Real Food Lifestyle

Beef Stock -- Bone Broth

Long before I discovered the Weston A Price folks, a friend had told me about the health benefits of broth stock.  I listened, looked at various sites on the internet and decided it was just too much trouble.  Well, that's not the total truth, I was scared.  I didn't understand what they meant when they said bones had to be browned.  All I could see was trying to brown bones in a frying pan -- and that vision never came out well.  Bones weren't flat or even - how did you get them to brown.  It didn't occur to me that you could just put them in the oven and they would brown -- all by themselves.  Also, I wasn't sure which ones needed to be browned.  Now, I know - you brown the bones that have meat on them or any other meat you are putting in the stock. 

Like most things we are afraid we'll screw up, beef broth was one of those things I put off, avoided, bought when I needed it. 

Then I began to explore nutrient dense cooking and realized that the stocks I'd bought in the store were probably on the low nutrient dense scale, while what I could make at home was at the top of the real food nutrition charts with respect to health benefits. 

Here's what Sally Fallon Morell says about stocks in her Nourishing Traditions cookbook. (If you don't have this book and want the "cooking bible" for nutrient dense cooking, this is it.)  You can order it from Powells by clicking on the graphic to the right of this post (and yes I receive a small percentage of the order if you click through my site.  It's one of the ways I am financing my blog.)

Properly prepared, meat stocks are extremely nutritious, containing the minerals of bone, cartilage, marrow and vegetables as electrolytes, a form that is easy to assimilate.  Acidic wine or vinegar added during the cooking helps to draw minerals, particularly calcium, magnesium and potassium, into the broth. Dr. Francis Pottenger, author of the famous cat studies as well as articles on the benefits of gelatin in broth, taught that the stockpot was the most important piece of equipment to have in one's kitchen. Nourishing Traditions, Sally Fallon Morrell

So, I bought bones - knuckle bones, neck bones with meat on them, ligaments, and even some osso bucco to use for meaty bones, too.  I bought them frozen from Dey Dey Beef and knew that these bones came from cows that had been raised 100% on pasture.  When I came home I was determined to make stock.  I put the bones in the freezer and that's where they stayed.  Every time I looked at the bones, the whole task was daunting, so I put it off.

About a month and a half ago, I got up my courage to make chicken stock. I think I cooked it too long. (Chicken stock probably should be cooked about 24 hours, while beef broth stock probably can go about 36 or more hours.) And it was tasty, however, making chicken broth will be the subject of another post.) The good news about these broths is that it's hard to mess them up. 

In the last week, I summoned all my courage, and armed with a new 5 gallon stainless steel stock pot which I needed to devirginize, so to speak, I began my adventure with beef bone broth. 

As a student and intern and sometimes consultant (writing, web site and blog oriented) to Culture Club 101, I have had the benefit of watching Elaina make stock several times.  By the way, she has delicious beef, chicken and sometimes fish stock available for her members so if you are in the Southern California area, and you don't have the time or inclination to make your own stock, you might want to check her out.  She's so patient with her interns and students and all of our questions.  Seems like I always have a new question to ask and she always seems to have the answer. 

Enough of my tangents, here's my step by step recipe for beef stock? 

Step 1.  Obtain ingredients - bones, veggies if you want them. 

             Bones include knuckle bones, neck bones, ligaments and beefy bones like osso bucco or beef ribs.  You can also put in beef stew meat for more flavor.  Remember, look for grass fed beef and grass-finished beef. 

            Veggies.  Celery, parsley, onions, carrots ....

            Spices.  Thyme, crushed peppercorns

            Apple Cider Vinegar - (you want unfiltered vinegar with mother in it -- Bragg is one of the best)

Step 2.  Put the knuckle bones and ligaments in cold water and about 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar and soak for an hour or so.

Step 3.  Put the meaty bones (neck bones, bones with any meat on them, and beef stew meat) in a roasting pan in the oven at 350 degrees.  If for any reason you don't have a roasting pan, I put mine in the oven in a very large cast iron frying pan.  Let brown for about an hour. 

