I like this stuff an awful lot. We mostly order the ground beef, roasts, and stock & soup-making bits; frankly, grass-fed steaks are a real challenge to cook well in my view and they tend to be somewhat tough if you overcook them by even a small fraction. I love the flavor of grass-fed beef; it’s meaty, mineral-rich, and deep without being gamy in the slightest. There is a lot of variation of flavor and toughness given that the animals roam around and that they’re leaner than feedlot-raised cattle, and this is another reason why we don’t eat as many of the steaks. Still… I think we might be headed toward a full conversion to the grass-fed lifestyle.

There’s little question in my mind that this stuff is better for you than commercially-raised, grain-fed, speed-fattened, commercially-processed beef. Slanker’s site has a lot of nutritional analysis that’s interesting to read, though given his fervor one might want to take some of it with a grain of salt. Other research seems to back up his claims that grass-fed beef does indeed contain a lot more Omega-3 fatty acids, a lot less Omega-6 fatty acids, and a stronger nutritional profile all around.

More importantly, perhaps, I was thinking about the commercially-slaughtered beef we all eat a lot of, and about the slaughterhouse in Chino, CA found to be torturing animals and slaughtering “downer” cattle, a clear and important violation of rules intended to prevent Mad Cow disease, as well as an obvious disgrace for so many other reasons. I suspect – though obviously I have no evidence to support this view – that this is far more common than we’d like to believe.

Grass-fed cattle live a better life. I couldn’t say with certainty that they die a better death, though I hope they do. Nevertheless, I am not a vegetarian and I have no plans to become one. Eating some grass-fed beef might be one small step toward better health and perhaps even toward change in a food industry that seems to have run amok.

But I will tell you this: I really like a good, precisely-made soup and maybe someday I’ll have the patience and the humility to sit down with a recipe and follow it rigorously.  When I do, I’m pretty sure it’s going to come from this book, which is the Culinary Institute of America’s answer to all things soup.  Let me tell you, whether you are a cookbook myrmidon or a reckless fool like me, you will cherish this guide to the path of soup mastery.

 There was a time when I thought quite seriously about going to cooking school and becoming a chef.  I worked a couple volunteer shifts in one of my favorite top-flight restaurants in Los Angeles and realized that I don’t have nearly enough discipline to pull it off.  Also, my knees hurt like hell after only about six hours of kitchen work.  So I left the notion of professional cooking well behind and went back to experimenting with craziness in my kitchen at home.  Typically the results are pretty good.  Tomorrow it’ll be a chilly night and we’ll put our daughter to bed and settle down to a bowl of beef barley with porcini mushrooms and a splash of sherry.  It’s really not from the book.

Have a good soup season.

Ingredients:

1 lb. large shrimp (26-30′s)

1 – 3 HEADS (not cloves) garlic

1/4 C. Olive Oil (EV or not, either will do)

1 14oz. can diced tomatoes (feel free to use “Mexican recipe” tomatoes, Ro-Tel, or fire-roasted tomatoes if you like)

1- Ancho chile

1 – Guajillo chile (Note: if you prefer not to use whole chiles, you can substitute chili powder; about 1.5 Tblsp, for these)

1 – Chipotle chile (if you’re using canned, add a teaspoon or so of the sauce it’s canned in, if using dried, use two chipotles)

1/2 C. Chicken broth

1/4 C. Dry White Wine (Sauvignon Blanc or Pinot Grigio are perfect)

1 Tblsp cumin

Juice of 1 lemon

1/2 C. chopped cilantro

Method:

Clean, devein, and toss the shrimp with salt, pepper, a bit of cumin and chile powder, and a little lemon juice. Soak the whole chiles in water and chop into large pieces. If you’re using canned chipotles you will mince/mash that one.

Chop the garlic. You should have about 3/4 cup of chopped garlic, more is okay. Simmer it in the olive oil, in a large saute pan, over very low heat, stirring occaisonally, until it is just beginning to turn golden – about a half-hour. Remove & reserve the garlic, strain the oil, and return the oil to the pan.

Working in batches, partially cook the shrimp over medium-high heat in the garlicky oil. Remove and reserve the par-cooked shrimp.

Add the tomatoes, reserved garlic, chopped Ancho, Guajillo, Chipotle, chicken stock, wine, and cumin to the pan. Reduce the sauce by about half, and then return the shrimp to the pan to finish cooking. Remove the tough chile skins, scraping off any flesh that remains on them to return to the sauce. Taste for seasoning and add salt to taste. Finish with the cilantro and serve over rice. Side with black beans and a cool, crisp salad.

If you are low-carbing it, this dish actually tastes pretty great served over spinach.