Braised Beef Shank

Braising Beef Shanks

The idea of making a lamb or beef shank came into my head the other day. Not really sure why, but with my braces on my teeth and my TMJ issues, eating meat that is very tender is essential.  Since my husband is not wild about lamb (although I adore it), I went looking for beef.  The butcher at Whole Foods had some in the back of the store and brought out two whole beef shanks on a tray to show me.  I nearly passed out...each one is as long as my thigh! He said he could slice off a couple pieces that I could cook like Osso Bucco, so that is what I did.

I researched some recipes online for beef shank and got the main idea of how to cook it.  Even though the butcher told me browning or searing the meat first was redundant, I browned the meat first in olive oil in a dutch oven.  Some French recipes recommended it (as did Emeril Lagasse!) so I went for it. After browning the meat, I removed it while I sauteed the vegetables, added wine and tomato paste. Then I brought the shanks back, added beef broth and herbs and put it in a slow oven for nearly 4 hours.  I took the meat out to rest while I reduced the broth on the stove to a dark, delicious sauce, which I poured over mashed potatoes and the meat itself.

It was incredible.  Meat falling off the bone, so tender and so delicious.  But after smelling it cooking all afternoon, I was too hungry and anxious to eat it to snap a photo of the final result!  You will have to do with the process photos above.  My advice to those who want to try it: do it on a day when you have about 5 hours available.  It took me about an hour to assemble my ingredients, chop the vegetables and get the dish to the stage where it goes in the oven.  It took 3 3/4 hours to cook the meat and about 15 minutes to reduce the sauce.  I made a sauteed cauliflower and tomato dish to accompany the meat and potatoes.

Braised Beef Shanks
2 thick slices beef shank (about 1" thick)
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1/2 tsp each paprika and allspice, salt and pepper
1 large yellow onion, peeled and chopped
2 small shallots, peeled and minced
1-2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
1 large carrot, peeled and roughly sliced
2 stalks celery, roughly sliced
half a package sliced fresh mushrooms
2 bay leaves
2 sprigs fresh rosemary
1 cup red wine ( I used Bogle Petite Syrah)
1 heaping Tablespoon tomato paste
3-4 cups organic beef broth ( I used Pacific brand)

(Preheat oven to 325°) Heat olive oil in heavy, ovenproof dutch oven on top of stove on medium-high heat.  Pat beef dry and season with salt, pepper, paprika and allspice.  Brown in dutch oven until meat develops a bit of a crust.  Remove meat to platter.  Add onion and shallot to pan and saute, adding a bit more oil, if necessary. After the onions and shallots are translucent, add the garlic, carrot, celery and mushrooms and cook for a few minutes.  Season the vegetables with salt and pepper as you add them to the pot.  Pour in the wine and cook for 5 minutes or so until it reduces a bit.  Add the tomato paste and cook for a minute or so.  Return the beef to the pot, moving away the vegetables so the meat sits on the bottom. Arrange vegetables around and on top of meat.  Add enough beef broth to cover the meat and bring to boil.

When everything has reached a rolling boil, remove from the stove and place dutch oven in the preheated oven uncovered.  Set timer for 4 hours.  After one hour, take dutch oven out and turn beef over in pot.  Continue to cook, checking occasionally to make sure the liquid does not evaporate too much and expose too much of the beef.  I turned it about once an hour to make sure one side did not dry out, or you can add more liquid.

In the last hour, make mashed potatoes and get other side dishes ready.  When the meat is falling off the bone, remove the dutch oven from the oven and remove the beef with a slotted spoon or tongs to a platter and cover loosely with foil to keep warm.  Place the dutch oven with the remaining vegetables and broth on the stove on high (remove the bay leaves and rosemary) and cook, stirring until the sauce reduces.  Serve the beef with mashed potatoes and a vegetable side dish.  Pour sauce over meat and potatoes.  Have a glass of red wine with it...you deserve it!

Serves 4

Karen, herself

Cooking with Udi's GF Breads

So, just to be absolutely clear, I love Udi's Gluten Free products and I buy the whole grain bread and the bagels all the time.  But I tried using the whole grain bread in my Thanksgiving turkey stuffing and it totally disintegrated, so I probably won't be using it in that recipe again (Bon Appetit's November 1982 French Sausage and Chestnut Stuffing).  I think the stuffing requires a firmer, more dense bread, as it has to stand up to soaking in hot chicken broth and then be added to a stovetop saute with all the other ingredients and then be baked either in the bird or in a pan in the oven.