Step 4.  Pour fat off the meaty bones and add them to the stockpot.  You can also put some water in the roasting pan and bring to a boil to loosen the browned goodies and put that in the stockpot as well. 

Step 5.  Pour in cold water to within 1-2 inches of the top of your pot (keeping in mind the amount of bones that you have) and bring to a boil.  Let boil for a few minutes till scum forms on the top. 

Step 6.  Skim the scum that forms on the top of the stock.  Lots of recipes tell you to add the veggies at this point.  Elaina recommends that you wait till you've gotten all the scum skimmed away and then add the veggies.  Makes this step much easier.  

Step 7.  Add veggies and spices. Except parsley.  That goes in at the end.  Chop the celery, onions, and carrots into chunks (no fine chopping needed here).

Step 8.  Allow the stock to simmer for 12 to up to 72 hours.  I let mine go about 36.  Sally Fallon says it can go up to 72. Add Parsley during the last 10 minutes. 

Step 9.  Let it cool some.

Step 10.  Stain all the bones and veggies out of it and refrigerate.

Step 11.  Remove the fat and freeze to keep for longer than a week. In the refrigerator the fat will solidify and come to the top.  Remove that - you can use it for other things.  Freeze that which you will not use within the next week.  I have started freezing in mason jars, but remember that you if you freeze in glass you need expansion room. 

Step 12.  Make soup or just drink the heated broth as a winter warm-up.

Later I was at Elaina's making beef stock and took these photos of the different kinds of bones for those of us who aren't sure which ones are which.  For example, there are many different looks to knuckle bones -- as you might imagine.  Here are 3 different shots of knuckle bones.

 

And then there are marrow bones -- these are thin sliced and give a very good view of both the bone and the marrow inside. 

Meaty Bones. The ones below are rib bones.  Neck bones are also considered meaty bones as is Osso Bucco. 

 

 

Beef Stew - Asian Style

Okay, I just made the most delicious beef stew or beef noodle soup -- well, I'm not sure what to call it, but it's so good that I'm having a second bowl.  And now fulfilled and satisfied beyond words or even sounds, I'll tell you all about it.

It started with my beef bone broth.  I'm in the process of putting up a post and recipe for making your own beef stock. 

2 to 4 cups beef stock/bone broth

1/4 cup chopped onion

1 to 2 medium cloves of garlic chopped fine

1 tsp to I TBL chopped fresh ginger (this depends on how much you like ginger, I love it so I used the Tablespoon

1/2 to 1 lb beef stew meat browned

1 cup to 2 cups yu choy (tastes like spinach) you can substitute bok choy, spinach, mustard greens, or other leafy greens

Salt and Pepper to Taste

Red pepper flakes if you like a little extra spice. 

 Optional - Noodles -- I used my almond flour noodles so it would be GAPS Friendly.  This is a recipe I innovated from a recipe for Italian noodles I found in an old Italian cookbook from Romeo Salta (top ranked New York Northern Italian restaurant in the 60's and 70's).  

Steps to Making Asian Beef Stew

Step 1.  Put the beef stock in a stainless steel soup pot or sauce pan

Step 2.  Add ginger, garlic and onions and let simmer slowly for about 15 to 20 minutes

Step 3.  Brown some beef stew meat.  I brown mine in lard, but you can use beef tallow or the fat you've skimmed off your beef broth if you make your own.

NOTE:  I like my pieces of beef small, so after the larger chunks have browned, I cut the chunks smaller and let those brown a bit too. 

Step 4.  Taste the broth with the spices at this point.  Can you taste the ginger, onion and garlic.  If so, then you can add the browned beef stew.  Let this cook for about 15 minutes (it can cook longer if you are not in a hurry).

Step 5.  Chop the yu choy, bok choy or spinach. 

Step 6.  Add the greens and allow to simmer for another 10 minutes or so. 

