Soul Food? Comfort Food? Or Both?

Cube Steak w/Gravy

Knowledge is good currency for any number of ports.   Or, so I've begun to learn.  As for me and my siblings, we had little choice but to become critical thinkers.  Marvin Lewis Murphy   ( my father) simply did not abide dull thinkers very well.  He was adamant that the great divider and influencer of individuals was the quality of their ability to think critically.  For this great discipline that he instilled in me and my sisters, I am eternally grateful.  So then, in my quest I'm learning a great deal about how people think about....food.

As I encounter people I find that food is a fantastic common ground for conversation and so I'm taking to asking what others think makes food...Soul Food?  What I've learned is that many people consider comfort food to fit into the realm of Soul Food.

Now, I'm no stranger to comfort food i.e. that kind of dish or meal composed of rich, calorie dense, ingredients.  These are foods that are prepared so that they are browned and sauced and cheesed with deep savory flavors and plenty of fat.  By contrast it's not those gluten free, skim, lite, snappy kinds of dishes.  

Comfort food evokes a feeling of being satisfied or full.  It evokes sense memories of times and places, particularly of one's youth.  Remember how in the movie Ratatouille, how the food critic was transported back to his childhood when he tasted the little guy's dish?  Comfort food makes the diner feel a certain way and I guess that's one reason why it might be naturally equated to Soul Food.  Indeed were I forced to do a list (which I'm gonna do) of the foods AND dishes that I'd consider to be undoubtedly deserving of the moniker of Soul Food, I'm certain that many of them would also qualify as comfort foods.  I see the mesh point for the two concepts even as I see it for Soul Food and Southern Food. I also see where they diverge.   But we'll discuss that later!

One of my absolute favorite comfort foods that is common in a number of cultures in almost the same form (including some European cultures) is Smothered Cube Steaks.  These are also known as Swiss Steaks and I'm certain many  other names.    It's one of the dishes that I do quite well and frequently.  I do my smothered chops in much the same manner and will even do fried chicken the same way, on occasion.  

Other than using good technique when frying and making the gravy,  there are two, maybe three things in my opinion,  that really make this dish sink or swim.

Seasoning the meat
Seasoning the flour
Flavor of the stock

Get these three things right and you're on your way to some good Smothered Cube Steaks.   Here's how I do it:

Start the stock for the gravy.

4 to 5 cups of water
1 medium onion
1 table spoon black pepper
1 table spoon garlic powder
1 table spoon onion powder
1 table spoon dried parsley
1 cube of Knor Chicken bouillon (other brands can work but Knor is my favorite)
A few shots of your favorite hot sauce
A few dashes of worcestershire sauce
A shot or two of liquid smoke (Really, only a shot or two.  This stuff can ruin your dish if overused)

Now, a feel I must add a simplifier here.  You can always just go and buy a good chicken stock and then add most of what's on my list of ingredients to spice it up a bit.  Of course, the beauty of Soul Food cooking is that it's much like jazz in that these ingredients are only the basic notes, the scale. Feel empowered to freestyle with your spices and the amounts of each.  You know what you like and if you love a garlic heavy taste, go heavier on the garlic powder or use fresh chopped garlic instead.

Chop the onion (I do a small chop rather than  the typical rough chop generally used for making stock because I add the stock's onions to the gravy)

Combine all the ingredients into a stock pan and heat on high until it reaches a boil, then reduce the heat and let simmer very low while doing prep for the rest of the dish.  Make sure to taste your stock. If it doesn't taste like something you'd like to add noodles or rice to and eat just like that, you may have missed.  Adjust the seasoning as you prefer but remember, the longer the stock cooks the more it's flavor condenses and the more actual volume you lose.  Don't run short on stock and have to add water to your gravy.

Set the stock aside and get started on the cube steaks.  First thing's always first and once your meat removed from any packaging, let the seasoning begin.  For this dish I always use our family's basic savory seasoning (see next blog post):

Onion powder
Garlic powder
Seasoned salt
Black pepper

This goes directly on the meat.  I usually let the meat dry brine by sitting fully seasoned for at least a half hour or longer in the fridge.  When prepping a dish for the next day, I often dry brine over night.
I don't use an egg wash with cube steaks either.  I simply season my flour (savory seasoning blend) and coat the steaks in the seasoned flour, and then into a hot, oiled pan.

Once the meat is browned, set it aside and start the gravy in the pan using some of the left over oil and meat juices.  I use the very same pan.  Create your roux by adding flour and stirring until the roux color is at least that of peanut butter or darker.  A Roux blog post is coming very soon!

Once roux is the desired color, stir in the stock.  Add final seasoning to the gravy then add the cooked steaks.  I like to let this simmer together for at least 20 minutes or so.  This will reduce the gravy somewhat, making it thicker so make sure you make plenty!

In the end, I do believe that there are certain aspects of Soul Food that qualify as Comfort food and vice versa.  But, I'm convinced that Soul Food is comfort food and something more.  Let's find out what that something is, together.

Kev