Broiled Bacon-Fat Smeared Broccolini

Can you think of a more delicious sounding veggie?  Imagine bacony decadence coupled with crisp-tender, sweet broccolini that's ready in 15min or less.  Is your mouth watering yet?

Let's take a brief interlude on the What To Drink series of posts to go back to my roots and post a recipe.  I know, I know, it's been awhile.  Why?  I have been trying out some N=1 experiments (more on those later) and cheating intermittently while vacationing and entertaining out of town guests.  That is life and now more than ever I can definitely understand why food is a drug.  It can benefit your entire being when it's on, and carry one hell of a punch when it's not.  When I am normally so dialed in, faltering is felt.  Big time.  And I am not just talking about nausea/stomach ailments or loss of energy after carb-heavy meals.  I am talking about outright depression.  Food is a drug, for good or for worse.

So when I am dialed in, what is life like?  I have made it as simple as possible so it is easy to follow.  I don't have to plan or put in much effort at all.  When I am on the diet, I am really just eating meat and vegetables.  I am trying the low-carb thing, so I'm choosing low-carbohydrate vegetables instead of fruit and starches.  You would think the reduction in possibilities makes like harder, but it's actually just the opposite.  With too many choices, I'm overwhelmed and don't always make the best choices.  With fewer, I can focus more on the food itself and find myself sticking to newfound favorite staples that aren't much fuss at all.  There's hardly a "recipe" to speak of.  Life can't be simpler.  Or more delicious!  Seriously, I crave this fuel for the taste, satisfaction, high energy, and high spirits that follow.

Here's the formula that has totally revolutionized and reinvigorated my diet:

1. Pick a meat (like poultry, pork, beef, or fish) and choose a cut you have on hand or buy it from the store (remember to focus on grass-fed/pasture-raised/wild-caught/organic meats).
2. Pick a veggie.  For ease, make it a quick-cooking (like a broiler/grill crisp-able) or no-cook veggie (like salad, assorted vegetable sticks, or carrots). 
3. Prepare the meat and quick-cooking veggie the old fashioned way by grill, broiler, or hot pan with little more than salt, pepper, and sometimes a cooking fat if needed/desired.
4. Add a fat like bacon or guacamole/avocado if you didn't use plenty of cooking fat.  

So it boils down to: meat, vegetable, and fat.  That is ALL I have to think about to have a meal.  Simple.  And I can taste and enjoy every single component because I'm keeping it simple.  Naked so to speak.  I can also use this strategy to buy already cooked components from the grocery store, like mackerel canned in olive oil tossed over packaged salad greens with the juice of half a lemon or a splash of vinegar (here's the basic recipe: Salad from the Sea--scroll down to the bottom to find it).  Simple and satisfying!

Here are more examples of my 30-minute or less dinners:

• Meat: Grass-fed beef burgers, salted, peppered, and cooked in grass-fed, raw butter (Organic Pastures for the win!) topped with guacamole and/or bacon and/or leftover melted butter from cooking (Note: these could just as easily be grilled, but we don't have a grill)
• Veggie: carrots to dip in guacamole (perfect substitute for chips, especially if you cut them in half so they are more dip-grab-able) or use lettuce leaves for burger tacos

• Meat: Grass-fed steak (ribeye or NY are my favs), salted, peppered, and seared in a hot pan/grilled
• Veggie: Broiled Bacon Fat-Smeared Broccolini (recipe to follow!)

• Meat: Rotisserie pasture-raised chicken (store bought)
• Veggie: salad greens alone (like crunchy snack-able/dip-able romaine hearts) or with a simple oil + citrus acid dressing, or raw, cut veggies and guacamole

• Meat: Farm fresh eggs and chicken-apple sausage and/or bacon
• Veggie: Wilted baby spinach sauteed in bacon fat or butter cooked in the same pan as the eggs and sausage

• Meat: Toaster-oven broiled wild-caught fish (just cooking fat smear, salt, and pepper)
• Veggie: arugula salad with a simple oil + citrus acid dressing

Lunches are even easier using precooked roasted turkey breast or leftovers from dinners (always make more than you need!) and cut veggies or a salad.  Add some nuts, avocado/guacamole, cooking fat, bacon, or skin for some fat.

