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This entry starts off, as most of them do, with a man. This man right here, in fact : That's me and my Dad, outside a 101-year old Chinese restaurant back in 2007. Sorry for the quality, it was taken on a potato phone in the first place, and that photo's been through a lot with me in the last few years. Dad was a hell of a guy, and half the reason I ever took up cooking professionally in the first place. You see, back when he was my age, he was a line cook at a truck stop out in Altoona, Iowa. It's where he met my grandmother, who did all the baking for the truck stop. She introduced him to her daughter, and they hit it off... you know how the story goes. Dad was a man who, in retrospect, was much like all of the really good line cooks I ever had the pleasure of working with. He worked his rear end off any wahtever job came to hand, and never met a problem he wasn't willing to tackle with a little reading and a lot of persistence. He had a temper, and swore like a sailor when things went wrong, but under that was one of the kindest men I ever knew. He gave up cooking for a living about five years before I came along, because there wasn't enough money in it to support a family. Instead he took to driving a big rig. A couple years later he was involved in a wreck that jackknifed his truck, crushed his left hip, and left him in traction for months. He didn't let it stop him, though. Over the next twenty-five years he drove three and a half million miles, set tires to every state but Hawaii. By the time this picture was taken, he'd been reduced to working as a door greeter for Wal-mart and a professional Santa Claus in the season, as he'd developed diabetes and lost his CDL. He always talked about wanting to open a restaurant again, but with the leg and hip damage from the wreck, he knew he'd never be able to handle cooking on a line again. His left leg was an inch shorter than his right, even after it healed up. So he turned his love of the kitchen to feeding his family. I have never in my life known anyone else as good at solid Midwestern comfort food, and he encouraged me at every turn as I learned from his work and stretched out into my own take on food. Sadly, he passed away a year after that picture was taken. Cancer of the esophagus, likely from years of smoking. I miss that old man fiercely, especially this time of year. So it's time I honored him by sharing one of his recipes with all of you. Swiss Steak isn't, in all honest, Swiss or steak at all. The name refers to 'swissing', the method of softening fabrics, and tougher cuts of meat are to be preferred because they'll be braised into tenderness. This is one of the things I always loved coming home to on a chilly fall day. Ingredients :  1 medium-large onion 1 bell pepper 2 cloves garlic 2-3 stalks celery 2 lbs cubed steak or arm roast, tenderized 1 lb mushrooms (optional) 1 C Beer (or beef broth) 2 T tomato paste 1 14.5 oz can stewed tomatoes (sub diced or crushed if you don't like the texture, add a second if more sauce is desired) 1 T smoked paprika 1 t dried oregano 2 t Salt 1 t Cracked black pepper 2 Bay leaves 1 T worcestershire sauce 1/2 C fat (oil, bacon drippings, or shortening for frying) 1 C flour Potatoes and heavy cream pictured are for whipped potatoes, as that is my preferred side. The beer there is a little something local, Confluence Brewing Company's Camp Fire Black Lager, and it's delicious. Nice smoky flavor that'll go well with the smoked paprika. Method : First, preheat your oven to 325. Then, because life hates me, swear at that motherfucking piece of poo poo because the drat thing is broken and get out a large slow cooker and set it to low to warm up. Have some of that beer. Normally I'd braise this for a couple hours in a dutch oven. Next, gather your spices.  Pretty, aren't they. Next, the veggies.  Slice the onion thinly, chop the pepper and celery, and mince the garlic. Next comes the fun part. Toss your flour into a pie plate and season it liberally with salt and pepper.  Melt your fat in a heavy skillet (or the dutch oven if you're doing this properly), over medium heat.  Dredge the cube steaks in the seasoned flour, then fry until golden brown in the hot fat, probably a minute and a half or two minutes to a side. You're not cooking them through, just browning. Remove the finished steaks to a plate.  Once all the steaks are done, pour out any excess standing fat in the pan leaving a bit left, and add the mushrooms, onions, and peppers. Sautee for a minute or so, then add the garlic and celery. Kick that around until the thin-sliced onions start to soften, then add it all to the crock pot.  Add the canned tomatoes, beer, worcestershire sauce, beer or broth, tomato paste, and spices. Stir to combine. Add the meat, making sure to submerge it in the liquid. Cook on low for 8 hours if crock potting it, or braise at 325 for 2 hours if in the oven. Once it's done, the meat should be tender to the point of falling apart.  Serve with a heaping ladle of the veggies on top, alongside garlic mashed potatoes, thick sliced crusty bread, and a green vegetable of some kind. I tend to prefer green beans. This is the kind of food that got me through the winter back in high school, when we had years with 10 snow days in three months and a foot of snow on the ground every weekend. It's hearty, it's cheap, and it's easy; but don't let that put you off. There's a ton of flavor here, and since our version uses more veggies, the sauce isn't just a sideshow but a serious part of the meal. This is a very forgiving recipe, there's not much you can do to hurt it, as you might guess from it being easily adapted on the fly to crock pot cookery. I hope you've all enjoyed this little post. Thanks for reading. Liquid Communism fucked around with this message at 23:31 on Nov 15, 2014 |
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Nov 15, 2014 15:17
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| # ? Apr 20, 2024 04:04 |
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I have this in the oven right now, anxious to see what happens. Couple of Q for you, if that's okay: There's no mention of garlic in the ingredients list, but I tossed a bit more than 1T minced in, since it tends to mellow out in this sort of recipe. Not sure how much was intended. I know I've seen "cube steaks" many times at the grocery, but the best I was able to come up with were "Tenderettes" which looked visually similar, but had very little structure. I anticipate they'll disintegrate which is why I ask: When I tried to flour and fry them in the dutch oven, there wasn't any reasonable way to get under it with a spatula, so they were easy to break apart. Either I'm not doing it right for the pot, or that's the wrong type of meat. Thoughts?
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Nov 15, 2014 21:50
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Should be on the list, 2 cloves minced is what I use. A bit more is fine, you just don't want to overpower the paprika. I'll fix that in the post. Your tenderettes may be a bit more tender than expected, the recipe's looking to start with pretty tough cuts, but the worst it means is that they'll fall apart a bit.
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Nov 15, 2014 23:29
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Good stuff, LC. Nothing beats a hearty meal of meat and vegetables in a tomatoey sauce. Your dad sounds like a great person who deeply loved his family, but no joke, I legitimately thought his head was on fire in the photo.
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Nov 16, 2014 00:14
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kinmik posted:Good stuff, LC. Nothing beats a hearty meal of meat and vegetables in a tomatoey sauce. Your dad sounds like a great person who deeply loved his family, but no joke, I legitimately thought his head was on fire in the photo. Or he's had a really effin good idea.
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Nov 16, 2014 01:29
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| # ? Apr 20, 2024 04:04 |
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Hah, Dad would've gotten a kick out of that. It's just a paper lantern in the resturant window, though.
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Nov 16, 2014 01:41
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