French Toast with Udi's Whole Grain Bread

This morning I made a gluten-free, dairy-free french toast using Udi's Whole Grain Gluten-Free Bread and it was pretty darn good. I used one egg and about a quarter cup or so of unsweetened almond milk for my batter.  I made the french toast using Earth Balance's Natural Buttery Spread (the Soy-free one) and topped it off with pure maple syrup.  Looks good, eh?  Oh yeah, I topped off the dish with sauteed banana slices.

I am curious to know what others have used Udi's breads for (besides just toast and sandwiches) and how it worked.

Karen, herself

Low blood sugar and migraine

So I have once again fiddled with my diet. Now, on top of avoiding gluten, corn sugar, almonds, ginger and all the migraine causing things like: nitrates, msg, caffeine, aspartame, etc., I am also watching my sugar intake. Why, you may ask, would I want to eliminate or drastically curtail yet another food group? My reasons are threefold and all have to do with the high-glycemic value of most non-gluten containing grains.

1: I cannot get control of my weight since going gluten-free.

2: I have noticed a correspondence between low blood sugar episodes and my migraines.

3: I seem to get sugar “crashes” during exercise which makes problems No.1 and 2 worse.

I have known since high school that skipping meals, fasting, or waiting too long between meals is a sure recipe for a headache of any kind. So, for years I have made sure I eat something every 3-4 hours. The trouble is, as I have gotten older, I have noticed that this doesn't ensure I won't have a sugar “crash” which can and has brought on a headache. I even tried making sure I ate protein with my snacks, and it didn't seem to matter. 

Ten years ago, I gave up regular coffee at breakfast (which was a HUGE sacrifice for me) and noticed that the sugar crashes stopped. Great, I thought. Then a few years ago I noticed that if I had jam on my morning toast, I would have a sugar crash a couple hours later. After I gave up gluten, I started indulging in buckwheat frozen waffles for breakfast...with fruit and maple syrup (avoiding the corn syrup, of course). One day in May of 2007 I ate that for breakfast and had one of the worst sugar crashes of my life and as luck would have it, just as the weakness, lightheadedness and shaking started, I saw a bright light from the glare of sunlight reflecting off a window and — bam! Classic migraine (with aura). My day was shot. I took a triptan drug (Amerge) but it took 2 hours to work and I felt lousy the rest of the day.

Two weeks ago I had a ham sandwich on Tapioca Bread with lettuce, tomato and a few baby carrots and I grabbed a couple of potato chips off my husband's plate (!) and an hour and a half later in the middle of teaching our Naginata class, I had the mother of all sugar crashes. I had to stop practicing and since I hadn't thought to bring food with me, my only choice was to get orange juice out of the vending machine and chug it down while I sat on the bleachers waiting for the shaking to stop. Not good.

I had to find a way to eliminate refined carbs from my diet. Not easy when you have an egg allergy that you are not sure is a real allergy or just an intolerance and a moderate cow's milk allergy. I am a lifetime member of Weight Watchers and I had been struggling trying not to eat too many carbs. I looked on the WW forum under restricted diets and noticed that all the gluten intolerant and allergy sufferers were doing the “Core Program” which is based on real food, whole grains, etc. Sounds good, but I had avoided it because of the egg and milk problems I had. Same with South Beach Diet. Most breakfasts that are low carb seem to revolve around eggs.

I decided to try doing the Core program like the first phase of South Beach for 2 weeks and see if I could handle the eggs a little. At first it worked like a dream. I lost the sugar crashes and the sugar cravings and seemed to be ok with a little egg. Then on the third or fourth day I crashed big time. Could barely get out of bed I was so fatigued. I happened to be reading a book by Dr. Diana Schwarzbein about the importance of balancing carbs, protein and fat, especially if your adrenals are burned out...which I suspect mine are. Dr. Schwarzbein says that if you eliminate carbs altogether in that situation, you burn out your adrenals even more and will end up even more fatigued. So, I added some whole grains back in and things are going better now. I am not really missing the refined carbs now and they will taste even better when they are a rare treat instead of an everyday craving. Headaches have been fewer and really only resurfaced after I weakened and ate some chocolate the other day (!). Breakfasts are the most challenging, but I am rediscovering tofu as an egg substitute. Check out my lamb sausage tofu scramble. It's delicious and not too time consuming if you cut up the tofu ahead of time and refrigerate.

