Category Archives: Beef

Beef, Main Dish, Recipes

Chicken Fried Comfort Food

Just because you’re trying to keep your carbs in check doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy one of the classic comfort foods of the south, Chicken Fried Steak.  For those not in the know, this is not chicken prepared to taste like steak, but cubed steak prepared as you would make fried chicken.

I have tried several versions over the years from the simple crust version, which is what this recipe is like, to the complete batter-fried version that uses a thick egg and flour mix to make a thick crust around it. This is my preferred version, using just a light flour coating so you don’t have a lot of carbs in the coating.  Both a low carb flour like CarbQuick or LC Foods Flour and Coconut Flour work well with this recipe.

This recipe is inspired by Alton Brown’s recipe with only a few substitutions to make it low carb. If you want those carbs, then go to Alton’s version.

Chicken Fried Steak

1 pound Cubed Steaks (4)
1 teaspoons Salt
1/2 teaspoon Ground Black Pepper
3/4 cup Low Carb Flour
1 whole Egg, beaten
1/4 cup Coconut Oil

Gravy:
1 cup Chicken Broth
1/4 cup heavy Cream
1/2 teaspoon Thyme
Dash Cayenne Pepper

Preheat oven to 250 degrees F. You’re going to use it to keep your steaks warm while you’re preparing them and making the gravy.

Season each piece of steak on both sides with the salt and pepper. Prepare two shallow pans, one with the flour and one with the beaten egg, Lightly dredge the steaks in the flour, then pound them with a meat tenderizer to work the flour into the meat and get it to about 1/4 inch thick.

Dredge the meat again in the flour, then dip in the egg and back in the flour again. Repeat the process with each steak.

Place the meat onto a plate and allow it to rest for about 15 minutes before cooking.

Place enough of the oil to cover the bottom of a 10 inch skillet (cast iron works well) and set over medium-high heat. Once the oil begins to shimmer, add the meat two at a time. being careful not to overcrowd the pan. Cook each piece on both sides until golden brown, approximately 4 minutes per side. Remove the steaks to a wire rack set in a small sheet cake pan and place into the oven. Repeat with the remaing steaks.

Add the rest of the oil, or at least 1 tablespoon, to the pan. Whisk in 3 tablespoons of the leftover flour. Add the chicken broth and deglaze the pan with the whisk.  Continue to whisk until the gravy comes to a boil and begins to thicken. Add the milk and thyme and whisk until the gravy thickens enough to coat the spoon, approximately  10 minutes.  (Low carb flour will not thicken as quickly or possibly as thick as you would like.) Season to taste, with more salt and pepper, if needed. Serve the gravy over the steaks.

Nutrition Info per steak
Calories: 325 Fat: 20.2 g Net Carbs: 2.4 g Protein: 31.7 g

Beef, Breakfast & Brunch, Recipes

Not-Quite-Traditional Corned Beef Hash

I had some left over corned beef and even though I have a great corned beef hash recipe, I wanted to try the more traditional version.  But it isn’t quite the traditional version since I used other root vegetables than potatoes for the hash.  While it doesn’t have the starch from potatoes to glue the hash together, it is still a very tasty dish with lots of wonderful flavor from my selected root – turnips and rutabagas, plus the addition of Irish cheddar cheese.

Just a note here, in the US, we call the purplish vegetable with the orange flesh a rutabaga, but I understand that in Ireland, and possibly other European countries, it’s referred to as a turnip.  Where US turnips are the white vegetable with a purplish blush skin.  Parsnips, on the other hand, look like a big white carrot and are higher in carbs.

Corned Beef Hash with Eggs

1 tablespoon Olive Oil
1/2 cup Onion, chopped
1 cup Turnips and 1 cup Rutabaga, peeled and cut into 1/4 inch cubes
12 oz. cooked Corned Beef, cubed
1/2 cup Bell Pepper
1 tablespoon chopped fresh Parsley
1/8 teaspoon dried Thyme leaves
Salt to taste (optional)
1/4 teaspoon ground Black Pepper, or to taste
1/4 cup Kerry Gold Irish Cheddar, shredded
4 Eggs, fried
1/4 cup Beef Broth
OR 1 teaspoon Better than Bullion Beef in 1/4 cup hot water.

