Upgrade Your Burger With This Chopped Steak Recipe
As a chef and restaurant owner, Vivian Howard knows the value of a good piece of meat. “Beef is like crab and shrimp, if you put it on the menu it’s going to sell like crazy,” Howard says in this preview for her PBS series A Chef’s Life.
The documentary series, now in its third season, follows Howard as she explores the cuisine of the south one ingredient at a time. This week she focusses on one of the most classic ingredients there is: beef. The chef branches out with her own take on a beef fried rice recipe and turns to her mother to learn how to make a dish she grew up with, called “cube steak.”
Howard then takes her mother’s dish and reinvents it for her restaurant costumers, creating a more refined version with chopped steak that she hopes will be a hit. To make Vivian Howard’s hamburger steak recipe for yourself, find the recipe below.
Check your local PBS listings to find out when A Chef’s Life airs in your area.
Hamburger Steak with Red Pea and Onion Gravy
Serves 4
Red Pea and Onion Gravy
Makes 4 cups
2 medium onions or 2 cups, halved and sliced thinly with the grain
1 ½ teaspoons salt, divided
2 tablespoon bacon fat or butter
1 teaspoon black pepper, or 30 turns of the pepper mill
2 cloves garlic, sliced
2/3 cup dried peas, soaked overnight should yield about 2 cups
5 cups beef stock or water
2 bay leaves
2 cups milk
Hamburger Steak
serves 4
2 pounds ground beef
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon picked thyme
¼ cup garlic confit cloves (pg. 00)
Note: At the restaurant we grind chuck fresh through a large dye for this preparation. High quality beef that’s just been ground makes a big difference here, and the larger dye lends it a more toothsome steak- like quality. If you live in a town with a new-fangled butcher shop, call ahead and tell them what you’re doing. They’ll gladly facilitate. If not, any lean ground beef will do.
Make the gravy: In a 4 quart saucepan, cook the onions and ½ teaspoon of the salt in the the bacon fat over medium low heat till they caramelize, about 30 minutes. They should be a chestnut brown. Stir in the black pepper and garlic. Cook an additional 2 minutes.
Add the peas, beef stock and bay leaves. Cover and bring it up to a boil. Cook for about 40 minutes or until the peas are extremely tender. I
Transfer the peas, all their liquid and the remaining 1 teaspoon salt to a blender. Add the milk and blend till it’s super smooth. Depending on how much liquid cooked out of the peas, you may have to add some additional water to achieve the proper consistency. It should look like gravy. Adjust accordingly.
For the steak: Preheat your oven to 400. Season the beef with the salt, black pepper and thyme. Sprinkle the garlic cloves overtop, and fold them in. Divide the beef into 4 equal portions. We can’t have anybody mistaking these for a plain old hamburger, so shape them like an oval or a rectangle.
Heat the vegetable oil in a cast iron skillet over medium high heat. Add the steaks and cook on the first side about 4 minutes, or until it’s nicely caramelized. Flip the steaks and slide the pan into the oven. Cook for 5 more minutes for a medium rare. Serve the steaks smothered in the gravy.
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