Are you old enough to remember TV dinners? Oh, those divided trays covered with foil, and inside, old-fashioned comfort food - fried chicken, turkey, meatloaf, and Salisbury steak - YUM! It was a treat when Mom fixed frozen TV dinners. My gosh, you actually got to CHOOSE what you were going to eat - just like in a RESTAURANT! Before the advent of fast food, kids weren't really welcome in most restaurants, so the novelty of being given a choice was heady stuff.
They still make frozen dinners (notice they don't call them "TV dinners" any more), but no more aluminum trays and covers - everything has to be microwavable.
One of the most popular TV dinner at our house was Salisbury steak, which used to come with mashed potatoes, green beans, and a little sort-of-apple-cobbler dessert. The new frozen dinner has cooked apples instead of the little "cobbler" thing, and corn instead of green beans. I don't know what the old Salisbury steak was made of, but the new one I saw said it was "made with chicken, pork, and beef," which means mostly chicken, then pork, and lastly, beef.
I receive several different foodie emails, and lately there has been a rash of Salibury steak recipes. I guess everyone is craving comfort food. Upon reading the recipes, they all seemed to use some form of ground meat patty. What I remember from my childhood was cubed steak, not hamburger, in Mom's homemade version. Disappointment.
But a couple of weeks ago an email came that showcased "Poor Man's Steak." Cubed steak! An almost dump-and-go recipe! BINGO!
The original recipe calls for the Universal Binding Ingredient (UBI, as characterized by Thomas Pynchon in his book, Vineland), condensed cream of mushroom soup. I'm not averse to cooking with condensed "cream of..." soups, as some people are (too much salt! too much fat! too processed!), but I'm not a fan of cream of mushroom soup, which makes absolutely NO sense whatever, because I'm a HUGE fan of mushrooms!
Go figure.
Anyway, I use cream of celery and cream of onion soups instead of the cream of mushroom. The cream of onion can be difficult to find, but there's ONE nearby store that carries it (Meijer), so I've lucked out!
The original recipe also calls for an envelope of onion soup mix, which will probably also set off cries of "too much salt! too processed!" but you know what? I'm talking about fast, easy, convenient, comfort food. If those ingredients bother you, make some white sauce and add your own mushrooms and onions. For me, this is one of those "I'm feeling lazy today, but I want a home-cooked meal" recipes.
So here it is, with my substitutions:
Slow Cooker Salisbury Steak
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| The classisc combination! |
1-oz envelope onion soup mix (either beefy or regular)
1 10.75-oz can condensed cream of celery soup
1 10.75-oz can condensed cream of onion soup (if it's not available, just use another cream of celery)
2/3 c (or about 1/2 soup can) water
2 T Worchestershire sauce
1/2 t pepper
Place meat in a slow cooker. Mix remaining ingredients together and pour over the meat. Cover and cook on low for 6 - 8 hours. Mix the gravy well before serving.
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