Older Bolder Life

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the Older Bolder Life Friday Feast: Low and Slow Roasted Gochujang Chicken Thighs and More

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When a recipe similar to this one popped in Bon Appetite’s email feed recently my gojuchang alarm bells went off.

We’ve been increasingly more adamant fans of gojuchang, the earthy, deep red, umami-bomb Korean fermented chile paste; I posted this Grilled Gochujang Skirt Steak recipe last summer (it’s damned good) and wrote a bit more about some things to watch for when shopping for gochujang.

As we move closer to astrological fall (it’s been full on summer in our neck of the woods even this week) we’re at least thinking more about slow roasted meats and fall-ish vegetables slowly making magic in the oven.

Low and slow is of course a term stolen from the real-deal barbecue and smoked proteins world, though it applies here, giving the rich gochujang slather time to deeply flavor the chicken thighs (use breasts or a whole chicken if you want, just adjust the cooking times), slowly rendering the schmaltz (the chicken fat) – which makes the most unbelievable pan sauce when combined with the gochujang and garlic here.

You can also, of course, sub in whatever root vegetables that roast well you want; we happen to love roasted cauliflower and sweet potatoes around our camp, hence their inclusion here.

Give this one a spin, it’s amazingly tasty and a nifty one to slip into your fall rotation.

3 pounds bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs
1 tsp kosher salt
Fresh ground pepper

6 tbsp gochujang
1/4 cup plus 2 tbsp EVOO or avocado oil
2 full heads garlic
2 inch nob of ginger, trimmed, peeled, minced or grated

1 medium head cauliflower, cut into florets
1-2 medium sweet potatoes, scrubbed, cut into 1.5-inch pieces
5-6 green onions, thinly sliced on a diagonal
1 lime, halved, one half cut into quarters

Optional
2-3 tsp good honey

Preheat oven to 300. Whisk together the gojuchang, 1/4 cup oil, the grated/minced ginger, and three grated garlic cloves. Halve the remaining heads of garlic.

Place the cauliflower florets, the sweet potato pieces, and the garlic head halves into a medium bowl, then add 2 tbsp of the oil of your choice and half the gojuchang mixture. Stir to coat well, and pour into a 12-inch cast iron skillet (or a glass baking dish).

Pat chicken thighs dry with paper towels, trim if needed, then salt and pepper generously. Using the remaining gojuchang mixture, “paint” the chicken thighs on both sides using a pasty brush, and layer the chicken over the vegetables in the skillet.

Into the oven it goes for 90 minutes; you don’t have to, but I like to turn the chicken thighs every thirty minutes. At 90 minutes, check the internal temperature of the thickest thigh – you’re looking for 165 here, yours may need a few minutes longer.

When done, remove the chicken to a plate, stir the honey into the pan juices if using, along with the juice of the intact lime half. Make sure the vegetables are all coated with the pan juices; replace the chicken, and sprinkle the cut onions over. Serve with the lime wedges on the side and go to it.

Enjoy.

Ancestral Nutrition (Esp. Low Carb) in the Crosshairs: Two Fascinating Examples

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Like many of you, I find it most interesting when critics sling their arrows at the revolution happening in the human nutrition world these days.

I’m specifically referring to the tidal wave of evidence suggesting that consumption of overly processed, carbohydrate-centric, and fat-phobic diets has led to an unparalleled decline in overall health and disease markers over the last 40 years or so, and the rather stunning results that people from all walks of life have had when reverting back to more “ancestral” eating patterns.

And for the sake of discussion, let’s stipulate that these ancestrally-aligned food plans, when compared to the standard American (or Western) diet, are lower carb, feature moderate protein intake, and high amounts of healthy fats. There are a lot of different ways to skin this dietary cat if you will, but for discussion today we’ll focus on a LCMPHF approach.

Like many of you, I read different versions of what are often very repetitive talking points hammering ancestrally-oriented nutrition plans; many of the criticisms are based upon myths, hearsay, and some even overt misrepresentation.

Here are two that particularly caught my eye of late, in part, due to their sources.

An Interesting Perspective From the Foodie World

Late last month, Bon Appetite’s healthyish published this article – Before You Go Paleo, Keto, or Whole30, Think About These Side Effects. The thrust of the piece was that rigid food rules can have unintended consequences, with the author focusing on food obsession and a sense of loss and deprivation, which led to her personal failure when attempting to use Whole 30 to revamp her nutritional paradigm.

The author shared –

…Through my work as an eating psychology coach, I’ve seen that we can’t undo the cycle of dieting and weight gain until we understand what’s underlying our constant desire to drop pounds. At its core, dieting is a coping mechanism, and not a healthy one. We’re not born wanting to change our bodies, but billions of dollars are spent telling us that we should.

