Tammie's Beef Tips!

...To be Served over Rice

As those who may read posts regularly may know, I am part of a lunch club at work.  My coworkers and I take turns bringing home-cooked meals for each other. I told the group I was going to put them on to some soul food cooking. You don’t get any more soul than beef tips. Of course I made some adjustments to make the meal a little healthier.

I used olive oil instead of regular cooking oil as well as non-stick olive oil spray while searing the beef. I also used brown rice instead of white. You can also use wheat flour. I had the bleached, all-purpose variety on hand, so I used it.

Also I LITERALLY played parts of this recipe by ear. But because of background knowledge in the kitchen, I was able to make this dish a success.

Here is the recipe.

Note: I was cooking for eight people so I used a lot of beef.

You can cut the recipe by half if needed.

1 Medium Onion Chopped

3 small packages of tenderized stew meat and one medium-sized top sirloin steak cut into cubes

1 heaping cup flour

½  table spoon of Better Than Bullion

4 cups of water

Seasonings:Lawry's Garlic Salt, Pepper, McCormick Perfect Pinch to taste

4 table spoons of Olive Oil divided

Olive Oil Spray

In a small saucepan, heat 4 cups of water and Better Than Bullion. 

This will add color to your gravy and season it at the same time.

Heat a large soup pot on medium heat.

 Add two capfuls, (approximately 2 tablespoons) of olive oil. 

Allow the oil to heat (test the oil by sprinkling a few drops of water from your fingertips. If the oil sizzles, it is hot.)

Caramelize the opinions in the heated oil.

Slowly add the heaping cup of flour, alternating between adding the flour and stirring. (Add more capfuls of oil as needed to insure the flour continues to change color and not stick to the pot.)

The Flour should be tinted from stark white to a light beige color.

Slowly pour the heated bullion water to the flour and onion mixture and stir rapidly. Continue this until all the bullion water is added.

The gravy will be clumpy at this point, but that is ok.

Heat four more cups of water in the same saucepan WITHOUT bullion.

Once water has come to a slight boil (it will produce tiny bubbles), slowly pour into gravy to thin it. Alternate between pouring and stirring until all the water is added.

This is how the gravy should look after this step. Nice and thin.

On another burner, heat a pan with two capfuls of olive oil.

Season the beef with garlic salt, pepper and perfect pinch. Be generous with the garlic salt and perfect pinch. The pepper is a supplemental season.

Brown beef in heated pan until only the outsides are brown. 

(Its ok to leave it a little pink, but not much. I had to complete this step several times because I had a lot of beef and I used a smaller pan. I also used olive oil spray for subsequent searing of the beef)

Pour seared beef and juices into pot with gravy. I also added more Perfect Pinch to taste and a teaspoon of Better Than Bullion.  

Allow to cook for 30-45 min. then stir.

Reduce to low heat and cook for 1-2hours, stirring every 30-45 min.

What you will end up is this:

Tender beef swimming in a rich dark brown gravy!

Note:The key to making this dish is allowing the beef to cook on low heat and slowly. The more the beef cooks, the more the flavors will culminate and the meat will be nice and tender.

Serve over Rice & Enjoy!