Salisbury Steak

One of my goals this year is to clean out my cookbook collection and get rid of cookbooks that I am never going to realistically use.  While I've been working on this process one book at a time, I've realized that most of the cookbooks I'm keeping are the ones that have simple, wholesome, time tested recipes.  The ones that generally get the boot are the ones with fancier, trendy recipes.

While there's nothing wrong with bacon cheesecake with shortbread crust and blueberry avocado drizzle (totally making that up) on occasion, I've realized that we as food bloggers drive trends.  And trends don't always stand the test of time.  Even though I've never been accused of being overly trendy, from time to time I'll be sharing recipes that get back to the basics of cooking and of food.  Starting first in that thought is Salisbury steak.

Now Salisbury steak was not something I had much growing up.  In fact I'm pretty sure I only had it at school or in (highly coveted) TV dinners.  It has always appealed to me, though, as a simple, yet full of flavor meal.

In the last couple months I've experimented with a few different Salisbury steak recipes and a few different cooking methods.  I found a couple recipes that were cooked in the slow cooker. While those steaks turned out with lots of flavor, I was not crazy about how greasy they were.  Also in the middle of my experimentation, I chose to go gluten free, which eliminated recipes that might call for certain ingredients.  Finally I came up with something everyone in the house loved so much we practically sucked it off our plates.  I was glad I made a double batch and froze half because now I have some in the freezer waiting for a busy night.

For the gluten free bread crumbs, I toasted two pieces of gluten free sandwich bread, then ground them to crumbs in my mini food processor.  The gluten free all purpose flour I use is Gluten Free on a Budget's recipe, found here.  If you do not want to make a batch of the cream of soup mix, combine 2 tablespoons dried milk, 2 tablespoons corn starch, and a dash each of dried thyme, basil, parsley and salt.

Salisbury Steak - Gluten Free

2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup sliced white mushrooms
1/2 onion, sliced and rings separated
1/2 cup gluten free bread crumbs
2 pounds lean ground beef
1 tablespoon dried onion
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 large egg
2 teaspoons dried parsley
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
salt and pepper
1/4 cup gluten free all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups beef broth
1/3 cup cream soup mix

In a large skillet, heat olive oil over medium heat.  Saute onions and mushrooms until soft and caramelized, about 20-30 minutes.  Remove from pan and set aside.

Meanwhile, in a large bowl combine bread crumbs, ground beef, dried onion, garlic powder, egg, parsley, Worcestershire sauce, and salt and pepper.  Divide meat mixture into 6 patties about 3/4 inch thick.  Place flour in a shallow dish or plate and dredge each patty in the flour.

Place patties in skillet, adding more oil if needed.  Cook patties for 6 to 10 minutes.  Turn over and cook another 6 - 10 minutes or until cooked through.  Remove from pan and set aside.  Repeat with remaining patties if needed.

Whisk beef broth and cream soup mix in a small bowl until well combined.  Pour into skillet and stir to loosen brown bits from the bottom of the pan.  Let simmer until thickened and added cooked onions and mushrooms and their juices to the pan.  Return patties to the pan, spooning gravy on top.

To freeze, place uncooked patties on a baking sheet and place in freezer until frozen.  Once frozen place in freezer zip type bags or containers.  Thaw before cooking.

Serves 6.