The 1000KM Project

Past 2 year of my life or should i say no life have a great impact on my health and fitness. I used to be able to run 10km easily, used to be able to cycle 40km when i feel like it, used to weigh 96kg.

After starting work and totally immerse myself in my work, i slowly stop exercising regularly and begin to have a bad uncontrolled diet.

To further worsen the situation, i had an accident earlier this year that require many stitches and took me 2 month to heal and another 2 month to be able to jog again. Though now i still feel some pain while i jog.

I SHALL STOP PROCRASTINATING!

I have set a simple and achievable target for myself... To Swim, cycle and run a collective 1000km from 1st June 2012 till 31st December 2012.

I used to do 40km run a week and cycle up to 120km a week. 1000km seems too easy? Well, i have stop exercising for some time and my fitness dropped sharply. Past few weeks i have been conditioning myself with swimming during split shift and some short jogging after work.

With Army half marathon, osim triathlon and Stand Chart marathon in mind, i should be able to achieve the 1000km target.

Date: 31st May 2012
Weight: 122kg
Goal Achieved: 0/1000 KM

Some kick ass looking bikes :)

Well I love my Giant OCR2, it been thru so much with me. Served me well for 3 triathlons and countless of cycling at East coast park.

But its time i move onto something more professional :) The big boys toy!

I shall reward myself with a awesome Tri Bike if I did finish it :) But i probably can't afford one anyway :)

Sous Vide cooking!

I heard about this product 2 years back... Manage to got hold onto some of this amazing product today.

Sous Vide cooking is getting common and can be even found in some coffeeshop stalls. But recently(past 1 or 2 year), one food supplier brought in something amazing to Singapore that brought sous vide cooking into a new level. 

Introducing... Cooking Sous Vide on a Plancha!

First of all i must state that im no guru in sous vide cooking (under a water bath) and certainly not in this kind of sous vide cooking (over plancha). I was told this sous vide bag could withstand higher temperature then normal. I love experimenting and today is the day i really learn something by this experiment.

In this experiment i used a nice piece of salmon fillet seasoned with fennel pollen, salt and pepper then into the bag with some beurre noisette. Placed the skin side down and flip over after a few min.

I was amazed by the look on the skin. Obviously there were some nice colouration! Maillard reaction still occur while a layer of plastic is over it! After some time, i flip it over again and OMG.

You have to see it to believe it. One thing about cooking in the bag this way, even though i vacuum it till 99.9% the 0.01% air expand upon heated and there will be some steaming reaction going on in the bag giving it a pretty even cooking throughout.

End result was pretty unbelievable! It has the texture and taste of a brown butter poach salmon, it has the nice flavour coming from the maillard reaction that formed somewhat a light crust. about a 200g portion took 7-8mins to achieve medium doneness. 

One of the best thing i felt that the moisture was 100% sealed in the bag and nothing was lost in the process of cooking. All the flavour from the seasoning and butter was "pushed" into the fish.

However due to the light steaming effect in the bag, i was unable to get a crispy skin. 

There is so much more to learn about this new age sous vide bag.