Sunday Gravy with yeah right: Smothered Steak from a non-Southern Southern Boy

Good morning everyone!

Glad to have you here.

We’ve got some fun stuff for you today. I’m going back to my Southern style and continuing yet again with the homemade bread shit. I’ve gained such confidence with my bread dough that there’s not even a ripple of trepidation when it comes to making homemade bread. You are going to see it a lot more during the rest of the season.

Obviously one of the keys to bread making is having the proper equipment. If you would like to explore the power and glory of the homemade bread experience you really should consider a stand mixer. It helps so fucking much.

that’s mah baby!

What I’ve discovered though is the most integral part to a successful bread experience lies right here.

Blooming the yeast. Absolutely fucking crucial. Again, the key to the proper bloom is the temperature of the water that you add to the yeast. You’ll see me fluctuate the temperature between 95-110 degrees depending on the type of bread you are making.

Say you want to make some flatbread pizza. You only need the temperature to be lukewarm. I didn’t even really test the temperature because we’re not looking for much of a rise on the dough. It being a “flatbread” and all.

Now let’s say you wanted to make homemade pita bread. You would want your water to be between 90-100 degrees since there will definitely be a rise, although not a huge rise. Call it a “semi”.

This week we will be making homemade rolls again, just like we made for the Spring Ham Festival last week because them little bastards were good! The water temperature for the yeast was a little more precise 95-100 degrees because we are looking for a specific amount of rise. Call it a “diamond cutter” rise.

All this is to say that them goddamn rolls on Easter were tasty motherfuckers and the meal I was making today would go really fucking good with some goddamn dinner rolls. The recipe for the rolls is right there in the Spring Ham Festival link if you are interested.

Here’s the dough after the mixer kneaded for 10 minutes.

Proof for 2 hours until the dough doubles in size. Cut and roll into 16 balls of dough and proof for another hour.

Cut an “X” or a cross on the top of the rolls and baste with butter right before baking in a 375 degree oven for about 15 minutes. Baste again with butter right as you remove them from the oven.

Mother. Fucking. ROLLS!

Spoiler alert! There will be another type of bread next week.

I’m fucking fearless with the baking right now!

I’ve given my family origin story many times before so I won’t be dragging up my dead grandmothers again and I’m certain you are all thankful for that. All you need to know is that my dad’s family has roots in Texas and Louisiana, Ma’s family had Texas and Oklahoma roots and every meal was homemade. 

No shit I’m old enough that the small ass town I grew up in had no fast food joints for years.

No. Fast. Food.

That’s key.

In fact, the town held the record for opening day sales when the very first McDonald’s opened there. They held that record for YEARS until the opening of a McDonald’s in Moscow finally broke it. Motherfuckers were eating there 2 and 3 times on the day it opened.

Goddamn Godforsaken town.

Long drawn out way to say I come by my Southern cooking roots honestly despite never living in the South.

Here’s a really interesting article detailing what the difference is between Southern Food and Soul Food from “Howstuffworks.com.” The money quote being “While not all Southern food is considered soul food, all soul food is definitely Southern.”

Without, hopefully, sounding racially insensitive I can simply say I cook Southern food because as a white guy I don’t think I’m allowed to call it Soul Food.

Today’s dish inhabits many soul food restaurants and it is fucking outstanding.

The name of this feature “Sunday Gravy” originated because when growing up you could slap a pile of mashed potatoes, some protein and a homemade gravy and I was fucking set.

Fuck it. Let’s make smothered steak.

Smothered steak!

You will need 1 steak per person. My preferred steak for this dish is top sirloin but I’ve even smothered a goddamn New York steak before. Sirloin is cheaper.

16 to 32 ounces of beef stock. Fortunately the cartons of stock you find at the store are 32 ounces.

1 onion chopped

16 ounces of fresh sliced mushrooms

4 cloves of garlic minced

2-3 tablespoons of oil for searing

1/2 cup of flour

Equal parts salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder

1/2 teaspoon of dried thyme.

1 tablespoon of demi glace – optional

use one of the 2 packets found inside

Demi Glace is a heavily reduced beef stock cooked down with a mirepoix and some herbs and wine that’s reduced until it’s almost a paste. It’s rich in flavor and adds a nice intensity to any dish it touches. Glaze a steak with a demi glace before serving and step the fuck back.

Please note that we will not be dredging the steaks, merely coating them in flour.

Cut each steak in half and season with equal amounts salt, pepper, garlic powder and onion powder.

Place the flour into a bowl big enough to first of all hold the flour and be efficient for dragging the steaks in. Get the steaks nice and coated with flour. Reserve the unused flour.

Heat up the cooking oil over medium high heat in a large Dutch oven then get those seasoned and floured steaks in there.

Work in batches to avoid overcrowding the pan. Give these about 4 minutes per side.

Let’s go ahead and preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Repeat the searing process until all of the steaks have been seared giving you a nice stack of meat.