Lamb Sausage and Tofu Scramble

2 oz. loose lamb sausage (nitrite-free)

2 oz. firm tofu cut into small cubes

olive oil

1 green onion

1 T fresh mint, minced

1/4 cup or so cucumber, chopped

1/4 cup or so yellow squash, chopped

1 mushroom, chopped

1/4 cup tomato, chopped

salt and pepper to taste

pour a little olive oil in a non-stick skillet on medium heat

add lamb sausage and cook, breaking up with a wooden spoon

add tofu and cook until heated through

add squash, cucumber, mushroom and tomato and cook a minute or two

season with salt and pepper

add green onion and mint and cook another minute

makes one serving (5-6 WW points if you’re counting, depending on how much oil you use)

(note: lamb is pretty greasy, you won't need much oil, just enough for flavor)

Enjoy! You won't be hungry until lunch!

Karen, herself

Brown Rice and Black Bean Salad

Some people balk at leftovers. I embrace them. My favorite lunches have leftover chicken or pork tenderloin as a major component. This particular lunch was easy to put together with leftover brown rice and canned black beans and tuna. I added a bit of broccoli that I steamed in the microwave and some fresh tomato, shredded red cabbage, then tossed it in a bit of homemade vinaigrette and—lunch! Healthy, gluten-free, full of fiber and very satisfying.

People often say they have no time to make healthy meals, especially lunches, but with a little advanced planning and some imagination, you can eat well without spending all day in the kitchen. The day I made this salad I had a busy morning, so I put brown rice in the rice cooker, pushed the “on” button and off I went on my errands. When I came back a few hours later, it was lunch time and my rice was ready for me. Then a couple minutes to steam a cup of broccoli in the microwave, slice off a bit of previously washed cabbage and tomato, open a couple cans—you get the picture. Pretty quick.

These days I work at home and my lunches are leftovers from the previous night’s dinner or a big salad with leftover meat or fish. When that fails, I steam some vegetables, add rice or not and maybe open a can of tuna or salmon or add some tofu. I never spend more than 15 minutes making lunch and my salad dressings are all homemade, stored in recycled jelly jars. So  my advice is to think positive and invest in a good salad spinner and a rice cooker. Buy some good olive oil and start experimenting. 

За ваше здоровье!

Karen, herself

Flank Steak with Bell Peppers and Mango

I made flank steak with peppers and mango the other night. It is my husband’s favorite of my invented recipes and one of mine too now that I have perfected my workarounds to avoid gluten, ginger and corn syrup. I started making this dish a few years ago in an attempt to recreate a dish my husband used to make for me when we were dating. The original recipe was from the Time-Life series on Chinese Cooking, published sometime in the 1970’s ( I know I am really dating myself here).

Anyway, being the lazy sort of person that I am sometimes, I didn’t feel like digging out the book and I thought I remembered the marinade well enough to wing it. This was before I knew I was gluten intolerant, so I used regular soy sauce, rice vinegar, Mirin, corn starch and ginger. I like red bell pepper better than green (which was in the original recipe) so I used those as well as shallots (which were always in the recipe). It came out pretty well and I continued to make it, eventually adding a jar marinade (Thai Chili Roasted Garlic Dipping Sauce from Wild Thymes) that brought some heat to it and I tossed in some red wine at the end. One summer I added sliced nectarines and the result was heavenly.

My first few attempts to make it sans gluten and ginger were pitiful. I could substitute sake for the Mirin and wheat-free soy for the regular, but substituting the ginger was really hard. I was afraid to use the Wild Thymes dipping sauce because it had unidentified “spices” in it and I am allergic to chili powder. I experimented with different spice combinations and discovered that allspice, cinnamon, paprika, red pepper flakes and cayenne worked pretty well. It tasted good, but not particularly Asian. The nectarines were still great and in the summer I would alternate with peaches. In the Fall I tried Fuyu persimmons and then I hit on the mango version. All of them are great and allow me to make the dish in any season. I recently discovered that adding a bit more soy, rice vinegar and sake near the end of the cooking process brings a bit more Asian flavor to it and gives the sauce that extra sweetness I used to get with the red wine—without the headache! I serve it over Japanese style white rice cooked in a rice cooker.

Flank Steak with Red Pepper and Mango

1 lb. flank steak, cut lengthwise into 4 or 5 strips, then cut crosswise into bite size pieces.

2 red or orange bell peppers, cut into 1" squares

1 large shallot, peeled and roughly sliced

1 mango, peeled and cut into large dice

1 T peanut oil

a few drops of sesame oil

marinade:

4 tsp. wheat-free soy sauce

2 tsp. corn starch

1 tsp. sake or corn syrup-free Mirin

1 tsp. rice vinegar

a few drops of sesame oil

1/4 tsp. allspice

1/4 tsp. paprika

1/8 tsp. cinnamon

dash of cayenne

1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes

Japanese style rice

feeds 4

Start rice (if using a rice cooker, it should finish right on time).

