June 28, 2006

Perfecting the recipe for "French Country Steaks."

Here's a slight modification to the "French Country Steaks" recipe I wrote about earlier. This was actually an improvement over the original recipe, and I will for sure make it just this way again with no changes.

One note. I have discovered that all cube steaks are not alike. I think the success of this last batch was due in part to the fact that the steaks were a bit thicker, and obviously just better quality meat.

That being said, here was the revised recipe:

You'll need:
4 cube steaks
2T olive oil
1 garlic clove
1 can French onion soup
1 8-oz. container sour cream
1 lb. sliced mushrooms
salt, pepper, Mrs. Dash original

How to do it:

1. Salt & pepper both sides of the steaks, then sprinkle with Mrs. Dash original spice blend (yes, I am addicted to this stuff now).
2. Run about 2 T olive oil around a pretty big, deep skillet (with a lid you will need later) and let it heat over high heat.
3. Put the steaks in (don't crowd the pan), don't cover and don't bother them.
4. Meanwhile cut up one large or a couple small cloves of garlic.
5. When moisture pools up on the top of the steaks, flip 'em. Then leave them alone again.
6. When you see moisture on the second side, take the steaks out and put them on a plate and loosely cover w/foil (not tight). They will be medium at this point.
7. Add 2T butter and the garlic to the pan. Wilt the garlic, but don't burn it.
8. Add the French onion soup, undiluted. Stir, scraping up the brown bits.
9. Whisk in the sour cream.
10. When it's smooth and bubbling, add the steaks back in (and the juice from the plate). Turn them once to coat with the gravy.
11. Toss 1 lb. fresh sliced mushrooms all around the pan and on top of the steaks. – I bought mine already sliced to make it faster.
12. Cover and turn heat to low & simmer for about 15 minutes.

For Bob, I served w/biscuits and noodles to sop up the gravy. I had mine with some steamed cauliflower that I poured gravy on and it was low carb and delicious.

I am thinking you could use the same basic principles but give it a different twist if you used a can of diced tomatoes instead of the French onion soup added some diced onion in with the garlic and changed the mushrooms to sliced green peppers. That would make more like a Swiss steak.

There may be other alternatives... Have fun, be creative! The worst that happens is you throw it out and order in. After all, cube steaks hardly break the bank!

1 comment:

Polly King said...

Here's yet another variation. Instead of the can of French onion soup, I used one large white onion, cut into basically thin half-moon slices. I carmelized them in about 2T butter and 2T olive oil. To carmelize, just cook over medium heat until they are nice and golden brown... really brown. That takes a little while, like 15 minutes. I took those out, put the steaks in and cooked them as before. Removed those to a plate, tented, and deglazed the pan with 1 can of beef consomé. The rest of the recipe was the same. It tasted just about exactly like the previous recipe, although Bob said he liked the carmelized onions better than the French onion soup. So many ways to make this recipe, as long as you have a few things on hand.