Step 7.  Add noodles and allow to simmer an appropriate time for the noodles.  My almond flour noodles only need a couple of minutes, but other noodles need some time.  Another option is to cook the noodles separately and then add them at this point. 

Step 8.  Taste test and adjust salt, pepper, and add some red pepper flakes if you like spicy

Serve with sour dough garlic toast. 

And Enjoy!  Enjoy!  Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

Making Yogurt Mother

Huh?  You are making what?  I'm making Yogurt Mother. Well, really I'm replenishing my villi yogurt mother, which is the culture I use for my raw milk yogurt.  Like any good culture, it needs to be fed -- usually every week. 

What do you feed a yogurt mother culture, you might be asking?

You need to feed it milk & cream that has been heated to 180 degrees -- the best milk you can get -- though it doesn't need to be raw cause you're going to heat it anyway.  Straus Family Dairy's milk and cream is grass-fed pasturized milk here in California.  Feeling cows grass instead of keeping them confined in a confined feeding system provides much healtheir milk, though in my opinion the best milk is raw milk.  I grew up on raw milk from our jersey cow until I was about 11.  When we sold the cow and Mom brought home milk from the store I wouldn't touch it.  Ah, but I am on a tangent.  Back to my subject.  You want milk from the best raised, most compassionately treated cows.  So in your area you may need to do some research. 

The ratio of milk to mother is 3 to 1.  I heat the 3 cups of milk and cream to 180 degrees and then let it cool to about 78 degrees. You can put it in an ice bath to cool it faster.  I'm usually doing a lot of different things, so I often just let it cool by itself.  Though, it's been warm here this week, over 80 today, so I may need to help it along.

Once it's cooled to below 80, I add a cup of mother to the 3 cups of milk (usually 1 cup cream and 2 cups milk) and after about 18 hours that yields 4 cups of newly fed mother that is raring to go to make some amazing yogurt. 

I'll talk more about making the Yogurt tomorrow.  Briefly though, if I use 2 cups mother to 6 cups of raw milk & cream to make yogurt, I'll have 8 cups of raw milk yogurt (after another 18 to 20 hours). and a couple of cups of mother to make either more yogurt or replenish my mother.  Even cooler is that you don't need a yogurt maker or some heating device. 

Remember, you always want to keep a cup of mother that you can use to replenish your mother supply. without feeding your mother weakens after about a week and doesn't make yogurt that is as good. 

Where can you get the Viili culture? Well if you are in the Southern CA area you can become a member of Culture Club 101 here in Pasadena and purchase one or you might talk with Real Food Devotee, Monica.  Or you can order the culture from Cultures for Health. 

Deep Nutrition - Book Review, Part 1

I'm currently reading Deep Nutrition - Why Your Genes Need Traditional Food by Catherine Shanahan, MD and Luke Shanahan.  What an amazing book, with a scientific, and medical view of nutrition and what's been missing in our current diets and ones of the recent past. More than that  Dr. Kate demonstrates to us what it's doing to our evolution as a species.  She explores how our current diets are making us age at a much faster pace than our ancestors and what we are doing to our bone density and structure as a result of our so-called modern approaches to food. Using the science of Epigenetics she explains why eating without questions from your local grocery will keep making you more prone to illness and disease. The amazing work of Weston A. Price is linked to modern scientific findings in a way we can all understand.

I particularly loved the quote below where she talks about all the our obsessions with seeing food as carbs, fats and protein rather than seeing a whole chicken or cow or pig and how it was sourced.  We've become a society of white meat, ultra lean beef, and protein drinks as a substitute for either.  Nutritionally this leaves us in a wasteland devoid of all the health benefits of the whole animal. 

Here's what Dr. Kate says:  Though you can boil, extract, and refine living tissue to isolate the protein, carb, or fat, you do so only at the cost of everything else that held the cells and organs together.  yanking certain components from living systems-as we do to make flour, sugar, protein slurries and 90 percent of what's now for sale in the store--and expecting them to approximate their original nutritional value is like removing someone's brain from their body and expecting it to respond to questions.  (bold type is mine)

She goes on to talk about the 4 Pillars of Nutrition, which I'll address in Part 2. 

