Chili summer days...

Summer is not typically when I make foods like Chili; it's often too hot and the last thing I want is to be cooking over a stove in our very warm kitchen.  But this has been a chilly summer here in the Northwest with only a few really hot days and even out anemic window-mounted air conditioner has been adequate.  So in this case a chilly summer makes this a perfect Chili summer.

One of the packages of elk-meat that we received (TY again Glenn and Astrid!) was labelled 'Hamburger.' I defrosted that today and discovered it was not in fact ground elk.  Either it was mislabeled or it was chunks intended to be ground into hamburger; whatever the case it made good meat for Chili.  The meat was deep red and virtually devoid of fat.  Aside from venison I have never had meat this lean so as I have done in the past with venison I cooked it in a generous amount of bacon grease to prevent it becoming too dry.  The chili turned out very well (I could not resist going back for seconds) and if the meat started out gamy there was no trace of this flavor in the finished chili.  Since most remedies for gaminess in meats seem to revolve around acidity I suppose this was no surprise given the amount of onions and such used in the recipe.

Here's the recipe I came up with:

Tinker's Elk Chili

This recipe makes a medium-hot chili. 

2lbs of boneless Elk meat

3 yellow onions

2-3 poblano peppers

2 anaheim peppers

3 large tomatoes

3 heaping Tbs. chili powder

2 tsp. Black pepper

2 Tbs. crushed garlic

4 Tbs. bacon grease

2 tsp. Sea Salt

Cut elk meat into bite-sized pieces.  Dice onion.  Heat bacon grease in a skillet over medium heat. When bacon grease is melted add meat, onions, chili powder and garlic. Brown the meat and cook until onions are translucent.  While meat and onions are cooking dice peppers and tomatoes.  When meat and onions are cooked combine with remaining ingredients in a medium stock-pot and simmer over low heat, stirring frequently, until ingredients are thoroughly cooked, meat is tender and liquid is reduced (approximately 1-1/2 to 2 hours)

Salt to taste and serve with a generous portion of crumbled fresh goat cheese.

Serves 4-6  

 You can substitute venison, beef, goat or pork for the elk.  If you use beef or pork you can substitute a little olive oil for the bacon grease but venison and elk are lean enough that the bacon grease really helps.  

The kindest of 'cuts...'

OK, I do understand that weight-loss is not the only goal of a Primal diet, nor is it necessarily the best metric for measuring progress but I want to share this because frankly I am thrilled.  Last week when we got our new scale it showed my weight at 284 pounds. Yesterday I was down to 278. Woot!  Back to making progress on weight anyway.

A big thank-you to our pal Heath, Purveyor of Princely Pork, who upon hearing that we were on hard times brought us a large cooler full of naturally grown Mangalitsa and Berkshire pork.  Mangalitsa is a traditional european pig that has been making a comeback in the 'luxury meats' market.  They are famous for having wooly hair and the quality of their fat.  When first experiencing this fat one Seattle-area chef wrote, "We were spreading it on bread like butter... it was embarrassing!"  Most of what he brought us were cuts that he described as 'junk meat,' meaning very fatty cuts and bits like jowls, shanks, tails etc.  The thing is these are still useful and tasty if properly prepared.

Many of these cuts are side-meat or bellies.  The side-meat can be sliced thin and cooked like bacon; this is very tasty even though it lacks the flavor added by 'curing.'  The bellies can be brazed in wine or other liquids and are considered a delicacy when prepared in this fashion.  One thing that we did discover about shanks- don't roast them!  We did one this way last night with onions, carrots and turnips and it came out amazingly tough and not very flavorful.  It's not surprising that shanks would be tough I guess when you consider that several hundred pounds of pig was trotting around on them for years...  Anyway it was not a loss; the vegetables were still tasty and after dinner I put the meat,  bones and leftover veggies into the slow-cooker.  I added some more carrots, sliced summer squash and herbs, drizzled honey over it all and left ti to cook on low overnight.  This tenderized the meat and made it more flavorful so it made a good breakfast.  Next time we'll know I guess!

