Well its been a while since I’ve chucked up one of these blogs, but its been so cool seeing people from all over the world having a read of what I’ve already put up.

The last few months have been jam packed full of great times, Xmas in Pukekohe with Alex’s family, New Years Eve with mates from Uni at Mount Maunganui, a few trips up the Kaimai Ranges for a hunting recon, finishing my correspondence course in Deer Knowledge, pre-season rugby training, moving house, again… and being the MC for my brothers wedding.

If you haven’t seen my Instagram, I’m a big foodie. I love experimenting with flavours but I also love keeping it healthy and knowing whats in the food. One day I hope to have a destination farm and restaurant serving venison and organic, fresh and local food. Alex is awesome for having researched the best and quirkiest places to eat whenever we go anywhere and exploring how different people present food blows my mind. We like to keep up with, analyse and look into food trends and see if we can replicate them. Alex in particular is always searching for the next way to promote health and keep it delicious, and I’m more than happy to learn how to create it and better yet eat it.

Bone broth is one of those things thats been around for years, and doing research for this article I found out that in fact its not even a broth, its stock. If you read that article you’ll also see that as with most health fads, bone broth is not an all amazing, all conquering “superfood” its really just good old hearty chicken soup (or whatever bone you want to use). My mate Dave Shaw, who is a nutritionist (for the Blues even), explained how there may be proline, arginine and glycine in the stock which might help with tissue repair, but from a performance and overall nutrition perspective it doesn’t appear to be greater or more beneficial than a well balanced diet or something more specific for these things such as gelatine.

For me personally I try spark it up with a bit of chilli, basil and oregano and will delve into a further proclaimed “superfood” by adding turmeric and pepper. Turmeric and black pepper are supposed to be anti-inflammatory and have anti-oxidant potential, plus it tastes good and gives the stock its nice golden colour. If you choose to cook rice/couscous/quinoa, in this magical stock, the colour will transfer, giving your dish that golden colour. The chilli is also supposed to be a good source of vitamin C.

To make it; I typically boil the crap out of a left over chicken carcass, I have a desire to use a venison shin and also try a beef shin stock. After about two hours bubbling away on a low heat I add a few fresh basil leaves ripped up, a few oregano leaves ripped up, some chopped chilli or chilli flakes/powder, a few grinds of pepper and a couple of teaspoons of turmeric and boil for a further hour. I leave to cool a little before straining into jars to cool further in cold water before storing in the fridge for the week max.

I will have a mug of warm nourishing stock after the gym or rugby practice and will use the stock for cooking. Here I used a jar to make couscous to have with venison mince con carne with corn and chick peas. It was washed down with a beautiful Rippon Vineyard Red

 

Let me know your thoughts on food, superfoods and ways you like to recover from exercise. And if you need some help check out someone like Dave and Mallory who know what they are talking about when it comes to nutrition.