Breakfasts are the staple of which I NEVER tire: farm fresh eggs and chicken-apple sausage cooked in raw, grass-fed butter or bacon fat, and perhaps a green veggie to wilt in the pan like spinach.  

Pretty simple!  Just make sure you have plenty of meat, plenty of veggie, and plenty of healthy fat (monounsaturated and saturated).  Thinking of your meals in terms of just these three things makes life SO much easier!  Cooking is no longer a chore and neither is meal planning!

What Is Broccolini?

Broccolini is sweet broccoli.  It has thin, slender stems still attached to the small florets.  The sweetest and most tender are those with the thinnest stalks, as opposed to those with thicker, woodier stems.  Broccolini isn't really baby broccoli, as I once thought; instead, it's a cross between Chinese broccoli and regular broccoli.  Surprisingly, this new variety was just introduced in the US in 1998!  Broccolini is definitely kid-friendly since it is a finger food (even when cooked) and naturally sweeter than regular broccoli.  Like most veggies, it's most nutritious when raw and only needs quick cooking.  It's rich in vitamins A and C as well as fiber, potassium, and iron.  I imagine many of the benefits of standard broccoli still apply.  See more at The World's Healthiest Foods.

According to the Linus Pauling Institute at Oregon State University, cruciferous or Brassica vegetables include broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, asparagus, Brussels sprouts, kale, bok choy, radishes, arugula and some other greens.  There are some promising links between eating these veggies and preventing cancer.  While high intake seems protective of cancer, make sure you aren't iodine deficient.  There is a possibility of hypothyroidism if you eat a lot of cruciferous vegetables and you are iodine deficient.  Find out more about iodine deficiency at this information page also from the Linus Pauling Institute.  

Okay, enough with how good the damned veggie is!  I mean, it's a vegetable, so it's nutritiousness is a no-brainer, right?

On to the recipe!

Broiled Bacon-Smeared Broccolini
All the porky deliciousness of bacon plus good-for-you, sweet, crisp-tender broccolini?  Need I say more?
Cooking Time: 15min or less start to finish, prep and all

Ingredients:
Bacon fat (reserved from cooking bacon--can store for quite some time sealed and refrigerated or on the counter-top.  What?  You don't have any on hand?  What a great excuse to make more bacon!)
one bunch of broccolini per diner (you want those with the slenderest stems instead of thick and woody)
salt
pepper

Method:

This is so simple it is hardly even a recipe.  Let's see how few breaths it takes to recite: Take broccolini, cut off end of stems, rinse, shake to dry, place on broiler-resistant baking sheet (like stainless steel--NOT non-stick unless you like the high-heat-released toxins), drizzle on the cooled, liquid bacon fat or lather on the solid-yet-soft bacon fat (there is no such thing as "too much"), salt, pepper, arrange with thickest stems placed in the middle of the sheet, and whack in the broiler (I use the LOW setting and the top rack) for 3-5 minutes.  Check for a color change to a more bright, emerald green.  If your broccolini were especially slender, they might be done right now.  Make sure you don't let them get floppy (unless you like them overcooked).  If you want more cooking, flip them, put them back in, and wait 3-5 more minutes (varies broiler to broiler), then test for desired doneness.  I like mine still very crisp, but not hard-crunchable.  The stalks shouldn't be floppy, but should still yield when you try to cut them.  Remove from that hot sheet once done, serve hot or at room temperature (cold is a little weird with the solidified fat clinging to them), and sop up leftover bacon fat with the florets.  Um... yum!

NOTE: since the broiler and grill are roughly equivalent, you could probably quickly grill these using the same recipe (but beware of fat flare-ups).  Perhaps you want to dry cook them and then drizzle on the melted bacon fat after.  Yum!