We also cooked two of the bellies in the slow-cooker last week the night after that Heath dropped off this bounty.  They were cooked with Walla-Walla sweet onions, and again drizzled with honey.  We cooked them on a medium-low setting for about six hours and served them with wilted spinach.  The results were amazingly delicious but extremely fatty- even after trimming some of the excess fat after cooking it was almost too rich for us but it was soooo good we couldn't help ourselves...

He also brought us a pound of hickory-smoked Mangalitsa Bacon.  This sells online for around $20 a pound.  We tried it and if I win the lottery tomorrow I will live on it.  It wasn't merely good- we had never imagined that bacon could taste that good and we do love our bacon!  If I could afford it I would happily pay $20 a pound for it.

Though the meats that heath dropped off are of exceptional quality they do point out an important lesson; don't turn your nose up at the less stellar cuts whether they be beef, pork or whatever.  When thoughtfully prepared they still make a great meal.  Do a bit of research and be creative!

We still have a good supply of elk and some crab in the freezer, and with the pork from Heath we will not be going hungry any time soon. I still haven't done the Elk Chili... hmmm... today just might be the day for that...

Wild meats? I'm game

So- we've bought a bathroom scale. No idea if it's correct but hopefully it will at least be consistent.  It shows me at about 284 pounds; how this relates to my actual original weight we have no real clue except that it's pretty certain that I have lost weight since we started this diet- in the neighborhood of twenty pounds most likely.  Four months with very little increase in exercise- that's not bad at all.  Close to 30 pounds since mid-winter all told.

The weekend before last some friends gave us some 5 pounds of Elk and several fresh-caught and cooked crabs from Puget Sound- Yum!  We feasted on crab to our hearts content; not a thing we can do often.  Thank you Glenn and Astrid!

Elk is interesting; in some ways it's more like beef than venison.  In other ways... not so much.  For one thing the meat that we were given is quite gamy.  A certain amount of this is fine; it let's you know you aren't eating beef or some other common meat.  Too much though is, well... too much.  But there are things that you can do about this flavor that will reduce or eliminate it.

OK- realistically how many of you are eating game animals? I am guessing not many. But here's the thing; as we switch to more natural meats and free range meats 'gaminess' is going to become a factor because essentially we will be eating more 'semi-wild' animals.

The first elk-meat that we tried were a couple of T-Bone Steaks.  Astrid had commented on the gaminess so I wanted to see how bad it was.  I simply fried the steaks up in some olive oil with minimal spices until it was medium-rare.  The meat was tender and yes, quite gamy.  Linda was a bit on the fence as to whether she liked it and it was a bit much even for my taste.

Next we defrosted some stew meat.  I cooked this in the slow cooker with two chopped onions and three apples cut into sections with about 3 TSP of Worcestershire sauce, a tablespoon of seasalt, a teaspoon of ground black pepper and a tablespoon of crushed garlic.  This cooked for about four hours.  The result was that the meat was fairly tender and not at all gamy with a sweet 'gravy.'  What part of this formula got rid of the gamy flavour?  I don't know.

Another thing that works for getting rid of gaminess in meats like mutton, goat or venison is to marinate the meat in milk overnight in the refrigerator.  Discard the milk, btw; you don't want to cook in it and it will not smell too nice. Wash the meat before cooking.

From our apples-and-onions recipe and milk marinade reducing gaminess I suspect that the acidity of the vegetables and milk may be the agent that reduces or removes the gamy flavor.  If anyone knows for sure please share that information!

Other notes on game animals based on personal experience:
*Typically these meats can be tough as well as gamy but respond well to stewing, slow-cooking or braising.
*If the meat is very lean it can cook up dry- try cooking it wrapped in bacon.
*Game meats tend to go well with spicy-sweet sauces and condiments; I like to serve a sweet-hot home-made Chili Chutney with venison.
*I have found that fresh game birds tend to be very tough if not aged.  This is OK if you are stewing them or smoking them but not so good for frying or roasting.  One traditional option if to have a butcher dry-age them for you.  You can do this yourself but few people are set up for it or have the expertise or facilities to prevent the wrong sort of decomposition during this process.