Mmmmm. Stacked meat.

Be sure to leave the browned, crusty bits in the pot.

Next thing, well shit, you should actually do this while the batches of steaks are cooking but what the fuck ever, chop up the onions and garlic.

Dump the onions – not the garlic yet – and the sliced mushrooms into the still hot Dutch oven.

Season with a bit of salt and pepper and the 1/2 teaspoon of thyme. Use a wooden spoon and scrape up all those tasty leftover steak bits while you’re sauteing. After about 6-7 minutes go ahead and add the garlic, stirring just until the garlic smell punches you in the dick. About 30-45 seconds. Dump the reserved flour into the pot and give everything a good stir.

Next we will add the meat into the pot along with the demi glace – if using – and the beef stock.

The reason the recipe calls for “16-32 ounces of beef stock” is entirely dependent on how many steaks are cooked. I cooked 3 full steaks. This dish needs to braise so you want the liquid to almost fully cover everything. Plus this is how the fucking gravy gets made. Too little stock = too little gravy.

I likes my gravy.

Place the lid on the Dutch oven and stick this fucker into the preheated 350 degree oven for about 80-90 minutes depending on how thick the steaks are. We want this shit TENDER.

Remove from the oven.

Oh dear lord. See how the flour worked it’s alchemy with the gravy? Shit yes.

Remember me mentioning up there about the gravy, protein and mashed potatoes?

Mash some damn potatoes.

One potato per person, peeled and cooked in a pot of boiling, salted water until tender.

Drain the potatoes and dump into your multi-tasking stand mixer.

Check this shit out!

That’s the mixer using the hook attachment to knead the rolls.

Here it is with the paddle attachment mixing up them taters. I added a little whole milk and about 3 tablespoons of butter to the potatoes along with some salt and pepper.

I should work for Kitchenaid as much as I whore this motherfucker out. Buy One! Today!

Now we got us a nice biggol bowl of mashed potatoes.

As Jesus intended.

I rounded off the meal with some corn. You baseball fans may have heard the older baseball announcers call an easy pop fly to the outfield a “Can of corn.” It’s appropriate because we did more than enough labor on everything else today, so just heat up a goddamn can of corn for your vegetation.

Scoop those mashed potatoes onto a plate. Grab yourself a hunk of that steak and set it there too. Get a ladle and pour on as much of that gravy as you damn well please. Add a scoop of the corn, grab a hot and freshly made dinner roll and get ready for a true “Death Row Last Meal.”

Just looking at the photo makes me want to clock out, go to the store, drive home and make this fucking thing all over again.

I can’t do the usual food taste breakdown thing. I just can’t. That would be like properly describing your first love, or your favorite childhood pet. Or what Christmas morning felt like when you were in grade school.

Those goddamn homemade rolls too!

This was my favorite meal growing up.

Period.

Actually you could call it a tie with chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes and cream gravy. Or fried chicken with mashed potatoes and cream gravy. Or pot roast with mashed potatoes and brown gravy.

You get the point.

Now for a quick bit of Sunday Gravy heresy.

Season, flour and sear the steaks as listed above. Place into the Dutch oven along with a can of cream of mushroom soup that’s been thinned out with a can full of water. Add in a couple of minced garlic cloves and do the same cooking time and temperature.

You may feel a little guilty because you didn’t make your own fucking gravy dammit.

But oh boy it’s still pretty fucking delicious.

Forget you read that. You never heard that from me.

Thank you wonderful folks for being there while I bring back memories of my admittedly pretty goddamn strange childhood.

This was so fucking delicious and cathartic to make and you know where the inspiration came from? Something to serve the fresh rolls with.

There will be bread.

We’ll see y’all next week for another edition of Sunday Gravy and another fresh batch of bread.

Have a great Sunday.

PEACE!

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yeah right
yeah right is a fully vaccinated lifelong Vikings fan, food guru and LA Harbor resident with a black belt in profanity.
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[…] fact, we’ve done smothered steak right up in this here motherfucker […]

[…] a protein. Some of you probably remember when we made smothered steak – check out our previous effort from back in the before times of […]

Anthony In TX

Friends, DFOers, Countrymen,

It’s been over a year since I last commented on this site. I’ve been a busy little boy. Please welcome me back with open arms.
I love you all! I hope all your teams won this weekend! Unless you’re a Warriors fan!

ballsofsteelandfury

Welcome back!!

BrettFavresColonoscopy

GWS did, so count it!

Did you bring us anything good?

Rikki-Tikki-Deadly

Hey, welcome home!

rockingdog

finally got my jersey in the mail from china.
cool!!!! padres now up 4-0

Unsurprised

HELP I’M A POLITICAL PRISONER FORCED TO WORK IN A SLAVE LABOR CAMP

69

Gratliff

Someone explain to me the purpose of the repeated dog death movie?