 Peel turnips and rutabagas and cut in half, then into quarters.  .  Put into a pot and add enough water to cover.  Cook for about 20 minutes, then check for fork tender.  The turnips will probably cook faster than the rutabaga, so remove to a colander to cool, add more water to the pot if necessary and cook the rutabagas another 20 minutes, until they are also fork tender.  Drain and cool.  Dice turnips and rutabagas into 1/4 inch cubes.

Heat olive oil in the skillet over medium heat, add the onion and cook until it turns golden brown. Stir in the corned beef and cook a few minutes, stirring now and then. Add beef broth or bullion and seasonings and stir. Add the root vegetables. Continue cooking about 10 to 15 minutes, stirring occasionally until vegetables are tender and meat is hot.

Remove from heat and stir in the cheese. Serve with a fried egg on top, garnished with a few green onion slices, if you like.

Makes 4 servings

Nutrition Info per serving
Calories: 383.2 Fat: 25.5 g Net Carbs: 5.8 g Protein: 26.6 g

Beef, Main Dish, Recipes

Tender Short Ribs with Root Vegetables

Oddly, in my many years of cooking, I had never made short ribs until recently.  Why?  I don’t know, because these are so simple to make and so wonderful to eat.  It only took a little bit to adapt them to low carb.  They take about 2 1/2 hours to make with the cook time, but they are so worth it.  My recipe is adapted for two people, but you can easily double it to serve four.  For my root vegetables, I used golden beets and turnips.  You could also use kohlrabi or celery root in this.  The vegetables pick up the flavor from the braising liquid and I am not sure that a potato used in this would taste much different.

Short Ribs with Vegetables

4 Beef Short Ribs (with bones) – about 1 1/2 lbs
1 Golden Beet, medium
1 Red Onion, medium
1 Turnip, medium
1/2 cup Beef Bullion
1/2 cup Red Wine (Merlot or Cabernet Sauvignon)
1/2 cup CarbQuick or Coconut Flour
2 tablespoons Olive Oil
1 teaspoon Seasoning Salt
1/2 teaspoon Garlic Powder
1/2 teaspoon Black Pepper, ground

Preheat oven to 325 degrees (F)

Peel the beet and turnip and cut into cubes. Peel the onion and slice it.

In a pie pan, mix the CarbQuick or coconut flour with the seasoning salt and garlic powder. Dredge the short ribs in the flour.

In a dutch oven or heavy oven-ready deep pot, heat 1 tablespoon olive oil until hot. Add the onions and vegetables and cook until just browned. Remove to a plate. Add the remaining oil, then add the short ribs and brown on all sides, about three minutes a side. When browned, add the beef bullion and wine and stir in the pot. Then add the vegetables back in.

Cover the pot with an oven-proof lid or heavy foil and put in the preheated oven. Cook for 2 hours. Short ribs will be tender and delicious.

Serves 2.

Nutrition Info:
Calories: 448  Fat: 24.4 g Net Carbs: 8.6 g  Protein: 35.7 g

 

Beef, Main Dish, Pork, Recipes

Celebrate Spring With Pasta & Sausage


While some of you may still be waiting for Spring to arrive or be preparing for Autumn, in my neck of the woods, it is definitely Spring. I admit to waiting for a freeze to come along soon since that is the weather at the foot of the Sierras. But spring vegetables have definitely arrived at the supermarket and among them is on sale and tender stalks of asparagus. This is one of my very favorite vegetables so I try to catch it every time it’s on sale.

Chorizo Pasta with Spring Vegetables

This pasta dish uses asparagus and Swiss chard along with sweet peppers and spicy chorizo sausage, the Basque type, to make a celebration of the season. If you don’t like chorizo, you can substitute in another firm sausage.

As you can clearly see in the photo, I used rotini pasta when I made this before it came out that Dreamfield pasta isn’t lower in carbs.  When I make this again using one of the vegetable options for pasta or making my own low carb pasta, then I will post a new photo on this page.

