Braising a Steak

Mai-Kero

So, I'm adventuring with food now that I live on my own, and I recently saw some incredibly cheap steak on sale, so I bought it. It says "Steak for Braising" on the price tag, and has some serving suggestions. It says I should use a heavy pan, but I only have:

regular frying pans
George Forman Grill
That Metal Thing That Goes in the Bottom of My Oven

at my disposal.

What can I do with this steak?

Is it a shittier cut of meat because it's "For Braising" or is that just the thickness or whatever?

I have a bell pepper, half an onion, tomatoes, teriyaki/soy sauces, A1 Sauce, garlic, and various spices.

Fuzzywhale

For inexpensive steaks, and often even fancy ones, i like to do the following:

1. take your steak and pound it out nice and flat, to get it ready for pan frying. cover both sides liberally with salt, then again with pepper. even more so. you are looking to make a sort of pepper crust.

2. melt a glob of butter in a frying pan over medium; get it bubbling.

3. for medium rare cook the steak 4 minutes on each side, again on medium.

4. take the steak out and leave the drippings. and in a splash of heavy cream and let that reduce for a minute or so(I know you said you dont have any heavy cream but its like 2 dollars).

5. Pour cream sauce over steak. enjoy.

-when cooking for friends or when im looking for extra fancy, add in 1/3 a cup of brandy before adding the cream. then light the whole thing on fire and let the brandy burn away. then remove the steak and go to step 4.

Mai-Kero

That little cooking time, really? The braising thing is supposed to take like an hour.

Precursor

I'd suggest looking up some flank steak recipes. It's probably what you have. Or possibly skirt steak if you got lucky. Hot and fast and nothing over medium-rare. Marinade might help.

Braising steak isn't actually a cut, but supermarkets can call it whatever the hell they want.

Alternatively, you can just make stew with it.

Newton

Pound out the steak until it is about 1/4-1/2" thick. Dredge in a little flour and brown in some oil for about a minute or two per side. Remove from the pan and add the cut up pepper and onion. Then add a tablespoon of tomato paste, some garlic and any spices you like and cook for another 30 seconds or so. Add in a couple splashes of worchestire sauce and some low sodium chicken broth, water or red wine, then return the steaks to the pan, immersing them in the liquid. Cover and simmer over low heat for about 60-90 minutes, then serve up with some buttered egg noodles. This is basically swiss steak if you want to look up a more complete recipe. It is a really good way to cook up cheap beef.

Fuzzywhale

The above idea is much much better. Braising steak's not really meant to be cooked as I described but i suggested it anyways because it's easy, can be showy and I never really thought to look up anything else.

Alton Brown has a recipe for swiss steak everyone seems to love: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/swiss-steak-recipe/index.html

cheers newton im going to give this a go sometime.

Foomy

so called braising cuts of meat are just cheaper cuts that contain more connective tissues. if you try and just cook them up like a normal cut it would be tough and not all that tasty.

So to get them to taste good you have to do one of the 2 things. Either pound the steaks out a good amount, physically tearing up the connective tissues. Or boil them in some liquid for a long time, which will break down said tissues.

Generally you sear the meat quickly in a bit of fat(oil,butter) to get some good flavor than cook it in some broth or wine, or a mixture for an hour or 2.

pot roast, stew, Swiss steak, Beef Bourguignon, goulash are all beef examples of braising if you wanted examples.

Simpsonia

I've never braised a steak, but I have braised short ribs and they come out delicious.

Simply sear each side for 30 seconds on high. Throw them into a pyrex oven dish. Cover in beer, one can of tomatos, 2 tablespoons of deli mustard and a diced onion and some baby carrots, cook at like 225 for 2-3 hours and it's great.