3 Longevity Meals — Full Recipe & Transcript

[00:01] been on a pretty serious journey to improve my overall health through what I eat. And I've read dozens of books on the topics of health and diet. And one of the most influential books that I read was Blue Zones, which tracks

[00:14] different areas around the world with the highest density of centinarians or people living past 100 years old. And of course, the unique diets in these individual blue zones makes up a major factor in these humans ability to live a

[00:27] very long life. And I found when I was reading the book and watching the now documentary that I related to different aspects of each of these blue zones. So in this video I'm taking everything that I personally learned about health and

[00:41] diet and I'm distilling it down into three different meals that I currently make all the time and I plan to make and consume until I am a very old man and I can't cook anymore. I love a good rainy day in the garden.

[00:55] And I'm starting things off with a fried rice, which in today's standards isn't viewed as a quote unquote healthy dish. But before fried rice became a takeout classic, it of course was just a way of using leftover rice while taking

[01:07] advantage of the ingredients that were available and in season to make a simple yet nourishing meal. Which is exactly why it's been a staple in my personal meal prep since I started cooking over a decade ago. But I've come a long way in

[01:19] refining my techniques and figuring out how to make this meal as tasty and with packing in as many veggies as I can. Starting with these carrots that are just getting big enough to pick. I'm picking some spring onions, which I love

[01:33] nice patch of beets coming in. Now, these are not for the fried rice, but the chickens right now are in full laying mode, which means I'm constantly thinking of more ways to get eggs into my diet. And this fried rice dish is one

[01:47] of my favorite ways to do that. [Music] Hey, [Music]

[02:01] relax. Now, before we get into the rice, there's one thing I have to prep, which is this incredible aromatic oil. I use it in a ton of Asian inspired dishes. really simple to make. Right now, both the spring garlic and spring onions are

[02:15] abundant. So, I'll be using those as aromatics, which can easily be replaced with just green onion and garlic. And I'll also be using some ginger, which I'm going to peel and slice into chunks. And I'll rough chop the spring onion and

[02:27] garlic and process that up to the point of a fine chop. That gets tossed into a heatsafe bowl because I'm pouring over some hot neutral oil. I'm using avocado oil here. And I let that just sizzle and infuse.

[02:39] infuse. [Music] rice, which I'm going to start by prepping my base aromatics. I'll slice going to save those for later. And since these carrots are pretty tiny, I'm just

[02:55] rounds. And I'll dice up more of the white part of the onion, plus a little bit of the stem, which will sauté down really nicely. Now, on top of your base aromatics, truly any veggie can be added to this dish. It's all about using up

[03:09] what you have or what's in season. Today I'm using some sprouting broccoli, which I actually picked 2 days ago because you can see right here it's starting to flower, which I don't want. I'll chop off more of the delicate fuette tops.

[03:21] Then rough chop through those delicious stems, which are super tender this time in spring. I'll get my walk on a high heat and I'm going to add in a few really the foundation of flavor in this fried rice. Since everything's going to

[03:34] fry together and touch this oil, the final product is going to be greatly flavor enhanced compared to just using a regular oil. Now, while those carrots and onions are frying up, I'm going to crack my eggs in a bowl. And I'm using

[03:46] five here, which is a bit aggressive, but I have a lot of eggs, and I like a lot of eggs in my fried rice. Now, once the base aromatics have softened, that's when I'm going to toss in that sprouted broccoli, which just

[04:00] needs about a minute of frying. And then I'll go in with my rice. Of course, for the best results, you're going to want to use day or two old rice. And I'm using some white long grain rice, but just use whatever leftover rice you

[04:13] have. Now, a common mistake I see with fried rice is people don't use enough fat or oil. So, if things are sticking or burning on the bottom of the pan, that's a good sign that you need some more lubrication. I'm not drowning this

[04:26] dish in oil. I actually like a final result where the rice is slightly on the drier side, but I still need to use enough oil to properly fry the rice and get some nice color on [Music]

[04:40] it. Now, while the rice is getting some color, I'm going to fry up my eggs. And from making fried rice for over a decade now and trying pretty much every technique out there, I much prefer to fry my eggs in a separate pan so I can

[04:52] control the size of the eggs, but most importantly, I can keep them tender and not dried out. And what I do is I fry them on a really high heat. And then I immediately cut the heat and just let them fry up in a pan until they're

[05:04] slightly undercooked because they're going to cook more in the actual rice. to hit it with some thin soy sauce. I've got some homemade sake here. I'm going to sprinkle that in. And I have some pcmen vinegar that I made from my pimmen

[05:17] traditional seasonings, but they will get me to that salty, slightly acidic, and punchy flavor that I'm looking for with my fried rice. But get there going to dump in those eggs, break them up a bit, and just get them incorporated

[05:31] throughout the rice. And I'll continue frying everything together for about 2 to three more minutes to really bring all of these flavors together. all of these flavors together. [Music]

[05:50] [Music] So, make. Circular spoon. I don't know. It just feels right. I usually don't go just feels right. I usually don't go fancy, but I just felt the calling.

