Comfort Food – Salisbury Steak with Onion Gravy, Mashed Potatoes and Roasted Cauliflower

Do you remember Salisbury Steak? I think the first time I had it was at my Aunt and Uncle’s place when I was a kid. It was a TV dinner and I thought it was the best food I had ever eaten! After I moved out and had a family of my own I found a great cookbook called “More Recipes from the Backs of Boxes, Bottles, Cans and Jars”. I found so many great recipes that were time saving and fit my budget of nothing. Over the years I’ve changed the recipe up so much it’s not even recognizable. I pulled it out tonight so I could post it and ended up rewriting the whole thing. Guess I better fix it in my electronic cookbook too, huh?

So what is Salisbury Steak? It’s basically a thick, oval hamburger (or if you’d rather, you could call it a mini meatloaf) smothered in brown gravy. It really is a good recipe if you are on a budget. Did you know that the Salisbury Steak actually originated during the Civil War when a Dr. James Henry Salisbury determined that ground meats were healthy eating for the soldiers? So much for Paleo, Atkins and those other fairly recent fad diets. Only the names have changed over the years, haven’t they?

My mashed potatoes are pretty tasty even without the gravy. I cook a couple cloves of garlic with the potatoes. Mash the potatoes and garlic together with a bit of butter and milk until smooth and creamy. Add a dollop or two of sour cream and mix it in well. Yummy!

This is the first time I tried roasted cauliflower and it is definitely going in to my Family Favorites cookbook. The cauliflower maintained a nice firm texture, with chunks of roasted garlic and onions. Parmesan cheese added the last five minutes of baking really finished it off.

This was definitely not your school cafeteria or budget buffet meal!

Salisbury Steak, Onion Gravy

1 1/2 pounds ground beef
1/2 cup fine dry breadcrumbs
1 egg slightly beaten
1 small onion, finely diced
1 tsp worcestershire sauce
1 Tbls prepared horseradish
1/4 teaspoon salt
dash pepper
1 medium onion, coarsely chopped
1 Tbls butter
1/4 cup white wine
1 1/2 cups water
1 beef bouillon cube
1/4 cup flour
1/2 cup water

In bowl, combine the ground beef, bread crumbs, egg, onion, worcestershire sauce, horseradish, salt and pepper. Form into 6 oval patties. Make them thicker than normal hamburger patties. In skillet over medium-high heat brown patties on both sides until almost done. Remove patties from skillet and stir in butter until melted and all brown bits from pan are loosened. Add onions. Cook for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add wine and cook until wine is almost evaporated. Add 1 1/2 cups water and beef bouillon cube. Stir until cube is dissolved. Add patties and cover pan. Cook over medium heat for another 15 minutes.

Make gravy. Remove patties from pan. Stir flour and water together until smooth and runny. Add seasonings if necessary, I added some additional dried thyme and pepper. If you need to add more water go ahead, you probably won’t use the whole mixture anyway. Turn heat up to medium-high and slow stir in about half of the flour/water (called a slurry) mixture. Stir until gravy starts to thicken. Gradually add more flour/water mixture until gravy is the consistency you want. Keep in mind that it takes a minute or two after adding the flour/water mixture before it starts to thicken, so add it gradually a bit at a time.

Parmesan Roasted Cauliflower
adapted from Bon Appetit

1 head cauliflower
1 medium onion, sliced
1/2 tsp dried thyme, or 4 thyme sprigs
4 cloves garlic, leave whole
3 Tbls olive oil
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 400°. Cut 1 head cauliflower into florets; toss on a large rimmed baking sheet with 1 sliced medium onion, thyme, garlic cloves, and 3 olive oil; season with kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper. Roast, tossing occasionally, until almost tender, 35-40 minutes. Sprinkle with 1/2 cup grated Parmesan, toss to combine, and roast until cauliflower is tender, 10-12 minutes longer.