Southern Special

Ok, tonight I am making Chicken Fried Steaks and Creamed Pan Gravy with Biscuits and being from the south, I do have some opinion on what this dish should really be. Growing up in Tenn. I have had many a dinner of chicken fried steak and for my taste, the white milk gravy is the way to go. ut there are others, like my grandfather, who refer a red eye gravy with their steak. So it is with some interest that I make tonight's dish, that I see calls for a brown gravy.

In all of my years of cooking, I have never actually made this item before, so in a way I am looking forward to it, or at least my dinner guest is, since I am a vegetarian. I let might guest pick tonight's dish and, although she knows I am not a meat eater, she picked this anyway, cause as she likes to tell me "A person needs to eat meat to be healthy"............I am not convinced, but here we go :-)

Ingredients

1 1 /2 pounds (1/2-inch thick) round steak

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons flour

1/3 cup cornmeal

1 teaspoon sweet paprika (I got paprika, but could not find "sweet" paprika at all at the store)

1 teaspoon salt, 1/3 palm full

1/2 teaspoon ground pepper

2 eggs beaten

2 tablespoons water

4 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 1/4 cups beef broth

1/4 cup half-and-half or cream,

1 package bake-off biscuits, prepared according to package directions
Waxed paper

Directions

Preheat large, heavy skillet over medium high heat.

Set steaks on to a waxed paper lined work surface and cover with another piece of waxed paper. Pound steaks to 1/4-inch thick. Pull steaks off work surface and set to the side. Line work surface with more waxed paper. Pour 1/2 cup flour into 2 piles on opposite sides of the work space. Add cornmeal, paprika, salt and pepper to 1 pile of flour. Beat eggs and water in a pie plate or shallow dish.

Cut steaks into 4 portions and coat in flour, eggs, then seasoned flour and cornmeal.

Add 2 tablespoons oil to hot pan and cook 2 steaks at a time. Brown steaks about 2 minutes per side, or until cooked and remove from the pan. Add 2 tablespoons more oil and repeat with remaining 2 steaks. Remove steaks to serving platter and pour off all but 2 to 3 tablespoons of drippings. Add 2 tablespoons flour to drippings and cook 2 minutes. Whisk in broth and season with salt and pepper. Whisk half and half or cream into gravy. When gravy bubbles, remove from heat.

Serve steaks and warm biscuits with gravy on top

The Verdict..........

Well my guest, she thinks this is the best thing I have made so far. I had a biscuit with some of the gravy and I have to admit, it is pretty good. I am taking her word that the steak is great.............her word and the cats too, they ate some steak and seemed to really enjoy it.

I will also say that as a side item, I mashed some potatoes to go with the steaks, as, I think when you have chicken fried steak, the only acceptable side dish is mashed potatoes.

I will also say, that although I liked this brown gravy, the southerner inside of me, is still wanting the white milk gravy.

Overall though, this was a success and was made in around 25 minutes.


In other somewhat Rachael Rayish news, this weekend, I am hoping to purchase a set of her cutlery, since the knife block I had, is like a twenty dollar set I got years ago and really is not getting the job done. So a trip to Crate and Barrel is in order or a trip to some place that I can find that sells Rachael's stuff.

Until tomorrow, I hope you all have a good evening.