I’ve come to believe that, to end the diet-binge cycle, there has to be an inherent acceptance of the bodies we’re in. We don’t have to love it, but we can start with accepting it…

Bottom line – she missed the entire focus, and point, of eating a more ancestrally-aligned food plan. The game is not about deprivation, and it’s not about weight loss. The game is all about optimizing your health and function.

Is weight loss part of that process? It sure as hell can be (or should be) for some of us (obesity rates remain impressively high, just look around at the grocery store today…). But that’s not in any way, shape, or form the primary objective of eating ancestrally. The goal is optimizing health.

An Angry Perspective from Conventional Medicine

Early last month, MedScape, a physician and health provider news aggregator and CME site, published an interesting online piece titled The Low Carb Community is Its Own Worst Enemy.

You’ll need a free account to read the piece in full, and I heartily recommend that you do so when you have 20 minutes to spare. You’ll need that much time to read through the comment section as well; it’s packed with fascinating perspectives and as much vitriol as I’ve seen in some time directed toward the ancestrally-oriented community.

In part, the author’s premise (of note, he’s a family physician working in a bariatric clinic in Canada) is that physicians and leaders of the “low carb community” manifest all sorts of unprofessional and unbecoming behaviors. To wit, from the article –

Of interest – the author calls out what he classifies as vitriol and misrepresentation with, ironically, vitriol and misrepresentation. The comment section is similarly filled with all sorts of fascinating opinions…

I agree wholeheartedly with those who suggest that the increased attacks flowing toward the ancestral or non-standard American / Western diet folks these days are most likely evidence that we’re honing in on significant issues, issues that have been sadly mismanaged by the bulk of conventional medicine and nutrition gurus for several decades now. Why use the term mismanaged? Simply looking at obesity rates and incidence of T2DM is enough to prove the point.

Two quick additional points. The vital key is using the best food and nutrition plan you can find to best suit your personal physiology today – as your system adapts and changes, your nutrition plan very likely will need to as well. Customize, customize, customize.

Second, not all those good folks practicing conventional medicine are out to persecute you as a Paleo guy or keto gal; modern medicine offers so much in terms of potential contribution to your overall health, it’s frankly insane to throw the proverbial baby out with the bathwater here. A thoughtful, skillful, listening primary care doc deserves a seat on your health and wellness team, and they’re out there – you might have to do a bit of prospecting to find one, but they’re out there.

the Older Bolder Life Salad Dressing Wednesday: Charred Scallion Dressing

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Here’s a quick and easy Charred Scallion salad dressing that plays well either warm or chilled, and offers an added flavor boost from a quick char of the scallions greens (flavor impact – huge, effort required – almost nothing).

Our friend Chef Libby happened to mention this dressing in passing during a conversation a few weeks ago; she was actually talking about (with enthusiasm) how much fun they’ve been having in her catering kitchen roasting late season vegetables and serving them up with a variety of dressings, drizzles, and vinaigrettes, both for the flavor and to add a bit of flair and interest.

We’ve long been fans of the lowly scallion or green onion around our camp, and often find ourselves throwing a few on the grill regardless of what protein is sizzling away right beside them.

This dressing comes together in a just a few minutes and uses ingredients you’ll almost always have on hand in the kitchen.

I just served this over cauliflower florets we roasted under and alongside Friday’s slow roasted gojuchang chicken – wow was that tasty.

3 medium scallions (green onions)
7 tbsp EVOO or avocado oil (divided, see below)
2 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 tbsp rice vinegar
1 tbsp good Dijon mustard
1 tbsp avocado or olive oil mayo (use this one)
Good salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

Trim and clean the scallions, then divide the white parts from the green. Finely chop the white sections and place in a small bowl.

Now finely chop the green sections, then heat 1 tbsp of your oil of choice in a small skillet (medium heat). Sauté the green pieces until lightly charred and crispy, add the chopped white pieces.

Now whisk in the lemon juice, rice vinegar, mustard, and mayo; season lightly with the salt and pepper. Gradually whisk in the remaining oil until a smooth emulsion forms; taste and season again for salt and pepper.

Dress that salad or drizzle over the veg of the day, and go to it.

Enjoy.

Question of the Week: What is Mechanical Low Back Pain?

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From a client this week –

…my husband finally went to see our internist about a nagging low back pain that just won’t go away. He’s 80 pounds or more overweight, sedentary, and thinks Ibuprofen is something we all just have to take constantly to get by. His doctor’s PA told him he had “mechanical low back pain” and that it would just go away with time, what does that mean?…

A Quick Primer on What “Mechanical Low Back” Pain Means

Before a quick overview of what the term mechanical low back pain might refer to, of course I have to remind you that I’m not providing medical advice here, simply reviewing key concepts related to the question above.