Unsurprised

Porn for cats

Dunstan

I don’t know, but I hope Casey Kasem is on the soundtrack:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rV7WF5VVwuo

Unsurprised

The good old days of reading the Sunday comics.

h

ttps://pixxxels.cc/XZR1BjYW

Redshirt

Yay! Go, Cincinnati Blues!

Unsurprised

I thought the Cincinnati Blues was what you get afflicted with every NFL season.

Redshirt

No, that’s the Cincinnati Runs.

Unsurprised

Oh. I confused that with Marvin Lewis.

Dunstan

I thought that was what they called their chili

Unsurprised

Damn it. That was the joke I was looking for.

BrettFavresColonoscopy

This makes me hungrier than a picture of Elizabeth Hurley

Unsurprised

MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

comment image

ballsofsteelandfury

Now THAT’S Sunday Gravy!

Unsurprised
theeWeeBabySeamus

I need to get that job.

Anthony In TX

Jesus, who is that and why is she not in my house rejecting me?

Unsurprised

Alexis Ren

rockingdog

Padres up early against Los Dodgers.
cool!!!!

theeWeeBabySeamus

The Baltimore Orioles did not lose today.
Thank you, Weather.

scotchnaut

The age-old struggle…

Ran/jogged/walked 10k yesterday. Hiked 8K today.

Do I eat the chickpea salad in the fridge or treat myself to some sort of pizza-like delivery thingy because I did good physical things? Either way…

theeWeeBabySeamus

Eat the chickpea salad, then treat yourself to some masturbation.
(photos or it didn’t happen)
((to be clear I’m referring to the salad))

ballsofsteelandfury

What tWBS said.

The first two lines, at least.

scotchnaut

/watching Raptors/Sixers

Announcer: “Expect a gritty, defense-oriented game.”

[Lowry gets easy layup]

[Simmons gets easy layup]

Unsurprised

Maybe they meant it as in “Expect a game where the defense is playing like they’re all in Gritty costumes.”

ballsofsteelandfury

Going along the Southern/Soul Food train, I’m eagerly awaiting your collared greens recipe. My boss made some for a work lunch and they were fucking insane. They have ham hocks and bacon and I could have eaten them all day long.

theeWeeBabySeamus

Oh, I can do you some collards and ham and/or bacon. I do it regularly.

But be ready to get the shits.

ballsofsteelandfury

I don’t fear the collard greens shits. They would be worth it.

scotchnaut

/watching the Netflix bio on Robert Johnson…stay tuned. Get it? Tuned?

scotchnaut

This isn’t about Johnson, this is about (sorta) the south at the time and the experience that black musicians had at that time. Everything else is conjecture by a white guy obsessed with Robert Johnson.

rockingdog

hung out and played video games this morning cause its raining outside.
guess I missed Chelsea get the W. oh well!
comment image

ballsofsteelandfury

Ain’t nothing wrong with that!

theeWeeBabySeamus

OK, that was an interesting commercial.

Ask your doctor about your curved erection? CURVED OR NOT JUST BE THANKFUL YOU CAN STILL GET ONE!!!!!!!

theeWeeBabySeamus

“It’s possible to injure yourself during intercourse”

Yeah, I really hurt my shoulder once when I fell off the bed.

rockingdog

found a funny:
Me: We All Die Alone for $500
Trebek: That’s not one of the options
Me: *lips against mic* It’s the only option, Alex

Unsurprised

Incorrect. You didn’t phrase it in the form of a question.

scotchnaut

Went down the Thomas Keller (braised) rabbithole. He’s got a wee touch of the OCD it seems and he’s not very comfortable in front of the camera. I’m sure that if he had his druthers, he’d just stay in the kitchen but it’s a personality-driven business that he happens to be in and so he has to do shit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQYXPfWO2Sw

Unsurprised

Wait. Are you suggesting that Michelin-starred chefs might possibly be obsessive and manic to the point of psychosis? GTFO.

scotchnaut

Brighton, Hove, Albion, Bingley, Flitwick, Mere, Selby, Plympton and Torquay just scored against Arsenal to tie it up!

theeWeeBabySeamus

They sound like a bunch of wankers.
And I know from wankers!!!!!!!!

scotchnaut

Buncha fish and chip-eating cockboffins!

Unsurprised

Is that the roster for the BYU starting offense (with Dan Smith as QB, of course)?

Rikki-Tikki-Deadly

Without, hopefully, sounding racially insensitive I can simply say I cook Southern food because as a white guy I don’t think I’m allowed to call it Soul Food.

The only white guy who is allowed to call it Soul Food is Richie Incognito.

scotchnaut

There will be Bread, and The Flying Burrito Brothers will be playing as well.”

-concert announcer, Aquarius Theatre Hollywood in July of 1969

theeWeeBabySeamus

comment image

Fronkenshteen

I wish I connected with my actual family members the way I connect with the food (recipes) we ate together for years.

rockingdog

True that