Cut steak. Add marinade ingredients to meat. Toss to coat.

Chop vegetables and mango.

Heat peanut oil in wok (use medium heat if using non-stick pan). Add shallots and saute until slightly soft. Add bell peppers and mango and cook slightly. Remove from wok with slotted spoon. Add marinated steak to wok (add more oil if necessary). Use a slotted spoon or tongs to add meat. Do not pour in rest of marinade. Trust me. The steak will boil in it and end up tough. Brown the meat well on all sides. Let it form a crust before turning. Add the vegetables and mango back in. Cook, stirring all until the meat is done to your taste and the vegetables are still a bit crunchy. Taste and adjust seasonings. Add a bit more soy, rice vinegar and sake. Cook a minute more and taste, making any adjustments necessary. You should have a lovely sauce by then. Serve over rice. Sigh with happiness.

Karen, herself

Aneurysm — A real headache

I started this blog to talk about my quest to eat well and stave off migraine, but about a month ago I had a life experience that made all my headaches seem trivial. The night of March 4th my husband, who has lived most of his life headache-free, suffered a brain aneurysm and nearly died. Most people who experience this do not survive, and if they do, suffer some level of disability. The survival statistics are truly frightening. About half do not make it to the hospital and another 25% do not survive the next month.

My husband Kurt was one of the lucky ones. I was with him when it happened and I was able to get help for him quickly. Everything worked the way it is supposed to work. I called 911, the operator talked me through CPR until the paramedics arrived and they arrived quickly and did all the right things. We are also fortunate to live less than 20 miles from the best trauma center on the West Coast — Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, where they have doctors that specialize in treating aneurysms. 

Kurt was transported there less than an hour after arriving at the emergency room and spent the next 10 days in intensive care. They were able to drain off the damaged cerebral spinal fluid and repair the aneurysm and Kurt is now home recovering. Through the miracle of modern medicine and his lifetime of healthy living and just plain luck he is pretty much the same as he was before the incident—just sporting a new haircut as they had to shave a good portion of his head while in the hospital. He sometimes has trouble remembering the right word for something, but at our age, we all have word-finding troubles and his are no more noticeable than that.

We are so grateful to all the people who took part in saving Kurt and to all our friends and family who were there for us. In the first few seconds after it happened, I thought I had lost my husband and I spent hours wondering if he would wake up, hoping  he would recognize me and then days wondering if our lives would ever be the same. Now it is starting to seem like a bad dream and our lives are slowing going back to what they had been.

So forgive me for not posting on this site or any other for the last month, but I have been just a little bit busy and preoccupied. I did learn that it is possible to find gluten-free food in the hospital cafeteria, which really saved me as I spent a good portion of the first two weeks there. My own headaches flared up at first due to the lack of sleep that first night, I expect. Other than that, things have not been too bad for me. It does help to see someone else in far more trouble than you to put things in perspective. For many reasons, I feel very lucky.

Teff Oatmeal Cookies

“What the heck is Teff?” I wondered when I first read about it in a gluten-free cookbook. It sounded strange and not very appealing. Well, let me tell you, one taste will make a Teff lover out of you. I have been searching for ways to bring whole grains back into my diet since going gluten-free. Being somewhat sensitive to brown rice made it difficult. Amaranth is ok, but to me it has a bit of a bitter taste. Not so with Teff. This African grain is gluten-free and smooth tasting, even caramel-like when you add brown sugar and vanilla to it. I made these oatmeal chocolate chip cookies with it yesterday and I think they may be the best tasting oatmeal chocolate chip cookies I have ever had. I modified a recipe from Annalise Roberts’ Gluten-Free Baking Classics to make them. I wanted to try Teff in a cookie and I wanted to use agave nectar for half the sugar. Then I realized I was out of potato starch, so I substituted sweet rice flour and used chocolate chips instead of raisins. (*Teff flour mix: 2 cups teff flour, 2/3 cup sweet rice flour, 1/3 cup tapioca starch)

Teff Oatmeal Cookies

1/4 cup unsalted butter
1/4 cup Crisco (sans trans fats version)
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup dark agave nectar
1 egg
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup Teff flour mix*
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. guar gum
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1 cup Rolled Oats (Gifts of Nature, Inc. is certified GF)
1/2 cup Dagoba Organic Chocolate Chocodrops (GF)

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Position rack in center of oven. You can grease a cookie sheet lightly or use silpat, as I did.

Beat butter and shortening and sugar and agave nectar in large bowl of electric mixer until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla and mix. Stir dry ingredients (except oats and chocolate) together with a whisk. Add to butter and sugar mixture. Mix. Stir oats and chocolate drops in by hand with a wooden spoon.

