This would probably be good on rice or pasta, but I felt the need to lay off the carbs that day, so I served it with spinach. If I’d had the time, I’d have sauteed the spinach, maybe with some diced onion and crushed red pepper, but Leah was already looking pretty appaled by the mess I’d made with the frying, so I just microwaved the spinach with a bit of white truffle butter. Whatever you do, the important thing about spinach is to press all the water out of it before you serve it. If I’d had any on hand, turnip greens or swiss chard might have been nice instead.
- 1 lb beef cube steaks, cut into 4 small steaks.
- ¼ cup unbleached whole wheat flour
- ¼ tsp black pepper
- ½ tsp salt (Here, I used Applewood Bacon Salt)
- ~3 Tbsp vegetable oil
- 4 Tbsp butter — I used 1 Tbsp white truffle butter and 3 Tbsp black truffle butter
- ~2 Tbsp olive oil
- 1 Tbsp crushed garlic
- 1 cup marsala wine
- 1 medium onion, sliced
- 12 oz cremini (baby portabella) mushrooms, sliced
- 1 cup chicken broth
- ½ tsp dried rosemary, crushed
In a large skillet, heat up enough vegetable oil to completely cover the bottom of the pan. In a flat dish, mix together the flour, pepper and salt. Dredge the steaks in the flour mixture, covering completely. Set the remaining flour aside (Yes, really. Bet you didn’t think I’d say that, did you?). When the oil comes to temperature, take it off the heat and add a tablespoon of butter (Use the black if you’ve got it), melt the butter, then put it back on medium-high heat. Cook the steaks for somewhere between a minute and ninety seconds, turning over about 2/3 of the way through. Transfer the cooked steaks to a plate covered with a couple of paper towels. You can put another paper towel on top if you like. Add just enough of the marsala wine to deglaze the pan and sort of push the resulting sludge to one side. Turn the heat back up and add enough olive oil to sautee in. When it comes up to temperature, again take it off, and add another tablespoon of butter (white this time) and the garlic. Sautee the garlic quickly while the pan is still hot, then put it back on medium heat and add the onions. Sautee the onions for about 3 minutes, then add the mushrooms and keep on sauteeing for another minute. Add the rest of the marsala and the chicken broth. Turn the heat up and bring it to a boil. Once it’s boiling, add in the rosemary and the rest of the butter, then slowly whisk up to 2½ tablespoons of the leftover flour mixture. The stirring will have stopped it boiling, so let it boil again, then reduce to a low simmer. Simmer, stirring occasionally, until it’s reduced in volume by half (I stuck a toothpick in it and marked the level, then used that to check for how much reducing it had done), which took me about 20 minutes. Turn the heat up to medium-high and put the steaks back into the pan as they’ll be ice cold by now. Cover and cook another 3 minutes or so, then remove from heat and serve.