Swiss steak and tomato gravy.

[HarleyDog]

My wife was telling me about a dish (titled above) her mother used to make when she was younger and that she hasn't had it in several years. So I thought, hey, that's a hint? So, I started looking at several recipes online. Most of them called for a dutch oven. I didn't even know what that was until I googled it today, seriously? So anyway, I went to the store to get swiss steak and there was none, so I went with bottom round (Not that I know meat, it was a suggestion on many as a substitute so I went with it). I cut up 2lbs into about 4x4 slices, 1/2in thick. Salt and peppered both sides and then coated them with flower on both sides as well. 

I put vegetable oil (I like olive oil better but, all recipes called for vegetable oil) in the skillet and cooked the meat for 2 minutes on each side and then put on a plate. Then added onions, celery and 3 cloves of garlic (recipe only called for 2 but I love garlic) in the same pan. Sauteed for a couple minutes, then added a tablespoon of tomato paste and then stirred. Then added fire cooked diced tomatoes to the mix along with some spices, beef broth, a tiny bit of liquid smoke and red hot. I think the spices it called for was oregano and paprika.

Since I didn't have a dutch oven, I put the meat in a crock-pot and then poured the contents from the pan over the top of the meat. Gonna cook on high for about 2 hours. Looks amazing thus-far, but I wish I would have added a little flour to the pan to thicken the gravy. Its a little runny, but maybe it will thicken in the crock-pot. Going to serve it over mashed potatoes.

When she first explained what her mother made to me I thought in my head, "Gross!" However, after reading about it in several recipes, I loved everything in the ingredients and the pictures looked amazing. We shall see how this goes.