Swiss steak serves as warm-up to fall fare

Even though the temperatures are still in the 80s, it’s not hard to sense autumn just around the corner. While most of us are still grilling and eating warm-weather foods, our appetites are beginning to shift into winter gear. I call it the Curse of the Mammals: When summer begins to morph into fall, our bodies automatically want heavier food as if we still needed to put on another layer of fat to survive the coming winter.

And so it was that I found myself cooking good old-fashioned Swiss steak last weekend. Never mind that I served it with a summer side like sliced tomatoes, I was still dipping my toe into cold-weather cooking. What’s more, I liked having the aroma of simmering meat, onion and garlic wafting through the house on a Sunday afternoon.

Slow-cooking also is a way to serve beef less expensively. The price of prime cut steaks and better roasts has been steep for many months now. Tougher cuts, such as bottom round steak and chuck steak, routinely go on sale, and it’s easy to tuck a few in the freezer from time to time. The trick to maximizing the flavor of slow-cooked beef is to brown the meat before other ingredients are added.

The recipe below calls for rubbing the beef generously with garlic, so that the flavor of garlic is infused into the meat from the beginning. In addition, browning the onions caramelizes them and gives the simmering dish a sweat edge.

Like many slow-cooked dishes, this one makes great leftovers and the flavors re-emerge with reheating.

Early Autumn Swiss Steak

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2 pounds round steak or chuck steak

2 tablespoons oil

6 cloves garlic, minced

1 large onion, sliced

8 ounces mushrooms, sliced

1 large tomato or 3 Roma tomatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces

1 bay leaf

1 cup beef bouillon

1 red bell pepper, chopped

1 green bell pepper, chopped

Sprinkle both sides of the meat with salt and pepper and rub them with minced garlic.

In a deep skillet with a lid, heat the oil over a medium stove. Reduce heat to low and saute the onions until they begin to caramelize. Remove them to a plate. Brown the meat from 3 or 4 minutes on each side.

Top the meat with the cooked onion, sliced mushrooms and chopped tomato. Add the bouillon and bay leaf. Cover and simmer for 1 hour.

Add the chopped pepper and simmer another 90 minutes or so, until the meat can be cut with the side of a fork. Remove the lid and simmer for 20 minutes to concentrate the sauce.

Makes 6 servings.