Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Starving the Kids Week

This week should be called “Starving the Kids Week.” Tonight was Cube Steak Dijon. I have a soft spot for cube steak. There is just something comforting about it. My Mom use to cook cube steak as Chicken Fried Steak once a month and it was great. With gravy and a crunchy crust. Comfort food at its finest. I have tried to cook it this way and it did not turn out right with the crust falling off and it being tough as all get out.

Cube steak is going to be chewy even in the best meal but every time I have made it in the past the texture was more like silicon than meat. Therefore this was a new recipe for me but also a challenge as I have never cooked a really good cube steak. I debated to cook this in cast iron or not, as cast iron lends a hand in chicken fried steak but since this was a simmering recipe I thought that non-stick would be better.

How was it you ask? On a scale from one to ten with five being average I would give it a six. Hubby would give it a three and the “bears” would give it a zero as they wouldn’t eat any of it and actually spit out the pieces they put into their mouths. Sad, sad, sad. The flavor of the sauce was savory and tangy and it was less chewy than I have previously cooked. I think substituting chicken for the cube steak would make it jump to 9 maybe ten in the rating.

Apparently Hubby demoted the recipe rating simply since it was cube steak. In his mind even the most astoundingly extraordinary cube steak meal would only be graded as a five “because it’s cube steak.” Just for the curious ones this was the meal I had planned on making and no, Hubby didn’t piss me off. I was just too tired to get the required ingredients from the store for the other meal.

Cube Steak Dijon
Source: Taste of Home April/May 2003 with my spin
Servings: 4

4 beef cube steaks
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup white grape juice
2 tablespoons Worcestershire
4 teaspoons Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons corn starch

Salt and pepper cube steaks. In a large skillet, sauté steaks in butter for two minutes on each side. Combine the grape juice, Worcestershire sauce and mustard; stir into cooking juices. Bring to a boil; cook for 1 minute. Turn down and simmer for ten minutes. Remove two tablespoons of liquid; mix with the two tablespoons of corn starch; pour back in. Cook one minute more or until sauce thickens. Serve sauce over the cube steaks.

No picture tonight. I’m a little bit distracted with a burden I’m dealing with. I’m hoping this distraction will go away tomorrow (actually since this post will be on Wednesday, today is more accurate) to either launch me in a wonderful direction or wrap things up for our family to quite literally move on. If you get a chance, say a little prayer for the path to happiness to open, no matter which one it is, I am grateful.

No comments:

Post a Comment