Yet Another Half-Assed Recipe from Kristin's Kitchen

What I make for dinner is often dictated by the meat that's at the top of our big, black hole of a chest freezer. This thing is packed with cardboard boxes of meat, and if a particular kind of meat is at the very bottom of the freezer underneath hundreds of pounds of meat, I have to REALLY WANT IT to risk frostbite to my fingers, a pulled back muscle, and the inevitable cussing that occurs when I go freezer diving. So. Easily accessible meat! It's what's for dinner! Yesterday I opened the freezer, grabbed the first package I saw, and ended up with a sirloin tip steak. Okay. Then I pondered what to do with it. My sub-conscious must have been hard at work, because it was only after I decided to make grillades and grits that I remembered yesterday was Fat Tuesday. (Wait. Before I go any farther . . . have I mentioned that my mom is from New Orleans? Yes? Okay. Let's continue then.) Fat Tuesday is the day before Ash Wednesday, which is, in turn, the beginning of the Christian observance of Lent, the 40 days culminating in Easter. Got all that? Fat Tuesday is also the last blow-out for Mardi Gras, a festival celebrated with particular abandon in New Orleans, the city that is also known for grillades and grits. Do you see how this all fits together? It's magical, really. Okay, so maybe grillades aren't (isn't?) really KNOWN by the general populace. First of all, let's get the pronunciation right. My family always pronounces it "gray-odds," so that, of course, is correct. Even though some people pronounce it "gree-odds." It tastes good however you say it, though, so let's move on. Grillades is (are? this is a hard one, man) a beef preparation. It is very similar to Swiss steak, except it's NOT Swiss, because the recipe calls for a roux. But of course. Grillades are (is? oh, screw it--who cares) also cheap, because you take a cheap cut of meat and simmer it a long time to make it succulent. Yay for cheap! Though I used the sirloin tip steak, Mama Sue (WHY do I keep calling her this? NO ONE calls her this) always used cube steak, and my recipe card calls for round steak. Any lean, thin, stewing kind of cut will work, I think. And I don't know them all, so don't ask me what the others might be. Do some homework, ask your butcher, whatever. Let's just get to the recipe, okay? Once again, copied off a recipe card of my mother's that she probably doesn't even know she has. Mama Sue's Mardi Gras Grillades and Grits 1 and 1/2 pounds round steak, about 1/4 inch thickness 1/3 cup flour 1 and 1/2 teaspoons salt 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons vegetable oil (like canola) 1 large onion, chopped 1 green bell pepper, chopped 3 toes garlic, minced (remember, "toes" are Mama Sue-speak for "cloves") 1 16-ounce can whole tomatoes, with juice 3/4 cup water 3/4 cup parsley (I never use this, because I never have it) 1) Cut meat into 3-inch strips. If your meat is thick, you can pound it thinner with a frying pan or mallet. Or you can be lazy and just cut it into smaller squares. This will be discussed later, so make sure you read the directions all the way through. (Who just flashed back to third grade?) 2) Mix flour and salt together on a plate and dredge both sides of the meat pieces in this mixture, saving the remaining flour. 3) Heat 1/4 cup vegetable oil in a large, non-reactive (meaning not cast iron--tomatoes do bad things to the seasoning on cast iron) skillet on high, then brown the meat on both sides. 4) Remove meat and lower the heat to medium. Add reserved flour to the oil in the pan and make a roux, as described in the red beans and rice recipe. You'll notice that there's a lot more flour in proportion to the oil in this roux, which means it can burn easier, so be careful. 5) Add 2 more tablespoons of oil to the pan, then add the chopped onion, bell pepper, and garlic. Cook until the vegetables are soft. 6) Stir in tomatoes, water, and parsley. Check to see if you need to add salt. Then nestle the meat in there, making sure to spoon some of the sauce over the meat. 7) Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer about an hour. You want to be able to cut it with a butter knife. The time depends on the thickness of the meat. If your meat is thicker and you don't want to pound it thin or wait for-damn-ever for it to get tender, you can cut it into smaller squares instead of strips. That's what I ended up doing last night. The sauce is going to be pretty thick because of the flour, so you'll want to give it a stir and scrape the bottom of the pan every 15 minutes or so to make sure it's not sticking and burning. 8) Serve over grits. If you're afraid of grits, then you're a total pansy. You can use rice instead, if you have to and can live with your cowardice. And there you have it--a feast fit for Mardi Gras. Now, get to cookin', y'all!