Taking Stock

Bone broths - otherwise known as stocks - are one of the most nutritious and healing substances on the planet, not to mention *delicious* and the foundation of most cuisine. My wonderful cousin provided me with some packages of meaty soup bones from her brother (also my wonderful cousin, natch!) and I made stock from them. The journey of this particular batch of stock seemed noteworthy, so I've written about it.

- One day, I took the soup bone package out of the freezer and put the wrapped package on a plate in the fridge to thaw slowly and safely.

- A couple (few?) days later, I got out the thawed bones & rinsed them off. I oiled the roasting pan with coconut oil, threw in the soup bones and a couple of onions, quartered, and roasted them in the oven for about 30m or so, flipping them over halfway through. I dumped all into a stock pot, covered with water, added a few herbs (thyme, rosemary, ??), and a couple of good splashes of raw apple cider vinegar, and let it all simmer overnight. The vinegar is important to help the stock leach the good minerals from the bones and make them available to your body.

- The next morning, I turned it off & let it cool. Later that day, I strained it through a colander & pulled out the meat pieces and set them aside (in a container in the fridge). I strained the stock through a mesh strainer & put the bowl into the fridge for the fat to congeal. The bones went to the very happy dogs!

- The next day (or so, LOL) I fished the congealed fat off the top, and decanted the stock into pint jars. Labelled, and back into the fridge they went. (I saved the fat & added it to the dogs' food that night.)

- Another day, I put 1 1/2 pints of stock into a pot, added the reserved meat, some salt, and called it soup. However, the meat was way too dry to eat, so I ended up just drinking the stock, and put the meat back into the fridge.

- Another day, I put the meat, broken up into little pieces, into the rice cooker. I added a very small onion, chopped; 3/4 cup short grain brown rice; 2 cups beef broth; 1/4 cup water. Threw in some salt & herbs, and set it to cooking. When it was done, I thawed a couple cups of frozen peas under running water, put them in a bowl, and dumped the rice on top. To this mix I added a few T butter. We had a little bit of this left over, so into the fridge it went.

- Today, I took the little bit of leftover rice, meat, & peas, and put them in a pot with another jar (pint) of the original stock, hotted it up, added ample salt and a couple T of butter, and called it soup. This time, the soup was good!

- I still have two pints of beef stock in the fridge for future use. A long way from just one package of soup bones!

Broiling a Steak

For this, I owe a debt of gratitude to Shreve Stockton's wonderful cookbook Eating Gluten Free. But what really makes the steak great is Husband's recommendations. I followed them today and the steak was just about as good as when he does it!

Get a nice, thick steak, with a good rind of fat on the edge. I'm particularly fond of strip steaks. And I also buy them in the big package, cook several at once, and have them on hand to eat for several days.

Several hours before you want to cook them, take the steaks out of the package and arrange them on a broiler pan. Salt them generously with unrefined sea salt, and sprinkle generously with freshly ground pepper. (We do ours in a molcajete!) Using your fingers, rub the spices into the meat. Turn the steaks over, and repeat on the other side. Then, turn them on their sides, with the fat facing up, and sprinkle generously with Greek seasoning or more unrefined sea salt. Put them back flat, and place them in the cold oven. This is just to protect them from dust, flies, and pets while the spices infuse the meat and the meat comes to room temperature.

Several hours later, take the steaks out of the cold oven, put the rack into the broiling position, and preheat the broiler. When the broiler is hot, put the steaks under it for five minutes only. Be sure to keep the door ajar while broiling! Take them out, flip them over, and put them back in for five more minutes. They will now be cooked perfectly rare, so that when you reheat them later, you will not be left eating shoe leather. (Voice of experience here, trust me.) If you plan to eat one right away, it's okay to put it back under the broiler for another 2 minutes to get it medium rare.

This is important! Take the steaks out of the oven and let them sit for 5 minutes before serving. The meat finishes cooking and the juices "set" in this time.

And there you have it, one delicious, perfect steak! Or, several delicious, perfect steaks! :-)

Mom's True Texas Chili

Photo Tutorial of this recipe here.

This is my own version of my Mom's recipe for True Texas Chili. Texas Chili contains Meat. And Spices. That is ALL. No beans. And for God's sake, no tomatoes! Are you making spaghetti sauce, or chili? Anyway. I modified Mom's recipe by adding an onion. Because really, what suffers from the addition of onion? Nothing. And my unorthodox addition (Sorry, Mom) is a bit of brown rice. The original recipe called for a couple tablespoons of flour to thicken it, and in the attempt to go gluten-free, and eventually grain-free (except for rice), I've used different things over the years to thicken it, from ground millet to cornmeal to quinoa. Everything works fine, but the brown rice addition is compliant with the McCombs Plan, which we are currently following. Really, you could just skip the rice and add the water and simmer the chili. It would thicken up just fine, I'm sure. *Update 4/19/10: Trying to be grain-free now, so today I'm making it without rice or any grain. It worked great! 

Anyway, Enjoy a great big bowl of Texas Red! And if you just *want* beans, just add them at serving. But not to the pot. Okay? Oh, and "beans" means PINTOS. Not those big, weird, yucky kidney beans you Yankees think go in chili... **grimace**

Mom's True Texas Chili
(Can be halved easily, but why not make a bunch and freeze half?)

Ingredients:
5 lbs ground chuck, 80/20. (If you know me at all, you know I don't believe in lean.)
2 medium yellow onions (White or 1015 will also do fine.)
2 T garlic powder (or better, a couple cloves of fresh garlic, peeled and chopped)
1 (scant) cup chili powder (I like Fiesta "light in color" Chili Powder, but any will do.)
1/2 cup ground cumin (I like to grind my own, but pre-ground is okay.)
1/4 cup ground turmeric (If you can get this in the bulk section, it will be much cheaper than those tiny jars.)
2 T sea salt
1 cup brown rice (We are partial to Lundberg Organics Short Grain Brown Rice, but any will do.)
4 cups filtered water, plus more if needed.

Method:
Put the ground beef in a big stock pot and crank up the heat to medium-high. As the meat browns, stir and break up chunks with a wooden spoon.

While the meat browns, chop up the onions, and garlic if you are using fresh.

Measure into a bowl: 1 cup chili powder, 1/2 cup ground cumin, 2T garlic powder (if you are not using fresh), 2T salt, and 1/4 cup ground turmeric. Turmeric is supposed to be really good for your brain, and specifically in the prevention of Alzheimer's, which my Mom has, along with all of her siblings. Scare. So whenever the dish allows (chili, rice, potatoes, etc.) I try to remember (heh) to add it. I actually forgot this the last time I made chili, but I have noted it on my original recipe, so I won't forget in future!

Get the beef nice and brown. When it's fully cooked, add the onion (and fresh garlic, if using) and mix it in. Then add the spices and mix them in. Add the brown rice. Add four cups of water, and mix it all up. Turn the heat to low, and simmer this mixture for a good, long while, stirring occasionally . 2 hours is the absolute minimum. I partially cover the pot, by laying the wooden spoon across the top of the pot, and putting the lid on so that it is slightly ajar. At two hours, it's edible, but really needs more. This last batch, after two hours, I added 2 more cups of water and simmered it about another hour and a half.

When it's done - nice and thick - take it off the heat and allow it to cool for a while. Split it between two 2-quart containers. Put one in the fridge for immediate consumption, and one in the freezer for later. Chili freezes really well. And as delicious as it is, one gets tired of eating it by the time you get to the end of one of the containers. Or if you have a friend in need, you have a delicious hot meal on hand that you can take to them.

Enjoy!