Welcome to the Ranch!

From time to time, I like to post a grass fed beef recipe.  One of my favorite cuts of meat is ground beef.  I know that it is not the most sought after nor the most sophisticated cut, but it is probably the most versatile.

I love to make hamburger patties, spaghetti, tacos, lasagna, meatloaf, etc. with ground beef.  Have you ever made hamburger patties with store-bought ground beef and were disappointed when the finished product was half the size of the original patty?  The fat shrinks.

Grass fed beef is naturally lean.  You will notice that your ground beef, especially in patty form, does not shrink much if at all.  Therefore, you are not spending much money on fat.  You are mainly paying for beef.

But what about flavor?  Does grass fed beef then not have much flavor without so much added fat?  It is quite the contrary.  The beef has more flavor than store-bought or traditionally raised beef.  The difference is hard to describe, but noticeable on the very first bite.  Trust me, grass fed beef is delicious and full of flavor.

Today I wanted to give you a recipe for something that is not typical.  In fact it would be considered a seasonal recipe if you eat from your family garden.  However, you can almost always find summer squash in your grocery store.

Right now in Texas, we are in the midst of summer squash season.  At Cross Creek Cattle Company, we have squash coming out of our ears.  We are always looking for different ways to use it.  Boiled, steamed, grilled, fried, roasted, in casseroles, raw, etc. are all ways that we use summer squash.

The following is a delicious recipe that incorporates seasonal ingredients and of course our grass fed beef.

Stuffed Squash

6 lg. squash
1 pound of grass fed ground beef
1/2 cup of rice
1 egg
1 med. bell pepper, chopped
1 sm. onion, chopped
salt and pepper
1 can of tomato sauce or a fresh tomato chopped finely

First you must prepare the squash.  Cut off the bottoms of the squash so that they will stand up.  Cut off the crook-neck, too.  Chop up the neck except for the very end in slices and set aside.  With a vegetable peeler core the squash and clean out all the seeds.

In a bowl, mix together the raw grass fed beef, uncooked rice, egg, bell pepper, and onion.  Add salt and pepper to your liking.  Mix it well.

Fill the bottom of a large pot with about 1″ of  water.  Stuff the squash with the ground beef mixture.  Place standing up in the pot.  If you have extra meat, then make meatballs and add to the pan.  When all the squash are filled and standing in the pot, add the extra slice of squash from the neck to the pot.

Now spoon the tomato sauce on top of each stuffed squash.  This adds moisture and flavor to your dish.

Cover the pan and cook for 1 1/2 hours.  Check periodically to ensure the water level is good.  You may have to add more water throughout the cooking process.  You are cooking the dish with steam.

The beef should be cooked, the rice cooked, and the squash tender when it is done.  Serve with a fresh salad or vegetable.

For added flavor, you can stuff a bell pepper with the same grass fed beef mixture and add it to your pot.  Not only is it delicious in its own right, but its presence flavors the squash, too.

Tags: grass fed ground beef, grass fed recipe, stuffed squash, summer squash

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 10th, 2010 at 9:17 am and is filed under Grassfed Beef, Hardwork. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.