An Evening with James Martin

So, as promised...

I was invited to a private dining event with James Martin at his beautiful house in the countryside on Thursday evening last week.  Me, Mr TOTKat and 20 other people were guests of James Martin for an evening, to partake of his fantastic cooking and take a look at his collection of motorised vehicles.

We were greeted at the gate by James, who shook our hands and showed us into the wing we'd be in for the event - a great conservatory-type part of the house which had a wood-fired pizza oven outside on the enormous patio and a reasonable sized kitchen as part of the large dining room with a mezzanine level (with a billiards table on it and plenty of room to play a game or two as some did between dessert and the coffee course) looking down onto the cooking area.  On the huge wall behind the cooking area was a huge clock face, from head height all the way up to the top of the mezzanine level height, with large brass numbers.  Gorgeous thing!  James introduced the evening and his team to us all and explained that he only does this sort of event once every couple of years, so it really was a special evening ahead of us.

James and his right-hand man Chris prepared an amazing meal from pizza canapes through to slabs of chocolate with dessert; starting with a glass or two of champagne and meeting some of the other people there while one of James' other people (whose name I forget - argh!) handed 'round the little slice of freshly made pizza.  Then at around 8.30pm we sat down for the starter of Arbroath smokie pate on smoked beetroot slices (peeled and boiled for many hours, then sliced thinly and smoked over oak chips) with a twirly crisp of bread and a perfectly cooked quail's egg.  This was served with a really nice Puligny-Montrachet which carried on into the next course of wild Morel risotto with cream Cornish lobster in the shell - half a small lobster with some of the best risotto I've ever had.  James was very clear in pointing out that a good risotto not only had butter, wine and parmesan but it really has to have mascarpone in it too.  I am -so- not arguing and the second helping he was dolloping out for those of us with bottomless stomachs pretty much sealed that thought for me.

Then came the slow roast fillet of beef - done in a water bath at 65C for lots of hours, served with a quite subtle Margaux.  I'm usually one for a much more hefty red but the Margaux was nice for a change and went well with the beef and stood up to the Indian spiced pumpkin pickle and nice fat dollop of mashed potato, heavy with cream and butter.  Fudge-the-dog came in for a bit of company and some beef treats.  He's a lovely old and well behaved slobberer that dog.  Then, I think it was at this point that we went for a look in the garages at the cars, bikes, model planes and all sorts of other vehicles.  James fired up the classic Ferrari 275; what a hell of a racket!  And the 1967 Mustang... RAAARRR!  And we poked about with the teeny Fiat, an R8, a Mini and probably lots lots more, but I was a bit pickled by this point so it's a bit fuzzy.

Back over to the dining room, via a look at one of the other guest's McLaren Mercedes SLR and we finished up with the dish to which James attributes the kick-off of his career - white chocolate and whiskey croissant butter pudding with vanilla ice-cream.  Which was heavenly.  And lots of it, so another course with seconds!  Yay!  Lots of good conversation with the other guests (not so much James himself as our placement on the table meant we weren't in an easily accessible position, though plenty of other guests got lots of time and attention from him and the dog) over the enormous slabs of chocolate with coffee after the dessert and at around 1.30am we decided it was time to make track with the help of Pippa (James' PA), we picked up a signed book as a parting gift from James and got a car back to the hotel and crashed into bed ready for a 6am start to get back into town the next morning to work.

We had a great night and I'm really pleased that we got the opportunity to go and experience the evening's event.  James is a really nice guy, passionate about his food, his cars and his dog.  Saturday Kitchen will never be the same again for me.

Mmmbeeeeefs

Oh man!  This is a -good- one!

