Swiss Steak or something

We usually find ourselves with a surplus of round steak after butchering so we need to figure ways to work with it. Can't let a nice piece of meat go to waste, after all. This is one of the ways we enjoy the stuff:

Swiss Steak Sort Of

2 pounds beef round steak, trimmed and cut into 6 portions
1/2 cup flour
2 T black pepper
1 T salt
1 T garlic powder
1 T Indian curry, the brown kind (I make my own, will find the recipe around here somewhere) for curry lovers, use more
1/8 cup oil
1 large onion, peeled and sliced thin
1 red bell pepper, cleaned and sliced
1 green bell pepper, cleaned and sliced
1 quart canned tomatoes with juice (home canned is best, if you don't have any use a 28 ounce can of diced)
1/2 cup beef broth

Mix the flour, pepper, salt, garlic and curry. Place in a soup dish for dredging.
Pound the beef portions very thin, dipping them in the flour mixture as needed.
After the beef is prepared, dredge the portions one more time in the flour and allow them to dry.
Preheat oven to 300F.
In a large braising pan on medium high, heat the oil until it swims. (If you want, use clarified butter, which won't smoke.)
Lightly brown the portions in batches. Set aside in a bowl. Don't do them so they are done at all, just a little brown on the outside. (Make sure there is no burning as you will have to dump out the fats and wash the pan, then start over with fresh fat.)
Reduce heat to medium low.
Put all the portions back in the braising pan in layers as stated below, if needed. Add juice from bowl.
Layer sliced onions, peppers and tomatoes on beef. Slowly bring to a boil.
Cover and place in preheated oven. Braise for 4 hours.
Remove cover, testing to make sure the contents of the pan are not drying out. If they do, add the broth.
Bake for another hour. Remove from oven, cover loosely and let set for 15 minutes.
Serve with mashed potatoes and a green vegetable of your choice.

Curried Beef Kabobs

This is a recipe that my late father found in a magazine or somewhere over 30 years ago. It's a tradition in our family and I think I need to make it again.

A quick tip is to use boiling onions rather than hunks of cut-up onion. They hold together much better. Blanching the peppers allows them to cook more evenly on the grill and they will caramelize without burning. Use a good quality curry. We like Sunbird but it is your choice.

Cooking time will vary but please remember to figure in the overnight marination period. This allows plenty of time for the meat to soak up the marinade and it will give a tough cut a start at being more tender.

Curry Beef Kabobs

Serves 8, 16 skewers

meat
· 4-6 lbs beef, trimmed to 1-inch cubes
marinade
· 12 ounces beer
· 1/4 canola oil
· 1 medium onion, diced
· 4 teaspoons curry powder, to taste
· 1 tablespoon minced ginger
· 1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
· 1 lb round steak, 1 inch cubes
vegetables
· 5 bell peppers, red and green cleaned halves
· 1 1/2 lbs white pearl onions, parboiled and peeled
· 1 1/2 roma tomatoes, quartered
sauce
· 1 cup beer
· 1/4 vegetable oil
· 1 medium onion, pureed
· 4 teaspoons curry powder, to taste
· 1 tablespoon ginger, pureed
· 1/2 teaspoon garlic, pureed

Directions

Day 1:
Measure beer without a head.
Mix with remaining ingredients, excepting meat and vegetables.
Pour marinade over beef in sealable container. Refrigerate overnight.
Day 2:
If you wish, the vegetables can all be prepped the day before and kept in the refrigerator until it's time to assemble the kebabs.
Bring large pot of salted water to a rolling boil. Add halved peppers. Cook for about 10 minutes, or until the red peppers begin to lose their skins. Plunge in cold water to stop the cooking. Remove when cool, drain well and cut into 3 pieces for each half pepper. Remove skin from 14 red pepper pieces. Set all aside.
Dump meat and marinade into a colander over a saucepan. Rinse lightly to remove chunks of marinade. Remove meat and pat dry. Set aside.
To the marinade add sauce ingredients (except for beer): oil, curry, pureed onion, garlic and ginger. Bring to a boil, boil for 5 minutes. You may skim if you wish, I usually don't. Reduce heat and add the beer. Stir well and simmer until reduced to the point where the sauce will stick to the meat and vegetables while cooking.
Preheat grill to 300 degrees.
Assemble kebabs in whatever order you wish. I do a piece of red pepper with skin, onion, meat, tomato, onion meat, etc and end up with a piece of tomato, skin out.
(Putting the pepper and tomato on the ends of the kebabs helps to hold the whole thing together on the grill.).
Place loaded skewers on preheated grill, turn every 10 minutes or so, brushing frequently with the sauce.
15. When the meat is firm and the tomatoes are soft and starting to blacken, give the kebabs a good brushing with the sauce and turn the heat to high for a short period of time. This will finish the caramelizing of the glaze and the veggies will be lovely, done through and slightly crispy on the outside.
Remove from grill, serve with anything you want.



I wish that photo were clearer, darn it. The recipe is so good that it deserves a better image.