For now we still have a fair bit of elk- I'm considering a nice chili and if that works out I'll be sure to share the recipe!

A Weighty Matter

OK, We're getting back on track and I have lost weight; I can tell by the fit of my clothes.  The problem is that I have no idea how much!  Scales it appears are surprisingly opinionated.  Every scale that I weigh myself on shows a different weight- it's getting confusing.  Two scales in the same medical facility less than 100 feet apart showed a difference of 8 pounds.  Either I lost 4 pounds a minute or one or more likely both of them are wrong.  The scales at two of my friends houses showed different weights as well.  I know my weight can fluctuate but not by 15 pounds in a couple of days!

The solution is obvious and if you are dieting to lose weight you should apply it too.  Get your own scale.  It won't be right but hopefully it will at least be consistent which is really more important.

It's harder than it looks...

It's been a while since the last post because this blog isn't about being a guru or an expert; it's about a journey.  Just now a journey that isn't going too well.  Ever since we fell off the wagon when we had house-guests (and no, I am very much not blaming them) we've had trouble sticking to our diet.  I don't think we've gained weight back but we're sure not losing any and I liked losing weight.

Eating real, natural and seasonal foods can be expensive and lately we've been having trouble making ends meet. Some times this has meant eating what we could afford rather than what we should but the real problem is simpler- we 'fell off the wagon' with sugar and as any alcoholic will tell you it's hard to catch up with that wagon and climb back on.  We're working on it but it's tough when you are stressed out over money and the sugar jones hits.  But we have a plan...

It starts with fruit.  It's high summer and it's prime-time for all sorts of fruits.  We're going to stock up and when we start jones-ing we'll try to satisfy the craving by eating fruit instead.

There's also honey.  Yes, it's high in carbs and very much of it isn't going to help us lose weight but it's better than processed sugar and a hell of a lot better than high-fructose corn syrup.  It can be used to sweeten fruit or iced tea... or just take a teaspoon in your mouth and savor it.  On the scale of dietary sins it ranks way lower than the alternatives.  Sorghum or molasses can stand in for honey too.

Dark Chocolate is helpful too, the more cocoa the better,  The interesting thing that we have found about really dark chocolate (86% cocoa or more) is that if savored a very little goes a long way.  One square tends to be as satisfying as a whole bar of normal milk chocolate with a lot less calories.  Again, on the scale of 'sins' it's pretty far down the list from a Milky Way or Three Musketeers bar.

Work on reducing stress.  A bit of meditation and activities that are highly engaging and require concentration.  Cravings for forbidden foods tend to pop up when we are stressed, bored or idle.

Last but not least... Stuff ourselves with good food.  Green vegetables.  Turnips and parsnips.  Leafy greens and rich, well prepared meats.  The occasional Yam.

One last thing... don't give up.  Catch up with that wagon and climb back on and don't let an occasional slip be the excuse to give up.

Other suggestions are of course welcome.  We'll keep you posted.

Madness? MADNESS?! THIS. IS. BARBECUE!!

It's Seafair time in Seattle.  Pirates, Parades, Hydroplanes and an air-show by the Blue Angels.  Big Fun.  It's also time for my friend Neil's annual Festival of Loudness.

Neil has a house very near the waters of Lake Washington.  This means at each Seafair he and his family are pummeled by the noise of hydroplanes racing madly across the water and jet fighters making low passes over his house at three or four hundred knots.

