Posts from — January 2010

By Stephen Unterberg

Recently, I’ve spent less time playing around with different flavor combinations and time-consuming recipes, and started focusing more on cooking a wide range of animal products I’m unfamiliar with in the kitchen.

Being introduced to the world of grass-fed and pastured animals has sparked a new interest of mine in the farming community and has forced me to seek out new farms in my area. My most recent cooking adventures have  been geared towards appreciating the different flavors of  pasture and grass-fed varieties versus conventional meats. I’ve also been experimenting with new animals. In order to fully appreciate these subtle differences, I’ve relied much less on complex sauces or spices – which can mask flavor -  and relied more on proper cooking technique.

The recipe below is an example of my new approach. I was strolling through Central Market and noticed individually packaged duck breast for the first time . Ok, so I will admit that these ducks are not pastured (I checked the company’s website), but they are raised very humanly and fed a decent diet (can’t be perfect all the time). The company is called Maple Leaf Farms. I am currently on the lookout for a pastured duck vendor in the area to continue fulfilling my duck cravings (which after this meal, I began having). All in all, these are the things that help keep paleo interesting, at least for me. As Jon discussed in a previous post, the point of this diet and the recipes we post aren’t attempts to create dishes that satisfy our previous addictions – paleo-this, or paleo-that, the joy comes from exploring the supermarket and farmers markets to find local, fresh ingredients and use simple techniques to create exciting and  complex dishes.

Seared Duck Breast w/ Veg and Goat Cheese

Before I go into the recipe, just a quick note on ducks – there is a large layer of fat located around the duck, and while it’s one of the more delicious fats you can enjoy, in order to crisp the skin and render the fat for other cooking purposes, you need to score the fat first (crisscrossing knife cuts while making sure not to cut through the flesh).

Ingredients:

1. Duck Breast
2. Freshly ground pepper
3. Salt

Vegetable w/ Goat cheese

1. Any vegetables of your choice (I used mustard greens, onions, mushrooms, and yellow squash
2. T fresh goat cheese (preferably raw)
3. ½ lemon

For the duck, liberally season all sides with salt and pepper and let sit at room temperature while you heat a cast-iron skillet to medium-high heat. Place the duck skin side down and let sear for at least 5 minutes. Move duck to one side of the pan, and use the rendered duck fat to cook your veggies. Place veggies on the other side of cast-iron and combine with the fat. Note: I didn’t even put salt or pepper on the vegetables, because the duck fat is already salted and has a ton of flavor which I wanted to be sure to appreciate. After the duck skin looks sufficiently golden, flip the duck over so its flesh can sear. Immediately place a meat thermometer through the fat layer into the breast and place in a pre-heated 350 degree oven. At around an internal temperature of 120 degrees, open the oven and sprinkle the fresh goat cheese on top of the vegetables. For the perfect doneness, I would recommend removing the pan from the oven at about 130 degrees and immediately placing the duck on a cutting board to rest (the temperature should rise another few degrees which will put the duck at a perfect medium-rare). Squeeze the lemon over the vegetables and duck. After 5 minutes, neatly slice the breast on a bias and serve alongside the veg and goat cheese.

Now that I’ve made this once as simply as possible, I probably will try and incorporate a sauce along with the dish. Maybe a blueberry or blackberry balsamic reduction for some sweet and sour flavors. Anyone have a suggestion?

Last note –save your fats. I have a few packages of pastured bacon that renders out a ton of fat. So I started keeping the fat in a small Tupperware container, stored in the refrigerator. Now if I ever want a slight bacon flavor to any of my dishes, I don’t need to cook a piece of bacon in the pan first. Just a thought! In fact, I used a bit of that bacon fat to start the cooking process with the duck breast (forgot to mention that earlier, oh well). Enjoy!

Competition season is coming up. I’ve done a bunch of CF events in the last couple years. Here are 10 tips to make sure your CF competition turns out great.

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10: Bring your own jump rope. Not having the rope you are used to practicing with can make a big difference.

