Tikka Masala Crockpot Beef with Coconut Cauliflower

I've been buying one-pound packages of ground beef and stewing beef from pastured, grass-fed cows from a local health store. I'm getting tired of having stew or shredded beef (even though it's delicious) twice a week. So I decided to try a new recipe! I did a Google search of "paleo coconut beef" and came up with this recipe over at FastPaleo, a fabulous Paleo recipe sharing site. As usual, I changed the recipe in minor ways to suit my needs and this is what resulted:

It was good. A little on the spicy side, and I found the taste slightly bitter, so I actually needed to add some coconut sweetener and salt to it to balance out the flavours. Next time I will reduce the spices even further (those changes are reflected in the recipe below) and maybe use some honey. This will serve two adults and a pre-school kid and leave some leftovers for someone's lunch. Note: "T" is my short-form for "tablespoon" and "t" is my short-form for "teaspoon." Don't mix them up. Ha.

Ingredients
1 lb grass-fed, pastured stewing beef chunks
1 cup coconut milk
1/4 onion, chopped
1/2 each of red, yellow, and orange sweet peppers, chopped
1/2 package of grape tomatoes, left whole (you could use 1/2 can of stewed tomatoes if you have them)
2 T homemade ketchup (I didn't have tomato paste, you can use that instead)
1/2 T garam masala
1 t each ginger and garlic powder
1/2 t each cumin, paprika, turmeric, chili powder, curry powder, cinnamon, and red pepper flakes OR cayenne pepper (reduce if you don't like spicy)
1/4 t each salt and coriander
1 T lemon or lime juice
1 T unsweetened dried coconut
1 T coco sweet OR honey OR xylitol (use Stevia to taste, I have no idea how much you'd need)

For the Coconut Cauliflower:
1 head of cauliflower
1/2 cup of coconut milk
salt and pepper to taste

Directions
Put the beef into your slow cooker and add the onions, coconut milk, and all the spices. Stir to mix everything together and then cover and put on low for 4 hours. About one hour before you plan to serve the meal, add the peppers, stir, and cover again. Fifteen minutes before dinner time, cut up an entire head of cauliflower and steam it until it is still slightly firm. Mash to desired consistency (I leave it a bit chunky) and stir in half a cup or so of coconut milk, some salt, and some pepper to taste. Serve the Tikka Masala Beef over top of the coconut rice. Enjoy!

The Great Meatball Experiment AKA Liver and Onion Meatballs

I've always hated liver. I don't like the taste, smell, texture, or look of it. I'm not sure if my parents like it or not, but one day I remember coming home from school and all I could smell was liver. My Mother had cooked liver, and then made chili. She tried to hide the liver in the chili. It didn't work. Blech. I think the problem was that she cooked the liver first. She would have been better off to have ground or chopped it it to mix into the ground beef. Ah well. She tried, right?

There are many reasons why everyone should eat liver, especially that from grass fed cows. Liver is a great source of vitamins  A and B, plus essential fatty acids like Arachidonic Acid and DHA. Here is a great article by Chris Masterjohn on the benefits of these nutrients.

I want to like liver, I really do. But since I don't like it alone, I need to try other options, where you mix the liver in with other meats. I'm trying an idea I saw here at The Food Lovers Primal Palate (fabulous site, by the way, go check it out. They have resources, recipes, and lots of other cool stuff). Instead of using their recipe with cinnamon, paprika, and garlic powder, I'm using my stand-by hamburger patty/Salisbury steak seasonings: mustard, salt, pepper, and onion powder. I added chopped onion at the very end, mixed everything together well, and formed into meatballs a bit larger than 1oz each.

Does it look like there is liver mixed in here?

My husband and daughter had spaghetti and meatballs (they're still not 100% Paleo, but they're really close). I had the meatballs as-is, with a huge side of steamed broccoli and cauliflower drenched in pastured butter.

Taste Test Results:

Daughter (almost 4 years old): She ate it up. No complaints.

Husband: rated the meatballs a 4 out of 5, and said you couldn't taste the liver at all.

Me: I'd eat these again. I could totally mix that liver into ground beef for my Salisbury steak recipe and pour the mushroom gravy over it. I could probably add more liver, too.

Now I'm off to look at food processors.

Recipe for people who need that kind of thing:
1 lb pastured ground beef (I'm unsure of the meat/fat ratio, we don't do that in Canada, it's either regular, lean, or extra lean. I figure this is between lean and medium.)
1/4 lb pastured beef liver
1/4 cup chopped onions
1 tsp dry mustard or prepared mustard
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp pepper
1/8 tsp sea salt

Mix that all together and form into meatballs - I got 15. Place in a baking dish and bake at 350F for 25 minutes.

One week on Low-Carb Paleo AND Salisbury Steak Recipe

I'm now on day 9 of low-carb paleo....except I can't count last night. I had a friend over and we made a bunch of tequila-and-club-soda-with-lime drinks. They were meant to be margaritas but I totally forgot. Anyway. As usual with alcohol consumption, I kind of strayed from the whole "eat in moderation" rule and ate about 3/4 of a batch of almond crackers with asiago and artichoke dip. Oh well.

For dinner I tried out a new Salisbury Steak recipe. The site is not a Paleo one, but the recipe is low-carb, gluten-free, and Paleo friendly. It does contain dairy, but you could use coconut milk instead of cream in the gravy.

Please excuse the picture, we ate our dinner before I thought to take photos. This is a pic of the leftovers.

It's a fantastic recipe but I did change it a bit. I've found I don't need egg in my ground beef to hold together patties, so I omitted the eggs from the original recipe, and cut the almond flour into 1/4 cup. Here's my altered recipe:

Patties:
1 lb pastured ground beef
1/4 cup ground almonds (almond flour)
1/2 tsp each: black pepper, onion powder, sea salt, prepared yellow mustard (use ground mustard if you have it)

Gravy:
2 cups beef stock
5-7 mushrooms, sliced
1/2 tsp black pepper
dash of salt (depends on if your beef stock has salt in it to start - mine doesn't)
dash of celery salt
2 dashes of wheat-free soy sauce (Bragg's makes some)
1 tbsp cream
1-2 tsp arrowroot flour (used as a thickener instead of flour or cornstarch)
2-3 tablespoons water (to mix with the arrowroot flour)


Directions:
Start the gravy: place the mushrooms, beef stock, and seasonings into a small saucepan and bring to a boil over med-high heat. Reduce to simmer for about 20 minutes. Taste and see if it needs more salt or pepper. Turn off the heat a few minutes before you want to thicken it. Stir in the cream. Just before serving your meal, mix the arrowroot flour into a small bowl or cup with a couple tablespoons of water and blend with a fork. Pour that into your beef stock/mushroom mixture and mix with fork. If it's not quite thick enough, repeat the process with 1/2 to 1 teaspoon or so of arrowroot flour. (Waiting to allow the gravy to cool a bit will help guarantee your arrowroot starch doesn't break down in heat and fail to set.)

Mix the meat ingredients together and form into 3 or 4 patties. Cook on a baking sheet or baking dish for 25 minutes at 350F. Broil for 2 minutes at the end. Remove to plates and ladle gravy on top.

Serve with a side of mashed/whipped cauliflower and a nice veg - I used sauteed asparagus. MMMM.