primal

USDA Guidelines, Parents Magazine, and You


image courtesy of Minnesota Agricultural Experiment Society

I usually find most conventional nutritional advice to be somewhat amusing, considering that a lot of it is driven by financial interest and not health. I’m not an expert by any stretch, but even with my limited knowledge I can see through most nutritional campaigns. What’s upsetting is that some of it can be potentially dangerous since most people don’t spend much time researching nutrition on their own and rely on easy-to-read columns and the like. I stumbled upon this article on Parents magazine entitled 10 Things You Need to Know About the New USDA Guidelines and found it so repulsive that I had to comment each of its assumptions.

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Beef Marrow Bone Stock

NOTE: An updated version of this recipe appears in my cookbook, The Ancestral Table.

Many stores or butcher shops have beef marrow bones on the cheap, which make a dense and highly nutritious stock and excellent soup base. Although I’ve made my own stock using oxtails I’ve been wanting to try my hand at other soups, so marrow bones seemed like the best starting spot.

Before we dive into this recipe, let’s have a quick culinary lesson. “Stock” refers to a liquid that’s made from simmering bones, and “broth” is made from meat. You can use both, and as far as I know that’s still referred to as “stock”. Now that we have that cleared up, let’s make some food.

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Chicken Tikka Masala

One of the most common curries you’ll find in Indian restaurants here in the US is chicken tikka masala, a creamy, tomato-based sauce with slow-roasted chicken chunks. Being that it’s so popular, it’s easy to find pre-made sauces in most grocery stores; after putting several through their paces, I’ve settled on a quick, foolproof chicken tikka masala for an easy weeknight dinner.

One of the more interesting facts about this dish is that its place of origin is under dispute; there’s a good chance that it was invented in either India or England.

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Boiled Lobster

NOTE: An updated version of this recipe appears in my cookbook, The Ancestral Table.

As with most seafood, if you keep an eye on prices you can get lobster for surprisingly cheap. What’s more is that with lobster, bigger is not always better – the tastiest lobsters are right around the 1.5 lb weight. I tend to consider a max live lobster price to be $7/lb, which results in a $11 lobster cooked in the comfort of your own home.

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Double Down is a Triple No

I decided to look into KFC’s Grilled Double Down as a potential emergency meal. It sounds legit – bacon and cheese and sauce sandwiched between two grilled chicken breasts. I figured the sauce would have some banned ingredients (and it does – wheat, soy and corn), but I was disappointed to find that KFC’s grilled chicken contains all three of those Paleo-forbidden foods.

I decided to check out other “grilled chicken” options and this is what I found:

Burger King: modified corn starch, partially hydrogenated soybean oil
McDonalds: corn gluten, soy, wheat gluten proteins, partially hydrogenated cottonseed/soybean oils
Wendy’s: modified corn starch
Arby’s: corn flour, corn syrup solids
A&W: soybean oil
Chik-fil-A: soybean oil, palm kernel oil, soy lecithin
Chipotle: doesn’t say, although it mentions it contains soy
Hardee’s: soy, wheat, high fructose corn syrup
Jack in the Box: wheat, soy
Sonic: soy, wheat gluten
Taco Bell: modified corn starch, corn syrup solids, soy

So there you have it. Not one grilled chicken choice at any of these fast food restaurants is Paleo-friendly. I’m going to stick with Wendy’s Double Cheeseburgers when I’m in a crunch.

Simple and Satisfying Chili from Scratch

NOTE: An updated version of this recipe appears in my cookbook, The Ancestral Table.

Editor’s Note: this recipe is from before I switched to the Paleo Diet, but all you need to do to make this dish Paleo-friendly is omit the beans.

Ah, chili. One of the most hotly-debated dishes a person can serve in America, perhaps second only to BBQ ribs. And like many of my other recipes, I’m quick to concede that this recipe isn’t for everyone; this is a generally mild chili that goes well with chili dogs, chili burgers, or on top of a scoop of white rice.

For me, the most important aspect of chili is having it blend into one single element and texture – nothing bothers me more than a chili that just looks like a bunch of ingredients thrown together. Luckily, my handy Magic Bullet helps to puree most of the chunkier ingredients while still retaining its necessary taste. I also add a couple of seemingly odd ingredients, which play important roles: cocoa powder for richness and complexity, and mayonnaise for smoothness and just a touch of creaminess.

This dish takes a little over three hours to make: one hour to prep and soften the tomatoes and two hours to cook the chili itself.

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