Slow cooked beef casserole - serves 4 (approx 470kcals per portion):-

• 500g diced/cubed braising beef
• 2 medium potatoes - cut into 8ths or 12ths
• 2 medium/large carrots - sliced thickly
• 2 medium/large parsnips - sliced thickly to the fat bit, then quartered at the fat bit
• 2 medium onions - roughly chopped
• 8-10 cloves garlic
• 1tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 4tbsps tomato puree
• 1tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• 2tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 1 tbsp plain flour
• handful of fresh sage leaves - chopped
• 2x beef stock cubes or 1l beef stock
• 4 bay leaves - bruised
• 5 large plum tomatoes - chopped into 8ths
• freshly ground black pepper
• salt

Put the oil into a pan and heat.  Toss the beef chunks in the flour, add the beef chunks to the hot oil and brown.  Once the beef is browned, add the contents of the pan including any leftover dusting flour to a casserole dish/slow cooker with all of the other ingredients (add 800ml water if using stock cubes rather than stock).  Cook for 4-5 hours until the beef falls apart easily.  Season to taste with salt and pepper about 15 minutes before the end of cooking.  Remove the bay leaves and serve hot, with fresh crusty bread and a glass of fat red wine if desired, or just by itself.

What I did today

I did a quick read up on when I should be harvesting by courgettes and the resource I found said when they're 4" long, which seems tiny to me!  So, I picked the 4 which were at least 4" long and they, along with these lovely chillies (which, looking at the shapes, are quite clearly two different varieties) went into this weekends big chilli cook-up :o)  Very pleased with that, though the pak choi pretty much died and the spinach went weird, the courgettes are going strong and the sweet pepper plants are just about to flower for the first time.  Not sure the peppers will ripen unless we get an Indian Summer, but we'll see.

Having had reasonably bad DOMS yesterday, there was no way I could go and play on bikes with Mr TOTKat so it was nice that he ended up delaying that until today.  So, we were up at 07:45, scoffing down a good breakfast and some tea before cycling gently down to Hampton Pool.  Half an hour trundle for 14km or so to the start of the Thames Turbo Triathlon cycle route, nice and gentle apart from one bit of a hill, down the other side of which I hit 49.1kph :oD   We decided I'd have a 7 minute head-start, given that Mr TOTKat is usually 10 minutes faster than  me for the cycle route and I headed off at a pretty good pace.  Cutting a long story short, I hit my goal of not being passed by Mr TOTKat until after the turn around the roundabout at the 13km mark and proceeded to not be more than a minute behind him to the finish.  In the last race, my time for the route was 48:52, today I did it in 43:58.  Possibly worth the extra effort put in, but I need to bear in mind that some of that time in the last race is transition between swim and bike and bike and run.

Given the HRM count of 1107, there was a lot of eating to do today and I really enjoyed finally getting to crumble one of my fruit, nut and seed bars onto some fruit and yogurt this afternoon.  Really nice taste and textures mix.

B - MP Total breakfast with frozen blueberries and skimmed milk
*lots of cycling*
S - 2 rashers thick bacon in wholemeal bread
L - lettuce, sweet peppers, walnuts, ham, boiled eggs and cherry tomatoes with a vinaigrette
S - strawberries, greek yogurt, honey and a crumbled fruit, nut and seed bar
D - wholegrain pasta with tuna, cream cheese and peas

Calories (kcal) [kcals to maintain weight (inc. exercise)	2471 2755]
Protein (g)	177.0 (28.3%)
Carbohydrate (g)	230.3 (36%)
Fat (g)	68.3 (30.2%)
Fibre (g)	27.9
Fruit & Veg	5.9

Slight diversion

Wednesday was good.  I had another go at my current weights routine as my trainer needed to reschedule but I wasn't properly recovered from the bad-ass negatives I've been doing.  Another prawn dinner, only this time I put in 1.5 chillies as the 1/2 chilli I had last time wasn't enough.  Heh.  *sweat* *pant*  ohyes it was good :o)

Exercise - 54 minutes gymming

Calories (kcal) [kcals to maintain weight (inc. exercise)	1666 2251]
Protein (g)	133.7 (32.7%)
Carbohydrate (g)	176.8 (40.6%)
Fat (g)	48.5 (26.7%)
Fibre (g)	33.8
Fruit & Veg	16.8

Thursday was a rest day and dinner out.  I had sparkling water in the pub before dinner, then a nice Bellini and some wine during dinner.  2 bottle between 4 of us and I didn't keep up with the boys, so I definitely had less than 1/2 a bottle through the meal.  However, this morning... hangover.  Not headachey, just really tired, a bit sick-feeling and constantly hungry.  *sigh*  Dinner was really nice though.  I had beef tartare with toasted bits of bread to start (see! looks gorgeous, doesn't it?) and Sea Bream with chicory and fennel for my main course.  No dessert and still not too badly over maintenance kcals for the day.  And a quite impressive protein grammage for a non-exercise day too!