In the arena of spinal pain and symptoms, one way to describe discomfort (or symptoms) is to divide them into one of two types (though they can both occur at the same time) – mechanical symptoms versus what are described as radicular symptoms (you might hear the term radiculopathy used).

Radicular symptoms refer to those symptoms generated when a nerve is irritated, and usually occur somewhere along the specific nerve’s course through the body and limbs. Think of a herniated disc “pinching” a nerve; let’s use as an example a far lateral disc herniation at L5S1 (the lowermost disc in the entire spinal column between the 5th lumbar vertebra (backbone) and the sacrum, pushing on the exiting L5 nerve root at that level. There may be some back pain produced in this scenario, but symptoms (could be pain, numbness, tingling, weakness) would potentially show up in the hamstring region, the front of the lower leg, and maybe even the top of the foot (all areas involved with the L5 nerve root).

Mechanical pain, on the other hand, typical represents symptoms produced by irritation or dysfunction of any other structure that’s NOT nerve tissue.

The most likely suspects are muscle, ligament, bone, joint, and the discs themselves (they’re a type of joint actually between the backbones (vertebrae) – a jelly like center (the nucleus pulpous) surrounded by a very interesting, multilayered harder (and specialized) cartilage-like casing. Most spine gurus agree that at least the outer third of the disc shell is supplied by nerve tissue and can generate pain; for a time it was thought discs didn’t have a direct nerve supply.

By far and away the lion’s share of mechanical low back pain is generated by muscles and ligaments, though as we charge through life we all accumulate some “wear and tear” changes in these spinal structures, that can (at least now and again) get inflamed, generate pain, and limit our function.

The good news here is that almost all of us will have a spell of mechanical low back pain at some point in our lives, and the overwhelming majority of the time, symptoms go away pretty damned quickly, and without much attention or intervention. Consider those episodes a proverbial “shot across your bow” imploring you to optimize your health, nutrition, and fitness if you’re not living that way now.

On the other hand, mechanical low back (or other spinal) pain that won’t respond to rest or a brief period of decreased activity, perhaps a very short course of anti-inflammatories, and maybe simple local measures (icing/heat) – and that continues to impact daily function – probably needs to be looked into with more than a pat on the head and encouragement that “it’ll get better in a few days”.

We’ll be digging into the topic of spinal pain more deeply through the fall…

the Older Bolder Life Vegetable Monday: Garlic Bomb Cauliflower Rice

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Of all the cauliflower rice recipes we’ve cooked over the years (they’re all listed here), this Garlic Bomb Cauliflower Rice recipe is hands down my lovely wife’s current favorite.

The biggest complaint about the recipe she’s had lately is that the single/standard recipe probably actually doesn’t make enough for us both to enjoy, and unless I’m really quick on my feet, she’s been beating me back to the skillet to scoop up whatever’s left every single time.

The 10-12 garlic cloves sounds like a lot, but once you’ve converted those thin slices into crispy little garlic chips (which is shockingly easy by the way), you’ll be looking for more, and like us, probably planning to slice up an extra clove or two for the next batch.

And I suppose while not absolutely essential, the thinly sliced green onions and chopped cilantro or basil (we lean to the cilantro version, and feel free to try any herb that suits your fancy here) really make the dish. As we’re typically serving this with a separate protein, I most often don’t throw in the egg, though it does add taste and texture, and makes the dish much more “fried rice like”.

Finally, if you occasionally enjoy white rice in your food plan, cooking and cooling a batch of rice (playing the resistant starch game) and then frying it up via this recipe will be doubly delicious, as it’ll be much easier to crisp up the traditional rice…

1 medium cauliflower or approximately 1 pound pre-riced cauliflower
10-12 garlic cloves, peeled, thinly sliced
1/3 cup + 2 tbsp avocado oil
2-3 inch piece of ginger, peeled, trimmed, finely chopped
2-3 tsp toasted sesame oil
4-5 green onions, thinly sliced on a steep diagonal
1/2 to 1 cup cilantro (or basil) coarsely chopped
Salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

Optional
1 large egg, beaten to blend
2-3 tsp toasted sesame seeds

Prep and rice the medium cauliflower if using. Preheat 2 tbsp of avocado oil in a large skillet, then sauté the fresh or frozen cauliflower over medium heat until it begins to release some of its liquid. Remove to a (paper) towel-lined bowl and set aside.

Heat the 1/3 cup of oil over medium heat in the same skillet (wipe to remove any moisture), then add the sliced garlic in a single layer, and cook, shaking the pan now and again, until the garlic is crispy and beginning to develop a golden color (5-6 minutes). Using a slotted spoon, carefully transfer the garlic to a a paper towel-lined plate to drain, season with salt and a grind of fresh ground pepper.

