Sorta Swiss Steak

Swiss steak is a comfort food in our home. I have a recipe I have used for years - but it requires my slow cooker and this morning I decided I wanted Swiss steak - but my meat wasn't thawed. So I went online and did a search for a different sort of recipe using cubed steak. Most of the recipes were for "chicken fried steak" - I didn't really want that - so kept looking til I found this one and decided to give it a try. The name alone was intriguing.


Sorta Swiss Steak


1 lb cubed beef steak
1 cup flour, divided
salt & pepper to taste
2 tbsp oil
1 large onion
2 cups beef broth
3 tbsp Worcestershire sauce


Our grocery store has a regular deal which is 5 meats for 19.95. The variety changes week to week and occasionally they do this and you get the 6th one free. The prices are amazing - you pay 3.99 each and on the week that the 6th is free - the price is even better. I tend to watch for this deal and stock up. Last week they had cubed steak as well as other great meats included in this offer. I filled my freezer. For this recipe I used 2 lbs of meat because I was feeding 6 people . Each package had about 1 lb and 4 pieces of meat.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Salt and pepper the meat and dredge in flour.

Set aside and finishing dredging the rest of the meat.

Heat oil over medium high heat. Brown meat 4 to 5 minutes total. Not cooked - just to get a nice crust on meat.

Once meat is browned, set aside on a plate and continue to brown the rest of the meat.

Slice onion into wedges.

Layer onion in the bottom of a roast pan and top with a layer of meat.

Continue to layer - I had 3 layers of onion and 2 of meat. Pour beef broth and Worcestershire sauce over layers.

Cover and bake for 2 hours.

This is the completed dish. Everyone really enjoyed this version of Swiss steak. I am not sure if I will ever go back to the other. The meat was incredibly tender. The onion picked up some amazing flavors. My husband raved about this.

I served this with beets (frozen by me this summer), boiled Yukon gold potatoes & peas.

Hearty Beef Stew

My middle child, Nelson, loves stew. It is one of his favorites. Not so with my husband. Since my husband was away this week on business I decided to make some. I love stew from a slow cooker. The meat cooking for 8 or 9 hours really does just fall apart. This was a new recipe - and it calls for hoisin Sauce (used in oriental cooking). I liked the addition.


Hearty Beef Stew


2 tbsp butter
2 lbs beef stew meat
1 tbsp minced garlic
12 oz pkg of mushrooms , cut in half
1 1/2 large sweet onion, cut into 1 inch pieces
3 parsnips, cut into 1/2 - 1 inch slices
3 carrots, cut into 1/2 - 1 inch slices
1 rutabaga, peeled and cut into 1 inch pieces
1 - 1 1/2 lbs baby potatoes, quartered, about 10 potatoes
2 - 14.5 oz cans diced tomatoes
2 - 14 oz cans beef broth
2/3 cup hoisin sauce
2 tsp dried thyme


Melt butter in skilled until sizzling, add beef and garlic. Cover over medium-high heat until beef is browned (4 - 5 minutes). You might need to do this in batches. Put all ingredients into slow cooker with rest of vegetables.

In a medium bowl combine tomatoes, broth, hoisin sauce and thyme and pour over slow cooker ingredients - stir to combine.

Cook on low for 8 - 9 hours. I did turn it to high for the last hour or so. Not sure if it was necessary.


Here is the finished product. This was most definitely a heart stew. Great flavors. A little soupy. Next time I would try flouring the beef just before frying. The flour will then mix with the liquids and help thickening things up as it cooks.

The nice thing about stews is you can throw in whatever vegetables you have on hand. I love the root veggies so plan ahead and make sure I have them on hand when I make stew.