9: Get there early. You aren’t going to get any sleep the night before anyway, so you might as well take your time in the morning.

8: Bring a support crew. You don’t want to be carrying chairs, coolers, bags or whatever on competition day. This is just one less thing to worry about. Most friends are happy to help with this. Have them take lots of pictures and video. The pictures will be fun to look at when it is all over.

7: Check out the pull up bars before your heat. They are probably going to be a different diameter than the bar you are used to. If they are thinner than you are used to, you are probably going to pull yourself up too high until you get used to it. Try a couple pull ups before your heat gets called.

6: Stand right outside the competition area before your heat gets called. As soon as they call you, sign in, and grab a good spot. What’s a good spot? Usually near the edge of the competition area (so your buddies can cheer you on) and with a “forgiving judge”. You’ll be able to pick these out pretty quickly. Don’t end up with the feminazi judge who takes away 10 of your 30 reps because she is on a power trip.

5: Have someone count out loud from your support crew. Judges lose count. A lot. Having someone standing next to you counting out loud can prevent a lot of problems.

4: Take a look at the events once they are announced. Figure out what clothes you need to wear. Socks, Oly shoes, long sleeve shirt…. whatever. Lay everything out and organize it. It should be easy to find in your bag.You aren’t going to have a lot of space to spread out, so you need to be able to find your stuff fast. Mess around with taping your wrists and hands in the weeks prior. Know how you like to tape your hands.

3: Once you are assigned a judge, do a couple reps of each movement with him. Have him let you know what he is looking for. Do a couple in a row with speed. Make sure you are on the same page.

2: Don’t do anything different. Maltodextrin on game day? Maybe…. but this isn’t the time to try it out. You should know exactly what you are eating on game day- and have tried it many times before.

1: Have fun. Take the scene in. You aren’t a professional athlete. Don’t be the guy who takes themselves too seriously.

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“The fight is won or lost far away from witnesses-behind the lines, in the gym, out there on the road, long before I dance under those lights”

-Muhammad Ali

By Stephen Unterberg

Alright, hope everyone is doing well. Not sure if you all have tried any of the recipes that have been posted so far, but as long as you’re enjoying the pictures, I guess that’s good enough for me! Now that winter break is over (10 days in Guatemala was a blast), and school has started going again, the recipes will begin dying down a bit.

Along with cooking I’ve still been  reading lots of articles and books on food and nutrition and have been pestering my professors like mad trying to get more clarity on certain metabolic pathways (we’re currently learning about the endocrine system and metabolism). As I discussed in the previous post, Wild Game, I planned on checking out a few cook books that seemed pretty interesting and I promised to report on them. The Grazing Across Texas book is very cool, especially if you’re interested in finding some pretty tasty recipes on game meats. It’s also filled with really cool pictures of people and dogs hunting all around different parts of Texas (may not be too appealing to most!). I also picked up The Grassfed Gourmet Cookbook by Shannon Hayes, which does a really nice job breaking down most types of grass-fed meats with nice recipes and great descriptions on cooking methods. Finally, Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon, a nutrition researcher who works with the Weston A. Price Foundation, is a really great book with very useful nutritional information. There are also a lot of recipes that take you back to the basics, which I look forward to attempting such as: homemade fermented vegetables, buttermilk, crème fraiche, chutneys, and stocks. Also, I ordered a bunch of pastured meats from www.burgundypasturebeef.com and I’m working through them. It’s amazing the difference in taste and texture between pastured and grain fed products, I really encourage you all to seek out some local farms and find ones that have a wide range of animals and deliver for cheap. There are plenty of them around the California area for sure. I’m also hoping to get some grass-fed raw milk from a farm a little outside of San Antonio so I can start making some fresh cheeses and other recipes involving milk from the Nourishing Traditions book. For those of you a little behind on current research publications or reading up on your blogs, a recent paper was published in the American Journal of Investigative Nutrition by Dr. Krauss that deserves a look-over.

http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/2010/01/new-saturated-fat-review-article-by-dr.html

Now for the recipe – I made the dish below for a few girls that came over to watch the Cowboy’s game against the Vikings. They enjoyed the food while I suffered through the game. Enjoy!