Calories (kcal) [kcals to maintain weight (inc. exercise)	2048 1791]
Protein (g)	155.2 (31.2%)
Carbohydrate (g)	144.2 (27.1%)
Fat (g)	66.7 (30.1%)
Fibre (g)	22.1
Fruit & Veg	12.1

Premature peaking!

I've been working towards an exercise milestone; 100,000 kcals burned in recorded exercise since I bought my heart rate monitor and started to use it on 15th June last year.  I had intended to hit that 100,000 mark tomorrow, but I got my sums wrong and instead of needing to stay under 521kcals today, it should have been 511.  So, when I reached 514kcals and stopped today... oops.  All-time total; 100,003kcals.  Argh!  I missed it!

Still, I increased the weights on the lunges with cross arm to opposite knee to 5kg and still 3x10.  Which was a struggle, but I managed it :o)

Lunch today was a real treat!  I had leftover beef chilli with roasted tomatoes and red peppers and it was -gorgeous-!  Really tasty, a lovely change from salad and kept me full for absolutely ages this afternoon.  Having worked out that it costs £1.90 per portion of beef chilli that we make, I think I'll be having it for lunch again.  Oh.  Yes.

And having had chilli for lunch, salad for dinner wasn't boring at all :o) It being a chicken and avocado one helped even more! I was tempted to add bacon, but the fat % for today was already a bit high and even very trimmed bacon comes up quite high on the fat content on average.  (So how come ham is so lean?  Same animal!  And bacon is so very trimmed these days, you just try to get any -with- rind in a supermarket *mutter*)

B - greek yogurt with 1 scoop MP Max, fruit compote and flaked almonds
S - fruit and nut bar (I'll take a photo of one of these before they all vanish!)
*gym*
S - 1 scoop MP Max in skimmed milk
L - beef chilli with roasted cherry tomatoes and red peppers
S - cottage cheese with Dr Karg crisp-bread
S - greek yogurt with fresh mango and chopped mint
D - salad; lettuce, cherry tomatoes, baby new potatoes, avocado, chicken breast and a honey, mustard and cider vinegar dressing

Calories (kcal) [kcals to maintain weight (inc. exercise)	1779 2237
Protein (g)	161.1 (36.9%)
Carbohydrate (g)	161.6 (34.6%)
Fat (g)	55.4 (28.5%)
Fibre (g)	23.2
Fruit & Veg	11.4

Wednesday again then

And it all went a bit off track...

It started so well with good meals and snacks and a nice, hard gym.  Then we went out for a drink after school and ended up having dinner out (because I'm rubbish and I couldn't face going home to cook and eat later than usual).  I'm suffering quite badly from tiredness at the moment.  I think I'm getting enough sleep (though I'm going to keep a sleep diary for a bit to be sure) but I'm just exhausted when I get up, perk up a bit after a shower and breakfast, then crash out on the tube all the way to work, perk up a bit after a cup of tea and a snack, feel even better after an early-lunchtime gym, then lunch and a slow decline throughout the afternoon with no perking up after either of my afternoon snacks, crash out on the tube on the way home and really not feel up to much once I'm home.  By 9pm I want to be in bed again.  That's not fun.

None of the meal was excessive really; the only large portion size was the starter of country terrine with a couple of big bits of toast.  The main course was a medium sized steak with a handful of broccoli and a ramekin of dauphinoise potatoes and the dessert was a steel ramekin of a very small amount of lovely apple crumble and a teeny scoop of ice-cream.  I didn't feel overly full at all afterwards.  But.  It was way off piste and the wine was a bit much for a Wednesday.  It was lovely and I enjoyed myself, and I'm not feeling guilty as such, just a bit too soon after the last meal out.  I know it was my decision to eat out both times, so I've only got myself to tell off.

