Country Fried Steak Fingers with White Gravy

Country fried steak is a big favorite around here, there is just nothing like it.  These steak fingers were perfect and a great way to serve this classic southern dish to children.  They can eat them with their hands and dip them in the delicious gravy.

3lbs cube steak
1 1/2 cup whole milk
2 eggs
3 cups flour
2 tbsp seasoning salt
1 tbsp black pepper
Canola Oil (for frying)

1/3 cup flour
2 cups whole milk
salt and pepper to taste

Cut the cube steak into strips. In one small mixing bowl combine the flour, seasoning salt and pepper. In another small bowl combine the whole milk and eggs, whisk well.  Dip the cube steak into the flour then into the milk mixture then back into the flour and place on a clean plate. Continue with the remaining cube steak.  Heat canola oil in a deep pan over medium heat.  Place 3-4 steak fingers into the oil at once and let cook until they are golden brown and cooked through. Remove to a clean plate lined with a paper towel. Continue with the remaining steak fingers.  Once all of the steak fingers are cooked, remove all but about 1/2 cup of grease from the bottom of the pan. Whisk in the flour and let cook for 2 minutes. Lower the heat and whisk in the milk. Continue to whisk as the mixture thickens into a gravy. Remove from heat and season salt and pepper, taste as you season so you can add more to your liking.  Serve the steak fingers with the gravy on the side.

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Beef Vindaloo

Beef vindaloo is an absolutely delicious Anglo-Indian spicy curry packed with the flavors of garlic, red chilly and vinegar. Give a try on it, serve to your family and don't forget to leave your feedback here.

Ingredients:

1. Beef-1 kg
2. Dry red chilly- 12 to 15 nos (depending on the spice tolerance)
3. Garlic- 1/2 cup
4. Vinegar- 1/2 cup
5. Onion-2 nos
6. Tomato-1 nos
7. Coriander powder- 2 tbsp
8. Garam masala powder-1 tsp
9. Salt-to taste
10. Oil-for frying onion
11. Coriander leaves-to garnish 

Preparation:

• Soak dry red chilly in vinegar for few minutes. (Remove the inner seeds of dry red chilly; if you don't want much spiciness; but the dish tastes its best with hot).
• Add it in to a blender along with garlic. Make a smooth paste out of it.
• Marinate the cubed beef pieces with salt and the above blended paste.
• Let it rest for 1 hour (first 1/2 hour in fridge and half hour at room temp).
• After that, pressure cooks the beef pieces  (without adding any water ; if necessary add little) for few whistles until cooked.
• In a pan; deep fry onions until nicely golden (Don't let it to turn brown).
• Drain it from the oil.
• Take 2 tbsp of oil in the same pan (avoid excess oil) and add tomato chopped; saute until mashed well.
• Add coriander powder and saute for a minute.
• Add the cooked beef pieces and mix well.
• Cook on high flame for few minutes until reaches the desired thickness.
• Then add fried onions and garam masala powder; mix well.
• Switch off the flame and sprinkle coriander leaves  and little fried onions on top.
• Serve warm with the choice of your roti or rice ☺☺.

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Sunday Supper Beef Pot Roast

You can enjoy this classic Sunday supper with

almost no effort. This moist and tender 

pot roast couldn't be any easier.

I've made this with any size chuck roast.

The first was a small one and the next is a 

larger one that gave us leftovers for 

another dinner. 

It uses very basic pantry ingredients. 

Salt, pepper, onion and one unexpected 

ingredient; apple cider vinegar. 

Salt and pepper all sides of the meat generously.

Put into a foil lined metal roasting pan. Top

with sliced onion. Pour the ¼ C of apple cider

vinegar around the roast. 

Seal all the seams of the foil tightly.

Pour water into the bottom of the roasting 

pan until it's halfway up the sides of the 

meat packet. Replenish the water as 

needed, about 2 more times. 

Roast at 400º for 3-½ hours

 Remove the roast to a serving platter. 

It will be fork-tender.

 Pour the meat juices into a gravy boat.

Serve over the beef as a natural au jus.

with natural au jus

You can also thicken the juices and make a

 traditional brown gravy. 

with brown gravy

Sunday Supper Beef Pot Roast
3-5-pound boneless chuck roast
Salt and pepper
1 red onion, sliced (or vidalia)
1/4 cup cider vinegar

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
Line a metal roasting pan or your oven's broiler pan with a sheet of heavy-duty aluminum foil large enough to fully wrap the roast. The shiny side of the foil should be up. Sprinkle the roast on all sides with salt and pepper and place it in the center of the foil. Spread the onion slices over the top of the roast and pour the vinegar around it. Bring the ends of the foil together and fold several times, and then fold the ends together to completely enclose the roast. Pour about 1 inch of water into the pan around the foil-wrapped roast. Bake until the meat is fork tender and brown, 3 to 4 hours. Check the water level in the pan regularly during cooking and replenish it if necessary. 

