Hearts on Fire

OFFAL INSTALLMENT #3

Based on the title of this post you can probably already guessed what I cooked up this time... yeah, heart. I really like it when the regional grocery stores have a whole section of offal right out in the open, no shame in selling organ meat. Liver, kidney, tripe, heart, hooves, and more. I was like a kid in a candy shop (a disturbing picture). I swear I make normal food too, this is just more fun to write about.

 This is kind of like the pork tongue I made a few weeks ago in that it is really just another muscle, only one that not many people in the US think to eat. It was extremely tough because of the large amounts of  collagen present in the tissue, so I threw it right into my crock pot. Maybe someday I'll invest in one of the sous vide water ovens and take my slow cooking to a whole other level.

Back to the recipe. I wanted something with some heat so I picked up some chiles in adobo from the ethnic foods isle while I was at the market with my friend Jimmy, another Paleo bro. He actually picked up a side of pork, which is essentially a bacon steak (eating something like that somewhat terrifies me). I had a ton of leftover cabbage so I did a quick chop on that and threw it into the crock as well.


Why eat heart? It is great for you not to mention dirt cheap. Got over half a pound for about a $1.50! Want to survive college? Learn to enjoy the strange cuts. Heart is full of protein, thiamine, selenium, folate, phosphorous, zinc, CoQ10, and B vitamins.



Ingredients

• Beef Heart
• Can of fire roasted tomatoes 
• Chiles in Adobo (add more for more heat) 
• 1/2 Cabbage 
• 1/2 Yellow Onion
• 2tbsp Chile Powder 
• tsp each Salt and Pepper
• Tbsp Cumin
• Tbsp Paprika
• 2tbsp Garlic Powder
• 1/4 Cup Apple Cider Vinegar 

Directions

1. Chop all vegetables into bite sized pieces and place in the bottom of the crock
2. Stir in tomatoes and spices. 
3. Place heart on top and press down so that its half submerged in liquid
4. Cook for 6-8 hours low and slow

I swear I'll do some normal recipes again soon. 

Update: Wolverine-Fit

WOW! The online registration is complete and now we are just waiting for the university's approval. Sounds like we've got a nice small group to start things off and hopefully we will quickly grow and expand as the semester goes on. I also found a faculty advisor who is a level one certified trainer who used to coach at box in St. Louis. He now in a professor in the MCDB department and will be helping to get the club running. All good news.

Bad news, I just found out that my foot is broken... and has been for about a month. Probably should have gotten it checked out sooner. There is a spiral fracture in the fifth metatarsal of my left foot (the outermost bone on the top of your foot). So now I am wearing a boot and will have to do so for about a month. No endurance training or metcons for me.... but I see it as a chance to get sick at pull ups and gain a little weight before winter Crossfit and strength training starts. I am also looking to get my own bumper plates, real expensive stuff there.

JUST HIT 500 VIEWS!

Thank you to everyone who looks at my blog..... whoever you are. I have one request from you and that is to leave more comments, suggestions on what to write about, ect. Thanks. You are all wonderful.

Paleo Poutine

Yeah it happened, paleo poutine. What is poutine? It's a French-Canadian dish involving french fries, cheese curds, and gravy. It doesn't exactly qualify as a paleo approved dish, but I was up for the challenge. With a few tips from PaleOMG and some improvising I made it happen.

Why poutine? WHY NOT?

Ingredients

• Sweet potatoes
• Olive Oil
• Salt and Pepper
• Ground Meats of Various Varieties (redundant?)
• Meat Seasoning (I like cumin and chili)
• Onion
• Green Bell Pepper
• Garlic
• Cauliflower
• Stock
• Coconut flower or another paleo thickening agent

Forget french fries, we went for the baked sweet potato fry. This is where it gets weird, no cheese curds. Instead, we replaced them with roasted cauliflower bites. Gravy? We added meat for powerful protein and deliciousnessness. Then we topped it all off with sautéed onions, peppers, and jalenpenos. 

I know, it looks nothing like normal poutine (probably doesn't a whole lot like it either), but it was delicious. 

   

Directions

1. Fire up the oven to 400F
2. Chop up the potatoes into french fry sized piece and cut the floretes in cheese curd sized chunks.
3. Cover your veggies with olive oil, salt and pepper. Add some garlic or cayenne if you're feeling adventurous.
4. Bake the taters and cauliflower for about 25 minutes.   
5. Sautee chopped onions and garlic in a pan, adding in the meat mixture after they turn translucent.
6. Add your meat seasonings into the pan.
7. Start your gravy by heating olive oil, butter, or your favorite fat in a sauce pan. Add the flour and create a roux. 
8. Once the roux has been assembled add the stock (homemade is best) then reduce and allow to thicken
9. Chop and sauté the peppers, onions (and jalepenos) for the toppings
10. Assemble and enjoy.

