Catering - Simple food for all

[aidan.f]

Food! this has to be important..

I expect 50 using my full control on the 'New Border Raid' (open 17:00hrs Saturday  to 04:00 hrs Sunday). Planning to prepare one food item that will be attractive to all. Bean casserole (vegan, GF) was very popular at St Ives LEL  so I hope CET will offer a recipe. My plan is to serve with potatoes. The other popular LEL item was rice pudding with coconut. - Again a recipe would be much appreciated.

[T42]

Beanz is good, but they have lots of carbs anyway so spuds would be a bit superfluous. OTOH they seem to be an item of religion to some folk.

[Bikeabilityman]

I must be in the minority, but the coconut rice pudding at Louth (?) made me feel sick, which I was not long after setting off. It took me a while when I started Audaxing to get used to cold rice pudding (always heated at home). I like coconut in Bounty bars though!

[mattc]

I can't stand rice pudding. I have never been offered it socially, and I can't remember anyone choosing to eat it in a cafe/restuarant.

It seems to be one of those weird things that the cycling community have kidded themselves is "normal" (probably a bit like baked beans - which I can eat HOT OF COURSE with just about anything )

Bean casserole ... maybe. Has to have some flavour - I'm no chef, but I assume this means seasoning/spices mainly?

[ian_oli]

On my 3Down 300s a vegetarian Korma went down well. It's vegan friendly and as far as I know Gluten Free (at most a trace). Chickpeas are the meat substitute and it's cheap to make. I think I just used a recipe off the BBC website - I can't send a recipe to you.

Few early finishers on the 300 want more than a tea and a bun - they are off for supper somewhere. After 9pm a majority of riders want something substantial - otherwise they will have to rustle something up at home, by when they are feeling knackered.

[hillbilly]

Goodness.  It's in the North.  I would expect no more than a toast sandwich. 

Anything else would be middle class affectation.

 

[Ben T]

Doubt I'll be doing this audax but just to add a voice to the side of reason, I love rice pudding, it's awesome, and I wouldn't not cook it just cos some philistines don't like it.  It is one of the foods that can be eaten when the digestive system is under stress as it sometimes is on an audax.
I'll grant you coconut sounds a bit weird though, stick to plain. Serve hot, preferably straight out a bubbling vat, and and have loads of strawberry jam with it.

[whosatthewheel]

Bean casserole ... maybe. Has to have some flavour - I'm no chef, but I assume this means seasoning/spices mainly?

Mainly it means roasting the onions and garlic well and having access to a decent stock... in the absence of meat stock, one could flavour with a bit of marmite... almost has the same effect, although you then open the gluten can of worms...
Canned tomatoes can give extra flavour, if they are roasted and not just boiled

Obviously a bean casserole with a few (not many, more for flavour than anything) sausages in it is the golden ticket.

[hellymedic]

Doubt I'll be doing this audax but just to add a voice to the side of reason, I love rice pudding, it's awesome, and I wouldn't not cook it just cos some philistines don't like it.  It is one of the foods that can be eaten when the digestive system is under stress as it sometimes is on an audax.
I'll grant you coconut sounds a bit weird though, stick to plain. Serve hot, preferably straight out a bubbling vat, and and have loads of strawberry jam with it.

A man after my own heart/belly!
I don't think any food is suitable for all.

A good bean stew is great if you can cope with being gassy.
Some folk can't have milk.

So it goes on....

[fuaran]

Coconut rice pudding is rather tasty. Especially with mango.
Though it can be a bit heavy if made with full fat coconut milk. Maybe better with light coconut milk, or just watered down a bit.

[L CC]

I hate beans.

[inappropriate_bike]

I like any food which is offered by hard-working organisers who are trying to look afer their riders 

But if you want excellence in catering, you'll have to ask @wilkyboy if you can borrow his wife for the weekend. Cake by the barrow load. Oh my gosh.