When the roast is done, remove the package from the baking pan. Open the package carefully to preserve all the juices and transfer the meat to a platter. Cover with the foil to keep it warm while you make the gravy. You can also just serve the roast with the pan juices. To make gravy, pour the roasting juices into a measuring cup and let the fat rise to the surface. Skim off the fat, and put 
2 T fat in a saucepan. If the fat measures less than 2 tablespoons, add enough butter or shortening to make up the difference. Measure the remaining pan juices, if you have less than 2 cups juices, add water to make 2 cups. Add 2 T flour to the fat in the saucepan and stir with a wire whisk to make a roux. Cook over medium-low heat until the flour is golden browned, about 1-2 minutes. Slowly whisk in the reserved pan juices and stir until thickened. It's the basic 2-2-2 ratio 2-fat, 2-flour, 2-liquid. 
Slice the roast or cut it into chunks (it will be very tender), and serve it with the gravy. I usually double the gravy; 4-4-4. 

Enjoy!

Links:  Between Naps On The Porch

Recipe adapted from Georgia Cooking in an Oklahoma Kitchen by Trisha Yearwood.

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No Peek Beef Tips

It's no secret that I hate winter, mainly because I really dislike being cold. If I had unlimited resources, I'd keep my house at a balmy 73 degrees all season long. In fact, I have fond memories of the apartment we had before we bought our house. Our rent included heat and air conditioning and since the buildings were old they required us to keep the heat at 72 or higher in the winter so the pipes didn't freeze. We used to walk around the apartment in shorts and t-shirts. It was glorious.

But I digress.

This recipe for No Peek Beef Tips has been on my radar for a while now, but I kept putting off making it due to the ingredients. Yes, I'm a bit of an ingredient snob and the various powders and cream of soup didn't sound appealing. The weather finally took a nosedive this weekend and the cold and wind had me craving comfort food. I also needed something easy for Sunday dinner with my parents.



I didn't tell them what was in this until after they'd tried it. It was raves all around the table before I came clean about the powders and cream of soup. We all agreed that it didn't taste processed at all, nor did we feel like it was overly salty. In fact, if I hadn't said anything they would have believed it was all from scratch. Score!

The recipe couldn't be simpler. I chose to buy a chuck roast and cut it myself, partially because it was cheaper and partially because the butcher at the supermarket told me the roast would be more tender. I replaced the canned mushrooms in the original recipe with sliced white mushrooms and the rest is just mixing and baking. The house smelled glorious as this cooked and we couldn't wait to eat. I served the beef and gravy over buttered egg noodles with some garlicky broccoli rabe on the side.

Even if you have an aversion to these convenience items, I urge you to give this recipe a try. I was pleasantly surprised and I know you will be, too.

No Peek Beef Tips
As seen on Mommy's Kitchen

2 1/2-3 lb beef chuck roast or chuck eye, trimmed of fat and cubed
12 ounces white button mushrooms, cleaned and sliced
1 10.5 oz can cream of mushroom soup
1 0.87 oz packet brown gravy mix
1 1.25 oz packet Lipton dry onion soup mix
1 cup water

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Place cubed meat and mushrooms in a 9 x 13 baking dish.

In a large bowl mix the soup, gravy mix, onion soup mix and water together. Pour over the meat and toss to combine. Cover the dish tightly with foil. Bake for 3 hours. Remember, no peeking!

Serve with buttered egg noodles, rice, or mashed potatoes.

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Crock Pot Roast In Golden Mushroom Wine Sauce

This souper-easy pot roast will satisfy 

your need for yummy comfort food. 

It takes only 5 minutes to put together. 

I used the crock pot, but when I was given this

recipe from a relative, crock pots weren't even

on the market yet. That's how old this one is.

I love the memories behind each recipe I've

been given. They're the best "souvenir". 

So, you can make this pot roast in the 

crock pot or in the oven. I've given cooking

times for each option. 

The Golden Mushroom soup and sherry wine are

what make this recipe different from others.  

I always use the dry sherry (not cooking sherry) 

in this recipe.. I use it in several other recipes 

as well, but it's also suitable to drink.

 Mix everything together in the crock pot 

then add the meat. 

 Turn it over to coat 

both sides with sauce.

 My favorite: cover and know that 

dinner is taken care of and the house

will smell amazing when we walk in. 

 I love mashed potatoes with this dinner. 

They are so worth the effort, but if you're

short on time, you can microwave a potato.