I'm very glad to be back in the gym swing of it, but the food/drink has to come with it too for it to be particularly effective at shifting that bit of fat that I laid down whilst laid up (so to speak).  I'm still in my target weight range, but I'd rather be back at the fat % I was just before we went skiing; that was nice!  (I really need to measure it, but I'm scared to find out how bad it is)

Wednesday:-

B - greek yogurt with 1 scoop MP max, Yeo Valley fruit compote, flaked almonds
S - Dorset Cereals bar; berries and cherries
*gym*
S - 1 scoop MP Max in skimmed milk
L - salad; lettuce, celery, peppers, cherry tomatoes, chicken breast, baby beetroot, Food Doctor herb boost
S - carrot and Waitrose houmous
S - mixed fruit and nuts (brazils, pecans, almonds, walnuts and raisins)
D - 2x glasses white wine, sourdough bread and butter, country terrine with toast and butter, beef steak with sprouting broccoli and a tiny pot of dauphinoise potatoes, tiny apple crumble with ice-cream and 2 glasses of red wine, followed by a cappuccino

Exercise - 52 minutes gym

Calories (kcal) [kcals to maintain weight (inc. exercise)	2739 2150]
Protein (g)	173.2 (26.4%)
Carbohydrate (g)	183.1 (26.2%)
Fat (g)	95.1 (32.6%)
Alcohol (g)	55.4 (14.8%)
Fruit & Veg	8.1

Difficult week ahead

The weekend was great... lovely champagne on Saturday morning, best beef ever at The Cinnamon Club - a beautiful, perfectly seasoned and cooked piece of Wagyu beef(* - full menu below).  I'm  a bit miffed that we didn't get any photos of us, but there was a nice one of me:-

So.  This week.  I have the all clear from the physio so can get on with gymming etc. in theory.  But.  The first triatholon of the year (for me) is on Monday.  So I can't really go nuts.  I need to focus on swimming, running and cycling (hah!) this week and not overdo it, so no gymming allowed.

Loose plan:-
Monday - fast 400m swim, tumble-turn practice (done)

Tuesday - 5km run after work (done)
Wednesday - long cycle on the gym bikes (to toughen up my bum!)
Thursday - fast 400m swim, tumble-turn practice
Friday - medium cycle on the gym bikes (done on a real bike); 4km run after work (done - 5km), carb taper
Saturday - rest, test bike, carb taper
Sunday - rest, carb load
Monday - RACE!

There's really not enough time between now and Monday to make much of a difference than toughen my poor bottom for the cycling a bit.  The fast swims are to get back used to the feel of fast swimming after that long old 5km one.  Running will give me confidence that I can actually run more than anything else!

And here, in its full glory, is the menu from Saturday evening's dinner...

Tasting Menu with matching wines

Norwegian king crab and tamarind salad, cured organic salmon
Orvieto Classico Superiore, Castello della Sala, Umbria /Latium, Italy, 2006
-

Tandoori red snapper, coriander chutney
Torrontes, Fabre Montmayou, Mendoza, Argentina 2006
-

Steamed chickpea cake
-

Pomegranate and mint sorbet
-

Hunter’s style rabbit tikka with dill and mustard
Pinot Noir, Fraser, Murdoch James Estate, Martinborough, New Zealand, 2005
-

Baked wild African prawn with ‘kadhai’ spices
Marsanne, Saint-Joseph, M..Chapoutier, Rhône, France 2007
-

Fillet steak of Wagyu beef with stir-fried morels, saffron sauce
Cabernet Sauvignon, Jumbuk Vineyard, Clare Valley, Australia, 2001

-

Apple desserts
Coteaux du Layon St Aubin, Dom des Barres, Loire Valley, France, 2007
-

Coffee and petits fours

Another hungry day

It wasn't so bad this morning, but throughout the afternoon I've just been hungry all of the time. Lack of exercise (I did iron 5 shirts, 2 dresses, 2 jumpers, and two very complicated cardigans though and that has to count for -something- right?) means less food than on an exercisey day, and even though I'm over the number of calories I'd like to have had today, I'm still under maintenance levels. Then again... I'm still hungry. I won't even start cooking dinner for an hour yet as well.

