It seems I'm either cooking for a crowd or just for myself. Generally on Sunday I meet up with friends to have a brunch out at some little restaurant. With tomorrow being Presidents day some of us went out of town so I'm cooking for me and the neighbors tom cat. Rarely does he miss a meal when I'm cooking.
I was at the grocery store the other day and found a couple of tenderized round steak cutlets marked down to $1.75 and thought I could make a couple of meals out of that. I figured on frying them and making gravy in the pan for some mash potatoes. Along with that I heated a can of peas and seasoned them up in my customary fashion.
This is not my photo, guess I'm going to have to keep my camera in the kitchen.
The meat was coated with a seasoned flour. Some salt, pepper, poultry seasoning, a little season all and some powdered beef bouillon. The remainder
of this will make the gravy.
In to my chicken fryer skillet go the two cutlets and are browned nicely, and then removed to rest. Next a 1/4 cup of Pinot Grigio to deglaze the pan and after that the remaining seasoned flour. This is stirred and toasted well before
adding a cup and a half of milk to mix till smooth. A teaspoon of worcestershire, a dash of liquid smoke, some onion & garlic powder, savory, and a few drops of gravy master to color it a light brown. Gravy seems to be a rather personal thing so I've found but I like robust flavors in my food.
The mashed potatoes were of the instant variety so for the sake of time.
The peas get prepped like so. Can is opened and juice goes into a sauce pan.
into this a tsp of margarine, a couple of tsp of dried onion flakes, a tsp of dried vegetable flakes, and a cube of beef bouillon. This is brought to a low boil and reduced about half before the peas are added and heated a few minutes. A slotted spoon is used to plate this so the juice stays in the pan.
So the meat, potatoes & gravy go onto the plate and the peas.
For just one person (and a tom cat) it is a satisfying repast