QUICK STEAK and GRAVY

This great week night dinner is fast and satisfying for sure.  It is  made with cubed beef steak and is versatile enough to feed two or twenty.  It's rich brown gravy is flawless and the whole thing is table ready in about 35  minutes (depending on the thickness of your cube steak).

The ingredients listed here are for one pound of cubed beef steak (it makes about 2 cups of gravy). Double or triple the ingredients as you like.

1 pound cubed beef steak (see note)
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon flour (to add to gravy)
little extra flour to coat the cubed steak
(1) 4 serving size envelope of Lipton's Beefy Mushroom soup mix (see note)
2 cups water
(no salt...there's salt in the soup mix)
pepper to taste

Cut the cubed beef steaks into serving size pieces and dust them with pepper (no salt). Coat them in a little flour (shake off the excess) and brown them in 2 tablespoons of vegetable (or Canola) oil.

Remove the browned meat to a plate.  Mix 1 tablespoon flour with the dry soup mix and mix it all into the oil and meat juices in the same pan that you browned the meat in. Whisk in two cups of water and use a wooden spoon or spatula to scrape up any browned bits that might be stuck to the bottom of the pan. Stir till the gravy is thick.

Put the  meat back in the gravy and turn it way down to a slow simmer.  Simmer (covered) until the meat is tender (see note below).

Serve over rice or mashed potatoes for a quick and easy dinner that even Picky-picky husband loves.

NOTE:   Some people have said they can not find Lipton's Beefy Mushroom soup mix. You can also use Lipton's Onion soup mix.

NOTE: How long you let the meat simmer in the sauce depends on how thick (and how tender) your cubed beef steaks are. The ones I buy are fairly thin, so I usually simmer them in the gravy for about 30 minutes. If you have thick cube steak (or if it looks a little tough) it may take more like 45-60 minutes to get fork tender.