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!

Fee, Fie, Foe, Friday: The Coffee Sweetener Dilemma

What the heck can I stir into my coffee in the morning that won't rot my teeth, raise my blood sugar, make me fat, or give me some dread disease somewhere down the road? And doesn't taste weird?

This is probably over-thinking this, but I think I am a sugar addict. My husband says I'm crazy, but I find when I eat a sugar-sweetened dessert, or a piece of candy, I have to have MORE. I can never seem to stop at one serving. Always two and sometimes three. Which is why I try to avoid sugar as much as I can, without turning into a food hermit. According to what I've read from Gary Taubes, I'm probably right about the addictiveness.

I'm guessing I'm not alone, in wanting a little something to sweeten my day, considering how many sugar substitutes I can buy in a single supermarket on a single shopping trip. Aside from plain old cane sugar, there is a plethora of natural and artificial sugar substitutes and the sheer number boggles the mind. Back when I was an online member of Weight Watchers, and frequenting their community boards, there would be outright battles over what to use in place of the demon sugar. No one ever won.

Problem is, I still like my coffee sweetened, or some sort of a decent-tasting  dessert. I've got an arsenal of various sugar substitutes from the generally considered fake artificial, like the saccharine in the pink packets, the aspartame in the blue ones, and the sucralose in the yellow ones. Those are shoved way back in a corner.

Then there are the "alternative" sugars like the sugar alcohols erythritol, xylitol, and the polydextrose (yep, have them, too) and finally the herbal extract, stevia. I'm not even going to discuss the "natural" sugars like raw cane, turbinado, coconut, honey, molasses, and date. Which I also have some of each. What you see here is just from ONE partial sweetener shelf in my pantry. Oy. 

All are good, none are perfect for everything. Sigh.

My current leanings are to evict the artificial ones from their space, and stick to the more naturally occurring products. The problem is, no single sweetener is good for all purposes. I think stevia is revolting in coffee, but fine in smoothies and baking. Xylitol is good for baking and frostings, but can give a digestive upset in quantity. Erythritol is ok in coffee, doesn't give digestive problems, but can be grainy and has a cooling effect in some dishes. No one-size-fits-all here, no matter how much I wish it.

Maybe I'll just start drinking my coffee black.