Reason and Freedom

When I was a child, one of my favorite dishes that my mom made was cube steak with rice & gravy. Cube steak is, of course, some sinewy, stringy cut of cheap steak that has been machine-pounded into near-hamburger to make it at least edible. The preparation was to pan-sear the meat, use the fond in the pan to make a gravy, then finish cooking the meat in the gravy. When I made this dish as an adult, I was surprised at how bad it was. Well, last night, I decided to re-make this dish with the cooking knowledge that I've gained in the past few years of cooking. Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:
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1 T butter
1 c basmati rice
1 vidalia onion, diced small
1 3/4 c water

1 strip steak
1 T butter
1 T flour
2 c beef broth
1/4 c red wine
1 bay leaf

Method:
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0. Melt butter over high heat in saucepan. Add rice and stir until fragrant. Add water, diced onion, and cover. Let boil then reduce heat to low. Cook for 30 minutes and turn off heat. Do the remaining steps while the rice cooks.

1. Heat a saute pan until really hot. Pan-sear steak on all sides brown on all sides. Don't let fond (the "pan scab" that is left over from browning the steak) burn. Remove steak and reserve.

2. Melt 1 tbsp butter in still-hot saute pan. When foaming subsides, mix in the tablespoon of flour and whisk until it is tan (this mixture is called a "roux" and will thicken the sauce). Add the beef broth, wine, and bay leaf. Stir to incorporate the roux. Re-add the steak and cook over high heat until the sauce thickens.

3. Serve steak with rice. Ladle sauce over steak and rice.

Yum yum yum! A childhood favorite resurrected and improved!