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Tuesday, February 15, 2022
The Observer & Baker City Herald
ANN
BLOOM
NUTRITION: IT’S ALL GOOD
Celebrating
National
Beef Month
No one in America needs to ask
what’s for dinner. It’s beef, right? Beef
is the most popular meat on Amer-
ican dinner tables, according to meat
specialty websites. In 2018, Ameri-
cans on average consumed 57 pounds
of beef, almost a pound a week. It’s no
longer just for dinner, though. Recipes
featuring beef, in many forms, can
be found in dishes for breakfast and
lunch, too.
February is National Beef Month.
Beef has appeared in the lexicon of
American advertising several times.
Many people remember Clara Peller and
her “Where’s the beef?” commercials
for Wendy’s restaurants back in 1984.
Then, in 1992, “Beef. It’s what’s for
dinner,” was launched by the National
Livestock and Meat Board to promote
the consumption of beef.
“Beef is categorized as a red meat,”
writes Atli Arnarson, Ph.D., “a term
used for the meat of mammals which
contains higher amounts of iron than
poultry or fi sh.” A Healthline.com con-
tributor, he writes that fresh, lean beef
is rich in various vitamins and min-
erals especially iron and zinc. There-
fore, beef is recommended as part of a
healthy diet.
Beef is composed of protein and
varying amounts of fat. The protein
content of lean cooked beef is 26%
to 27%. It contains all nine essential
amino acids needed for the growth and
maintenance of the body. Meat is one
of the most complete dietary sources
of protein.
Beef contains varying amounts of fat
which contributes to fl avor and calorie
content. It also contains B Vitamins,
zinc, iron, and niacin (a B Vitamin).
The United States Department of
Agriculture’s (USDA) defi nition of a
lean cut of beef is a 3.5-ounce serving
that contains less than 10 grams total
fat. The Mayo Clinic website lists lean
cuts cited by the USDA as round roast,
bottom round roast, and top sirloin steak
among others.
There are eight main, sometimes
referred to as primal, cuts of beef. These
eight primal cuts are divided into more
than 60 sub-primal cuts according to
certifi edangusbeef.com.
The cuts are the brisket, shank, rib,
loin, round, chuck, fl ank and short plate.
Beef may be prepared several ways
including grilling, broiling, stir frying,
roasting and baking. Muscle usage
during the life of the animal, mar-
bling, bones and other factors all con-
tribute to the fl avor and texture of each
cut of meat. Marbling is the white fat
streaking that runs through the meat. It
is what also contributes to the tender-
ness of the cut of meat.
According to the website, frugalcity.
com, less tender cuts of meat such as
cuts from the chuck or round like chuck
roast and round steak benefi t from mar-
inades and slow cooking in the oven or
in a slow cooker, to tenderize them. The
most expensive cut of beef is the fi let
mignon, a cut of meat taken from the
tenderloin’s narrower end. This muscle
is not used much during the steer’s life
and is very tender. Another tender cut is
the New York strip steak.
Beef can be frozen for six months to
a year if properly wrapped. Thawing
and refreezing is not recommended as
this aff ects the texture and quality of
the meat.
Meat should be stored in the coldest
part of the refrigerator and can be kept
there until ready for use, usually two to
three days. It should be kept in a plastic
bag on the lowest shelf to avoid the
potential of raw meat juices coming into
contact with other food. Meat should
be thawed in the refrigerator, not on a
kitchen counter. Meat left at room tem-
perature invites bacteria growth which
can cause a food borne illness.
Clara Peller no longer wonders
where’s the beef, but Sam Elliott is still
telling us that beef is what’s for dinner.
For more information and recipes
featuring beef, visit www.foodhero.org.
to see what you can make for dinner…
or lunch...or breakfast, using beef.
———
Ann Bloom has worked for the OSU
Extension Service for 15 years as a
nutrition educator. She studied jour-
nalism and education at Washington
State University. She lives in Enterprise.
Banish menu
monotony
Hillary Levin/St. Louis Post-Dispatch-TNS
Mushroom rice with turmeric, an easy vegetable side dish.
Simple but satisfying
side dishes for
weeknight meals
By DANIEL NEMAN
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
It’s a weeknight. You already
know what you’re making for
the main course — something
simple but satisfying.
But what about a side dish?
You could steam some green
beans, again. You could steam
some asparagus, again. You
could bake a potato, again.
But you have been there and
you have defi nitely done that.
You want a vegetable side
dish that does justice to your
entrée. But it’s a weeknight, so
you want it to be simple. Simple
but satisfying.
After perusing perhaps 200
vegetable recipes, I can defi -
nitely state that, according to
them, there is one consistent,
no-fail method to sprucing up
your vegetables: add cream. I
don’t care what the vegetable is,
dousing it in a gallon or two of
heavy cream is going to make it
taste better.