There's plenty of gravy to ladle over 

everything. Carrots always seem appropriate 

with pot roast for me. I just microwaved 

them, then added butter, salt and pepper

Easy Pot Roast In Wine Sauce

2-3 lbs chuck or rump roast

1 can Golden Mushroom soup

1 envelope dry onion soup mix

1 clove garlic, minced

1 bay leaf

½ C dry sherry (or burgundy)

½ C water

Add the mushroom soup, onion soup, garlic,

and bay leaf to the pot. Pour the sherry and

water into the empty soup can; stir to get

out any remaining soup. Add to the pot. 

Mix everything together. Add the meat

turn it over to coat both sides.

Cover and cook:

crock pot on low for 8-9 hours

oven 325º for 2-3 hours

oven 300º for 3-4 hours

oven 250º for 5-6 hours

oven 200º for 9 hours

Enjoy!

Links: Facebook,
Between Naps On The Porch

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My Mom's Beef and Broccoli Stir Fry

This is one of the original recipes in the cookbook that I made for my mom's Christmas gift 8 years ago.  I would've shared it earlier, except I thought I'd shared it already!  It's a classic dish to order from a Chinese restaurant--velvety strips of marinated beef stir fried with tender crisp broccoli in a flavorful brown sauce--and perfect served over steamed white rice.

To keep the beef tender and not chewy, it's important to slice the strips against the grain.  The addition of cornstarch in the marinade further helps improve the texture of the beef.  Since the broccoli takes a lot longer to cook than the beef, it is cooked separately while the beef is marinating and then added back in at the end.  You'll want to use a large pan with a lid so that you can steam the broccoli after a quick stir fry.

My favorite part about this recipe is the marinade which ends up becoming the sauce upon stir frying with the beef.  It is already quite fragrant due to the soy sauce, garlic, and sesame oil, but my mom adds a secret ingredient that really brings it over the top:  cinnamon!  Only a tiny amount is added that you can't really taste it, but the aromatic spice somehow boosts all the other flavors in the sauce in a way you wouldn't expect.

My Mom's Beef and Broccoli Stir Fry
serves 4

1 lb. flank or sirloin steak, sliced thinly against the grain
1/4 cup tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons cornstarch
4 tablespoons rice wine
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
4 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided
6 cups broccoli florets
Salt, to taste

Whisk together the soy sauce, cornstarch, rice wine, sesame oil, sugar, minced garlic, and cinnamon.  Toss with the sliced steak and marinate for at least 30 minutes.

In a large frying pan, heat 2 tablespoons of oil on high and add the broccoli florets.  Season with salt and stir fry until bright green.  Add 1/2 cup water and cover.  Steam until the broccoli is done.  Transfer the broccoli to a bowl, and wipe down the pan.

Add another 2 tablespoons of oil and heat on high again.  Add the steak and marinade to the pan and stir fry until the beef is just done and no longer red.  Add the broccoli back into the pan and continue to stir fry for another minute or two to combine.  Serve hot.

Next:  Zucchini Pizza
Previously:  How to Make an American Flag Cake
Two Years Ago:  Cleveland Cassata Cake (Bonus:  In a Jar!)
Three Years Ago:  Backyard Mint Ice Cream with Dark Chocolate Freckles
Six Years Ago:  Slow Cooker Bolognese Sauce
Seven Years Ago:  Curried Carrot Soup

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Khoresh Chaghaleh Badoom - Green Almond Stew

Iranian cuisine is known for its slow-simmered, flavorful and savory stews that are served with a platter of long grain aromatic saffron rice. One of the most famous stews from Iran is the herb-filled ghormeh sabzi. Another favorite is the sweet and sour walnut and pomegranate khoresh fesenjoon. However, this  خورش چغاله بادام - chaghaleh badoom khoresh is one of the lesser known khoresh

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Os à moelle grillés: Marrow bones

On Rue Dauguerre last fall, the night the Beaujolais Nouveau was released, I sat at the banquette at Le Plan B, next to a well dressed gentleman who was diving into a plate of marrow bones. Cross cut ones, like in the picture below. With a tiny spoon. Very much enjoying himself.  

Julia has a recipe of sorts for marrow bones (MAFCI p. 19), but it's for poaching them quickly to get the marrow for sauces, like sauce Bordelaise. (You can pull the marrow from stewing bones for this as well, like Osso Bucco.)

The fleur de sel is crucial. I got some when I was in La Rochelle--raked from the Atlantic salt flats nearby (and very expensive, for salt). When J first had it, she was skeptical, but one taste and she became a believer.   

You can either split the bones length-wise or crosswise. But because I buy dog bones at Fareway, they are always cross-wise. And they are not as long as I would like. The longer they are, the longer they take to roast. 