Mahi Mahi - Parmesan, Coconut, Lime

I belong to a weekly private buying club/market that features delicious real food at close to wholesale prices.  This past week there were several kinds of fish including mahi mahi. I didn't grow up where there was a lot of fish or fishing, so up until the last few years fish were always a mystery to me.  The first fish I learned to cook with any facility was salmon.  Now, I've added Mahi Mahi to the list. 

The first time I cooked it I just peppered it a bit and put it in a pan with butter with the heat up at first to sear it and then cooked it fairly slowly.  The one thing I know about fish is that if you push it you can dry it out.  On the other hand, even cooked slowly it's done realtively fast compared to other meats.

What's next I asked myself.  Some coconut had just arrived from Wilderness Naturals so I decided I wanted to make a batter with coconut.  My best friend Charlotte and I had loved this halibut dish at a resturant above Malibu that included parmesan and coconut so I decided to try it for myself. 

Reaching into the frig for the Parmesan I saw the limes I'd gotten for something else.  Hummm!  Lime would be great with fish and add just the zest.  Thinking about it made my mouth water so I knew I was on the right track.  Here's how I did it.

 

1 lb mahi mahi  (I cut the mahi into smaller pieces of about equal thickness.  Thicker pieces cook slower and thinner pieces cook faster. 

1 egg

1/4 cup fine shredded unsweetened organic coconut

1/4 cup parmesan cheese (or a romano parmesean blend or someother hard cheese grated)

1 lime -- Juiced

salt and pepper to taste

Beat the egg, add the coconut and parmeasean chees and lime juice and stir well.  You can also add salt and pepper to taste.  Depending on the eggs you have, you can taste this and adjust seasons.  I would not recommend tasting raw eggs that are from your regular grocery, but I taste and eat the pastured eggs I buy all the time.  It's totally up to you. 

Dip the mahi mahi into the batter and let it sit for a minute or two.  Heat a cast iron (my favorite) pan with about 2 TBL butter.  Put in the battered Mahi Mahi and let it brown on one side and then turn it.  After you turn it the first time, turn the heat down a bit so that the interior can cook (or it's is really fresh it can be a bit "rare" in the center.  This is to your taste as well. Be careful not to over cook.

You will want to take out the thinner pieces first.

I served this over soaked rice with a mixed greens salad. 

 

 

 

Yogurt, Yummy Yogurt

 

Strained Yogurt for Yogurt Cheese

 

 

Yogurt cheese with garlic and chives served with fresh veggies

Last night I dropped in on the Culture Club 101 Yogurt making class with Monica Ford,  I've had the privildege to be in this class before and it's one of my favorites.   Monica, the founder of Real Food Devotee and also an actor, is the perfect teacher - articulate, charming, fun, and very, very knowledgeable.  Monica learned to make yogurt from a Polish grandmother (in Poland) and brought back the Viili culture to the states (many years ago) in a cold cream jar.  Participants in the class take home a Viili culture. Members of Culture Club 101 ( a private culinary club) can also buy the cultures. 

Yogurt has been a staple in my diet for years.  I first encountered yogurt that I liked in a Middle Eastern resturant in Washington D.C in the early 70's, served with lamb.  Before that a friend had offered me yogurt with fruit and I thought the two tastes did't go together.  I really loved the taste of yogurt and meat.  Then, I read that these folks in the Balkans lived healthy lives for a long time (100 to 120 years) and attributed their longevity to yogurt.  The women in my family have a long tradition of living to their late 80's and 90's so I figured I'd better take care of this body.  Yogurt became a staple with any meat I was serving, and on veggies and in salads. I came up with my own yogurt salad dressing (recipe below), but It is only lately that I've come to love it with mango or pineapple in a drink called Lassies. 

