Front Burner: Back to the grind
File photo.
If the most miserable stretch of summer is known as the dog days, then what is this dreary lull between New Year’s Day and the first whisper of spring?
It seems appropriate to call these the cat days of winter, because all I want to do is stay curled up in bed, bask in any little patch of sunshine I can find, and have someone respond to my whining by serving me a bowl of food.
So far, this dream has not come true, but my hopes remain high.
Meanwhile, I survey the contents of my refrigerator and freezer every weekend trying to decide what I will put in my own food dish. The other day, while my head was stuck in the chest freezer, it occurred to me that although ground beef has lately gotten a bad rap, few ingredients are easier to fashion into a respectable supper.
Name a popular dish made with ground beef – now there’s a great “Family Feud” survey question. Spaghetti would score high, as would meatloaf, chili, tacos and sloppy Joes (and hamburgers, of course). When I was a kid, my mother and grandmother always seemed to be dishing up steaming plates of goulash, lasagna and other beefy favorites.
Those were the blissfully ignorant days, before terms such as pink slime, E. coli, grass-fed and sustainable were part of our culinary lexicon.
I’m not suggesting we should ignore those issues, but they shouldn’t preclude us from turning to pinch-hitters such as meatball subs and stuffed peppers when we need an easy supper idea that’s sure to be a winner.
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That’s also where you’ll find recipes for Gyro Burgers with Tahini Sauce, Chinese Ground Beef with Noodles, and Pakistani Beef Curry. Please note that, as I say later in the column, you can make these recipes with any kind of ground meat you like. So if you are trying to lighten up for the new year, consider ground turkey, chicken or venison.
January 9, 2013 - 9:40 AM
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Hey Lindsey! Love your “Family Feud” comment! A couple of side notes. In talking about ground beef ideas, my wife makes what she calls “poor man’s stroganoff.” Ground beef instead of pieces of steak. She uses Campbell’s beefy mushroom soup, the same noodles, a little sour cream and it’s really good! You mention ground chicken above, I’ve seen that but not too often. We found some chicken bacon once, marked down to $1.99 for a “manager’s special.” And it had a .55 cent off coupon attached to the packaged! So for a buck fifty ish we took the gamble. Not so much in the microwave, but cooked on the stove top it was awesome! Haven’t seen it since, usually four brands of turkey bacon but not chicken bacon…
going back to the fried pickles idea, I found this recipe for onion rings today that sounds AWESOME! I’m sure it could be used for the pickles also
http://magazine.foxnews.com/recipe/beer-battered-onion-rings?intcmp=HPBucket
That curry recipe looks great….can’t wait to try it.
I made some sloppy joes this week using both our local pastured etc. ground beef and a pound of the ground pork we got last fall. The combination was great…I’ve found that the mix of pork and beef makes this sort of recipe taste even better.
I really love the idea of calling this “the cat days of winter”. Good one Lindsey!
Haha, thanks Liz. I have two cats, so I will credit Ned and Zoe as my inspiration.
The recipes sound great. My daughter is coming to town next weekend and she eats gluten free, I’ll have to try the Pakistani Beef Curry. I don’t think I’ll add the peas until near the end of the cooking time though. It only takes frozen peas a fw minutes to cook, and after 25 mintues they would be mushy nad grey I would think.
Lindsey, I enjoyed your recipes and your article today. Your writing is so cheerful and celebratory. With ground beef I tend to go in three directions. (1) There are lots of ground beef recipes (tacos, sloppy joes, meat loaf, even burgers) where you can use a 15-oz can of black beans for every pound of meat and really stretch it out, economize, and eat healthier. Kids like beany beef dishes too. (2) For people who want to make things like meat loaf or meat balls without using beef, I have found that one package of ground turkey (ca. 20 oz, the 93/7 stuff) and one package of loose Italian pork sausage (1 lb, choose your spice level) works very well in place of two pounds of beef. (3) When I see that Kroger has boneless USDA Choice beef shoulder for $3.50 a pound, which they do this week, then I start to think about how your Pakistani curry would taste with actual beef. I would cube the roast, brown the cubes thoroughly, and cook them for 30 minutes in my 6-quart Presto autoclave with a large can of crushed tomatoes and a can of beef broth, or so. You cook the meat the day before so you can refrigerate it overnight and then skim the fat in the morning. To such a recipe I would add chickpeas if they are not already in there, again mainly to stretch it out and decrease the red-meat angst factor. I think I will try it.
Paul,
Thank you very much for the kind words about my column. Those are all great ideas you offered. I especially like the idea of combining ground turkey with Italian sausage – that would work well for any Italian dish, too. My husband says he doesn’t like ground turkey, but something strongly flavored such as Italian sausage would surely amp up the flavor quite a bit.
And you are right, a lot of ground beef recipes would probably be even better with cubed beef. Sometimes it is all about what kinds of deals you can get at the store or the farmers market.
Best sloppy joe’s I ever made (and consumed) was when I used ground venison. (Someone else provided the ground venison, I choose not to hunt). Excellent texture and flavor! One person started calling them “sloppy doe’s”, which I didn’t necessarily find too funny, but I ate them anyway. I remember watching my grandmother grind her own beef. She was not a big person, but after watching her work that grinder, I wouldn’t want to have gone three rounds with her! Anyone out there grinding their own meat and, if so, what product would you recommend for a beginner?
@Kevin, I have a grinder attachment for my Kitchen Aid mixer that works pretty well for small batches. I ground up a chuck roast with it and while it got blocked a couple of times, it was generally fine for what I needed. People who do a lot of meat grinding would probably feel that it is not powerful enough for their purposes. Anyone else want to chime in?
You can get “Gyro Burgers” at Zorba’s (they call them Mediterranean or Greek, I think). Really good, and they’re on real pita bread, not that pocket thingy! I make them often at home, easier: Mix the ground beef with the greek seasoning plus a little olive oil (especially if you’re using ground beef that’s too lean), or just mix some Greek salad dressing with the meat. Tahini paste is pretty expensive. Use Annie’s Naturals Goddess dressing for the sauce – It’s perfect! Cafe Jano’s used to make this, shaping the meat into a log instead of a patty, and putting a few shoestring french fries IN the sandwich. It was great, so I do that too, with a little ketchup. I save a little of my greek burger for the next day, chop it into pieces and mix it with lettuce and a little more goddess dressing for a great salad!
I made the beef curry this weekend. It was delicious. Like stews, it was even better the second day. I didn’t serve it over rice though, as the recipe suggests. It was so full of potatoes, I didn’t see the need for more carbs.
I’m so glad you liked it, Debbie!