Cubed Steak with Mushroom Gravy

One of my husband's favorite dishes

when we were newlyweds,

oh so many moons ago,

was a dish that his lovely mother called 

Fried Steak and Gravy.

This is essentially cubed beef steak that has

been dusted in flour and then browned in oil over 

medium high heat.  Add water and simmer for about half an hour. 

When ready to serve, remove the meat.

Put 1 cup milk into a shaker and add salt 

and 3 large tablespoons of flour.

Shake until well mixed and 

pour into hot broth and drippings from steak.

 Cook on medium heat to thicken,

stirring off and on.

Cook until the gravy bubbles and you know

it is as thick as it will get.

 

This is one of my father-in-law's favorite meals.*

*And you just got a bonus recipe.

Now thank my dear mother-in-law.

Like father, like son:

My husband loves any kind of dish like this.

Well, I have news for him.

I have updated this dish, just for him.

And the odd thing was that the latest incarnation 

for this dish came together 

based on what was on clearance at the grocery store.

Note the clearance prices.

The ingredients:

4 beef cubed steaks
2 small portabella mushrooms, sliced
1 tablespoon onion, minced
1 cup beef stock
1 tablespoon dry sherry, not shown
1/4 teaspoon black pepper, freshly cracked
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt*
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour plus extra flour for dredging the cubed steaks
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
extra virgin olive oil, for sauteing

*This amount assumes that the stock does not contain salt.  As always, taste, taste, taste!


Dredge the cubed steaks in the extra flour and shake off the excess.  Pour a couple of tablespoons of olive oil in a large nonstick pan over medium high heat.  Add the steaks and saute until cooked through.  Remove from heat and keep warm.

Add more oil to the pan and add the sliced portabellas.  Give the mushrooms a few minutes to caramelize before turning over.  Add the minced onion.  Add the beef stock, sherry, black pepper, and salt.  Add the meat back to the pan and cook for a few more minutes.

Meanwhile, knead together the softened butter and the 2 tablespoons flour.  This is a messy business and you will begin to wonder if it will ever work, but then suddenly it does!  But then you have to figure out how to get all that butter and flour mixture, otherwise know as a buerre manie (kneaded butter), off your hot little fingers.  Heh, good luck with that!  Oops, did I write that out loud?  Okay, so grab a silicon spatula and wipe it off as best you can.

Remove the meat from the pan once more.  Then toss that buerre manie into the sauce like it's a grenade and whisk away until it is incorporated into the sauce and the whole thing has come together.  Add the steaks back into the sauce and reduce the heat to low and cover.

The steaks have finished cooking.

As have the mushrooms.

This is when you really need smell o vision, er smell o internet.

The finished dish.  The one steak, sans shrooms, is for the Foodie Daughter.  She hasn't yet embraced the shrooms. 

This was a lovely and a delightful meal.

And my dear husband thanked me more than once.