2 tsps Ginger-Garlic Paste
1/2 cup Onions, chopped
1/3 cup Sweet peppers, cut into strips
1 cup Swiss Chard, chopped
1 cup Asparagus, cut into pieces
2 links Chorizo, (Basque style)
1 tablespoon Better Than Bouillon, Chicken broth
1/2 cup Water
1/2 cup Heavy Cream
2 cups thinly sliced or shredded Zucchini or Spaghetti Squash
1/4 teaspoon Seasoning Salt
1 teaspoon thickener or Cornstarch
1 tablespoon Olive Oil or other oil

Cook the thin strips of zuchinni in boiling water until al dente, just about 5 minutes.  Drain.  If you’re using spaghetti squash, either cut it half and bake in face down on foil covered pan in a 400 degree (F) oven for about 30 minutes or put it face down on a microwavable plate and put it in the microwave for 5 to 8 minutes until the spaghetti strands are soft and separate easily.  Discard seeds and separate strands into a bowl.

While pasta is cooking, peel the casing from the sausage. Slice into 1/4 to 1/3 inch pieces.

Heat oil in a large, deep skillet. Add garlic ginger paste and onions and sweat the onions. Add the peppers, asparagus and Swiss Chard along with a little water and continue to stir cook until the chard starts to wilt. Add the chorizo and 1/2 cup of water. Mix bouillon with another 1/2 cup of water and add to the skillet. Stir well and cook for a few minutes.

Mix thickener with enough water to make a paste and add to the skillet, stirring it in. Add the cream and seasoning salt. Stir it well, then add the drained squash and cook a few more minutes until sauce is thickened and to make sure everything is hot.

Serves 2 large portions or 4 half-sized portions (pictured).

With zucchini
Nutrition Info for 1/2 sized portion – double for full portion.
Calories: 212 Fat: 17.9 g Net Carbs: 7.0 g Protein: 9.5 g

With spaghetti squash
Nutrition Info for 1/2 sized portion – double for full portion.
Calories: 218.4 Fat: 18.1 g Net Carbs: 8.6 g Protein: 9.5 g

Posted on  3/27/2013

Beef, Main Dish, Pork, Recipes

Hungarian-Style Kohlrabi Rolls

So, follow my logic here. Greek dolmades use grape leaves to make a leaf-wrapped meat roll similar to a cabbage roll. Out in my garden were about a dozen beautiful kohlrabi plants with nice big leaves. I found a recipe that sounded good and adaptable to low carb for Hungarian cabbage rolls. Kohlrabi is part of the cabbage family and the leaves are edible. So, grape leaf to cabbage leaf to kohlrabi leaf. It should work.

Well, I tried it and it does work! It doesn’t taste like cabbage or grape leaves, for that matter, but the taste is pleasing and the filling and sauce are awesome. If you like cabbage rolls, give this a try. This is based on a recipe by Diana Ratay at About.com. All changes to make it low carb are mine.

16 large Kohlrabi leaves or 16 large leaves of Cabbage
boiling water
1/3 pound Ground Pork
3/4 pound lean Ground Beef
1/4 cup chopped Onion
1/2 cup riced Cauliflower
1/4 cup riced Daikon Radish
1 Egg, beaten
1 teaspoon Salt
1/2 teaspoon Pepper
2 teaspoons Paprika

Sauce
1/2 cup Pasta Sauce or Tomato Sauce
1/2 cup Water
1/2 cup Sour Cream

Preparation:

Drop leaves into boiling salted water; cover and cook for 3 minutes or until pliable. Drain well.

Blanched kohlrabi leaves draining in a colander. Look at the beatiful dark green color.

For filling, combine ground beef, pork, riced cauliflower-daikon mixture, onion, egg, and salt, pepper, paprika, and water. Mix well and divide into 8 portions. Use half of each portion for each leaf.

Place a half portion of the ground beef mixture into the center of each leaf. Roll leaf around filling; fasten with toothpick. Place in a baking dish. You may have to make long, thin rolls of the meat to fit it into the leaves.

For sauce, combine tomato sauce, and 1/2 cup of water and pour over kohlrabi rolls.

Rolled leaves are covered with sauce and are ready to be covered and cooked.

Bake tightly covered in a preheated 350° oven 40 to 45 minutes. Remove the kohlrabi rolls and discard toothpicks.

Mix 1/2 cup of pan sauce with 1/2 cup sour cream and add a tablespoon full over each serving. These reheat well so leftovers are great.

Makes about 16 rolls.

Nutrition Info: 2 per serving
Calories: 271 Fat: 8g Net Carbs: 4.1 g Protein: 17.9 g

3 per serving
Calories: 380 Fat: 26.1 g Net Carbs: 4.5 g Protein: 25 g

Posted on  6/16/2013