Tough but tasty….

….one of the curious things we have noticed about meat, at least to our palate, is that there seems to be a correlation between tough and tasty.  That was first brought to our attention by our butcher, Doug Aylesworth of Blue Ridge meats.

It was he who first suggested we try marketing chuck steaks.  Frankly, we got cold feet after the first cuts arrived back here.  More recently, we’ve decided that Doug was right, but they do require careful preparation.

Our daughter-in-law, Barbara, came up with a recipe from her mother recently…a recipe for beef stroganoff.  It’s simple and, she assures us, delicious.  Barbara is one of the best cooks we know and we recommend you try “Mom’s Beef Stroganoff”.  We will.

1 1/2 to 2 lbs chuck steak, cut into one inch cubes

1 medium or large onion, chopped

Olive oil to brown beef and onion

1 or 2 cans of cream of mushroom soup

One half cup of evaporated milk ( may substitute sour cream or whole milk) Salt and pepper to taste 

Saute onion in oil, add beef til browned and onion translucent over medium heat. Add enough water to cover the beef and lower heat to simmer, cover for an hour to hour and half.  Check on meat periodically for tenderness and be sure meat stays covered with water. After the meat is done, add soup, milk, salt and pepper. ( Note if there is too much liquid, remove some of the water before adding soup, etc). Meanwhile prepare brown rice or egg noodles.  Lovely with a side salad, and green vegetable like fresh green beans almandine or steamed broccoli. (note : fresh rye bread is wonderful to mop up the gravy)

As a bonus, I’m adding the steak recipe we discovered recently.  It was perfect with NY Strips the other night and so tonight we thought we’d challenge the recipe by using sirloin, a less tender, thinner cut.  Again, this simple procedure gave us a perfect, tender, delicious, medium rare steak on the stove top.

An hour before cooking….sprinkle liberally on both sides with sea salt. 

Rinse off the sea salt before cooking and then salt and pepper to your taste. 

Bring pan with some oil on stove top to high heat….take steak with a tongs…and hold the fat edge down until the fat starts to break down.  Then lay the steak flat and cook for two minutes…then flip and cook for two minutes more.  Somewhere along the way add some butter to the pan and swish it around. 

After total cooking time 4 minutes, turn off the burner.  Let stand for five minutes.