Blade Steak

[Stina]

Does anyone have any recipes or ideas for how to cook 'chuck blade' steaks? Hubby bought them because they were "so inexpensive and so big!!". I know he was trying to be nice but I don't have a clue on how to cook them:-)

Karen? Anyone? Help:-)

[Karen]

Hi Stina,

Blade steaks are best braised or stewed. They are not really suitable for grilling or frying. Any LC recipe you have for a pot roast type of thing would be good.

Or:

Season steaks and Brown on both sides. Remove from the pan.

Brown a bit of onion, celery and garlic in the same pan.

Add a splash of red wine and few diced canned tomatoes.

Return steaks to the pot and cover with stock or water to 1-inch above the steaks. Cover with a lid and cook in the oven at 300 F for about an hour.

Fry a whole bunch of mushrooms in butter and add to the pot. Add a bit of cream - maybe 1/2 cup. Return to the oven and cook uncovered for 1/2 hour longer, stirring occasionally. Season to taste.

This will be like beef Stroganoff.

Karen

[r.mines]

If you like your meat rare, chuck steaks are not too bad pan-fried or BBQ'd. (Oh, god, I'm contradicting you, Karen! Don't kill me!!!)

I use chuck steak all the time. I cut it into 6-8 oz. portions, and marinade it for a couple of hours in a bit of Worchestershire sauce, garlic, soy sauce, whatever. Just a bit of marinade; try not to let the meat get too soggy. Then I pan-fry it, or BBQ if possible. Only you have to eat this kind of steak RARE, medium-rare at most, otherwise it gets incredibly tough. Leftovers are good sliced cold the next day.

Chuck steak also makes pretty good curry; simmer it for about an hour with spices and a bit of onion. Serve on top of spaghetti squash or thinly sliced green beans.

Rachel

[Stina]

Thanks! Both sound great (we both like our steaks MR). These steaks are bigger than any pan I have so I think I will try both recipes:D $8 for more meat than on a roast, I know I could make shoes out of them if I am not careful! Now which recipe to try first, hmmmmm.

It's funny to me to think of eating tomatoes. For some reason they are one of the foods I have not touched in a couple of months. Even when I ate greek salad I just had a few mouthfuls of the peppers and left the tomatoes. But simmered in red wine sounds so yummy......

Will post the results! Thanks!

[Karen]

Ahh! Contradictions are the stuff that life is made of, Rachel. ;)

Rachel is right, but they do have to be on the rare-ish side.

If you like the flavour of cumin, there is a recipe in the Karen section for flank steak with cumin aioli. The aioli would be gread with the steaks. If you don't like cumin, use basil or tarragon.

What's really important, is to cut the meat very thinly against the grain. If you cut it with the grain, you will have limp jerky!

Try Rachel's idea first. Mine takes longer.

Karen