Rice & Gravy

I grew up on a rice farm in South Louisiana and we ate rice every single day.  We had a Hitachi rice cooker on all the time it seems.  One of my favorite dishes is Rice & Gravy.  It will 'stick to your ribs' and is delicious and satisfying.  You won't get up from the table hungry, I promise you.  Tricia is from South Texas and always laughs at the name of the dish, Rice & Gravy, because, as she says, we leave out the best part - the meat!  There's definitely meat in there, though.

The other night I figured Tricia needed a break, so I told her I would do the cooking and decided to make rice and gravy.  There are many ways to cook this dish.  Here is one way to do it:

The first thing you want to do is chop up some onions and get them browning in a cast iron dutch oven in some butter.  You want them to get really, really brown, so while they are browning, you can do your food prep for your other ingredients.  It doesn't matter if the onions stick to the bottom, you can just scrape them off a little later.

Start browning your onions in some butter 

Get out your cutting board and a sharp knife and get ready to chop as the kitchen fills with the aroma of onions sauteing in butter.  We'll slice up some mushrooms, mince some garlic, chop up some celery, toss in a few chopped jalapenos and slice up some fresh cherry tomatoes. 


Chopping up some veggies

I used some round steak that I applied salt and pepper, some garlic powder and cayenne pepper to and then dusted with some flour.

Seasoned and floured round steak

We check in on the onions and they are just starting to brown.  I let them get dark brown and then I remove them from the pan and set aside.  

Onions starting to brown, but not ready yet.

Then I throw the round steak into the hot cast iron pan and just leave it alone for a bit.  The steak will stick to the bottom initially, but will release from the pan when the bottom is nice and brown.  Once brown, flip the meat over and let it brown for a little while on the other side.  

Browning the round steak

At this point you can add to the pot of browned round steak the browned onions that you initially removed along with all of the vegetables that you chopped up.  Then you can add whatever liquid of choice to make your gravy.  I used some chicken broth along with a splash of red wine.  Bring the liquid to a simmer while scraping the bottom of the pot to release the tasty morsels clinging there.  You can then put a lid on tight and braise on low heat for 45 minutes.  At this point go ahead and get a pot of rice going.  Tricia came in from outside and said she could smell it from inside the garage!


Can you smell the delicious-ness?

Once 45 minutes has passed, it is time for supper.  We'll have some fresh Roma Italian beans and cucumbers from the garden along with our rice & gravy (and steak, Tricia). 

Supper time - Rice & Gravy all plated up

Time to pour a glass of milk, grab a fork, thank God for our meal and enjoy.  Here is a fork level view of Rice & Gravy:   Mmmmmmmm...


Fork level view

Bon Appetit!