Mom’s World Famous Swiss Steak

With the cold weather here in earnest, I am looking for comfort foods.  One of my favourite meals when I was a kid was Swiss Steak.  Why it’s called “Swiss”, I have no idea.  Maybe because it’s red?  Anyway, whatever the reason, I can tell you: this is so tasty and so comforting to me that I just had to make it tonight.  Of course, it helps that I have a freezer full of random meats that I would not typically ever buy (Chambers delivery, remember?).  When I saw the boneless blade steak I thought, “that’ll be good for Swiss steak…” and got on the phone to my Mom.  She said that I could share her recipe with you, dear Reader, as long as I remembered to call it “World Famous”.  And so, here it is:

Ingredients

2 lbs of beef – blade steak, shoulder steak or any cheaper cuts that are marbled. Make it thick cut – 1/2 an inch at least.
pepper, garlic salt, to taste
2 tbsp olive oil
2 can tomato soup
1 cup beef broth
4 potatoes, quartered
1 onion, peeled and quartered
3 carrots, cut into chunks

Method

1. Preheat your oven to 350°F.
2. Cut your meat into individual pieces so it’s easier come serving time. Season the meat with garlic salt, fresh ground pepper and Worcestershire sauce.  Mom doesn’t add salt because of the salt content in the beef broth. If you find that you need it, you can always add it at the table.
3. Heat oil in a frying pan large enough to brown the meat.  Once the oil is hot, add the meat and and brown on all sides.  Remove browned meat to casserole dish.
4. Arrange the potatoes, carrots and onion on top of the meat.
5. In a bowl mix together the 2 cups of beef broth and 2 cans of tomato soup.  Pour this over the meat and vegetables, and bake covered for 60 – 90 minutes.

This makes a great meal, and will serve 4-6 people, depending on who’s at your table.  My kids, for instance, really only count as 1/2 a person between the both of them.    It also makes a lot of sauce, which is great for pouring over the meat and veg, just like a gravy.  Thanks for sharing, Mom!  I know my dear Readers will love it.

Enjoy!

Beef Stew with Dumplings

Hello, dear Reader!  How have you been?  Long time since we talked, isn’t it?  I know, but you’ve been busy and I’ve been busy, and well, if you forgive me then I too forgive you.  Deal?  Deal.

We had our first real, stick-to-the-ground, snowfall here in my ‘hood yesterday.  And wouldn’t you know it, the white stuff was still here, on the ground, when we left the house for the school bus at 7:30 this morning.  As we stood waiting for the bus, I thought to myself, “A day like this calls for stew.  But what kind of stew to have???”  I had some stewing beef in the freezer so I dug that out and started searching for a delicious and different from my normal beef stew.  Boy-o-boy did I find that here…

Ingredients

for the stew:
1/4 cup butter
1.5 lbs stewing beef, cut into cubes
1/4 cup flour
1 onion, sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
3/4 cup red wine, divided (I used a South African syrah which is delicious all on it’s own)
2 cups beef stock (I used a Campbell’s tetra pak, and measured 2 cups)
2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 drizzle balsamic vinegar (maybe 1/2 tsp)
1 tsp dried parsley
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp ground pepper
3 or 4 potatoes
2 carrots
1 1/2 cups beef stock
1 1/2 tbsp corn starch
1 1/2 tbsp flour
6-8 mushrooms, quartered
for the dumplings:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons butter or margarine
3/4 cup milk
1 tsp parsley

Method

1. Melt the butter in a large pot, over medium heat.
2. While butter is melting, add your stewing beef to a bowl and combine with the 1/4 cup flour to coat pieces.  Once butter is melted, add the meat to the pan, browning each side nicely.  Remove meat from pan.
3. Add onion and garlic to the pan and saute until soft.  Remove from the pan (I put mine on top of my meat, which was on a dinner plate on the stove).
4. Measure out 1/2 cup of wine and add to pan.  What you’re doing now is called “deglazing a pan”.  This process is designed to get up all of the bits off of the bottom of the pot, and will add immensely to the flavour of the stew.  Increase your heat to medium-high and scrape the bits up from the bottom of the pan.  Once the wine has reduced by about half, turn the heat down to medium again and return the meat and onions to the pot.
5. Add the remaining 1/4 cup of wine, beef broth, Worcestershire sauce, balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper, parsley and bay leaf.  Cover the stew and allow to simmer for about 40 minutes, stirring occasionally.  When stew comes to a boil, turn the heat down to low.
6. While the stew is simmering, cut your potatoes and carrots into bite sized pieces, and put them into a bowl of water so the potatoes don’t change colour.  Once the 40 minutes has passed, drain the water and add the vegetables to the pot, stirring well.
7. At this point, I decided there was not enough liquid in the stew.  You want your meat and veg to be covered, so they are infused with flavour and cook to a soft consistency.  I also didn’t think the broth was thickening up enough.  So I made a mixture of beef broth, cornstarch and flour.  I mixed these together in a 2-cup measure, making sure there were no lumps before adding it to the stew.  The measurements quoted above are what I used, but I only added enough liquid to the pot to cover my veg.  In the end, that was about 1 1/4 cups.  Use your judgment, you will not be wrong, I promise.  Return the lid to your pot and allow to continue simmering for about 20 minutes.
8. Next, remove the bay leaf and add in the mushrooms.  Simmer until you’re almost ready to serve.
9. Start the dumplings about 20 minutes before you want to eat.  Cut the butter or margarine into the flour using 2 knives or a pastry blender.  Add the milk and parsley and stir with a fork until well combined.
10. Use a tablespoon and drop spoonfuls of the dumpling batter into the stew pot.  Allow them to cook, uncovered, for 10 minutes. Then place the lid on the pot and continue to cook for 8-10 minutes or until the dumplings are tender.

This makes enough to feed 5-8 people, depending on your appetites.  My kids ate this meal – my 6-year-old ate a fair bit, and my 2-year-old ate the carrots and potatoes, 2 pieces of eat thank you very much.  So this goes a long way in my house lol…

Dear Reader, please let me know what you think of this dish, should you decide to try it for yourself.

Until next time!