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Mum's Braised Steak & Mash

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Mum's Braised Steak & Mash Sounds simple enough, my mum often made this for a family of five. Nowadays, on her budget? I struggled to re-create it for the same value meal that it was. Cuts of meat such as brasing steak used to be so affordable, but not so today. I honestly think that price of the cheap cut's of meat, the ones that butchers used to practically give away, have been adversley affected by their popular use by TV chefs. I still think that my mum would have found a way though as she was a master at cooking on a budget! Even though the meat was a challenge for me and my budget, I felt it was important to include it in my website, as that is in some ways what this website is all about. It's around the anniversary of her death, I was 27 at the time, I'm way older and wiser now (not sure she would agree about wiser :-P ). Yet still, I remember every single recipe she made and how I loved to cook with her. Sorry! I digress, so back to the dish! Braising steak as I remember is hard to find in the super markets. It's thin scraps of meat no good for my mums recipe! She'd turn in her grave trust me! So I bought two 227g packs of the cheapest steaks I could find, vaccuum packed and not as thick as she'd have got way back then but it'll do for today.

Click the Method tab below to see a step by step guide on how to make my Mum's Braised Steak & Mash with pictures.

braised steak mash & broccoli

ingredients

serves two

Here's what you need :¬)

for the steak

  • 2 x 227g beef steaks — keep whole
  • 1/2 tbls plain flour*
  • 1/2 tsp salt*
  • 1/2 tsp pepper*
  • 1 tsp english mustard powder*
  • 1 tsp vegetable oil brushed onto the pan

*Mix these ingredients together to make the seasoned coating for the steak keeping the rest for the gravy.

for the sauce

  • 1 large white onion thinly sliced
  • 1/2 pack of chestnut mushrooms, thinly sliced
  • 2 large cloves garlic crushed
  • 1 small sprig thyme
  • 1 small sprig rosemary
  • 1 large Bay leaf**

**I use Indian bay, which are huge, if you have normal ones — use two.

  • Sprig of thyme & rosemary tied & remember to remove later!
  • OXO™ Beef stock cube crumbled
  • OXO™ Veg stock cube crumbled
  • 1/2 tbls Bisto™ powder
  • 1 Tbsp tomatoe puree
  • 1 Tbsp horseradish sauce (optional)
  • 1/2 pint water
  • Remaining steak coating

method

Mum's Braised Steak & Mash recipe is full of old fashioned flavour — we are aiming for a thick gravy and a totally melt-in-the-mouth steak. Our first task's to get that steak coated and well seasoned, after that is simples! Trust me! All were going to do is fry off the steaks and brown them really well and fast, then remove them from the pan and make our sauce in the same pan. One pan, one oven proof pot = happy days :¬)

Ingredients at the ready. Let's cook!

ingredients for the steak & sauce
ingredients

prep & pre-cook the steak

First things first, take your steaks out of their vacuum packs and allow them to come to room temperature on plate for a while.

Mix the flour and all the other ingredients 'for the steak' to form a seasoned flour that we'll use to coat the steaks with.

  1. Coat your steak in the seasoned flour*

*Be be sure to really cover every bit of each steak evenly, and make sure you retain any remaining flour mixture. DON'T throw it away, we'll use it later for the gravy!

  1. Heat a heavy based frying pan to maximum heat
  2. Once really hot add your oil
  3. Flash fry your steaks so the outsides are browned*

* We only want to quickly brown the outside of the steaks as they will fully cook in the sauce.

flash fry the steaks
steaks browning
  1. Set the steaks aside on a plate
  2. Leave your pan on the heat & get your sauce ingredients

make the sauce / gravy

  1. Add your onions to the hot pan & allow to soften
onions softening
onions browning
  1. Add the mushrooms
  2. Add tomato puree, horseradish, garlic & herbs
add tomato puree etc.
tomato puree added to pan
  1. Stir fry gently for a minute or so
stir fry gently
tomato-puree-stirred-in-to-onions-and-mushrooms

While your mushrooms are softening, put your water, bisto, remaining seasoned flour and stock cubes into a jug and whisk until combined

  1. Pour the jug contents into your onion pan
  2. Bring to a simmer while stirring
add gravy mix to the pan
add gravy mix
bring to a simmer
gravy simmering
  1. Stir continuously until slightly thickened
allow gravy to thicken
gravy thickened
  1. Put the steaks back into the sauce
  2. Immediately set everything into a oven proof dish

Option 1: bake in the oven

  1. Put your dish into the oven @ 150c for at least 2 hours

When done, the meat should be completely tender so you can cut it with a spoon! Don't forget to find and remove the bay leaf, thyme and rosemary.

Option 2: Slow cooker method

Now see here, the issue is, I can not see what meat you bought! I bought fairly cheap cut of steak that will braise just fine in the oven, however, a second option is to pop it into a slow cooker on low for 4 hours giving you plenty of time to work on my mashed swede & potatoes. So you are going to have to make a judgement call here. How cheap was your meat? How tough did it feel? This I can not help you with! Feel free to email me with what you actually have and I will happily try to help.

Option 3: The pressure cooker!

In a bit of a rush are we? Just pop the steaks and sauce into a pressure cooker for 25 mins while you cook your swede and potatoes. The job's a good one as they say :-)

braised steak mash & broccoli
braised steak mash & broccoli

Serve with swede and potato mash with some freshly steamed green vegetable. Not too much mind, as it is all about the meat & mash, as it always was! Spoon please mum :-P

Check out accompaniments on the recipe page for my Mashed Roots recipe to go with this dish.