beef and whiskey

Somehow following a no sugar/starch diet just leads naturally to grilling a lot and grilling a lot leads naturally to the day you bring home a big green egg (BGE). At least in my world it does.

Although I can’t use mine much anymore, I just came across some pics I took of a cook I did over a year ago,  so I thought I’ might as well post them.

Apparently, I was cooking some chicken thighs, using two different recipes. Don’t ask me why, it was  more than a year ago, I have no idea why I did that. I must have had a reason, right?

Anyway, for a couple of pieces, I soaked the chicken for a few hours in a “Smokey” brine mix  I found at whole foods, and then, just before cooking, I rinse the chicken and cover the pieces with Nantucket’s Rasta rub. I like to use the Nantucket stuff after brining-it doesn’t have any salt, which is nice since the brine mix gives you all the salt you need.

For the rest of the chicken, I used a Vodka recipe I found in a cookbook somewhere. Looks like it called for, in addition to Vodka, some orange slices, some horseradish mustard (the recipe called for fresh grated horseradish, but I cheated with this stuff), some onions, and some type of pepper. And I think that’s some grated orange peels in there too, but I’m not really sure.

Put all that in a bag, shake it up, and then let ‘er sit in the fridge for a few hours.

Ok, time to get the egg going. I dont want to get to technical with the egg setup, but you can get a divider thingy that sits between the fire and the grill, making an indirect cook really easy to do. You want the temp to be 375 degrees. One of the beauties of the BGE is that once you have your temp dialed in, it stays put-for as long as your charcoal lasts anyway. It’ll last hours, but we only need about 45 minutes.

Ok, ok, I know, gasp in horror, what is that toast doing on the grill. I thougth Mr. Beef and Whiskey was one of those low carb nuts… Yes, I am. But I can’t resist a little cheat here and there. And for awhile I was obsessed with Texas Toast. I’m over that now. I’m on to chips and salsa, but that’s not important now, is it?

Ok, here’s the chicken on the grill. If I remember properly, you dont even need to turn the chicken when you’re cooking on the BGE this way. All you gotta do is kick back and enjoy your favorite adult beverage. And play with your dog.

Almost ready…

Really almost ready….

And there it is on the plate. I can’t tell you what it tasted like (more than year ago, remember…) but it sure looks good. Another thing about the BGE, it cooks the outside to perfection, and keeps the meat super moist. Something to do with the way it’s made – very thick ceramic walls and cover and all that.

Sometime in the future I’ll share my thoughts on and experiences with various forms of exercise, but for now I just wanted to post this video of myself in the throes of a slow burn workout, at Fred Hahn’s Serious Strength studio in Manhattan. What you see is me reaching the moment of muscle failure on various machines. The slow burn approach uses weights that are heavy enough for you to reach failure within about a minute, so all you are seeing is the last 10 seconds or so of each exercise. I don’t know if you can tell from the video, but those final seconds are extremely unpleasant. It hurts like hell. Like motherfuckinggoddammitwhyamihereowwww hell. But it’s safe, an it’s good for you.

If you’re like me, you cook a lot of steak, and you cook more than you can actually eat in one sitting. My perenial problem is what to do with all the leftovers. This problem is made worse by the fact that I am only able use an electric grill on our condo’s balcony, and the only way I’ve found to get a nicely cooked steak on the thing is to start out with a really thick and very cold steak. 2 inches thick, and straight from the confines of our very cold fridge (it’s set at 37 degrees). A 2 inch ribeye comes in at about a pound and a half, give or take  few ounces. Not even an avowed carnivore like me can eat that much steak at one time.

I hate to admit how much fine beef I end up tossing out. I must have one of the better fed trash cans in New Jersey. If the Dean Ornishes and Joel Furhmans of the world are right (they’re not, of course), then we better have the paramedics on standby, my trash can is gonna have a coronary any minute now.

One day, while I was eating one of my favorite no sugar/no starch lunches-a burrito in a bowl at Chipotle-I thought to myself, hey, I can make this at home.

So I did.

Here’s the Chipotle version (no rice, some beans, but just a little, double barbacoa, sour cream, cheese, guac), :

Here’s my ingredients, ready to go. We’ve got the leftover steak, cut up into small pieces. We have some black beans, sour cream, salsa, cheese, and some avacado. (I didnt have any guacamole on hand, but I did have an avocado ready to go).

(I dunno what that bottle of Glenlivet is doing in the picture, heh heh…. I certainly didnt have any, as this was all done around lunch time. )

I tossed the meat into a pan with some bacon fat, and some barbque sauce. Dont want to cook it too much, I really just want to unchill it, and to soften the fat. Oooooh, yummy warm soft fat. Take that, Dean Ornish.

I think the one and only thing the low fatters would approve of here is the beans. I start out with a few. Not too many, mind you, these things are full of starch. And by starch, I mean sugar.  But it adds a nice flavor, and texture to the final product, so I figure a couple of tablespoons is ok.

Ok, on top of the beans, just like they do at chipolte’s, add the meat, salsa, sour cream, cheese, and avocados.

Here’s a view from the top.

All that’s left to do is stir it up and eat it! Now that is a damn fine lunch!