Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Gluten Free Steak Fingers

I've never made steak fingers before. I prefer my steaks half dead, still mooing. Rare or medium rare for me. But I thought I'd try to make some gluten free/grain free ones. We're not a gluten free or grain free family. But I try to limit our intake of these items. I went grocery shopping today and there was a special on cubed steaks, so I out them in my cart. Walked around and decided to make steak fingers. Well, once you decide to make steak fingers, you need gravy. So I had to get the ingredient for that. Yes, one LOL.
I made two types of steak fingers. Naked, just seasoned, and the other dredged in seasoned gluten free corn starch. I preferred the dredged steak fingers, my kids preferred the naked ones. Because they were "too spicy" Pixie said. Diva ate 3 of the dredged ones and some naked ones, so I'm not sure why she said preferred the naked ones.
These are simple and quick to make. No fancy ingredients. I thought about pulling out gluten free flour, but I haven't even opened my bag because I'm not sure what I want to use it for. I've never baked with GF flour and like I said, we're just not a GF family. Cubed steak is tenderized already, but to make them even more tender I salt them. Just the same as I do all steaks I cook.

Give Peas A Chance Gluten Free Steak Fingers


2 pounds cubed steak
2-3 teaspoons kosher salt
1 cup of buttermilk or 1 cup milk with 1 tablespoon of lemon juice stirred in
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
black pepper
1/4-1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon oregano

Dredge-
1 cup gluten free corn starch
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
black pepper
1/4-1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon oregano
1/2- 3/4 cup oil for frying
2 tablespoons of bacon grease
 Sprinkle the cube steaks on all sides with the salt. Let it sit for 30-45 minutes. (Trust me). When you come back you steak will have released liquid, concentrating flavor and tenderizing further. Rinse the steaks and pay dry. Cut the cube steaks into 1 inch wide strips.
Whisk the remaining ingredients together. In a separate dish or pie plate stir the dredging ingredients together.
Heat half of the oil and 1 tablespoon of bacon grease in a frying pan.
Dip the strips of steak into cornstarch mixture- shake off excess, then them into the the egg/milk mixture, then dredge in the cornstarch, and place them gently into the frying pan.
Fry in hot oil for about 1 to 2 minutes on each side. Add the remaining oil as as needed.
For gravy- save the pan drippings, and stay tuned for my next post!
For "naked" steak fingers omit the corn starch step. Dip in the egg mixture, gently shake off excess- you don't want it to splatter all over, and cook in the oil.
Naked Steak Fingers
Gravy!

Alright, I'm not going to make you wait for the gravy post. It's too dang simple.

GPAC Gluten free/Dairy free/Grain free Gravy

This recipe calls for pan drippings. Usually if I'm making a gravy I have some sort of pan drippings that I make a roux with. Reserve about 1/4 cup and use this to taste in your gravy. This can be from an oven roast, from pan frying bacon, sausage, or chicken, or drippings from your crock pot. If you don't have drippings, just season to taste- add a teaspoon of Better than Bouillon, or a tablespoon or two of butter is good also- if you eat dairy.
Recipe yields 2 cups of gravy, depending on the size of the cauliflower
 1/2 head of cauliflower- steamed until tender
8 ounces of stock
salt
pepper
3 tablespoons to 1/3 cup of pan drippings

Place cauliflower and 1/2 of the stock in a blender. Blend and puree until smooth. This shouldn't be grainy, it will be smooth and creamy. Add the remaining stock and blend. I poured this into the frying pan, and whisked to get all of the good browned pan drippings off of the bottom. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Try this with any gravy, sausage, turkey, chicken, beef, a white gravy, you can add milk if you like. 
Will you try this dish? If you do let me know, I'd love to know how you like it!

4 comments:

  1. Very cool recipe! I bet I could add that to something like tofu to spruce it up! Awesome!! Thanks for linking up at Gluten Free Fridays!

    ReplyDelete

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