And the band played on
Okay so I've said it before and I'm saying it again - an ecologically sound, locally sourced, sustainable eating lifestyle is the ideal. Sometimes however, you can't live up to the ideal. Sometimes paycheques won't stretch any further than the meanest of food budgets that forces you to make some hard choices in terms of what sorts of meals you can make for yourself and your family. You know you should be feeding your family and indeed yourself the best of foods in order to stay healthy. You know the ideal is what you should be aiming towards and the guilt starts to eat at you when you can't seem to attain that consistently.
What do you do then? Do you dig into the very back of your closet, you know the dark place at the back that seems to absorb all light and odd socks, searching for that hair shirt you could swear you hung on to? Should you castigate yourself with a willow switch and a ham sandwich for not being perfect? Of course not. You have to live in the real world and we'll leave the intense guilt for someone who has time for that sort of thing.
Unfortunately, when we are faced with an example of how we cannot live up to the standards we've imposed upon ourselves, we are apt to give up entirely. Dieting, recycling, getting more exercise - all seem to be endeavours of which we demand absolute perfection from ourselves or it isn't worth the effort. We sell ourselves short of so many 'good' things when we do this.
It seems especially dimwitted to me to try to attain perfection when it is a foreign state for us mere mortals, especially to attain perfection as defined by someone else's standards. Better for our sanity and our world if we simply try to be the best we can be as a person and at everything we try, but never perfect.
Two out of three ain't bad
Sounds weird but one of my life goals since, well, forever, is to be the least hypocrite I can be at all times. That little voice in my head, which abhors hypocrisy, especially the willfully blind kind of hypocrisy, analyzes everything I say or do for the scent of it. At times it seems a losing battle as there are so many ways a human can become a hypocrite. It's just easier to talk about doing than to actually do.
I try to do what I can in terms of sourcing local, sourcing humane and in season foods but I also must make that philosophy budget friendly. It's all fine and dandy to want to save the world one calorie at a time but in the real world of mortgages, credit cards and university dreams, money you can save by going bulk at Costco or the supermarket when there is a sale on is not only prudent but necessary. You must balance a desire to support local business while giving the finger to BigBusiness with the need to keep to a budget, both in money and time.
In a word: compromise.
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| Beer Braised Beef with Peppers, Mushrooms & Onions on a bed of arugula |
My compromise for weekday dinners is to utilize pantry ingredients more often. Canned, dried, preserved and frozen items can help get a quick and easy meal on the table when you need the help the most. Some items I wouldn't recommend more than twice per year, others once or twice per month. For some, their meals will consist of a boxed or frozen prepared side dish and if that is what is necessary, so be it. Just try to serve it within a balanced meal, or if it is to a meal itself like the college standby of mac and cheese, then add other ingredients to it to balance it out. Try also to limit how many times per week you turn to these types of side dishes. (A three dollar bag of potatoes will go a long way and is a much healthier side alternative to a boxed pasta.)
I use less tender meat cuts or mid-range meats that are on sale when my budget requires me to shop for meat at the grocery store. Let's face it, if you are buying from the supermarket, one cut pretty much is the same as the next regardless of what you may read or hear from marketers. The beef isn't aged and the pigs and chickens are killed too early, in my opinion. Sometimes it is necessary to buy your meat from those stores, so choosing and preparing an inexpensive cut is best and don't really concern yourself with what is on the label. Making cheap cuts stretch for a few meals and taste good is imperative.
What you need to know
Look for well marbled meat without a thick rind of fat. Not because the fat is bad - it is very necessary for the juiciness of the meat, but not for the added weight that will contribute to a higher cost per lb/kg. Why pay for something you'll just be removing later?(The only time I do that is when I buy a large pork loin roast - the whys and wherefores I will be covering in a later post.) Thick cuts are a better choice than thin ones, especially with pork, for tenderness even if you plan to use a marinade. This recipe is great for every cut of beef and will yield a moist and tasty meat that resembles pulled pork in its consistency.
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| approx $5.65 per person - serves 4 with leftovers |
Beer-Braised Beef with Peppers, Mushrooms & Onions
2 ginormous steaks (I used top sirloin grilling steaks) approx 4-5 lbs total
1 bottle of ale, stout or porter depending on your tastes
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar or wine vinegar in a pinch
3 - 4 cups beef broth
1 tbsp oregano
steak seasoning of your choice
mine: blend of ground pepper, paprika, oregano, celery seed, salt, garlic
2 bay leaves
2 medium onions, chopped
5 garlic cloves, minced
couple of dashes of liquid smoke, optional
Liberally sprinkle steak seasoning over meat. Add oil or lard to a large saucepan and get heat to a fairly controllable high heat. Sear meat. Assemble braising liquids in a large bowl. Put seared meat in to sit while onions and garlic are sautéing in same saucepan. Put meat and liquids into pan once onions are softened. Add seasonings and bring pot to the boil. Lower heat to simmer and cook for 1 to 1 1/2 hours until meat falls apart. This works well in a slow cooker at low heat for 8 hours then cranked at high until really done.
Steak top
1 green, 1 red, 1 yellow pepper, thinly sliced
4 oz mushrooms, sliced
1/2 sweet onion, thinly sliced
Sauté until softened and serve on top of beef which in turns sits on a bed of arugula. Spoon a bit of the cooking juices over top of the beef.
Tip: Strain braising liquid and refrigerate. Next day, remove the disc of fat and use it to sauté mushrooms and onions to make a gravy for leftover hot beef sandwiches or a pot pie using the liquids within the recipe.
all text and photographs ©michelle levasseur The Groaning Board 2015