Also, these last a few days when sealed and placed in the refrigerator.  I just reheat them briefly if desired and they still remain crisp and delicious.  So make more and have some leftovers for more easy meals!


Now you have more tools in your nutritional toolbox to revolutionize your diet too!  Let me know how it goes!


Steamed Broccolini

Saturated with Fat

This is a picture of my famous bread with raw, grass-fed butter.  Yum!

Spin You Right Round


One thing is for certain, today any dietary "facts" you once held have been turned on their head.  Take saturated fat, the Darth Vader of fats.  You once thought of him as a serious badass--destroying lives and worlds in the name of evil.  That is what we once thought about saturated fat--that it was a one-way ticket to coronary heart disease.  Then, along come the Star Wars prequels, and now we think of the ultimate evil Darth as just one of many darths and really a wimpy, moody kid.   Thank you George Lucas for emasculating such an awesome villain.  Back to fats, we can actually thank the current research into fatty acids that saturated fat has been de-villainized.  This is a lot to wrap your mind around, I know, but saturated fat...is...not...bad.  Let me explain why.

The Big Bad

First off, lets look at the research.  Here is an excellent summary of the current research for the layperson.  There are some basic points to address from the article:

1. The diet-heart hypothesis established in 1953 that set up saturated fat as the big bad has been questioned by a slew of contrary evidence.  
2. LDL/HDL ratios are more important than simply looking at LDL count.  
3. LDL particle size is more important than its total count since small, dense LDL are the only ones that correlate with increased risk of heart disease by clogging arteries.  
4. Saturated fat intake increases both LDL and HDL counts, and HDL is the "good" cholesterol that cleans up the LDL.  
5. When fats replace carbohydrates in the diet, the amount of small, dense LDL decreases.  
6. Low-carb, high-fat dieters compared to high-carb, low-fat dieters typically have reduced markers of heart disease: reduced small, dense LDL, better HDL/LDL ratio, and reduced triglicerides.
7. What happens to excess carbohydrates in your diet?  They are converted into triglicerides.  This is why low-fat dieters can still have high triglicerides.  
8. Triglicerides are equally relevant in risk of heart disease.  
9. The current American Heart Association guidelines did not address this LDL research when making their guidelines to reduce saturated fat intake from 10% to 7% or less of daily calories.  

More on the current research: a meta-analysis performed in part by Dr. Krauss (who is referred to in the previous article as founder of the particle size importance) made this conclusion:

A meta-analysis of prospective epidemiologic studies showed that there is no significant evidence for concluding that dietary saturated fat is associated with an increased risk of CHD or CVD. More data are needed to elucidate whether CVD risks are likely to be influenced by the specific nutrients used to replace saturated fat.

Even Loren Cordain, Paleo Diet founder, has softened his once hardline stance on saturated fats.  From his blog:

The bottom line is that we do not recommend cutting down saturated fatty acid intake but rather decrease high-glycemic load foods, vegetable oils, refined sugars, grains, legumes and dairy.

My conclusion: it seems that saturated fat isn't the big bad we had once thought.



Is it actually, dare I say the word, beneficial?

Here are the main points of a Dr. Eades interview at Four Hour Work Week entitled: 7 Reasons to Eat More Saturated Fat.  Dr. Eades is a proponent of a high protein, high fat diet with reduced carbohydrate intake.  Go and read it for yourself to see the details.  Here are the benefits:
1. Improved Cardiovascular Risk Factors
2. Stronger Bones
3. Improved Liver Health
4. Healthy Lungs
5. Healthy Brain
6. Proper Nerve Signaling
7. Strong Immune System

However, if one has chronic inflammation, Dr. Ayers of Cooling Inflammation suggests limiting saturated fats, although he readily promotes saturated fats over vegetable oils and includes them as part of an anti-inflammatory diet.