Drop teaspoonfuls onto cookie sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes. Cool slightly on pan, then remove to wire rack. Wrap in wax paper and put in freezer container. Freeze leftovers. Thaw on counter if you can wait that long. Otherwise use microwave!

Makes 20-30 cookies, depending on how large you like them.

Dining out gluten-free

The best way to ensure a successful gluten-free meal out is to communicate your situation with your waiter and the best way I have found to do that is to have a card that explains what you cannot eat like the one pictured above. Some people explain on their cards what gluten intolerance is and what they can and cannot eat. Since I have multiple foods I need to avoid in order to keep from having a constant migraine I don't have room for all that on my card. A graphic designer by profession, I designed my card to be small enough to be carried in my purse, but large enough to have all my allergies and sensitivities legible for the waiter.

So, you may wonder, how does it work when I dine out? I show the card to my waiter as soon as he/she approaches my table, so that they know up front that I need special attention. I try to have a short explanation of my situation ready and then also have an idea of what I might be able to eat on their menu. This way, they can check with the chef (I encourage them to take my card with them) and see if what I have tentatively chosen will be free of gluten and all my other allergies. I also try to be as pleasant and accommodating as possible. Many times I have lived without the delicious sauce that normally accompanies the entree, or the salad dressing. If the restaurant tries to accommodate me, I am gracious and a generous tipper.

Other things that help the experience is bringing along my own salad dressing or deciding ahead of time that I will be fine with a lemon wedge and olive oil. I try to arrive at the restaurant when they are least busy and I sometimes make suggestions that will make the meal more palatable to me without causing them too much trouble. If I have to live without the sauce and their special seasoning (which might include gluten or dextrose), I make sure to tell them that they can use olive oil, salt and pepper. You might think the latter is unnecessary, but I most often have chefs go to extremes to make sure I am safe and will not put anything on my meat or fish. I had the experience in Paris last summer where I was warned off having beef entirely because the chef couldn't be certain what the cow might have eaten!

I have generally found waiters and chefs to be quite willing to help. My best experiences have been at places like Il Fornaio in San Jose, CA, where the sous chef came out to meet me because she was so impressed with my card. She said that most people just tell them verbally what they cannot have, even if it is a list of 15 things and then are very demanding if the staff forgets something. I also had great success in France and Belgium last summer where I took a French version of my card. I did decide to laminate the card after my first one got so grease-soaked that it became difficult to read. Also, I do tend to stick to higher end restaurants where they are more able to cook something from scratch for me. My worst experience was at a high-end place outside of Detroit where they pre-marinated all their meats and fish...except the scallops. Because I couldn't be sure what was in the marinade, I had only once choice for dinner that night...grilled scallops and a salad with a lemon wedge and a glass of water. One more word to the wise: places with gluten-free menus are not as easy as you might expect, especially if you have additional allergies like me. I had an egg allergy, which I think I have since outgrown, and I discovered to my horror that P.F. Chang’s marinates nearly all their meat and fish in egg white. It is not listed on their menu and I only found out because the first time I went there with my card they took it back to the chef and checked everything out.

So if you haven't been using a card, make one up and start using it. You want to err on the side of caution and always check to make sure they aren't sneaking in gluten in your mashed potatoes or something. Bon Appétit!

Borscht with Sun-dried Tomato and Dill

I just got my first delivery of organic produce from a local farm and it came with a bunch of beets and fresh dill. I was in the mood to recreate my Ukrainian grandmother’s borscht recipe...with a few twists of my own. Try this on a cold afternoon. If you can tolerate sour cream, add it to the garnishes.
За ваше здоровье!


Borscht with Sun-dried Tomato and Dill

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 carrot, peeled and chopped or grated
1 leek, washed, white and light green part chopped
1 bunch beets (4-5), peeled and cut into matchsticks
1/4 cup or slightly more unsulfered sun-dried tomatoes
1 tablespoon or less chopped fresh dill
2 cups chicken stock (I used homemade)
2 cups water
1 tsp. vinegar (I used rice vinegar...sulfite-free)
1/2 tsp. sugar
salt and pepper to taste

chopped cucumber and dill for garnish

Heat oil in large, heavy pot. Add leeks and carrot, salt and pepper and saute over medium low heat until carrot is soft. Add beets and tomatoes and saute a few minutes. Add chicken stock and water, dill, vinegar and sugar. Bring to a boil, then simmer 20-30 minutes or until beets are soft but still retain most of the their color. I pureed mine slightly with an immersion blender, but it isn’t necessary.

Ladle into bowls, garnish with cucumber and dill.

Feeds 4