Umami!

Of the defined tastes (sweet, sour, salty, bitter, umami), umami is probably the least well known, but it shouldn’t be!  Umami flavors make up an important part of many well-loved savory dishes, from bacon and cheese to mushrooms and even ripe tomatoes!  The two dishes featured below have prominent savory flavours, so I decided to group them together for this post!

First off, pan-fried sweetbreads!  Sweetbreads is the term used for the thymus gland, often from lamb or beef.  Unfortunately this is often fairly off-putting to most people, which is a shame because sweetbreads are possibly among the tastiest, mildest, and least offensive members of the offal family.  In fact, they’re downright delicious.  So just don’t over think it…and maybe leave the prep work to someone else! 🙂

2 lb. sweetbreads

Salt

3 T. coconut aminos

2 T. lard or other cooking fat

2 t. tabasco sauce

Soak the sweetbreads in cold water in the refrigerator for 6-24 hours, changing the water at least once or twice.  Drain the sweetbreads then cover with salted water and bring to a boil.  Simmer for 5-10 minutes, then blanch the sweetbreads in cold water.  Using your hands, break apart the sweetbreads into discrete, bite sized chunks, discarding any excess membrane (I know, I know, it sounds gross).  Heat the oil in a large frying pan, then cook the sweetbreads in two batches, each for about 6-10 minutes, until golden brown.  Toss with salt, aminos and tabasco sauce and serve immediately.

And now… bacon infused portobello mushrooms!  I was a little disappointed with how the picture came out, but trust me: these are super tasty!  And easy!  Really no recipe is required- just sauté some portobello mushrooms in bacon grease and salt generously for some serious amazingness.  Enjoy!

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i [heart] chili

Chili is such a great meal: easy to make, delicious, warm and spicy.  It’s perfect for the slow cooker and makes for a delicious “hearty” dinner in more ways than one…  Why, you ask?  Beef heart!  If you’re nervous about diving headfirst into eating offal, beef heart is a pretty good place to start because it’s pretty mild in flavor, pretty similar to regular beef.  Afterall, it is just a muscle!  It’s perfect for chili, too, because the spices cover up any of the offal-y taste, so the end result is really just a great bowl of steak chili!  The faint of heart (haha no more puns, I promise!) may want to leave the butchering up to someone else, but once that step is over, you’d hardly be able to tell this chili apart from any other.  Seriously give it a try!  Hearts are generally pretty affordable and really nutritous.  According to Mark’s Daily Apple, “Heart is high in protein and nutrients: thiamin, folate, selenium, phosphorus,  zinc, CoQ10 and several B vitamins, not to mention compounds that may promote  the production of collagen.”  Sounds good to me!
Read more:

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/grilled-beef-heart-with-roasted-chili-peppers/#ixzz1xmb9zBFm

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/organ-meats/#axzz1xmaimlyQ

Beef Heart Chili

Approx. 3 lb beef heart, cut into 1″ cubes (regular beef or even ground beef can be substituted if you wimp out 🙂 )

Coconut oil, or other oil of choice

2 onions, roughly chopped

4-5 cloves garlic, pressed

4T. chili powder

2 t. cumin

1 T. salt, plus more to taste

1 T. oregano

2 t. paprika

2x 14 oz. cans of diced tomatoes (no sugar-added)

1 6oz. can of tomato paste

Heat oil in large pan, then add garlic and onion and cook until onion begins to brown, then add to slow cooker.  Now brown the meat for a few minutes, then add to the slow cooker and turn it on to the low power setting.  Mix spices in a bowl and pour the spice mix over the meat and onions and mix together with a large spoon.  Pour the two cans of diced tomatoes into the slow cooker and cook covered on low for 8-10 hours, then stir in the tomato paste.  If there is too much liquid for your preference, you can transfer the chili to a pot on the stove and cook off some of the liquid or turn the slow cooker to high and cook uncovered until chili reaches desired consistency.

Recipe adapted from:

http://www.food.com/recipe/crock-pot-steak-and-black-bean-chili-100291

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/primal-texas-chili/#axzz1xmaimlyQ

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5lbs of bones

A big bag of bones may not top your shopping list now, but it should!  Bones are really cheap, even those from high quality grass-fed animals, and they pack a solid nutritional punch.  My last bone purchase provided me with a full pot of mineral-rich, tasty bone broth and a bright yellow jar of beef tallow (see above).  I did all the work a few weeks ago, but I’m still enjoying the spoils of my work!  Bone broth freezes really well, so I’ve been able to enjoy a cupful every few days and I still have quite a bit of the tallow left over in the refrigerator.  Similarly to lard, tallow holds up well to heat because it is rich in saturated fat, so it’s a great cooking oil.  I’ve enjoyed using it for vegetables, and baked potato fries with tallow are really delicious!  It’s also good to have on hand for any especially lean cuts of beef that could use a little extra fat.  Tallow is easily rendered during the broth making process, which is also super easy, so get your hands on some nice quality marrow bones and make some bone broth today!  See the WAPF site for more info on the benefits of bone broths and other traditional foods.