If you don't know what hydroplanes are they are racing boats. Better to say they are a massive engine with just enough boat bolted around them to keep them from sinking like a stone..  They skim across the water like skipped stones with a suicidal lunatic strapped into them more-or-less aiming them around a course.  The little ones at Seafair have huge, unmuffled outboards that drive them at speeds in excess of 140 miles per hour just offshore of Neil's house.  The big ones, the Unlimited Class boats are powered by jet turbine engines out of helicopters and blast by flat-out at over 200 mph.  It's LOUD.  Then there are the low passes from F/A-18 jet fighters in formation...

Deciding to make lemonade of these very, very noisy lemons several years back he established the Festival of Loudness- a daytime house-party and barbecue for his friends.  But Neil, you must understand, is not just a geek; he is an uber-geek.  Possibly the geek to end all geeks.

Figuring that they would need a lot of meat for their many guests Neil bought a Smoker.  But not just any smoker; he researched the matter and bought the best Smoker money could buy.  Then he and his friends dove into it's workings and modified it for greater efficiency and improved ventilation and precise control of the smoke and heat.  On the off-chance that some day a master chef somewhere else in the world might want to run their Super-Smoker by remote control they wired it to the internet.  I'm not kidding.

It was worth it.  The beef, pork and salmon that they served up that day were incomparable.  But of course it was not enough... these guys are mega-uber geeks.  Linda and I missed last year but we are told it involved some sort of rotisserie.  I can only imagine...

So this year we arrived and mingled our way through the house, noting with primal-glee the huge platters of marinated and grilled vegetables, creamy Chevre goat cheese and other culinary delights that awaited us.  Making our way to the backyard we beheld what this years BBQ-geekiness had wrought.

Oh.
My.
God.

This is the sight that greeted us:

Yes, that is scaffolding. With an overhead crane.  To the far right are large cylinders of liquid nitrogen.  Seriously.  In the center is the Meat Forge- a wood-fired blast furnace.  A flame-thrower stood ready to ignite the Meat Forge when the time was right.  Out of frame the uber-smoker had been slow-cooking a few hundred pounds of prime rib all day to the perfect temperature.  

While the demented cooks scurried about their preparations we snacked on the grilled vegetables and socialized, watching with some trepidation as the moment approached...  First they filled a 55-gallon plastic drum with liquid nitrogen and wheeled it into position near the Meat Forge.  The outside of the barrel was instantly coated with frost and a chill mist spilled from it's open top and drifted across the ground to the spectators.  This was actually rather welcome as it helped combat the 90 degree heat of the afternoon.  A man came out with the flamethrower and ignited the Meat Forge. While they were accomplishing this others removed the now perfectly-cooked prime ribs and brought them to the prep table where they were hooked together, two-by-two, with massive stainless steel hooks.  These were then lifted by the overhead crane and carefully lowered into the barrel of liquid nitrogen, renewing the layer of fog in the backyard.  

The now fully-engulfed Meat Forge was burning so hot that the nearby wooden platform on the scaffolding actually began to smoke and had to be continually wetted down with a hose lest it burst into flames.

After a carefully timed interval, just long enough to flash-freeze the outer layer of meat, the ribs were raised and lowered into the Meat Forge to sear the outside of the meat to perfection.

This is the Meat Forge- seven feet of electrically force-fed wood-fired hell.

The pairs of prime ribs were then lifted and brought to the serving table and sliced.  This process was repeated again and again while we watched in awe.  I mean come on!  Meat and Fire, Gadgets and dangerous chemicals.  If it had achieved the trifecta of guy-geekiness by being a competitive sport every man in the place would have swooned in a massive shared mangasm of testosterone poisoning.

Amazingly they pulled off this herculean feat with only one small explosion as liquid nitrogen shattered a block of concrete, but there were no injuries from the shrapnel.  None that drew blood anyway.

The results? Amazing.  A black-crusted slice of perfect, fork-tender medium-rare Prime Rib.  Quite simply as good as the best I have ever eaten.  Add to this the company, the other food and the floor-show it was an unforgettable afternoon.  Thanks for the invite, Neil!  I can't wait for next year...

Photos courtesy of Joe Brassy