Grillades & Grits

Sunday dinner seemed like a good night for cheesy stone-ground grits!  I looked around for recipes and found this one so I based what I did on hers, but did it 'my way' as hers seemed a little more complicated than necessary.  :)  I had "Triple-A Inside Round" steak in the fridge because I was going to make chicken-fried steak with it but since I made sausage gravy yesterday, I wasn't craving the milk gravy again.

I started by doing my mise en place first.  I chopped Walla Walla and red onion, celery, red pepper and minced 4 cloves of garlic.

Next I pounded my steaks with a mallet. I know these suckers are tough, so I wanted to give them a really good smack-down.  I laid them in-between saran wrap and pounded away on both sides.

I seasoned with S&P and Creole seasoning.  I have enough spices in my cupboard to make my own so I did.  I shook with a little flour and more Creole seasoning in a plastic bag, then browned them.

I put them on a cutting board and cut into 1 inch pieces as I only had just over a pound of steak, not 2 lbs like the recipe called for.  However,  I had to make do with what I had.

I put all the veggies into the pan the steak cooked in and stir-fried these until soft.

Then I added some flour - I used 1/3 cup.

When that was cooked out really well, I added 2 cups of beef broth, a tablespoon of Creole seasoning and 1 can of fire-roasted diced tomatoes with the liquid.  I brought to a boil, let it thicken for a minute then added back in the steak.  I brought to a simmer and covered.

After a half hour, I made the grits next.  I used all milk this time (4 cups) and 2 cups of Crackerbarrel Extra Old cheddar (grated), S&P and a couple of tabs of butter - at the beginning and the end.  I wonder how anyone could NOT like grits made like this?

I stirred both pots about every 5 minutes for a solid half hour.  At the end, I folded the cheese into the grits, another pat of butter, stirred and served with the steak mixture and a garnish of parsley.

I enjoyed this, I found the sauce a little too salty - guess I could have done better on my homemade "Creole Spice".  Speaking of spice, I would add a jalapeno pepper with the veggies next time.  I wanted a bit more heat.  Other than that, it was pretty good.