If you don't live in Pasadena, you can order a Viili Mother Culture from Cultures for Health.  In the meantime you can make the the yogurt salad dressing with Plain Yogurt from your local grocery.  In Southern California I recommend Straus Yogurt because their cattle are grass fed.  But, really I recommend making your own from Raw Milk from Organic Pastures Dairy or the source you can find for Raw Milk in your area. 

Yogurt Salad Dressing

1 cup yogurt

Optional:  1/2 to 1 cup buttermilk. cultured milk, or kefir (you can put this in or leave it out depending of what you have available)

1-2 cloves garlic crushed (This will be to your taste.  I love garlic and believe it has amazing health benefits.)

Juice of 1 average sized lemon

1/2 teaspoon crystal or seal salt (or salt to your taste). 

Optional:  1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon cayenne

I put all the ingredients together in a mason jar and then shake.

 

Another way to change this up:  add 3 TBL of Fig (or other fruit flavored) Balsamic Vinegar

 

 

 

Salads - A Real Food Twist on Beet and Goat Cheese Salad

 

I was invited to a pot luck dinner last night and had to think about what to take.  I have arugula growing in my back yard, but that's the only thing that made it through the frost and wind we've had this winter.  I wanted to include it but wanted more variety in my greens so I used a bag of organic herb salad mix from Trader Joes.  The honeyed goat cheese (also from TJ's) that was in the cheese drawer inspired me to pull some beet kraut I'd made (fermented with cloves and allspice) and some cauliflower/fennel kraut (also w/ cloves and all spice) to use with the greens.  I crumbled some crispy pecans over the top and viola, another version of a beet and goat cheese salad.

Recipe

Mixed greens  ( I used the Organic Herb Salad Mix from Trader Joe's & added my home-grown arugula)

4 oz honey goat cheese crumbled over the salad

1/2 cup beet kraut w/ cloves and allspice spread and tossed in the salad

1/4 cup cauliflower fennel kraut with all clove and allspice

1/4 cup Crispy Pecans

 

Salad Dressing

1 cup organic California Olive Oil

1/4 cup fig balsamic vinegar

juice of 1 lemon

2 garlic cloves crushed

1 tsp Himilayan crystal salt

Crispy Pecans

Pecans that I get from Walker Farms (as the Pasadena Farmer's market) that I then soak with Himilayan crystal salt and spring water, wash and then dry in the dehydrator.  Nuts are soaked because they have a high degree of phytic acid (all seeds, nuts and grains have this) and the soaking and then washing in filtered water reduces this.  Phytic acid is hard for humans to digest, and it bonds with the minerals in our body causing us to eliminate them.  This can cause mineral deficiencies if we eat a lot of grains, nuts or seeds without first soaking them. 

1 lb fresh pecans

Spring Water to cover

1 Tbl celtic sea salt or Himilayan Crystal Salt

Soak in a glass bowl for at least 7 hours.

Rinse and dry with paper towels

Dry in a dehydrator or over on ultra low (100 or 150 degrees) until crispy. 

 

Recipes - Snack Links

Crispy Almonds

Almond Butter

Kefir Cream Cheese

Recipe - Almond Butter

1 cup Crispy Almonds

1 TBL Coconut Oil

1tsp Celtic Sea Salt or Himalayan Crystal Salt

Blend/grind in a food processor until they begin to release their oil.  This may take a bit of time, just be patient.  Once they begin to release their own oil, a way to boost their nutrition value is to add some fabulous organic, extra virgin, expellar pressed coconut oil and a bit of healthy salt. Keep blending until you get it the consistency you want.  If you need to, you can add a bit more coconut oil. 

Note:  Always salt to your own tastes.  If you know you like less salt, start with a 1/2 teaspoon and gradually add more till you get it just right for you.

Jar in a pint glass "mason"  jar and store in the refrigerator. 

 

 

 

Recipes - Dessert Links

Healthy Sinful Raw Cacao (Chocolate) Candy

Strawberries, Blueberries and Cream