Sports Nutrtition Hacked: Recipes

Mackerel Tacos with pickled bitter melon salsa, coconut foam, and roasted 

squash with goji berry sauce...and bitter melon martinis.  

This week I scoured Philly's Chinatown to find inexpensive alternatives to popular athletic supplements.  My finds, along with a cost and nutritional comparison, are on GamJams today.  To make these things more edible, my friend Jerry and I attempted to cook with them.  Here are some recipes we came up with:

Mackerel Tacos:

As discussed on GamJams, the canned mackerel that I bought in Chinatown is high in omega 3 fatty acids, but unlike gelcap supplements, provides a source of protein, is delicious (well, maybe just OK)  in fish tacos, and also makes a decent holiday ornament.  This stuff, with bones and all, was pretty gross directly out of the can.  Combined with  bitter melon salsa, coconut foam, and goji berry sauce, it was definitely healthy, and well, edible I suppose.

• 1 can mackerel or other oily nasty fish that is otherwise inedible
• 4 corn tortillas
• some shredded cabbage
• 1 blob of greek yogurt
• cumin powder
• minced garlic
• sriracha or other hot sauce
• lemon juice
• salt

Cook the tortillas in a skillet with some canola oil until they're somewhat crispy.  Take them out and put the fish in the skillet.  The fish is already cooked, so just heat it up til it's less nasty.  Mix the cabbage with the greek yogurt and all the other stuff.  Put it in the tortillas with some of the fish.  Serve with bitter melon salsa and coconut foam.

  

 Bitter Melon Salsa:

• 1 bitter melon, pithy stuff scraped out and cut into really thin half circles.
• 1 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1 cup water
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 peach or apple, chopped
• 1 tomato, chopped
• white onion, chopped
• cilantro, chopped
• some lime juice

Shake up the vinegar, honey, water, and salt in jar, add the melon slices, and pickle them in the fridge for at least a day (yeah, I know that's a long time; maybe you should have read the recipe before starting).  When the pickles are ready, put all the other ingredients in a bowl, chop the pickles and add as much of it as you can stand to the salsa. 

Coconut Foam:

OK, the texture on this stuff didn't work out as planned; I got more of a runny coconut spooge.  I wouldn't recommend attempting this recipe, but here it is anyway:

• 1c coconut water
• 1/2 tsp xanthan gum
• 1 tbsp sugar

Mix on high speed in a mixer or blender til it's sticky and gross.

Roasted Squash with Goji Berry Sauce:

This was the most non-nasty creation of the evening.  Pretty good in fact. 

• 1 squash (I used acorn)
• 1/2 c dried goji berries
• 1c water
• 3tbsp honey
• 1/4c apple cider vinegar
• sriracha
• cumin 
• cinnamon

Poke the squash with a knife a few times and roast it at 350f until it's kinda squishy (45ish minutes).  Boil the berries with the water and honey til the water is reduced by half.  Add the vinegar and everything else, and puree in the blender.  Cut up the squash and serve it with the sauce.

  

Bitter Melon Martinis:

Made with Bluecoat gin, these martinis were, well, just OK.  But I don't blame Philly's local gin...maybe the bitter melon is an acquired taste...

• 1 shot gin, preferably Bluecoat, but you can use Hendricks and you won't be any less of a person
• 1/2 shot dry vermouth
• 1 tsp bitter melon pickle juice
• 1 slice pickled bitter melon

Combine everything with some ice cubes, strain, and garnish with the pickled bitter melon.  If you can finish this drink (or really any of these recipes), you can suffer like a world-class athlete.  Cheers.

PS If you're wondering what goji berries, bitter melon, and all these crazy ingredients have to do with sports nutrition, check out my rationale here.