If you have an exceptional
metabolism or are a boxer
trying to step up a class in
weight, I recommend it. Oth-
erwise, you might be happier
trying these other four veg-
etable dishes that I recently
made. Each one is quick, simple
and unfussy.
Mushroom Rice With Tur-
meric, for instance, is a vast
improvement on ordinary
rice. For that matter, it is an
improvement on mushrooms,
and also turmeric.
The rice is cooked with
mushrooms, onion and garlic,
and fl avored (and colored) with
turmeric. Instead of water it
is cooked with chicken broth,
which is a surefi re way to make
your rice more fl avorful, and
it is mostly cooked in the oven
instead of on the stove top.
I don’t know why that would
make a diff erence, but it cer-
tainly did not hurt.
Next up was Green Beans
With Mustard Sauce. I love
green beans, but it is more
for the low cost and the ease
with which they are made than
for the fl avor. But that is only
because I had not previously
considered making them with a
mustard sauce.
Do not be daunted by the
thought of a mustard sauce.
That term is far too fancy for
what this sauce is. It’s just a
mixture of olive oil, lemon juice
and a bit of Dijon mustard. But
that mixture, which is just the
simplest of vinaigrettes, does
magical things to a plate of hot
green beans.
A basic vinaigrette also pro-
vides the necessary balance to
an Italian favorite, Three Bean
Salad.
The three beans in question
are cannellini beans (or any
Hillary Levin/St. Louis Post-Dispatch-TNS
Easy vegetable side dishes lined up from front to back, green beans with mustard sauce, mushroom rice with turmeric,
three-bean salad and roasted parsnips.
white beans), garbanzo beans
and lentils. Because this is a
weeknight dish, all are served
fresh out of the can — but only
if you can fi nd canned len-
tils. I bought mine at a health
food store, but if that is incon-
venient you can always cook
your own dried lentils. They
don’t take long, especially if
you use red lentils.
Beans, of course, are noted
for their earthiness, so they
need something to enliven
them. That’s where the vinai-
grette comes in. The mixture
here of olive oil, white wine
vinegar and lemon juice perks
up the fl avors and brings the
dish to life.
Amazingly, it only takes a
few minutes to make something
that tastes this good.
My last weeknight vegetable
side dish is the easiest of all.
And to many Americans, it is
the least familiar.
Parsnips are a forgotten veg-
etable in this country, despite
being quite delicious. A root
vegetable, they are in the same
family (Apiaceae) as carrots,
and also parsley. Celery, too,
as well as dill and chervil, but
when you see parsnips you are
going to think of carrots.
Their taste is probably closer
to carrots than anything else,
but the fl avor is actually unique.
They are earthy, but a little
sweet. And if you roast them,
they become sweeter still.
To roast parsnips, all you
have to do is peel them and cut
them into pieces. Toss the pieces
in olive oil, salt and pepper, and
cook them in the oven.
What could be simpler?
MUSHROOM
RICE WITH
TURMERIC
Yield: 4 to 6 servings
3 / 4 pound mushrooms
1 ½ tablespoons butter
½ cup fi nely chopped onion
1 clove garlic, fi nely minced
½ teaspoon ground turmeric
1 cup uncooked rice
1 bay leaf
1 ¼ cups chicken broth
Salt and pepper
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Remove the stems from the
mushrooms. Cut the mushroom caps
into ¼-inch cubes. There should be
about 2 cups.
3. Heat butter in an ovenproof
saucepan with a tight-fi tting lid and
add the onion and garlic. Cook about
2 minutes and add the mushroom.
Cook about 5 minutes, frequently stir-
ring. Sprinkle with turmeric and add
the rice and bay leaf. Stir until the rice
is coated and add the chicken broth,
and salt and pepper to taste. Cover
and bring to a boil on top of the stove.
4. Once boiling, move to oven and
bake for exactly 17 minutes. Remove
the cover and discard the bay leaf.
Fluff rice with a fork.
Per serving (based on 4): 251
calories; 5 g fat; 3 g saturated fat;
13 mg cholesterol; 7 g protein; 45 g
carbohydrate; 3 g sugar; 1 g fi ber; 885
mg sodium; 16 mg calcium
— Adapted from “Craig Claiborne’s
The New York Times Cook Book” by
Craig Claiborne and Pierre Franey
GREEN BEANS
WITH MUSTARD
SAUCE
Yield: 6 servings
1 pound green beans
½ tablespoon Dijon mustard
Juice of ½ lemon
2 tablespoons olive oil
Salt and pepper
See, Sides/Page B2