Tag: Steaks

Low Carb Cooking

Around the world people are paying more attention to their bodies and their health than perhaps at any other time in history. One method that has shown great success in helping people quickly drop those unwanted pounds is through low carb cooking and dieting. This method of weight loss seems to have taken the world by storm promising quick results for the simple (or not so simple) lifestyle change of eliminating as many carbohydrates as possible from our diets.

The notion sounds simple on one hand and is appealing to not only women hoping to drop those vanity pounds but also men who welcome the idea of eating all the steaks they can handle throughout the year. Low card cooking is becoming a way of life for many families as a result though the idea of this particular lifestyle change and the reality of it do on occasion seriously collide with one another.

If you are interested in dropping those unwanted pounds and keeping them off, this is a doubt that without a doubt gets results. The problem is that you must stick to the diet in order for the results to remain consistent even after you’ve met your weight loss goals. This means that you are not really embarking on a diet so much as a complete overhaul in the way you eat.

The excellent thing about low carb cooking is that it is so widely popular. This means that you will have no trouble finding resources, tips, tricks, advice, and even amazing substitutes for those things you often miss most when engaging in the low carb lifestyle. Popular stores such as Whole Foods and Trader Joes are great places to go for specific foods that are low carb in nature and designed to meet the chocolate or breading needs of those who feel more than slightly deprived by the rigorous restrictions of a low carb lifestyle. Many mainstream grocery stores are also beginning to see the value of catering to this ‘high end’ market of consumers and offering a wider variety of low carb friendly foods to consumers.

You can find recipes that are low in carbs by the mouthful at your local libraries and bookstores around the world. You can also find many resources on the Internet to help assist and encourage you in your low carb lifestyle incorporation. In addition to the cookbooks, recipes, and encouragement you also need to weed out the fact from the fiction when it comes to low carb cooking. The best way to do this is to go straight to the source. If you are going to incorporate this lifestyle altering diet into your way of life, you want to make sure that you are following it to the letter and not some knock off version that may not be as effective.

When it comes to low carb cooking you have the perfect excuse to use your grill well and use your grill often. In fact, I highly recommend a George Foreman grill (or some similar knock off) for your home for those days when grilling outside simply isn’t an option. Around our house, those are the days when the snow reaches the bottom of the grill but we are the exception rather than the rule. Most importantly about low carb cooking you should keep your goal in mind. If you aren’t making progress, check what you are doing and adjust your cooking and eating accordingly.

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Meat On The Outdoor Grill

Meat-A Classic On The Grill

When it comes to outdoor grilling, the first thing most likely that would come to most peoples minds are the nice and tender prime rib cuts, steaks, rack of ribs and many other cuts of meat that are undoubtedly good tasting when grilled. Considering this, an outdoor grilling party with family or friends would never be complete without a few slices of these.

So for you to enjoy grilling meat outdoors, you could use a few tips and guidelines when it comes to choosing, preparing and grilling them. So to help you with that matter, here are some seemingly helpful tips and guidelines to turn your favorite cuts of meat into something that would make outdoor barbecues much more enjoyable for you and everyone else.

Choosing The Perfect Cut

The perfect grilled meats start of by choosing a good cut. The better the quality you would get the better tasting the meat is. By saying good quality, that means that the meat should have a good marble of fat in it. The marble of fat must not be too much or too little but just a good amount. If you are wondering why it is so, the fat makes the meat tender and adds a good flavor. Too little of it could make the beef tough and too much of it would make it good either.

Also make sure that the meat that you will be choosing is quite red in color. The redder it is, the better. This is a good sign that the meat is freshly cut. Never pick one that is pale since it might have been on the shelves for days. The quality of the food you will grill will rely heavily on how good the meat is so make sure that you choose carefully.

Preparing The Meat

When you get home from where you bought the meat, you can keep the meat in room temperature as long as you will grill it that very same day. The very common misconception people would have on this is that you should put the meat straight into the refrigerator right after you get home from the market. This however is not true since meat does not spoil that easily and if you put it in the refrigerator the very same day you grill it, it could even lose some of its flavor.

Before grilling, the meat should be completely thawed and ready for grilling. Try to cut off amounts of fat that can be seen on the side. Depending on what you are planning to make, you can also season the cuts with marinade although a lot of people would prepare having the meat unseasoned or a la pobre.

Grilling The Meat

Now that everything is ready, the meat is all suited up to be tossed on top of your grill and get cooked. In grilling meat, you can have it rare, medium-rare, medium-well or well done and never have it overcooked. Overcooked meat is very tough and is practically tasteless so be careful not to burn it. For steaks, the best way to have it is to have it directly on top of fire.

If you do this right, you will have steaks that are very tasty, tender with all the juices right in it. Serve the meats with some nice side dishes and some red wine and you are sure to have another pleasant outdoor grilling memory.