[06:04] Little fried rice experience. So, this is a garden fried rice. Very convincing. is a garden fried rice. Very convincing. Yeah. Usually when you order fried rice, it kind of all just tastes like the same.

[06:18] This is just it's much more complex. Nothing is like too salty. Nothing too or oily. Or oily. Yeah. Even though like I used a decent bit of that aromatic oil. When you think about the layers of flavor just starting with this that's

[06:31] getting infused in everything. Then you have the char of the rice, that wa all of the fresh ingredients. It's so good. How do you get it to not like I feel like when I make fried rice, it's so clumpy. Are you using leftover rice?

[06:44] Probably not. That's why it has to be cold first. Yeah, that's why that's the number one tip. The cold rice just separates once heat up again. My rice is always good, but this is like breakfast, lunch, dinner. Oh, this is my breakfast

[06:58] meal, both of us, of the day. And what is 1:00, so this is hitting now as is 1:00, so this is hitting now as breakfast and lunch. So good. All to the garden. But before I do that, I

[07:12] which is Bombas, my favorite sock company and pretty much the only socks always found challenging about other sock companies is they generally specialize in one type of sock. But my lifestyle requires different styles, and

[07:27] found is great at making them all. I started with their Marino wool socks many years ago, which are super cozy, but I live an active lifestyle, and they make both fantastic running and training socks. Not to mention, their casual

[07:40] socks are super comfortable. And all of their socks are made with premium materials and have great designs. Shout out to these vintage striped calf socks. things even more convenient is that they make great kids socks as well with super

[07:55] fun designs for any type of personality. And my kids are obsessed with these. And for every one pair of socks purchased, Bombas will donate a pair with over 150 million items donated to date. So, every purchase you make is doing something

[08:07] good. And just click the link below in the description and use code word Mike G for 20% off your first purchase. All right, we're back out to the garden. And this time, I'm looking for some herbage for a marinade and dressing combo. And

[08:19] at this time of year, I'm trying to incorporate as many fresh herbs into my diet as I can. Of course, they're loaded with flavor, but they're also very nutritious and absolutely packed with vitamins and antioxidants. And this

[08:31] dressing/marinade, I guess, would be similar to those popular green goddess internet, but it's extremely easy to make. I take my blender, add in all of my herbs. Whatever you have, just add it in. I'm also adding in some green

[08:44] garlic. Of course, you can replace that with regular garlic or green onion or both. And then I'm adding 2/3 of a cup of apple cider vinegar, 2/3 of a cup of pepper, and I'll just start the blender on a low speed, then bring it up to full

[08:58] blast for about 1 minute until it gets nice and creamy and beautiful green sauce? Well, first I'm going to use it to make a whole roasted

[09:11] chicken. And chicken is by far the meat I eat the most. It's nice and lean. It's versatile. that's fairly affordable. And I mean, it's chicken. Who doesn't like And what I'm going to do is cut out the spine to spatchcock the chicken, which

[09:25] makes the entire roasting process a little easier. Plus, I can take the another recipe coming later in this video. I'll dump over the marinade, give few hours, and you'd be good to go. But I let my chicken marinate in the fridge

[09:39] for two full days. This way I can get that intense aromatic flavor infusion, work as a brine for the chicken. Then I those beets from earlier? I'm going to throw those on the tray to roast up as

[09:53] well. And I'll pop the tray in the oven at 400° F for about 45 to 50 minutes. Now, while that's roasting, I'm out to the garden to pick some fresh salad greens because I'm making a salad, which for me is an essential part of my

[10:08] diet. When I think about my overall diet, I'm looking for balance. Balance of ingredients and flavors, colors, and textures. And also balancing raw verse cooked ingredients. And a salad is my main source of intaking raw vegetables.