Roasted Salmon over Mixed Greens

1. Wild Caught Salmon (I used Sockeye)
2. Seasoning to Taste (salt, pepper, coriander, cumin)
3. ghee or coconut butter
4. Kerrygold herb butter

Mixed Salad

1. organic mixed greens
2. red onion
3. yellow bell pepper
4. cherry tomatoes
5. hearts of palm
6. avocado, diced
7. broccoli
8. raw bleu cheese

Balsamic-Goat Cheese Vinaigrette

1. omega 3 egg yolk
2. 1 tsp hot sauce
3. 1 T Dijon mustard
4. salt and pepper
5. balsamic vinegar
6. 2 T fresh goat cheese
7. olive oil

For the salmon,  soak the fish in a lemon-water bath for 30 seconds to remove any fishy flavor. Pat dry and add seasonings. Turn oven to 300 degrees and heat a skillet on medium-high heat. Add fat to the pan and place salmon skin side down in the skillet to begin developing a crust. Cook for a few minutes before placing a meat thermometer in the flesh, scattering a few pieces of the herb butter on top, and then placing the pan in the oven. Cook until internal temperature reads 120 degrees. Remove salmon and let rest for 5 minutes before slicing.

For the salad dressing, follow the  instructions I listed on a previous post describing how to make homemade mayonnaise. The dressing is exactly the same; just add balsamic vinegar and the goat cheese to the food processor along with steps 1-4.

Add all salad ingredients (whatever vegetables you want) to a bowl; add some of the dressing, and mix to incorporate. Place  on a plate and place the salmon fillet on top. Squeeze a bit of lemon or lime over the dish for extra brightness. Note: Taking the dish to another level is pretty easy here. Just make the basic mayo recipe and divide in half, with one half make the balsamic-goat vinaigrette, and with the other half add chipotles, truffle oil, thyme, or another interesting flavor to the mayo and drizzle on top of the salmon.

“You may fly over a land forever, you may bomb it, atomize it, pulverize it and wipe it clean of life — but if you desire to defend it, protect it and keep it for civilization, you must do this on the ground, the way the Roman legions did, by putting your young men into the mud.”

T.R. Fehrenback. This Kind of War

By Stephen Unterberg

Elk Indian Chili

Here is the first of a few dishes I made using some of the meat I brought over from Broken Arrow Ranch. This recipe is delicious, quick, and easy and is good for whatever is laying around the house. I had some leftover elk meat, some veggies, and coconut milk in the house, so I came up with this way of combining them and it worked out well. Feel free to use any type of protein for this dish, I used my elk from the night before, but I wouldn’t say it added much of a difference compared to beef or chicken.

1. Protein of choice (meat, chicken, fish)
2. Coconut Oil
3. Vegetables of choice ie. mushrooms, yellow squash, onion
4. garlic
5. Indian spices ie. curry, cumin, tumeric, cinnamon
6. salt and pepper
7. Coconut milk
8. Tomato sauce
9. Fresh herbs ie. dill and mint
10. ½ lemon

In a sauté pan, add coconut oil and heat until slightly smoking. Add vegetables to pan along with seasonings and sauté until translucent. Push vegetables to the edge of pan and add protein to the center (it’s best to cut your protein into smaller sized pieces). Don’t stir the meat until the first side has browned for extra flavor. Flip the meat over to brown the opposite side and then combine all ingredients in the pan along with enough coconut milk and tomato sauce (in equal portions) to cover the vegetables and protein halfway. Cover the pan and let simmer for 15-20 minutes until protein is fully cooked. Finally, add freshly chopped dill, mint, and a squeeze of lemon to the pan prior to serving. It’s not shown in the accompanying picture, but I ate this dish with some sliced avocado and a lightly poached egg on top. Whatever works for you!