The great thing about this sandwich is that you pound the meat before cooking. This means it only takes a minute or so on each side to cook. Another benefit is that the meat is tenderised so it doesn’t matter if you use slightly tougher cuts, like rump. It also means that the steak ends up in bite sized pieces so there are no akward moments wrestling to chew through your sandwich.

Ingredients:

200g steak (Sirloin is easiest)
1 lemon, halved
wholegrain mustard
4 large fresh slices bread
Small handful wild baby rocket

Make:

Heat BBQ or char grill pan on its highest setting.

Place steak between 2 layers of plastic. Bash with your fist or a meat mallet until it is flattened out to about 1/2cm thick. You want it to be thin as possible with a few holes so it cooks quickly.

Season steak and drizzle over olive oil on both sides. BBQ for approximately 1 minute each size until well charred. At the same time cook the lemon, cut side down.

Place steak on a clean, warm plate and drizzle with more olive oil and a good squeeze of lemon juice. Allow to rest for a few minutes so the meat juices mix with the oil and lemon juice to make a super
tasty sauce. Tear meat into bite sized pieces.

Spread bread with mustard then pile the steak on top. Scatter with rocket leaves, if using and drizzle over the juices. Top with another slice of bread.

Why:

The Quick Steak Sarmie (QSS) is an essential and so easy to make. Loaded with great protein, good carbs (if you go the Rye Bread option, specifically) and the power of rocket for flavor in there, you simply cannot doubt the power of this after a morning session of exercise. I smashed two of these on Saturday afternoon when I got back from my lunch. I may have smashed 2 Jack Black’s along with it, for good measure. I then took a hike up the mountain where I did a bit of this…

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Right, it’s cold out there. Our celeb chef has launched a new project called Aficionado with some other smart peeps and I wanted to do some homely, natural food this week. After getting through endless pages of great food on his old blog I got stuck at this one. No wheat, free range and yum yum yum! Enjoy

I had a good giraffe (laugh) the other night, watching TV. There’s a show on BBC Food which is all about how some people are scared of food. Like, properly terrified of it. The particular episode I watched had a dude who freaked out every time you brought fruit or vegetables anywhere near him. I’m not kidding. He started sweating, shut his eyes and blocked his ears. It was truly bizarre and I laughed unashamedly. As the programme went on I realised it wasn’t supposed to be funny. Not that this made me stop laughing. What was interesting to me was the reason the guy was so scared of the fruit and vegetables. You see..he didn’t know what they were. He was scared of the unknown. Once I had figured this out the show became a lot more interesting to me. I say this because I am constantly trying to explain to people not to be scared of food. You can’t learn unless you try things. Use ingredients you aren’t familiar with. Buy whole foods and unusual cuts of meat. Get inventive. You’ll find out soon enough the recipes you can come up with are limitless.

A good example of a strange looking ingredient is celeriac. I spotted some in Woolies the other day and used it to take a pretty standard dish to a level that made it interesting. Here’s how:

Stuff you’ll need to feed 2:

* 400g stewing beef, cut into chunks (I used free-range)
* 1 tin of tomatoes
* Half an onion, sliced
* A red chilli, roughly chopped
* A handful of mixed wild mushrooms, roughly chopped
* Half a cup of red wine (The Ninja would recommend Kleinhoekkloof 2007 Shiraz. Use whatever you like but I do like the way a shiraz has the spiciness to support this dish)
* Half a cup of water
* 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
* A handful of parsley, roughly chopped
* 1 celeriac bulb, skin removed and cut into cubes
* 1 butternut, skin removed and cut into cubes
* 2 teaspoons of paprika
* A pinch of cayenne pepper
* A handful of parsley, roughly chopped with extra for garnish

Okay, what to do:

1. Preheat your oven to 20o degrees celsius. In a deep pot fry your beef in olive oil until browned. Remove meat and set aside.

2. Add onion and the mushrooms to the pot along with the red wine. Cook for a minute and add the garlic and chilli. Cook for another minute and add the tomatoes and the water.

3. Return meat to pot, bring liquid to the boil and reduce heat to a simmer. Cook on a medium to low heat with the lid on for as long as you can. (3 hours or more is ideal. If you don’t have time make sure it is at least 1 hour. Anything less and the meat will be tough). About 45 minutes before serving remove lid to allow liquid to reduce and thicken. Add the parsley at this stage.

4. Place the butternut and celeriac in a roasting tray. Drizzle with olive oil and add the paprika and cayenne pepper. Season with sea salt and black pepper and shake to make sure vegetables are covered. Cook for 20 minutes, remove and shake. Cook for 25 minutes more, remove and mash.

