When you think “country food”, what image comes to mind? Watermelon slices, speckled with black spittin’ seeds, served on a big platter on a hot summer’s day? Or perhaps sweet iced tea in a tall, sweating glass full of ice cubes? Could be that you imagine a plateful of buttermilk biscuits swimming in sausage gravy with a mess of bacon on the side. For me, it’s “chicken fried” anything. Recipe #26 was the daddy of all the chicken frieds: Chicken Fried Steak. Since I hail from Alaska, about as far away from the Deep South as one can get without actually being Canadian, I did not grow up with this country staple. In fact I had never even heard of it until I saw it on the Denny’s menu as a child, and at that age I didn’t order anything unfamiliar or what I considered “weird”. I honestly thought that what I was looking at in the picture was a regular steak, inexplicably coated in breading, then doused in white gravy. I was unimpressed. Why ruin your juicy steak by frying it?!? And gravy is supposed to be brown, I tell you, BROWN! Needless to say, I slammed that menu shut on the monstrosity of chicken fried steak, ordered my cheeseburger and fries and got on with my meal. Fast forward through many years of expanding my palate (and waistline) to me watching some cooking show or another. I missed the beginning, showing the preparation steps, but the chef was serving up heaping platters of chicken fried steak and mashed potatoes, and for the first time in my life, I was chicken fried-curious! I Googled a few recipes, discovered that what was inside the breading was actually something called “cube steak”, then headed to the store to figure out what the heck that was. When I located it by reading every label in the beef case, I couldn’t see how it was any different than a large hamburger patty, smooshed down with a mallet. In fact, I still feel that is a fitting description, since it is made from top round or top sirloin and just beaten into submission with a meat tenderizer instead of a grinder. Po-TAY-to, po-TAH-to. Anyway, back to dinner! The moral of the story is that I didn’t much like the recipe I had chosen, as the whole thing was too salty for my taste, and I didn’t dig the texture. The somewhat flavorless breading floated off the steak while I was frying it, and burned up in the oil while I made multiple servings, which of course caused a scorched flavor to permeate. I put chicken fried steak firmly back into the “Nah” column. Well, here I am again, another five years down the road and working through the cookbook of a real-life ranch wife, so it was inevitable that I would again come face to face with my nemesis. Let’s start with the positives: cube steak is cheap as heck, particularly when you buy it at the commissary. I can’t often purchase a main protein for a little over a dollar per serving, so that was nice. Ree’s recipe called for more seasoning than just salt and pepper, another bonus, and the breading liquid combined milk and eggs, so I had a feeling I would get better adhesion. Another edge Ree had over the previously Googled recipe was the fact that she triple-breads her steaks; the flatted meat easily doubled in thickness once I thrice-dredged it in liquid and flour, and it did in fact hold on much better in the pan. Ok, so that concludes my list of what I liked about chicken fried steak this time around. I still think the texture is closer to “mushy” than “tender”, and I maintain that brown gravy is the best gravy. I absolutely cannot stomach the idea of using a big pile of grease to make white gravy. Yes, I know I am in the minority here, but I just can’t do it. Don’t get me wrong, this was leaps and bounds better than my previous attempt, but still not my fave. The Other Half did not appear to share my opinion; he demolished a CFS the size of his head.
From the Lard Side to the Light Side, the next recipe had approximately 14 calories in the entire bowl. Nothing but onion, cilantro, jalapeño, tomato and lime juice with a touch of salt. I think I ate one tortilla chip with this mixture on it. It was fine. Yep, that’s the whole story. I’m generally not a big fan of Pico de Gallo, but again, the Other Half gave it a vigorous stamp of approval. In fact, he got creative with it and topped the next recipe, Simple Perfect Chili, with a generous helping of this pico and raved!
Now here’s something to talk about! The name says it all, as this chili is pretty much perfect the way it is, as a topping for hot dogs, over tortilla chips as nachos, or as a stand-alone bowl layered with cheese, onions and Fritos. My Ohio-born honey decided to use it to make his own version of Cincinnati chili. If you aren’t familiar, that’s chili served over spaghetti! He added a pile of pico on top, and was quite proud of his creation. I topped my bowl with a handful of cheddar, and was pleasantly surprised that the combination worked so well. This recipe seemed suspiciously familiar as I was making it, and sure enough, an exact doubled version appeared in Ree Drummond’s Dinnertime, which I cooked my way through several years ago. Then it was titled “Make-Ahead Chili”, since you can prepare it to eat now or freeze it in a Ziplock bag laid flat. I’d recommend doing that, so you can thaw a little or a lot whenever you find something to dump chili on! And really, that is a lot of things…
The mix-and-match recipes continued with something we can actually keep making while on this dratted diet plan: Breakfast Bowls. I love any recipe where you can easily swap out ingredients to customize your meal, and this one basically calls for dumping the kitchen sink into a ramekin, dousing it in egg mixture, and baking it. Sausage? Check. Bacon? Check. Cheese, potatoes, tomatoes, basil, more cheese, onions, an old shoe you found in the back of the closet? Check, check, and so on. Really, the possibilities here are endless! Maybe less meat, more veggies, such as mushrooms, spinach and peppers, or sweet potatoes and butternut squash. Maybe ditch the veggies altogether and double down on breakfast meats; you do you! I personally could have skipped the bacon and just included sausage crumbles (I know, it’s sacrilege to delete bacon, but it made the breakfast bowl saltier than I prefer!) Using frozen Potatoes O’Brien, which already have little flecks of peppers and onions, or even plain old frozen hash browns is a step-saver. The great thing is that even though these were potentially chock-full of calories, making some slight tweaks (remove a few yolks, use turkey sausage, whole milk instead of half-and-half in the egg mixture, etc.) means even dieters can still have a satisfying, protein-rich meal that reheats beautifully and contains a ton of flavor!
Hello Pico de Gallo… we meet again! Yep, if you are having a sense of deja vu, it’s because you are looking at Ree’s recipe for Guacamole, which she eventually realized after years of preparing separately is literally nothing more than adding chunky avocado to her pico recipe. Of course you mix it all up together, but it looked so much prettier before I hit it with the masher! I am sad to report that as sometimes happens, my cooking got ahead of our tummies. We couldn’t eat our way through all the food in the fridge and this little bowl was hidden until it was too late. I never even got to try a bite before it was beyond the boundaries of what I consider edible! I guess that just means I have to make it again and sit down with a bowl of tortilla chips on my next “cheat day”. Oh darn…
Have Book, Will Cook 