Fantastic Stuff To Grill Outdoors

The Classics

Virtually almost every meat, sausage, fish and vegetable would taste good on the grill granting that you know the right way of cooking it and other things concerning it. The most popular items would of course be steaks and other large cuts of meat on the grill, so popular that an outdoor grill session with the family is never complete without some slices of meat or a rack of ribs. These items, because of what they are can be called as the classics.

These are best direct grilled, smoked or seared depending on what you want to produce. For better taste, you can also coat them with barbecue sauce of which would come in so many options. If you are used to the typical tomato based barbecue sauce, you have to unwind and get to know a lot more options that would taste equally as good. For barbecues nowadays, sauces can be made out of apples, strawberries, honey, mustard and virtually anything that goes well with grilled food.

Poultry

Another favorite item to be grilled is poultry, whatever type it is. Chicken is great and is also a classic when barbecued in great sauce. Grilling is in fact one of the best and most popular ways to cook chicken. As for turkey and duck, they can also be grilled directly as chicken is however, smoking them with seasoned wood chips could give you a very unique and pleasant flavor.

Grilling poultry on the grill does not only make it taste better but also is a healthier way to cook it as long as you do it right and by that, you should not have poultry overcooked or until the surface starts cracking. To check if it is cooked well, prick one side of it using a fork and see if juices come out. You will be able to see if it is cooked well from there on.

Seafood

Because of the wonderful tastes you can produce with it on the grill, seafood has become a lot more popular on the grill. The most popular of these being fish whether it is fillet, whole, firm or tender fish. You can either cook these up in your grill seasoned or unseasoned since it naturally has a pleasant taste, although you can add some lemon, herbs and other seasoning with it in a fish grill basket to have the flavors seep deep into the fish and making it taste good.

While fish is popular, other seafood such as shells, squid, octopus and other seafood are also great on the grill. These go well especially if you also serve fish along with them. The ideal way of cooking shells is put them on top of the grill until they open up. As for squid and octopus, make sure they are not overcooked as they can get tough or too chewy. Cooking them right on the other side would have a unique texture and a very great juicy taste.

Vegetables

To compliment all the different meats you will be having on the grill, it would be a great idea to have some veggies along with them. Vegetables such as peppers, zucchini, asparagus and large tomatoes would taste excellent on the grill when marinated with oil, vinegar of your choice and some spices. Grilling them is a different approach to them since they would taste much different from other ways of preparing them.

A healthy mix of veggies and meats on your outdoor grill, your days of grilling are sure to be better.

Ways Of Grilling Outdoors

Classic Grilling

Classic direct-grilling is the most famous and the most traditional way of having things done in a grill. For us who have been into grilling for sometime already, we already know the process. This of which is typically have the items ready and toss them directly on top of the grills surface while occasionally turning them every once on a while. However, you should also be aware that there are a lot more processes of which your grill can do and this is just one of them.

Outdoor grilling is now not only grilling but other methods such as searing, broiling and smoking which would produce a lot of very delectable dishes. But even with that, outdoor grilling is still a very good way of having things in an outdoor grill. So much that it has become the essential part of it. So to educate you further about the other methods, here are good descriptions on how to do them.

Searing

Searing has become more popular in the grill than it was before especially for meats and other items of which you want to keep the flavor in. This is because searing has the outer part cooked first while still having the inner part with all the juices uncooked and have all the flavors sealed in. Doing this is quite simple, first you have to set the grill on high fire and while the meat is still raw and ready to be tossed on top of the grill, quickly put it on top of the high fire.

However, you have to be careful with this as not to cause the surface to get overcooked and break. This is most commonly done with steaks of which would produce what we know as rare, medium-rare, medium well and well done. This is also used in a lot of different items but is more popularly done on meats.

Roasting

Another method of having things cooked in the grill is roasting. The main goal of roasting is to have items continuously bathing in their own juices while being cooked causing them to taste more like themselves. Ideal items to be roasted include duck, beef, pork and ham. To do this, place an aluminum foil pan on top of the grills surface while having the items cook on top of it. Juices will later on drip on the aluminum foil pan, these of which you will use to soak the items in and use it later for gravy.

For added flavor, you can add flavorings to the aluminum foil pan such as lemon juice, herbs, garlic and whatever you can add to create more flavors. When roasting, remember that it is still like grilling and you will still have to turn the items on its sides while cooking it. The vapor produced by the juices also seep deeper if you turn the items on its sides occasionally.

Smoking

Another popular method of cooking meats and fish on the grill is by smoking. This method produces a tastes that is pleasantly different from all other since the items here will be flavored by the smoke from chips of wood that are also seasoned with spices. These chips of wood that are seasoned are most likely already available at your leading gourmet shops.

In doing this, have them placed by the fire so that they would burn along and produce smoke. The smoke then will make the items taste good.