What's Cooking: Steak & Onions

Evening, folks. I'm going to try a new segment called What's Cooking, where I will share what I'm cooking, and how I'm doing it. I will also try to post pictures to a web album, so you visual people can get a better idea of what's going on.

Tonight's dish is Steak & Onions which is one of the things we do with the London Broil(Top Round) that comes as part of our package from the meat market. This is about as simple as we make it, as we always have onions in the house. Feel free to add mushrooms or strips of peppers to this dish, we do. This dish is a low-carb dish and is suitable for paleo/primal diets/lifestyles.

Top Round, Onions, and Garlic, along with my salt and pepper mills, and my grease can.

View all the images for this What's Cooking dish here

So, first things first, gather everything you're going to need. Meat, onions, garlic, salt, pepper, some cooking fat (I use bacon grease), a skillet or wok to cook it all in, a cutting board for prep work, a stirring/mixing utensil (metal spatula with a flat edge if cooking in cast iron), some large bowls, and optionally some sour cream.

Go ahead and slice the meat and onions into strips (think: fajitas); you can optionally separate the onions at this point. Mince your garlic, and and set your skillet or wok to preheat (if using a wok, add some fat to it now; if using cast iron, wait until the skillet heats to medium heat before adding the fat and turning up the heat.

Now, my family prefers their onions dead well done; if yours does too, you can add all the ingredients into a large bowl. Add some salt, pepper, any other seasonings you want and a wee bit of cooking fat. Dig your hands in and mix it up — yes, your hands will get fat on them, but it washes off. If you would rather have crisper onions, leave them out of the bowl and just mix everything else.

Wash your hands as your skillet finishes coming to heat. When it's ready, dump in the bowl of ingredients and cook at high heat, stirring often. If you withheld your onions earlier, you can add them after the meat is about half browned. Continue cooking until desired doneness. You should find a good deal of juice in the bottom of the pan, which you can leave alone, or you can turn it into a sauce by mixing in a little sour cream.

Steak & Onions, with a mug of sour cream sauce

To make the sauce, just get some tongs and pull all the large pieces into a bowl, leaving the juice in the bottom of the pan. Reduce your heat, add a bit of salt and pepper to taste, perhaps some wine and/or chopped fresh herbs and a dollop or two of sour cream and stir/whisk (metal whisks are encouraged with cast iron) until well blended. Pour off into something (I used a soup mug tonigh) to set beside the larger pieces, or just pour it over and toss well.

You might have noticed the lack of measurements, and that's because I didn't use any. I used as much onion and garlic as I thought appropriate for the amount of meat, and just used the remainder of the tub of sour cream. This What's Cooking is not so much a recipe as it is some rough guidelines, and today I produced almost the simplest form of this dish. It produces a hearty meal from very few ingredients and can serve as a base for more complicated dishes. So, next time you've got some meat and some onions and can't think of what to fix for supper, just remember this and you'll be set.