Cubed Steak Dishes

After my meal at Apple Annie’s, when we got back to TN, Bev decided she wanted chicken fried steak so we got a couple of packages of cubed steak out of the freezer to make it.  If the site I read on the web knows there stuff, the difference between chicken fried and country fried steak is the color of the gravy – white and brown respectively.  Since I wanted the chicken fried version, I made the gravy with a blond roux using this recipe:

CREAM GRAVY FROM HOMESICK TEXAN

Ingredients:

Two tablespoons of pan drippings, bacon grease or vegetable oil

Two tablespoons of flour

1 1/2 cups of milk

1/2 teaspoon of cracked black pepper (original was 1 tsp)

Salt to taste.

Method:

1. Combine fat with flour in a hot skillet, continuously stirring, cook on medium for a couple of minutes until a dark roux is formed.

2. Add milk slowly to skillet, and mix with roux using either a whisk or wooden spoon (be sure and press out any lumps).

3. Turn heat to low and continue stirring until mixture is thickened, a couple more minutes.

4. Add pepper and salt to taste.

5. If gravy is too thick for your taste, you can thin it by adding either more milk or water a tablespoon at a time.

For the Meat, I used four pieces of cubed steak direct from the package with this spice mix:

SPICES FROM THREADGILL’S

1/2 cup Kosher salt

4 tbsp Black pepper

2 tbsp White pepper

1 1/2 tsp Cayenne pepper

2 tbsp Granulated onion

1 1/2 tsp Ground cumin

4 tbsp Granulated garlic

2 tbsp Paprika

Mix ingredients well. (Store extra in a glass jar or plastic container.  Keep tightly sealed.  Shake before each use to prevent settling.)

· Lightly season meat on both sides

· Beat two eggs and place in pie pan

· Add flour to second pie pan

· Dredge meat in flour, then eggs, then flour again and put on rack to dry a little

· Add ¼” oil to skillet and heat on medium heat.

· Add meat to skillet and cook until golden brown, flip and repeat for second side

Plate the meat with a scoop of mashed potatoes and top with gravy.

This recipe makes very good chicken fried (or country fried) steak.

Since we had gotten two packages of meat from the freezer, we opted for baked steak the next night using the same spice mixture as above.

The six pieces of cubed steak were seasoned, floured, browned in a skillet with oil, then laid in a pan in a single layer.  For the gravy, I used a can of mushroom soup and a package of brown gray mix – per package instructions.  I whisked them together, poured it over the meat and baked covered for 40 minutes at 325F then 15 minutes uncovered.  We reheated some leftover mashed potatoes to go with it.

It made for a very tasty meal and both meals were the ultimate comfort food BUT

The Moral Of is Post

All but a couple of bites of meat from the two dishes had gristle in it, which once again confirmed that meat processors and most stores use junk meat for their cubed steak and from now on we will go to Sloan’s, pick out the meat we want, then asked the butcher to trim and cube it.

Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

6/13 & 6/14/16 meal dates