[10:23] And unfortunately, buying quality greens from the store can be quite costly. So, eating a lot of salads really wasn't a viable option before I started growing experience, is one of the easiest things you can grow as a gardener. And when you

[10:37] do grow it at home, you not only save money, but it opens up hundreds of potential varieties that don't exist in the influential for me was The China Study, which talks a lot about using meat more

[10:52] as a seasoning of a dish. The way I grew up, which was meat was the main course. You get a big hunk of steak and maybe a few sides. So, for me, I'll be able to take this delicious chicken, I'll shred it up, and I can incorporate it into

[11:05] multiple dishes throughout the week for my meal prep. basically mandatory for every salad that I make is some type of crispy textural

[11:19] that I took out of the freezer, which I'm just going to chop into small little crouton pieces. And I'll remove the basket from my air fryer. I'll pop in shredded chicken. I'll hit that with some oil and I'm going to air fry both

[11:34] minutes to crisp up. And to bring this salad together, I've got these beautiful successful this year. They have become one of my favorite vegetables ever, especially in the spring and the fall. To me, they are much better tasting than

[11:49] any radish that I've ever tasted. They're super mild, they're sweet, they are very juicy, and just absolutely delicious. I'll take the skin off the well. And the chicken and the croutons are nice and crispy. I'll dump that in

[12:02] the bowl. And then I usually just grate in whatever aged cheese I have on hand. in the fridge. And since these are some baby gem greens and those leaves are small and crunchy, I can just keep the smaller pieces whole. And I'm ripping

[12:15] apart some of the bigger ones. And same goes for the kale leaves. And that same green sauce that was once a marinade is now magically my salad dressing. Two for now magically my salad dressing. Two for one.

[12:47] garden and this one will be fairly quick. I'm just grabbing a few fresh bok choy because I'm making some noodle soup, which to me is an essential part of my diet. Mainly because what I'm about to make right now, which is a

[13:00] broth. Remember that chicken spine from earlier? Well, I had another one frozen, to dump those in my air fryer and give them a good roasting for about 20 I'll pop them in some water in my slow cooker along with these beauties right

[13:14] here, dried shiake mushrooms that I actually grew myself. Some of you might have actually caught that video around two years ago when Silvin and Jordan came to the studio to teach me the traditional Japanese method of growing

[13:27] shiake mushrooms outside on locks. And they finally fruited in abundance this spring. So I cooked a bunch of the fresh ones and the rest I dried mainly for to add so much flavor to this broth. I'm also going to add some green garlic and

[13:40] some spring onion along with a little bit of salt. And I'll slow cook that for about 12 hours. And to me, there's really nothing more nourishing than when you add all of those nutrients from the mushrooms and the aromatics, you've

[13:53] the mushrooms and the aromatics, you've got yourself a real health stock that's just packed with flavor, the rest of the prep is fairly simple.

[14:07] noodles in water to hydrate them. Then, I'm going to blanch my bok choy in some boiling water for just about 90 seconds. Get that in some cold water. And then to the same exact pot, I'll add some eggs and cook those for around 6 minutes for

[14:19] a half boil and place those in cold water. And to serve up the soup, I'm using my very own Anything Bowl, which was my collab with Noble Platear. These are 100% handcrafted by just a few artisans in Brooklyn, which means every

[14:31] single bowl has its own slight uniqueness. And I call them the Anything Bowl because I really do use them for everything. And only 300 were ever made and there's about 60 left. So check out the link below if you're interested. And

[14:43] for the té or the seasoning this soup, I'm using some homemade miso. I made and you can see how the color has changed pretty dramatically from a light brown to that deep caramel brown. And the umami just continues to intensify

[14:57] and elevate as it ages. I'll pop in my instant noodles and pour over the hot bowl so those noodles will cook to perfection in about 2 or 3 minutes. Then comes the toppings. I'll drizzle in some of that aromatic oil. And I saved some

[15:10] of those hydrated shiake mushrooms from the broth. I'll add in my bok choy. I've the roasted chicken. I'll pop in one of those half-boiled eggs. And finally, those half-boiled eggs. And finally, some fresh, thinly sliced green onion

[15:29] control how long I'm going to live. No one can. Even this guy right here, he can take all the supplements and do all the crazy he wants. Life is unpredictable. We have no idea what's coming for us tomorrow. But what I can

[15:41] control is how I live right now. And the reason I care so much about my diet and what I put into my body is I'm trying to live the best life I can right now. I strive every day to just feel my very best both mentally and physically. And

[15:55] that would be great. This is my wife's grandpa at age 102, meeting my firstborn daughter, three full generations under him, which I know was just so fulfilling and such an incredible moment for him at the very end of his life. And we just

[16:10] had our third baby just a few weeks ago. And to think about even the possibility And to think about even the possibility of meeting my son's grandkids, that's at of meeting my son's grandkids, that's at least worth trying for.