Swiss Steak

Swiss Steak with Stewed Tomatoes

Another old fashioned favorite that I hadn’t fixed in quite a while. I was inspired to make it after discovering no salt added stewed tomatoes at my local Safeway market. I thought the celery and onions in the stewed tomatoes would give the final dish additional flavor (and cut down on chopping). It all came together quickly and turned out to be a great meal.

I picked up some top round steak and asked the grocery store butcher to run it through the meat tenderizer machine twice. So no worries about tough meat. I dredged the meat in flour and fried it in oil until browned on both sides. I also added some quartered mushrooms that needed to be used up. Plopped in the stewed tomatoes, some minced garlic, a couple of bay leaves, some dried savory, a packet of NSA beef bouillon granules, and a couple of teaspoons of low sodium Worcestershire sauce. I also dropped in a tea ball containing a couple of allspice berries and about a teaspoon of whole black peppercorns. Everything simmered for about an hour, until the meat was tender and the sauce had thickened slightly.

It would have been wonderful with mashed potatoes or buttered noodles. Unfortunately, I didn’t have either at the time, so I ended up serving it with some vegetables. All in all, a tasty meal and easy to prepare. The key ingredients were the already tenderized meat and the NSA stewed tomatoes (cube steak and NSA diced tomatoes would work just as well). For a change of pace, next time I’ll try Safeway’s NSA Italian Style Diced Tomatoes with basil, garlic, onion, and oregano already included.

This was one of those “throw-together” meals that didn’t follow a real recipe, but here are the basics:

Swiss Steak

4 – 6 servings

(Printable Recipe)

1½ – 2 pounds round steak (have butcher run through tenderizer twice)

Flour

Oil

14 ounce can NSA tomatoes (I used NSA stewed tomatoes)

2 – 3 cloves garlic, minced

1 – 2 bay leaves, depending on size

1 teaspoon favorite dried herb or spice blend (I used savory)

Pepper to taste

Optional:
NSA beef bouillon granules

1 small onion, chopped (if not using flavored tomatoes)

Sliced fresh mushrooms (or NSA canned or freeze dried)
1 – 2 teaspoons low sodium Worcestershire sauce

Dredge steak in flour. Saute meat in oil until well browned on both sides. (If using fresh onion or mushrooms, add them to the hot pan a few minutes before browning is done.) Add tomatoes and flavorings to pan. Cover and simmer until meat is tender, about 1 – 1½ hours. Add water or broth if sauce gets too thick.