Here is another take on the benefits of saturated fats from the Weston A. Price Foundation, a non-profit that distributes nutritional information from their founder, a nutritional guru.  Please read the site for more specifics and references to each point.  To quote his list of saturated fat benefits:

• Saturated fatty acids constitute at least 50% of the cell membranes. They are what gives our cells necessary stiffness and integrity.
• They play a vital role in the health of our bones. For calcium to be effectively incorporated into the skeletal structure, at least 50% of the dietary fats should be saturated.
• They lower Lp(a), a substance in the blood that indicates proneness to heart disease. They protect the liver from alcohol and other toxins, such as Tylenol.
• They enhance the immune system.
• They are needed for the proper utilization of essential fatty acids.
  Elongated omega-3 fatty acids are better retained in the tissues when the diet is rich in saturated fats. 
• Saturated 18-carbon stearic acid and 16-carbon palmitic acid are the preferred foods for the heart, which is why the fat around the heart muscle is highly saturated. The heart draws on this reserve of fat in times of stress.
• Short- and medium-chain saturated fatty acids have important antimicrobial properties. They protect us against harmful microorganisms in the digestive tract.

Bottom line: There seems to be more good about saturated fat than bad.  How about them apples?


Other Contributing Evidence


Here is another article, an older one, discussing saturated fats and their dietary role.  Unfortunately, it was funded by Nestle with agricultural interests to avoid having to reduce saturated fats in foods.

Mark's Daily Apple has a good discussion of saturated fat summarizing the background to the debate and why not to avoid them.

Free the Animal also has an extensive review of the debate and current research.  He is definitely not afraid to offend, so you are hereby warned.

Whole Health Source has a great post with a bunch of research articles to read about the topic.

I could go on and on.  The more I look, the deeper I get into research contrary to what I had previously assumed to be fact.  Thus, it looks like there is a lot out there turning the idea of saturated fats leading to heart disease on its head.  Bottom line: go ahead and eat your meat!

The Easiest Meat Preparation Known To Man: Seared Steak
Method taken from the America's Test Kitchen and applied to every steak I have eaten with great success.  In fact, I would rather cook my steak myself than buy one even at an expensive steak house! 

Ingredients:
grass-fed beef steak of your choice, room temperature is best, patted dry
kosher salt
freshly ground black pepper

Method:
Get your cast iron or stainless skillet* "NASA hot" (to quote Alton Brown).  Salt and pepper your steak (one side is all that is needed, just put that side down and add seasoning** to the other side after its in the pan).  Once seasoned, place the steak in the pan and DO NOT TOUCH until you see the cooked coloration climbing about halfway up the side of the steak.  The timing depends upon the thickness of the steak, cut, and what type of doneness you prefer.  Google some charts for more information.  I love my steaks on the rare side because the tenderness and juiciness is lost with overcooking.  I have come full circle from my childhood abhorrence of any red whatsoever, so I can tell all you well-doners to just shut up and try it medium, especially a good cut like ribeye.  The experience will speak for itself.  Okay, back to the steak.  Seeing some creep of color up the side means flip, with tongs (don't be all sly and try to get away with a spatula or a fork--I have been there and suggest tongs).  Try to land the steak on fresh skillet space by turning the pan 90 degrees and then placing the steak down.  Then, let 'er sear for another few minutes.  You can check doneness using your fingers and palm as a guide, but err on the side of under-done.  The second side takes less time, so watch it carefully!  Once you are satisfied, remove the steak from the pan and place it on a plate to cool for AT LEAST 10 minutes.  You need to seal in those juices--don't worry, it won't get ice cold.  Once finished, feast upon your delicious, freakin' simple steak!

* For best results, don't use nonstick and avoid getting nonstick too hot due to its release of toxins--they can kill birds, so they probably aren't good for us either.

** Don't try to add all other sorts of spices to this--most will burn.  If you want them, add other spices after cooking or in a sauce.

Serving suggestions:

I LOVE my steak with avocado slices on top.  Try it--it's divine!
Butter was also a recent indulgence that was mind-blowing.
When playing it loose with dairy, I melt for blue cheese on my steak.

But all in all, it only takes a good cut of grass-fed beef to make the experience memorable.