Meaty Monday: Molasses Soy Mushrooms and Steak

Ok, I know it really should be steak and mushrooms, not mushrooms and steak. But the mushrooms that are supposed to be the side with the beef are so delicious and savory they have to have equal star  billing.

The marinade is an easy homemade teriyaki that uses molasses to give it a big, deep flavor. i like blackstrap  molasses, but you can have whatever kind you have in the pantry. Most of us have unsulphured molasses and that will do fine. I like to use molasses because it packs a punch flavor-wise, but lets me sugar content in this marinade way down, and still promotes good browning and flavor. The molasses caramelizes as it cooks with the soy, making both the mushrooms and the steak absolutely swoonworthy.

The beef this week was a nice, grass fed, top round  steak cut as a London Broil. You all have heard me go on about how flank is the only true London broil, but if I had to buy a grass fed flank steak, not on sale, I'd have need a second job to pay for it.  Since we eat much less beef now than before, I try to buy only grass fed, not feed lot beef. Better for us and for the environment. Tastes better too. Helps when you can find it on sale, too.

Note: This is a reasonably low carb dish using stevia and molasses, as the molasses adds very little sugar to the marinade, and most of it is not actually eaten. If you are not watching sugar too closely, go with the honey. You'd have to bend the rules a bit to call this Paleo, though.

Molasses Soy Mushrooms and Steak

Molasses Soy Mushrooms and Steak

Serves 4

2T Molasses, blackstrap or unsulphured
1/3 cup gluten free tamari soy sauce
1 tablespoon minced garlic (jarred ok)
1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger (jarred ok)
1/2 teaspoon Asian chili garlic paste or hot sauce
Liquid stevia, sugar or honey, equivalent to 1 tablespoon
1/4 cup dry sherry
Approx. 1.75 lb. beef top round London broil, grass fed preferred
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 lb. sliced baby portabella (cremini) mushrooms

1. Mix all ingredients through the sherry in a small bowl, and then set aside 1/4 cup of the mixture in a small, covered container in the fridge. Place the meat in a zip top bag, and pour over the remaining marinade, turn the meat a few times, and chill for at least 8 hours and up to 24.

2. About 2 minutes before you want to eat, remove the meat from the fridge, discard the marinade in the zip bag, and preheat a grill to high. In a 12" fry pan, preferably non stick, heat the olive oil, and add the sliced mushrooms. Stir to coat with the hot oil, and turn the heat under the pan to medium. Cook the mushrooms in the oil until they give up their liquid, and when that has nearly evaporated, add the 1/4 cup of reserved marinade. Stir until its nearly evaporated, and then cover, turn off the heat and set aside in a warm spot.

3. Grill the meat over high heat about 4 minutes per side for rare or longer  to your taste. Let the meat rest about 5 -7 minutes before slicing thinly against the grain. Reheat the mushrooms if necessary, and serve with the beef. Enjoy!

Un-Decorating Day Dinner: Dijon, Soy & Molasses Roast Pork Tenderloin

Today I am cooking challenged. I don't feel like it as I've been dragging loads of Christmas decorations to our basement storage area. Except for the tree and mantel, and a few outdoor items, it's all put away. I've put away as many decorations as I can without dredging up the ire of my Italian ancestors who swore you had to leave the tree up until the Wise Men arrived at the Manger. Or you'd have bad luck for the rest of the year. While I don't believe, I'm also not taking any chances. I kind of like the tree up for a bit, too, since my retail hours don't give me much time to admire it during the brunt of the season. 

It's so much fun to put the stuff up, and such a pain to put it all away.  Un-decorating wears me out. I'm tired, and I want a good, quick meal, with enough leftovers for another lunch or dinner later in the week. Wasn't even thinking about dinner. Hmmm.

I found some nice, locally raised pork tenderloins at the market on Friday, and was planning to freeze them all, but I think a couple of them will fit the bill for tonight's dinner. A coating of mustard, molasses and soy sauce will do the trick and add a ton of flavor without having to plan ahead with a marinade or a brine. Cause I didn't really plan ahead. Some sautéed spinach, and whatever starchy thing is living in the freezer will round out the meal in a good way. A satisfying, quick meal. So I can still vacuum up little bits of artificial pine needles that trail from the living room to the basement stairs, the remnants of my un-decorating adventure.

Dijon, Soy & Molasses Roast Pork Tenderloin

Dijon, Soy & Molasses Roast Pork Tenderloin

Blackstrap molasses is the big, strong grandaddy of regular unsulphered molasses. If you can't find it or don't have it, use the regular stuff you have, but it adds a huge flavor without being too sweet, or adding too much sugar. Minced ginger and garlic in jars have the right texture to make a really smooth paste to smear over the tenderloins and are fast to use when you really want to eat something good without too much work.

