Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Carnivore II : Day 6 - Just like Mama Grok used to make!

A great day of carnivorous eating, a lovely & productive day of teaching, some very interesting reading, and a bit of waste-of-time arguing on Spark People via commenting in response to the most recent in a legacy of incredibly ignorant articles... I could list them all, but I'll just share one with you:

The Truth about Corn Syrup

What if we were wrong about high fructose corn syrup all this time? Recently, Dietitian Becky reviewed all the available research on HFCS to find out whether it deserves its bad rap. What she says might surprise you!


Oh yes, that's right, this "nutrition professional" argues that there's no relevant difference between HFCS and other sweeteners. Sure, SP's focus is always on the waistline, but since many users also turn to SP for their wider nutritional advice, to omit the other dangers of HFCS is criminal! Annoyingly, the comment section for the article is subtle and obscured, but I put in my two cents anyway. Here's hoping at least one person benefits from my comment.

In the meantime, I'm continuing my completely sugar-free existence, proving to myself once again how fantastic it is to have complete control over one's blood sugar, as well as all the other benefits of the Primal lifestyle!

At 7:45am I enjoyed my generous breakfast of three scrambled eggs in a generous amount of butter and a sprinkle of Parmesan, with two lamb chops (which I had to grill, since the boy had yet to wash the frying pans (I cook, he cleans)):


I skipped lunch, as usual, and my thoughts never even strayed towards food until walking to the butcher at 5pm! And c'mon, whose stomach doesn't start a-rumbling at the though of a buffet of fresh, organic red meat?! I stocked up on pure meat sausages, lamb chops, pork roasts, lamb roasts, and pig fat! One disappointment - they still only sell short-cut bacon, and it's heavily smoked, so blech. I had to pop next door to Coles to restock my supply of middle-cut bacon, which is still my one non-Primal necessity (cured in sugar, with nitrates, from presumably caged pigs). But hey, it's only until I find time to render the pig fat and can then smother all of my non-fatty meats in it again. Yum!

I had to work with the fats currently on hand when it came to boosting my fat intake via dinner (at 7pm, by the by!). First up I prepared some organic chicken drumsticks - all were dipped in coconut oil, them mine were drizzled in harissa sauce, and the beau's were rolled in almond meal and herbs:


Then into the oven for 40 minutes...


In the last 10 minutes of cooking the drumsticks, I popped his scotch fillet steak on the grill, and 5 minute later, mine joined it. Once adequately rare (and medium), everything was ready to be served:


Perfectly timed grilling - practically bleu!


And his plate, with his choice of carb as a side:


Perfect, huh? Rare steak, chicken drumsticks, all swimming in harissa-fied coconut oil! But wait, there's just one thing missing...


Heck yeah!! How have I lived this long without having butter on my steak?? It may well have to remain part of my diet now, even though I plan to keep dairy to a minimum whenever possible. Unless anyone has an idea for a steak-topping fat that gives similar pleasure? Do I need to make a jar of seasoned lard, perhaps?

And finally, I've been bumping into a few vegetarians lately, in the guise of my friends. Now, thankfully these friends primarily went off red meat for taste reasons, but some harbour misinformation regarding, well, the usual vegetarian mythology - carbon footprint issues, economic inequality, health dangers, blahblahblah. So Richard Nikoley's post, The Vegetarian Menace could not be better timed in terms of breaking down the usual arguments and pointing towards easily accessible answers from experts who make it their business to know the truth, whilst remaining free of bias. Check of the post, and don't miss the comment section, particularly the links provided by Monica, one of said experts. In the meantime, I have been sending my friends to Lierre Keith's wonderful new book, The Vegetarian Myth. I linked to the first chapter not long ago, but now you can read even more of it online, thanks to a preview in Google Books - let's start you at Chapter 2... Enjoy!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Butter on steak is BLISS, I tell you! Butter is the easiest to assimilate of all dairy products except ghee due to the lack of milk proteins & sugars. I wouldn't sweat it -- because I've never found anything so pleasurable for that specific purpose. Lard and bacon grease are great, but in this one specific case, I definitely prefer butter! - Meeses

Jellysoda said...

yummmmmm ive been on a lamb chop kick too! and that steak just looks awesome. drroooool.

Deanna said...

I totally agree with how frustrating the articles on SP are! I read them and usually find myself wondering, "Seriously? You're going to tell people this garbage?" The HFCS article was definitely one of them.

Odirom said...

Béarnaise sauce!!!!!!!!!!!!

Béarnaise sauce (French: Sauce béarnaise) [be.aʁnɛz][1] is a sauce made of clarified butter emulsified in egg yolks and flavored with herbs!

High fat content, and it is DELICIOUS!!!

Jezwyn said...

So true, Odirom, but I don't like wasting egg-whites, so I'd have to time making a batch of Nola with my steak dinner :) And, sadly, most bearnaise sauces at restaurants are adulterated with flour! :(