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ElizabethB
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Elizabeth's Cooking Challenge

A challenge for you all :clap: Tomorrow's dinner. I have a lovely, fresh venison (deer) backstrap. Very lean meat. About 2 1/2" in diameter. I know how to cook it but I want your best ideas. Include sides. Your favorite salad and 2 side veggies. No/low carbs. Olive oil is good. Minimum animal fat for the back strap - I know it needs some.

Give me your best.

Can't wait to hear what you have to offer. Don't be shy. I can handle complex recipes. Just watch the carbs. That is a NO-NO for G's diet. Potatoes, grains, beans are all out. Onions - red and raw only = no cooked onions (that KILLS me) No tomatoes or root veggies other than turnips. Red cabbage raw only - no green cabbage. Greens are all good. Cauliflower, broccoli, zucchini, leeks, asparagus all great. Garlic and green onions are fine. Herbs - use lots for the flavor I miss from fat. Green beans allowed once a week so go for it.

Go for it guys and gals. Give me your best :!:

SOB
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On the HOT grill, a little salt and pepper, rare on the inside, seared on the outside and with a cold adult beverage of your choice on the side :)

Sorry for no elaborate recipe but in my family the backstraps usually come right outta the deer and almost immediately on the grill and hardly ever make it to a plate before being devoured.

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lorax
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Sad that you're not allowed carbs.... One of my fave things to do with backstrap is to mince it up really fine and either stuff it into momos (Tibetan dumplings) or else make Stroganstuff (heavy on the fats and pastas.) But here goes! I do have a lovely Syrian recipe that I'd normally use lamb or goat in, but which should work extremely well for venison.

Begin by roasting some tomatoes and eggplant on the grill, until the skins are good and charred and the insides pleasantly mooshy. Cube those insides up, and add in generous (and I mean really generous) amounts of fresh parsely, along with a handfull or so of chopped raw Spanish (ie red) onion. Salt to taste.

Meanwhile, marinate that venison in a mixture of beer (red ale preferred, but lagers will work), tomato juice, and lime, with tons of crushed cumin seed and mint. That goes on a screaming hot grill until the outsides are just seared, and then it's sliced over the tomato/eggplant stuff. Toss on some walnut chunks.

Serve with thick sour yogurt. It's teh yum. Image

EDIT - I just re-read your intial post. Tomatoes are a no-no? That means eggplants and other solanums are out too. Boo-urns. Then maybe try this:

Flash-grilled venison, rubbed in cajun blackening spices (a mixture of chili/cayenne powder, milled oregano, milled thyme, garlic powder, black and white peppers, paprika, a bit of salt) sliced over lightly grilled Belgian endive halves, and the whole schmoo drizzled in olive oil. Sides: lightly steamed asparagus smothered in mango chutney, mesclun salad dressed with simple oil and vinegar.

This is challenging, you know. My approach to the salt kitchen is much more fat and carb oriented, due more than a little to my altitude (where fats and carbs aren't just good, but essential to my survival).

Here's a question: can you get your hands on Lupini beans, preferably fresh but if not, canned? If you can, they're a complete protein and quite low on the starches end of the scale, and there are some intensely good sides to be made of them.

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ElizabethB
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So far so good - loving your ideas - keep them coming.

Will have another recipe challenge for tomorrow.
HE-HE-HE - will post that one this evening.
Roger - waiting for you to chime in.

Waiting to hear more :!:

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rainbowgardener
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As a vegetarian all my adult life, I can't help you with the venison.

There's a salad I really like which is mixed baby greens and spinach, with fat-free feta cheese crumbles, raspberries, mandarin orange slices, sliced almonds or pine nuts, with raspberry vinaigrette dressing made with honey and with actual raspberry pieces in the dressing.

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ElizabethB
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Rainbow - absolutely lovely salad recipe :!: Can't serve it to G but will make it for myself when he is out of town. Thanks bunches.

Come on guys and gals - need more - bring it on. Challange yourself :!:

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rainbowgardener
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What is it in the salad that isn't on his diet plan? You can find fat free raspberry vinaigrette in the store and just add raspberries to it. Everything else is on the low glycemic index good carbs list and all but the almond slivers (which are just garnish anyway to add a little crunch) are fat free.

Another salad I like I call the very green salad. Mixed greens with some dark/colorful ones mixed in. Lightly steam broccoli florets and asparagus pieces and mix them in. Add whatever garnishes and dressing works for you. I often throw dried cranberries in for some color and maybe garnish with shredded Parmesan.

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ElizabethB
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Rainbow - because of his extreme obesity the sugars from fruit are not allowed until he reaches a point of maintenance. He is not there. His program is lean and green. Fruit is out for the time being. Too much sugar. Nuts are also out and many root veggies. Makes it difficult to cook food that taste good but abides by his restrictions. I use lots of herbs for flavor. When he loses the weight he needs to lose then he can be on a maintenance diet. Fruits, nuts and some fats will be incorporated. Still no on complex carbs.

Love your salad recipe and will make it for myself.

Thanks.

sciencegal
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Eating fat does not make you fat, eating sugar (carbs) makes you fat. I eat my home grown meat which is lean since it is grass fed, but I cook using lard, I use lots of butter, eat home-made high fat yogurt, lots of eggs, bacon sometimes. In fact I think the best fried chicken in the whole world is that which is cooked in lard over a wood burning cook stove on a cold New Year's Day :P .

I eat loads of veg's but no potatoes, no grain, no sugar, minimal fruit. I lost 50 pounds on this primal diet very easily and after 2 years it has stayed off. I just keep my level of all carbs under 25 grams a day.

I have tons of energy, the arthritis I was developing is gone, blood pressure is back to normal. Also, eating cholesterol does not give you high cholesterol. I don't bother getting a cholesterol test since there is no way you can get your numbers down to where they say they should be unless you take their expensive little pills. (I'm going to be 61 in a couple of months, by the way)

Check out the low carb recipes and success stories on Mark Sisson's web site. He is my food and lifestyle guru.



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