That said, we've cooked up big batches of lamb biryani (with brown rice this time) and beef chilli, so there's been a smell of cooking food in the house all afternoon which probably hasn't helped.

I'm definitely feeling mentally fatigued around food and exercise both at the moment, which is a bugger 'cause I still want to shift that last 2lbs. I almost moved 1 last week, but as keeps happening, there are meals out, fancy meals with lots of wine in etc. Always some excuse to go a little bit OTT. Having bought lunch only twice since 1st January, making lunches is getting a touch frazzling and I'm bored of all of the evening meals I keep cooking. Some are a bit too time-consuming to do on a week night (chicken in black bean sauce, vindaloo, tikka masala etc.) and just end up with me feeling too tired afterwards. I need some re-vamping in the meals and to cook a bit less often; so weekend batch cooking is really helpful there.

I'd like to just go on maintenance for a while and stop trying to lose those 2lbs, but if I do that, I'll end up gaining, given all of the weekly excesses that keep happening. They are only once a week, and I am doing weights 3x a week and cardio once or twice and I am staying reasonably to well under maintenance on most days and definitely not going over maintenance on all days bar one each week.

So mentally fatigued with it all at the moment. For sure. But what to do to fix that?

Today went like this:-

B - greek yogurt with 1 scoop and some Dorset Cereals muesli
L - ham, lettuce and Philadelphia Extra Light on toasted granary bread
S - celery and houmous
S - a lunchies bar
D - pasta with salmon fillets, peas, broccoli and low-fat cream cheese stirred through

Calories (kcal) [kcals to maintain weight (inc. exercise)	1661 1793]
Protein (g)	122.1 (30.2%)
Carbohydrate (g)	172.9 (40%)
Fat (g)	53.6 (29.8%)
Fruit & Veg	3.6

Hungry day

Really wanted to go to the gym today but my mind won over my body and I protected my rest day. Rest days are important and it's sometimes hard to remember that.

Having not gone to the gym, my eating times are a bit different and that's resulted in being hungry at odd times (lord knows there's a lot of protein today so it can't be that); 1 hour after having my nommy lunch salad I was still hungry. Meh. Still, I am liking my yogurty breakfasts (greek yogurt with vanilla whey mixed in, fruit compote and flaked almonds on top):-


And there was a v. tasty dinner of Aberdeen Angus and cracked black pepper chipolatas on butternut squash mash (roasted and mashed squash is sooo intense and sticky and tasty!):-


Also, today had a cheat meal in it, due to extenuating circumstances, a medical need for tea and cake and wanting to be supportive and inclusive:-



Inclusivity tastes... OMG, SO GOOD! Morrisons Lemon Meringue Cup Cakes are DIVINE! They take a lemon sponge cup cake, make a cavity in the middle and fill it with lemon curd and top the thing with lemon butter cream and a tiny sprinkling of meringue crumbs. I've not had cake in a while and it was amazing. I could taste every distinct flavour; the butter; the icing sugar; the floury, fatty, sugary, moist sponge; the tangy, sticky, zingy lemon curd... But no, this is not the start of a slippery slide into stuffing my face with cakes, it was a treat, a cheat, a free meal and certainly has been counted in my food diary for today and I know it's empty calories but I don't feel guilty for eating it. I enjoyed it. I enjoyed sharing the pair that we bought and sharing the experience of the fabulous flavours.

Exercise - rest day

B - greek yogurt with 1 scoop vanilla, fruit compote and flaked almonds
S - banana
L - salad - spinach, tomatoes, walnuts, capers, baked chicken breast and honey and mustard dressing
S - beef jerky!
S - 2x tangerines
S - Lemon Meringue Cup Cake
D - Aberdeen Angus and cracked peppercorn chipolatas and mashed butternut squash

Calories (kcal) [kcals to maintain weight (inc. exercise)	1840 1799
Protein (g)	140.8 (31.1%)
Carbohydrate (g)	145.1 (30.3%)
Fat (g)	76.7 (38.4%)
Fruit & Veg	12.0