02 February 2011

You ready for this?



Dinner last Wednesday: Stuffed flank steak, creamed spinach, roasted mushrooms and biscuits.  Original recipe suggested Sunshine Salad and boiled potatoes as sides, but I had potatoes the night before. And I don't really do jell-o. Especially when it has carrots mixed in.


Sounds ambitious, right? Not terribly, no worries. Most of the work was for the steak, and even that didn't take too long to prepare! The biscuits weren't homemade, just Pillsbury pop and deliciousness. The creamed spinach was simply microwaved frozen spinach combined with low-fat sour cream and nutmeg ("you'll find this served at a famous restaurant" claims the recipe). The recipe for my new favorite dish, roasted mushrooms, is from the lovely and impeccable Smitten Kitchen. Her pictures are far superior to my own, but that dish I could eat every day for a year. Try it, you won't be disappointed. I leave out the capers, but that's personal taste.


On to the steak!


Yum, stuffing!!
1 flank steak (I used two thin steaks--couldn't find a flank steak at Von's and didn't bother going elsewhere)
Salt and pepper
butter and olive oil
1 finely chopped small onion
2 c breadcrumbs (recipe calls for soft, I used Panko--if you use dried ones, moisten a little with extra broth or olive oil)
caraway seed and celery salt
2 c beef bouillon (this was a little salty, so I recommend two cups of low-sodium beef broth instead)
sour cream
milk
  •  Lay out your steak(s) and prick one side with a fork, sprinkle with salt and freshly cracked black pepper.
  • Heat up a large skillet, melt a little butter in olive oil and cook your onions until tender. Mix the cooked onion with the bread crumbs, caraway seed and celery salt. I could eat this mixture alone for dinner and be perfectly happy.
  • Flip over steak(s) to the unseasoned side, spread with stuffing and roll parallel to the length. Secure with toothpicks or metal skewers, use cooking string as well, if you're feeling fancy.
  • In the same skillet you cooked the onions, brown your stuffed steak on all sides briefly. Turn down the heat, add your broth or bouillon, and let simmer for two hours, until tender. You can also put into a 350 F oven, but since I was using that for the other parts of the dish I decided to use the stovetop.
  • 40-50 minutes before your meat is done cooking, prepare and cook your mushrooms. In total, it should only take about 25 minutes, start to finish, if your oven is nice and hot. Once the mushrooms are brown and yummy, cover with foil to keep hot while you bake your biscuits.
  • Follow the directions on your packet of frozen spinach to cook right before you pull out the mushrooms. Strain well, put into a sauce pan with two or three nice spoonfuls of low-fat sour cream and a few grates of nutmeg.
  • Remove your flank steak from the skillet and let sit for a few minutes while you make gravy. Turn up the heat on the liquid left in the pan and whisk in 1/4 cup milk and a spoonful of low-fat sour cream. Reduce the sauce for a few minutes and put in a gravy boat, or other suitable container (like a liquid measuring cup... no one's looking).


Dinner is served!
Not very photogenically... but delicious all the same!






I also want to update you all on a new treasure my friend Ashley found for me during her trip to London--a 1936 book entitled Cookery Illustrated and Household Management. Oh, the excitement, friends! Over 500 pages of strange British custom to go through. One recipe recommends boiling pasta anywhere from 20 minutes to a full hour. I, however, do not.

Exciting excerpt from said book: "Cake in Emergencies"!





Bonus round: Regular Ordinary Swedish Meal Time!! 

2 comments:

  1. That looks really good! I also refuse to eat Jello that has carrots in it. I'm not adverse to Jello in general, but it's got to be by itself. No fruit, no veggies. I have an aunt who makes lime Jello with carrots every year for Christmas and she LOVES that stuff. I refuse to eat it. No way, dude!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I've seen sunshine salad in some of the vintage cookbooks I have...I just don't know! Gelatin and....vegetables! I think you did the right thing in adapting your menu to fit what-actual-humans-eat-in-the-year-2013 (ie no congealed salads!). That all looks (and sounds!) delicious.

    ReplyDelete