Fiesta Pork Tongue

PARTY! Here is what I decided to make with the pork tongue I picked up at the farmer's market in Ann Arbor the other day. Because it's a tough cut I decided to braise it until it became tender and serve it up with some onions, cilantro and farmers market tomatoes. This definitely will not be the last time I get tongue.

Tongue, disgusting right? Not at all! Even though it's considered to be offal, tongue is that it is still a muscle just like steaks, chops and ribs. So it's really no different from other cuts of meat if you think about it. Since its low in fat (after removing the skin, it had a really light favor that reminded me of dark poultry meat.

Good lord, I need some new plates.

Ingredients

• 1 Pork or Beef Tongue (beef will feed a lot more people)
• Onion
• Garlic
• Bay Leaf
• Salt
• Apple Cider Vinegar
• Tomatoes
• Cilantro
• Avocado
• Chili Powder

Directions

1. Blanche the tongue with apple cider vinegar and boiling water to clean it and make it easier to remove the thick skin on the surface of the tongue
2. Remove the cuticle from the tongue by peeling it back or using a knife to cut it off
3. Add tongue, sliced onion, minced garlic, salt, bay leaf, and water to a crock pot. The water should reach half the height of the meat
4. Braise meat on low for 8 hours or until it easily falls apart
5. Remove and shred tongue meat adding chili powder
6. Plate with sautéed onions, fresh tomatoes, sliced avocado, and cilantro 

Update on the kimchi, I didn't let it ferment nearly long enough so it just tasted like cabbage with that fancy "rooster sauce." Next time I try it out, I'll have to do it the traditional way. Just wasn't the same. 

Offal

I bought tongue at the Farmer's Market today, I'll let you know how it goes. What did I get myself into?

Braised Cinnamon Cabbage

As promised here is the braised cabbage recipe. Next I'm working on a quick kimchi (not even sure if I'm going to be allowed to call it that since I'm planning on using green cabbage instead of napa pre-made can of chili-garlic sauce instead of making my own with fish sauce). I'm excited since this will be the first dish I will attempt to ferment, which is a great way to introduce probiotics into your diet. 

On the other hand, I'm also a little nervous that it might erupt into a massive bacterial colony that will take over my kitchen. But if something did go horribly wrong, its alright because I move out of this apartment in a few days. It'll be the next tenant's problem. GO KITCHEN SCIENCE!  

Ingredients

·      1 Green Cabbage

·      1 Carrot

·      1 Red Onion

·      2 Tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar

·      4 Tbsp of favorite fat

·      Tsp Cinnamon

·      Tsp Cumin

·      Dash of Salt

Directions

1.     Chop cabbage and onion into bite-sized pieces slice the carrot on the bias.

2.     Add all ingredients into a crock-pot on high for 4 hours or sauté vegetables in fat then add seasoning and vinegar.

3.     The longer you let it sit, the tastier it gets!

Wolverine Fit

Howdy,

It has been far too long since my last post, I'm not doing a great job at keeping up with this. Tonight I made some braised cabbage, which I may or may not post a recipe for. We'll see how much energy I have tomorrow.

How inspiring are the Olympics? I see what these incredible athletes do and it just makes me want to leap off of my couch and start training. GO AMERICA! Almost as fun to watch as the Crossfit Games.

Speaking of Crossfit, I am trying to start a new club at the University of Michigan. Yes, I know I'm also on the Triathlon team, but I can manage doing both. So I'm hoping that with a little luck I can get a good group of people together who are willing to show up every week to do a WOD. I've been digging through the CF archives about how to start a collegiate team/club, and it looks like it's pretty easy to become a nonprofit. We just need insurance, a website, and a level one certified trainer. Until then, we are not allowed to to use the name "Crossfit" in our title. So for now we are known as Wolverine Fit. Check out the Facebook group if you're interested at!

LET THE GAMES BEGIN! oh wait they already did.

MY BIKE

Let me introduce you to my new bike. She is a brand new 2011 Trek 1.2 with Shimano Sora and Tiagra components. I made the decision to go with a road instead of a Tri bike because I am still getting to know the sport and this is my first racing bike (I did my first Tri on a mountain bike, Not Fun). Unfortunately, that bike was stollen recently. UPGRADE. 

I signed up for my first Olympic distance triathlon, which will be on August 12. I'm pumped for the race, but it means that I'm going to have to cut back on the Olympic lifting training to get more endurance workouts in. Hopefully I'll still be able to meet my lifting goals by the end of the summer. I'm also going to be running in the Crim, a 10 mile road race in downtown Flint (aka F-Town), with my family later in August. 

She still needs a name and I'm open to any suggestions.