Carbing up

What goes up must come down. And what goes out, must come in.

Tripping the food life fantastic can leave a bit of chaos in its wake. Our credit card statements are one place that shows the strain. Our waistlines are another.

On our arrival home from another epic eating journey, we brought some additional ballast.

It was a cheeky three kilos for me, and somewhere closer to double digits for The Hungry One (I don’t call him that for nothing).

Jay Rayner atones for being ‘the man who ate the world’ with an elliptical trainer. Among other things, Terry Durack stopped drinking wine with lunch. I’m still struggling with that. Walking to and from work; a little sideline in stress, more yoga, and smoked salmon salads for lunch have helped some of my bits and bobs from ballooning out too far.

The Hungry One has honed in on a new tactic; he’s morphed into a running man.

Since we’ve come home he’s smacked down the City to Surf. Then hurtled himself through the half marathon.

Now he’s set himself a new challenge; the Melbourne marathon on the 11 of October. I’ve reminded him that after the messenger ran the 42.195 km from Athens to eponymous city of Marathon to announce victory over the Persians, he dropped dead.

The Hungry One maintains he’s made of sterner stuff.

Thirty five courses at El Bulli might make up some of it. And this might be another.

Chicken and chickpea crepe bake

A strange carbo-loading concoction that comes from a craving for chicken crepes, and my long term love affair with chickpea flour.

Make a double mixture of a standard pancake/ crepe batter. Take two eggs and whisk them together with two cups of milk. Sift into that one cup of plain flour and one cup of chickpea flour. If it’s still lumpy after you’ve taken out some of your aggression on it with a spatula then put it through a strainer.

Let the mixture mellow together for a bit.

Meanwhile start making the chicken filling. Toast a big handful of pine nuts. Put them aside.

Slide a red onion into thin segments and softly wilt that with some olive oil and slivers of garlic in a fry pan. Once they look a bit dejected, but not burnished add four chicken thighs that you’ve roughly cut up into nugget size pieces. Mix it all about and introduce it to the heat. Add a little bit of dried oregano and some white wine if you want.

In another saucepan start making a chickpea flour bechamel. Make a roux out of a tablespoon of butter and a tablespoon of chickpea flour. Cook it to a dark camel colour once it’s come together. Add two cups of milk slowly, stir and congratulate yourself when it all comes together.

Now start making pancakes out of the chickpea flour batter. A little bit of butter in the fry pan never stopped a pancake from flipping.

Once the chicken’s cooked through and your bechamel is beautiful add them all together, with the pinenuts and some white pepper. You can add a couple of handfuls of frozen peas and some lemon zest too. A dollop of ricotta and half a dozen shavings of parmesan wouldn’t hurt either.

Then get to work stuffing each crepe with the chicken mixture and rolling it like a burrito. Nestle them next to each other in a lasagne tray, or if you dropped yours and broke it, then the sturdy Le Crueset. Top with some cheese, a few chilli flakes to punch it up and warm it all through in the oven.

Serve it with a bitter green salad and a glass of pink wine.

Providing sufficient carbohydrates to support him through 33 km plus training runs and finding somewhere suitable in Melbourne for a post-run feast have since become my major tasks.

And coming to terms with the fact that the marathon is on the same date as the Sydney International Food Festival world chef showcase weekend.

We all have to atone for our indulgences somehow.

I think the universe may be trying to tell me something.