Heat oil in a cast iron skillet over medium flame. Add onion and sauté for five minutes. Toss in tomatoes and continue cooking for two minutes. Add garlic and cook for one additional minute. Place ground lamb in skillet and sauté for five minutes, or until thoroughly browned. Sprinkle in cinnamon, nutmeg, and pepper to taste. Stir in mashed eggplant. Remove from heat and add parsley.
Place cooled eggplant skins in a charlotte pan with skin edges hanging over the top. Spoon lamb mixture into eggplant skins, folding edges of eggplant over the top. Bake for one hour. Remove from oven and cool for ten minutes.
7
Paleo Bison, Game Meat, and Jerky
Except for wild game, grass- or pasture-produced meat is one of the healthiest foods you can eat. Free-ranging, grass-fed meats, poultry, and eggs are superior in every nutritional respect when compared to feedlot-produced, grain-fed, or factory-produced meats. Livestock allowed to graze naturally in pastures and fields yield leaner meat, which contains more healthful omega 3 fatty acids, less omega 6 fatty acids, and less saturated fat than their grain-fed, factory-produced counterparts. Lorrie and I buy half sides of grass-fed beef and bison from local producers here in Colorado. We love it—it tastes better than feedlot-produced meat and we know it is much healthier for us and our children. Also, by skipping the middleman and buying directly from the producer, we get our meat at a reduced price.
If you don’t have the luxury of buying directly from a local producer, how do you know if your hard-earned bucks are really buying pasture-produced meat? You can tell by the color of the fat. Grass-fed meats have fat that is slightly orange, whereas the fat of feedlot-produced meat is bright white. Why is this? Grass contains a nutrient called beta-carotene, which is also found in carrots and cantaloupe and gives them their distinctive orange colors. When animals eat beta-carotene-containing grass, it turns their fat slightly orange.
As I mentioned earlier, it takes a little sleuthing to find grass-fed meats from reliable sources, simply because compared to massive agribusiness feedlots, farms and ranches that raise animals in pastures remain a small cottage industry. Many of the upscale health-oriented supermarkets, such as Whole Foods, carry grass-fed meats. Much of the meat produced in countries like Australia, New Zealand, and Argentina is raised in pastures rather than in feedlots.
If you have abandoned lamb chops because you thought they were too fatty, check out the Australian or New Zealand chops made from grass-fed lambs. They are much leaner than their U.S. counterparts and are good sources of omega 3 fatty acids. Jo Robinson’s Web site, Eat Wild ( www.eatwild.com ), is unsurpassed for locating farmers and ranchers in your vicinity who specialize in raising grass-fed animals.
Meat from grass-fed animals will awaken your taste buds with a magnificent flavor that is missing from feedlot-produced meats. Now that I have had the luxury of eating meat from grass-fed animals, the meat of grain-fed animals tastes bland and lackluster. There is no need for elaborate sauces, salt, or overpowering spices with meat from grass-fed animals; its own flavor will captivate you.
If you have never tasted game, make sure that your first experience is a good one. When properly harvested, cleaned, and cooked, game has rich, wonderful flavors with overtones of wild herbs and berries that simply cannot be duplicated with commercial meats. Some people are reluctant to eat wild meats because they may taste too “gamy.” This quality typically comes from animals that were improperly dressed or incorrectly cooked. If you are trying game meat for the first time, I recommend bison or elk cooked medium rare so as not to dry it out. Both have a flavor that is similar to beef, but richer and more savory.
One of my favorite Paleo treats is jerky, but not the
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