When the mercury starts dropping you feel an immediate need to eat heavier, more filling foods. On days when you are out, exposed to the elements and moving around eating more energy giving foods is natural and needed. At the same time you want meals that don’t leave you feeling weighed down and that give you precisely what you need in the cold weather: a little more energy and a nutrition boost. Try our no-fuss recipe in this article for a hearty winter meal that will leave you feeling light, refreshed and well-fed.
Our winter menu for Seaman’s Beef with Spiced Red Cabbage includes several nutrition-packed ingredients that have traditionally been a focus in Scandinavian diet. Our clay-pot preparation technique ensures tenderness at the same time a it preserves ingredients and allows for a low-fat preparation technique.
Wild & Lean Meat
While Seaman’s Beef is traditionally prepared using beef, it can also be prepared using diced chunks of venison or moose if this is available to you and you’d like to prepare a warming meal for a special occasion. Wild meat contains only a few percent fat which is much lower than beef from domesticated animals. It also contains omega-3 fatty acids which are not found in domesticated animals. If you’d like to use regular beef, be sure to purchase beef from pasture-fed cattle cut into long, thin slices not more than about 0.5 cm or 0.2 inches in thickness. The beauty of our Seaman’s Beef recipe is that it uses lean and/or very thinly sliced beef combined with other ingredients.
Potatoes
Potatoes came to Scandinavian from Latin America during the 18th century and after a time became a staple food. In recent years, potatoes have got bad press as a high Glycemic Index (GI) food. This means that they send your blood sugar levels up rapidly. However, this information ignores the fact that potatoes are rich in C and B vitamins including B9 which the body uses, amongst other things to build blood cells and regulate normal cell division. As with the beef, our recipe uses thin slices of potato mixed with other ingredients so as to ensure balanced consumption.
Red Cabbage
A fantastic food on every score. Red cabbage is regarded as a natural cancer shield, immune strengthening, mineral and vitamin-rich and fiber rich. The trick is to learn how to prepare it so that you will want to enjoy it again and again. Our recipe blends the special Scandinavian Christmas spices with honey to give you a truly tasty complement to Seaman’s Beef.
Onions
As an aside, onions are perhaps not a traditional Scandinavian food. However, recent research findings from Italy show that that white onions have a surprisingly potent anti-cancer effect (reducing the risks of nine different forms of cancer, including bowel and throat and mouth cancer by between 25 and 88 percent). We include white onions in our Seaman’s Beef recipe.
Getting Flavor without the Fat
Fat in food carries flavor and it is one of the main reasons that we crave fatty foods. However, there are many ways to bring great flavors to your food. In the following recipe we use a clay pot cooking technique (an ancient technique originating in the desire to avoid burning food over an open fire) in which the flavors of the ingredients blend together over a long, low temperature cooking period. While cooking time is long, preparation time is short and the dish can be prepared in a large quantity in advance for reheating. Our cabbage recipe relies on strong flavor contrasts: spices and salt/honey to give you that flavor punch.
Recipe: Seaman’s Beef with Crushed Juniper (for 4-6 persons)
0.5 kg or 1.1 lbs. lean sliced beef (0.5 cm or 0.2 inches in thickness)
OR
0.5 kg 1.1 lbs. venison or moose diced into stewing chunks
4 Tbsps olive oil for sautéing the meat
6 medium potatoes, scrubbed and thinly sliced
2 medium white onions, peeled and thinly sliced
15 juniper berries, crushed
5 dl or 2 cups beer
0.5 dl or ¼ cup soy sauce
Salt/Sugar for seasoning
Preheat oven to 200 C or 392 F. Soak your 2-2.5 litres or 2-2.5 quarts clay cooking pot in water for 15 minutes. Heat the olive oil in a pan and sauté the meat over medium heat until just browned on all sides. Line the bottom of the pot with a layer of sliced potatoes, then a layer of beef followed by onions and juniper. Sprinkle over 1/2 teaspoon of salt and 1/2 teaspoon of sugar. Continue with the same layers and seasoning finishing up with a potato layer. Pour over the soy sauce and beer. Cover with clay pot top and bake 1.5 hours. Have some good wholemeal bread on-hand to soak up the wonderful sauce. Yes, it’s allowed!
Recipe: Spiced Red Cabbage (4-6 persons)
¼ medium head of red cabbage thinly sliced in bite-size lengths
½ tsp each of ground cinnamon and cardamom
¼ tsp nutmeg
4 Tbsps olive oil
1 tsp salt
2 Tbsps honey
Heat a wok or deep frying pan with olive oil. Turn down to medium heat and add spices. Mix into the oil for a few seconds then add red cabbage. Saute cabbage for 2 minutes. Add salt and mix in honey until it coats the entire mixture. Cover and let simmer over low heat for 5 minutes. The cabbage should not be soft and overcooked when you are done. This is the big mistake usually made in cabbage preparation. It should rather have a bit of crispness and loads of great flavor! Enjoy as an accompanying dish with Seaman’s Beef. The flavors blend beautifully.
Stay warm, light and satisfied this winter!
Did you know that a half a teaspoon of cinnamon a day, as in this season's Spiced Red Cabbage recipe, significantly reduces blood sugar levels?