5. To serve spoon celeriac/butternut mash into deep bowls and pour over some of the stew. Garnish with parsley.

The celeriac is a funny-looking thing but it adds a great depth of flavour when combined with butternut. Together they work as a beautiful alternative to mashed potato and visually the dish is more attractive. How smooth you make the mash is up to you. Personally I like to leave it looking a bit rustic – I think the extra texture is a bonus. Of course, it’s also a lot healthier than mashed potatoes which is another plus.

There you have it. A nice little winter dish with an ingredient that you really have no right to be afraid to use. Give it a shot. What’s the worst that could happen?

Cheers,
Jamie Who

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Click the image into a new page, you won’t regret it. YUUUM!

So we spoke about real food right, and that I was going to send you a list of where you can buy real food at markets and where to get real meat that hasn’t been force fed with corn & tubes. I asked the honorable Jamie Who? to help me out with this, considering the lengthy discussions we have had about real food. It will generally accompany a RealBeer or a glass of RealWine and possibly a prego at &Union but hey, who are we to judge, right?

Real Food goes beyond buying “Organic”. It’s the approach you take to food. It’s how you buy it, how you cook it and the preparation you take when it comes to being healthy. I compete in a sport more prone to Athlete Anorexia than most. Triathletes are obsessed with their bodies. Gordo wrote a great piece on the Nutrition of Performance here that you should read as well.

Jamie Who and the Ninja wanted to take it above and beyond for you and do some Real Meals as well. Something realistic and easy to make that looks freaking awesome, tastes incredible and doesn’t cost you an arm and a leg either. Also, locally available options for meals is always a concern.

So when approaching food (even at Pick n Pay, Woolies) make sure you do at least some of the following:

1. Make sure you walk slowly getting there. Breathe. Being in a rush is going to make you buy the wrong stuff. I guarantee it.

2. Buy what you can in raw bunches that have to be weighed. No pre-packed already chopped nonsense. Skins are good for you, people!

3. Opt for the organic version where possible. With meat – it’s not even an option. Go with something that you trust from the source.

4. Avoid plastic wrapping and long lists of stuff you can’t pronounce in the ingredients list.

5. Avoid concentrates.

6. Try something different while you are at it. You never know what you may discover out there.

I realise you are expecting a list of places to shop, eat, browse etc. There are various lists up. To start, why don’t you try this one. It’s quite comprehensive.

Give it a go, won’t you. Try it for a while.

Jamie Who and myself are going to do a series of recipes & suggestions on how to cook and what to avoid using when cooking, all those things. In essence, he is my first contributor to the site on a more formal basis and I am quite excited about taking the food thing more seriously going forwards.

Keep it real out there.

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Two powerful topics today. Two I am very passionate about, being what I would deem to be a star example of how both relate to personal health, wealth as well as being the biggest change to success at endurance sport.

In plain english:

Eat real food & lose weight. This will result in energy, vitality, focus & you being much faster at your chosen activity/activities.

Want to know how big a change it results in?

I have virtually stopped taking vitamins, protein shakes & recovery products. I am 8kg lighter than a year ago. I had my best season sports wise every. I am having one of the best works years ever. I have yet to lose my cool this year and raise my voice. I have more mind clarity than I have ever had.

I did this by eating real food. The rest are byproducts.

Yes, I look a little emaciated to most people. But here are the real facts:

1. I never get sick
2. I never run out of energy.
3. I never get hangovers. (if you know my mates you will know they try hard enough to give me hangovers)
4. I never get mood swings. (anymore)
5. I hardly every get cravings (unless i`m pushing it. )

So if I look a little “skinny” to you, it’s really just a sign of good health. I haven’t had a cold sore, ever. My hair and nails grow faster than I would like – I have to cut my nails twice a week. My wounds heal extraordinarily fast. I am very healthy, thank you.

I wrote a while ago about how I go about losing weight in a way that keeps the weight off. It works, I only picked up 4kg instead of my usual 7-8kg in my off time this year and already after just a week of training I only have 1kg to go to being “optimal” again. I believe this will change too, and my “optimal” weight will come down this year a little. As my body gets used to functioning at a lower weight, I believe that it shifts. I finished my first Ironman at 82kg in 10h31min. This year I was 72kg at the finish in 9h11min. I have taken 40min off my ride and 40min off my run times. I suspect running without a BIG bag of dogfood on my back has something to do with it.

So please, feel free to offer me burgers, but make them ostrich patty, wheat free roll and sweet potatoes instead of fries.

I’m going to put down a list of places to buy Real Food for you all in the next week or so. I think I owe it to you. I have not been great at this in the last while. The food I buy – I am not sure of its origin or how much it’s been altered to grow fast and perfect. I am making the commitment to buying only free range real meats, truly organic fruit and veg. If I just cut out the food that wastes in my house, it should cost me the same, or less, so there is no excuse.

It’s my commitment for winter. Real Food.

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