Ingredients:

2 Pork tenderloins, each about 1-1/4 pounds

For the "schmear":
2 T Dijon mustard
1 T Tamari soy sauce
1 T Blackstrap molasses
1 T minced ginger from a jar
1 T minced garlic from a jar
2T granular erythritol, xylitol or sugar

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 425ºF. Place a shallow rack in a 9" x 13" pan.

2. Mix all the schmear ingredients in a largish mixing bowl. Dry the pork tenderloins with paper towels, and roll them in the soy mixture.

3. Place side by side on the rack, in the pan, not touching, and place in the preheated oven and cook until the temperature in the thickest part is 145ºF for juicy, slightly pink meat, or cook to 150ºF for just a bit of pink in the center after resting. 25 to 35 minutes.  Remove from the oven and cover loosely for 5-8 minutes with foil to rest. Slice in 1/2" pieces to serve.

Serves 6.

Look Ma, No Added Sugar: Mild Chile-Lime BBQ Sauce

This Chile-Lime BBQ Sauce is good on anything. Really.

Until recently, the house pulled pork wasn’t traditional BBQ. It was really a delicious pork shoulder, braised in BBQ sauce until it fell apart. Good, but in my book, not the real thing. I had made quite a few in my BBQ pit prior to marrying Chuck. But a smoky shoulder, unadorned, wasn't his favorite.  So I just stuck to my briskets, turkey breasts, bacon, ribs and chickens and left the pork shoulder with Chuck, in the house, in the oven, simmering away under a blanket of BBQ sauce. I prefer the long-smoked kind because it features the smoked pork as the main flavor, with the BBQ sauce as a condiment. With the braised kind, it depends totally on how good the sauce is; the pork itself is only secondary.

So, imagine my surprise, when he says he wants to make a pork shoulder in the Big Green Egg. I was so happy I’d have run to the store, barefoot, to buy one. It’s been cooking all day, at a nice solid 250ºF. Not one refill of charcoal needed, in the Egg, either. Totally amazing. I’d have been practically chained to the old pit for a long cook like this to keep it steadily fueled. 

Today I ran  errands, did some pickling, and even made a really good, naturally sugar-free BBQ sauce to have with our real pulled pork sandwiches tonight. 
BBQ sauce is a condiment;  but when you use a lot of it, it becomes for some people, a food group, like vegetables. That’s all well and good, if, like ketchup, it wasn’t full of sugar, or worse, high fructose corn syrup. Plus, they are usually so darn syrupy sweet. I've fixed all that in this recipe though. While I made this intending it to be used on a BBQ'd pulled pork sandwich, its perfect as the braising sauce for pork, too. 

Mild Chile-Lime is a spunky sauce. Not so much heat, though as spunk; kids like it too. There is enough here to braise a pork shoulder (or chops, chicken, etc.)This one isn’t loaded with chiles, but it has a little spice, and a decent punch of lime. It also has natural erythritol and stevia as the sweetener, and a single tablespoon of blackstrap molasses in it for the deep, rich, brown sugar flavor. It’s lower in carbs, diabetic friendly, as a condiment and if you use an anchovy-free Worcestershire sauce, it’ll be vegetarian, too. This recipe makes a lot, about 3-1/2 cups, enough to serve with a whole pulled BBQ pork shoulder. I can, and have eaten this Mild Chile-Lime BBQ sauce with a spoon. It’s that good.

Note: You can substitute 1/2 cup plus 2 teaspoons of Spoonable Truvia or Z-Sweet for the erythritol and stevia. Add the optional jalapeño, if you like a serious tingle in you BBQ sauce.

Mild Chile-Lime BBQ Sauce (No Added Sugar)

Ingredients:

1 29 oz. can tomato puree
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup water
1T blackstrap molasses
1/2 cup granular erythritol
1/8 tsp. powdered stevia extract
1 tsp. garlic powder
3T minced dried onions
2 T prepared yellow mustard
1T Worcestershire sauce
2T mild chili powder
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
pinch of ground cloves
2 tsp. Cholula chile sauce
1 tsp. ancho chile powder
1 lime, halved
Optional: 1 small red jalapeño, left whole

Instructions:

In a large saucepan, whisk everything through the ancho chile powder together until well blended.  Squeeze in the lime juice, and drop in the two halves. Add the jalapeño, if using. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, and then lower to a simmer and cook, stirring occasionally until the sauce is thick enough to coat a spoon, about  20 minutes. Cover and turn the heat to the lowest possible temperature and let set on the heat for another 15 minutes. remove and discard the lime halves and jalapeño before serving. Makes a scant quart.