Chicken Fried Steak with Coffee Gravy

This was inspired by a Texas classic I love. I learned the recipe calls for cubed beef, which is not cubes of beef, but steaks of tough, lean beef which have been run through a shredder to break up the muscle fiber. The shredder never got it tender enough for me, so my meat mallet had to do the rest. Noise and rattling utensils drove the dog out of the kitchen, but brought the cat. Once I got the meat as thin as I could, I hit it lightly and repeatedly along its entire length with the back of my chef's knife to further disguise its identity. A few minutes in a plate with buttermilk to further tenderize it. Now a double coating of flour, salt and black pepper. I also like a grating of fresh nutmeg.

Lay the steak into a non stick pan with hot corn oil, turn once, cook to medium rare, and remove to a warm plate. Pour off all but a tablespoon of oil. Add a TB of flour, stirring well. Add a cuppa coffee, some milk, salt, pepper, a teaspoon of good mustard, a few dashes of hot sauce, and whisk over a high fire until the sauce thickens. Use your instincts to get the consistency you like. The more you cook, the thicker it gets. If it's too thick, add some milk and whisk some more. It's a no-brainer.

Cover the bottom of a plate with the sauce, top with the steaks, garnish with a dab of mustard, and serve at once.