Up the heat to medium-high, add the ginger and sauté for 1-2 minutes until fragrant and just beginning to soften. If using the egg, and stir quickly to break it up – this will take just a few seconds.

Now add the cauliflower and sesame oil and smooth it into an even layer; let it cook undisturbed for 2-3 minutes until it begins to crisp and brown around a few of the edges. Now toss the rice, pat down smooth, and cook for another 2-3 minutes.

Remove from the heat, stir in half the garlic chips and the green onions. You can either transfer to a platter or finish in the skillet – artfully top with the rest of the garlic chips, the sesame seeds if using, and the cilantro.

Go to it, and enjoy. (You’ll shortly be wishing you’d doubled this recipe).

Inquiring Minds Want to Know: Older Bolder Links, Reads, Recipes, and More 14 September 2019

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Grading the Life’s Simple 7 Program: looks like the conventional approaches are still failing.
Perhaps that helps explain this recent version of the US obesity map.

Type 2 DM is reversible, but…
MCTs are damned effective in combating sarcopenia in the elderly – a simple yet impressive study.

Fit people have stronger, sharper brains.
Socially active 60 year olds have a lower dementia risk. (Here’s the more formal report.)

Napping as a longevity tool. (Here’s the study.)
The evidence is building against vaping. This is just one example of the debate over vaping building in the lay news and medical literature; a fascinating story with multiple layers…

How long do you go without talking to someone?
And how about the increasing rates of Hansen’s Disease (yep, that’s leprosy) in LA?

Is social media making teens anxious and depressed? Here’s the JAMA article as well…

Food, Glorious Food

A few quick thoughts on modifying recipes.
Butter sautéed cherry tomatoes and ginger.
Thai-inspired larb salad.

the Older Bolder Life Friday Feast: Thai-Inspired Larb Salad

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Now the calendar has finally made the turn to early fall, one of our favorite warm salads will soon be back in the rotation, a Thai-Inspired Larb Salad.

I wrote about this one over a year ago on the fly fishing blog Chi Wulff –

…We actually ended up reaching out to chef buddy Libby in Austin to see if she had a favorite version of larb; she tends to work very hard to reproduce classic dishes of great cuisines around the world, and for whatever reason, our palates are fairly closely aligned. Like her, we tend to lean toward making things a bit more spicy (meaning more peppers here), and love the interplay of the lemongrass, cilantro, and mint in this one.

This has become one of our favorites over the spring and early summer season; it’s great spooned into lettuce leaves and eaten “taco style” as we say down here in the South, or served over a bed of finely shredded Napa cabbage…

Fresh lime juice (it doesn’t take all that long to juice 5 or 6 limes) makes a huge different here, and even though it sounds like a lot, use at least 1/4 cup of a good fish sauce. Traditionally made using ground pork (consider grinding your own pork shoulder for this one), we’ve enjoyed this recipe with ground chicken and turkey as well, or a combination.

Though traditionally eaten while still warm from cooking, on the hot fall days remaining – at least here in “The South”, this dish is delicious cold from the fridge too.

2 pounds ground pork, chicken, or turkey (or combination)
3/4 cup chicken broth
1 cup (generous) sliced green onions, white and trimmed green parts
1 cup shallots, thinly sliced
2-4 tbsp minced lemongrass
1-2 tbsp thinly sliced serranos, Thai chiles, or jalapeños
3/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves and tender stems
1/2 cup chopped fresh mint leaves

Sauce
2/3 cup fresh squeezed lime juice
1/4 to 1/3 cup fish sauce
1-2 tbsp chili paste or chili garlic paste
Optional: 1 tbsp honey or your favorite sugar equivalent

Lettuce leaves, your favorite cauliflower rice, or shredded Napa cabbage for serving

Combine the four sauce ingredients in a small bowl, whisk to combine, and set aside.

Into a large skillet over medium heat goes the meat; break it up as it begins to brown, ladling off any fat and water that comes off. When the meat is roughly halfway cooked, add the chicken stock, and continue to sauté until the meat is just cooked through, another 5-6 minutes.

Now add the green onions, shallots, lemongrass, and chiles, and cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are tender and the liquid has for the most part evaporated.

Remove from the heat, add the sauce, cilantro, and mint, stirring to combine well.

Serve over shredded Napa cabbage or in lettuce leaves “taco style” and go to it.

Enjoy.

Older Bolder Fitness Routines: Mark Sisson

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This represents a change from my regularly planned posts today, but yesterday Mark Sisson posted a nifty video covering a few details of how his fitness routine has changed over the years. We all have to customize, customize, customize – but this is damned interesting, and hopefully will invoke a deeper, thoughtful look at your own routine.