 handful of fresh basil
100ml peanut oil
50ml sesame oil
1 tablespoon of balsamico
1 tablespoon of soy sauce
salt/pepper
(add more oil if consistency needs to be more liquid or cheese/sesame if more firm)

for the shrimps:
marinate in 50ml soy sauce/15ml mirin/1 tea spoon sugar for at least 30 mins
put in oven at 230 degrees celsius for 5-7 mins, coat with the marinate once or twice

other:
while you cook the pasta cut 1-2 carrots and a bell pepper into julienne form
chop a glove of garlic and some ginger(like a teaspoon or less)

sear the carrots in some sesame oil and butter, after a minute or so add bell pepper and garlic/ginger and sear a little more and deglaze with a tablespoon of the marinate.

after the pasta is cooked stir it in the pot on low heat with a little sesame oil and the pesto and the vegetables, put it on a plate and top with shrimps/fresh grated gran padano and some chopped nori

Rough cal count for each meal would be handy

well that obviously heavily depends on the portions size
I usually only picture 1/2 a portion as a whole one doesn't fit onto a place so I just eat/serve twice