There's a great video of the master, Fergus Henderson, roasting them at Saint John's Bread and Wine. I ate there a couple of times when I was in London, but never had the marrow bones. Next time. J bought me his classic cookbook, The Whole Beast: Nose to Tail Eating some years ago. Often she does not much like the offal/abats, but she lapped up the marrow bones. And then it occurred to me: She's a rancher's daughter.

This photo of Le plan B is courtesy of TripAdvisor

Serves two as a first course

Preheat oven to 450º

• 8 beef shank bones cut crosswise, 2 to 3 inches. Or two bones cut lengthwise, 6 to 8 inches long
• fleur de sel
• pepper from a mill
• toast made from good French bread
• Parsley
  
  
  1. Put the bones in a half sheet pan and roast. Begin checking in 15 minutes until a paring knife inserted penetrates easily. Don't overcook or the marrow will melt away. 
  2. Serve with fleur de sel, pepper in a mill, and slices of grilled bread garnished with a chiffonade of parsley.

This photo of Le plan B is courtesy of TripAdvisor

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Sauteed liver: Abats 101

There are all kinds of 'abats'--organ meats. (French for slaughterhouse is abattoir.) But liver is the easiest and fastest and healthiest and, well, easiest to take for many people.

Julia has liver exactly right when she says it "cooks hardly more than a minute on each side. Overcooked liver is gray, dry, and disappointing—perfectly sautéed, it is a rosy pink when you cut into it."

The photo shows pork liver, my favorite, cut by the Meat Lab into lamelles, a little thicker than the usual. So it took about two minutes a side.

A lot of paper towels or newspaper will help--to blot the liver and dredge it. If you put it on the counter it makes a huge mess.

• 4 slices (about 1 pound) calf's or pork liver sliced about ½ inch thick
• Salt and freshly ground pepper
• ½ cup or more seasoned breadcrumbs or flour in a plate
• 3 tablespoons butter and olive oil combined, or clarified butter

1. Heat the butter and/or oil over high heat. Season the liver on one side with salt and pepper.
2. Dredge the liver in the bread crumbs or flour. Knock the excess of each slice and put each in the skillet.
3. Cook about a minute on each side, or until it's springy to the touch, golden on the outside and pink on the inside (poke and peek until you can feel the doneness). Be sure to remove the slices in the same order you placed them, so they cook evenly.

Julia has some nice variations. But the best for me is the simplest: plain with Dijon mustard. But it takes only a couple of minutes to chop a bit of that precooked bacon that's always in the frig, adding some scallion and stock or wine and mustard to the drippings to make a sauce (which thicken quickly with the crumbs or flour).

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Red Curry with Beef (Gaeng Phed Neua)

Thai Translation – Gaeng = Curry, Phed = Spicy, Neua = Beef

Red curry is a fragrant and creamy curry, hearty and tempting. It is best served with fluffy white rice or sticky rice. You can purchase pre-made curry pastes in most supermarkets which are very good. But they are no substitute for a freshly made paste of your own that can be whipped up in minutes.

Lean beef is an excellent source of protein and other minerals. It is delicious in a curry and when cooked well, it has a delicate mineral taste that goes superbly with a hearty creamy flavours in the curry. The eggplants in this curry are Thai eggplants that are small and round and often described as bitter. There are three main varieties you can use for this recipe –egg size and shaped eggplants (makhue prot), the pea sized eggplant ( makhue puang) which are crunchy and bitter in taste or the purple eggplants or aubergine. Look for the Thai eggplants in Asian supermarkets, but you can use aubergine for this recipe – just be careful about overcooking the eggplant as it can turn to mush.

Cooking Time - 20 minutes

Preparation time - 15 minutes

Serves 4

Ingredients

500ml coconut milk
250g of lean beef in strips
2 tbsp of red curry paste 
1 kaffir lime leaf

1 tbsp thai basil leaf

1 tsp palm sugar (or brown sugar)

3-5 thai eggplants or 1 small young purple eggplant

1 tsp fish sauce

Method

1. Slice the beef into cubes or thin slices depending on your own preference. Chop the thai eggplants in quarters or the purple eggplant into inch-sized pieces. To stop the eggplant from going brown, place in a bowl and cover with water once cut. Remove the stem from the kaffir lime leaf and tear into pieces.
2. In a saucepan or wok simmer 2 tbsp coconut milk. When the coconut oil separates from the coconut milk, add the curry paste stirring well.
3. Cook the curry paste for 1-2 minutes or until it begins to be fragrant.
4. Add the beef to the curry paste and cook for another 1-2 minutes so that the meat is beginning to change colour.
5. Add the remaining coconut milk and bring to the boil.
6. Add the eggplants, kaffir lime leaf, fish sauce and sugar, stirring well to combine.
7. Reduce the heat to a low simmer and cook for approximately 10 minutes over low to medium heat.
8. Add basil leaves and turn heat off. Serve with steamed rice.

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