[Jaded]

Coconut 

[mattc]

I hate beans.

wot - even with grated cheese on??

[Carlosfandango]

Goodness.  It's in the North.  I would expect no more than a toast sandwich. 

Anything else would be middle class affectation.

 

Grandad tells my Kids about being so poor this is all he had to eat, he says it`s a slice of bread between two slices of toast, but Grandma says it should be a slice of toast between two slices of bread. Which is right?

The kids say they`re both being silly and are making it up.

[Kim]

in the absence of meat stock, one could flavour with a bit of marmite...

Thereby repelling about 50% of the target audience without even trying... 


A toast sandwich is obviously toast between two slices of bread.  A ham sandwich isn't a piece of bread between two slices of ham, is it?

OTOH a *toasted* toast sandwich would just be three pieces of toast on top of each other.

[frankly frankie]

I like any food which is offered by hard-working organisers who are trying to look afer their riders 

I prefer food that I can pick off the shelf and is untouched by human hand.

[JayP]

in the absence of meat stock, one could flavour with a bit of marmite...

OTOH a *toasted* toast sandwich would just be three pieces of toast on top of each other.

Almost. The top and bottom slices would only be toasted on one side?

[Kim]

in the absence of meat stock, one could flavour with a bit of marmite...

OTOH a *toasted* toast sandwich would just be three pieces of toast on top of each other.

Almost. The top and bottom slices would only be toasted on one side?

GPWM

[madcow]

I am with bikeability man on the coconut in rice pudding . I like coconut and I like rice pudding but together they didn’t seem right.
Keep it simple,whatever you do.

[CrazyEnglishTriathlete]

The thing that went down the best at St Ives was a limited edition spicy lemon chicken (to eat with rice although as it was the return leg people ate it with potatoes or even pasta....

This involved marinating chicken strips in lemon juice (if I recall rightly 10 squeezed lemons for 2kg chicken) plus chilli powder, coriander power, cinnamon powder and cumin powder, with a bit of salt) for a few hours.  This was then fried up with about 0.5kg onions and some garlic puree.   For those riders (and helpers) wanting something with a decent kick after bland food it went down a storm.

It wasn't part of the original food plan but we had a lot of chicken and spices left over so...

[Grandad]

It seems to be one of those weird things that the cycling community have kidded themselves is "normal"

When I started racing rice pudding was one of the favourite feeds for 100s and 12s.

Two ways of using it - the usual semi liquid sort handed up in a bottle or with sultans added, cooked in the oven until it could be cut into slices and carried in the back (or, in those days - front} pocket.

[hellymedic]

It seems to be one of those weird things that the cycling community have kidded themselves is "normal"

When I started racing rice pudding was one of the favourite feeds for 100s and 12s.

Two ways of using it - the usual semi liquid sort handed up in a bottle or with sultans added, cooked in the oven until it could be cut into slices and carried in the back (or, in those days - front} pocket.

I drank it at the end of the Great Eastern 1000. It seemed to hit the spot but sweet milk is not for everyone.

I think there was an Ambrosia Cycling Club in the past, named after the rice pud...

[mattc]

It seems to be one of those weird things that the cycling community have kidded themselves is "normal"

When I started racing rice pudding was one of the favourite feeds for 100s and 12s.

Two ways of using it - the usual semi liquid sort handed up in a bottle or with sultans added, cooked in the oven until it could be cut into slices and carried in the back (or, in those days - front} pocket.

Yup, I'm well aware of the history. It's as much a thing as spare-tubs-carried-over-both-shoulders!

Thank god we invented flapjacks to replace this horror - along with proper shorts, decent brakes, back-pockets, derailleurs ...


_{[I must confess I'd never heard of oven-cooked slices - are they hard, like a flapjack? Oh hang on - I can eat flapjacks now ... ]}

[DKB]

Aidan asks the question "simple food ? "  For the time he is serving to the majority of riders the answer is ....... Porridge!