Bone Broth

Heat the oven to 375 F, then roast the bones for about an hour, until browned.  Remove the bones (and scoop out some of the marrow if you want!) and add to a large pot of water.  Add a small splash of apple cider vinegar to the pot and bring to a boil.  The vinegar is an important step because it creates a slightly acidic solution which allows for more minerals to be extracted from the bones.  The roasting step is less important, but I’ve found that I prefer the flavour of broth from roasted bones.

Scoop off any foam that forms at the surface for the first few minutes of boiling and discard.  Bring the broth to a simmer and cover for at least 8 hours, but longer is better, just make sure that there’s always a good amount of water in the pot.  If you make broth in a slow cooker, you can even leave it cooking for 24-48 hours.  When the broth is done, remove the bones and strain the broth through some cheesecloth to remove any leftover chunks of meat or bone.  Refrigerate until the cap of fat at the top solidifies, and carefully scoop the fat off the broth with a spoon.  The broth is now ready to go!  Ideally the refrigerated broth will have a thick gelatinous texture, which is what you want- it just means that the broth is loaded with gelatin and minerals!  What I usually like to do with the finished broth is to freeze it all in ice cube trays, then store the blocks in the freezer, so whenever I want some broth I can just pop a few cubes into a mug and melt them down.

The next few steps are for if you want to also render some tallow, which I highly recommend.  Why not?  It’s just a few extra steps and totally worth the effort.  Melt down the fat that was scooped off the broth and filter it through a coffee filter placed in a strainer to remove any additional impurities.  Pour the fat into a bowl and allow to solidify in the refrigerator.  When the tallow is solid, scoop it our with a knife and scrape off any remaining broth from the bottom until the block is just solid fat.  And what you have left?  A nice block of tallow ready to be used in any future cooking endeavors.  I’ll usually just melt the block down, pour it into a glass jar, and save it in the refrigerator to use later.  Enjoy!

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Meatloaf…with extra love

Allow me to be blunt.  My last foray into the world of beef liver was an epic failure.  Mature beef liver has a strong flavour to say the least and even a mountain of bacon, butter, and onions would not allow me to enjoy that beef liver.  That’s not to say I wasn’t trying- I really did want to like it.  And on paper what’s not to love?  A 4 oz. piece of beef liver has over 100% DV of vitamin A, vitamin B12, copper, vitamin B2, tryptophan, and choline, and its also an exceptionally good source of folate, iron, and selenium (World’s Healthiest Foods).  Traditional cultures have prized liver for ages for its health benefits, and offal in general is something that I am working to include in my diet as often as possible.  But the taste…

I did everything I was supposed to do: soak the liver for a few hours in slightly acidic liquid, avoid overcooking (keep it medium-rare), and smother it with butter, onions, and BACON, the one food that’s supposed to make anything edible.  But still, I couldn’t get past the strong taste and off-putting texture.  Against my warnings, my friend A also tried the liver, and she had about the same reaction I did.  We were both fighting off the taste of liver for the rest of the night.

One part of the issue, I think, was that the liver was from a mature cow.  In the past, I’ve been fine with chicken livers and calves’ livers, but beef livers have a much stronger flavour.  Still, the health benefits and really low price of even grass-fed livers encouraged me to give them another try, and lo and behold…it was good!  I used my standard meatball/meatloaf template with about 2lb of ground beef and 1.5lb of liver, plus 4 eggs, 2 onions, 4 cloves of garlic and generous amounts of salt and italian spice mix.  Just blend everything except the ground beef then mix in the ground beef and pour into a greased baking dish.  Cook at about 400 degrees for an hour and enjoy the aromas wafting out of the oven.  Cut into slices, and enjoy with some tomato cream sauce.  Yay liver!

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Curried Offal

Hurrah for whole-animal nutrition!  It’s not all about the muscle meat anymore- offal is a very healthful addition to the weekly menu and is generally pretty nutritionally rich.  Hearts, livers, sweetbreads have all been on my plate over the past few weeks, but here’s a pretty tasty recipe for some curried chicken gizzards and hearts.

Boil 1 lb gizzards and hearts for about 30 min.  Meanwhile, in a separate pot, simmer a pack of frozen spinach with about 1 c. water for 10 min or so, then drain liquid.  Remove gizzards from water and add to a frying pan with about 1 T. ghee, plus the spinach and a pack of frozen peppers and onions.  Season with a dash of cinnamon, turmeric, cayenne pepper, and a healthy dose of cumin.

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