Monday, April 30, 2012

Recipe: Badass Beef Sandwich


This started as a neat idea and ended as a religious experience*. Try this beef sandwich, and your world view probably will be altered.
* Offer does not apply to Hindus and vegetarians.

See the layers: the Gorgonzola top, the beefy middle, the oniony bottom, and the crispy/buttery roll. I think I'm going to cry... again. Notice the salad (added for health reasons)


INGREDIENTS
  • Heat 'n eat sliced beef (like, 2+ lbs?)*
  • 4 oz. Gorgonzola cheese
  • 1/2 Cup Sour Cream
  • 4 Medium Onions, cut into 1/4" half-rings
  • Salt & pepper
  • 1 Tablespoon Red Wine Vinegar
  • Chicken Stock
  • 1.5 teaspoons Sugar
  • Italian Sandwich rolls
  • Butter

INSTRUCTIONS
Onions 
Cooked onions will eventually become this color.
This means they are sweet and delicious.
  1. Cut the onions in half (pole to pole) and then slice into 1/4" half-rings
  2. In a medium saucepan, over medium heat, cook the onions in ~3 Tablespoons butter and 1 teaspoon salt until beginning to brown (~10 minutes)
  3. Deglaze the pan with ~1/2 cup chicken stock. This will get the browned pieces of onion off the bottom of the saucepan AND chicken stock tastes good.
  4. Continue to cook the onions until they get browner and more delicious (~20 more minutes)
  5. Add ~1 Tablespoon vinegar and 1.5 teaspoons of sugar and stir to combine - cook for another 5-10 minutes.
  6. Done. evacuate the onions from the pot (try a bowl, genius) and save for sandwich construction. Be sure to taste those onions - delicious, no?
Gorgonzola Spread

  1. Pour the blue cheese into a bowl
  2. Top with sour cream
  3. Mash and stir: the goal is to make the cheese and sour cream into one glorious paste of deliciousness
  4. Done. Save the spread until later.
Rolls
  1. Cut the rolls in-half the long way (think hero sandwich, yo)
  2. Spread the rolls with butter
  3. Put the rolls, butter-side-down, on a hot griddle and cook. The goal is to add some buttery crunch to that bread. You may need to press-down on the rolls to get them to brown (see the mason jar in the pic)
  4. Done, prepare to make sandwiches
Meat
  1. You bought heat 'n eat meat for a reason: ease of preparation.
  2. Heat yo meat, follow the instructions on the package. Usually it means heat until hot, but don't boil. Why no boil? Boiling will toughen your tender meat.
  3. When done, turn-off the stove and get ready for admission to beefy heaven.
Assembly
  1. Open your buttery Italian roll
  2. On the bottom, spread some onion jam - OMIGOD, it's already awesome!
  3. Top with meat - add some juice, I will allow it
  4. Spread Gorgonzola spread on the other roll
  5. Top your meat with the cheesy roll
  6. Eat. Be sure to sit down - it's that good.
  7. You're welcome.
Sandwich assembly station
Efficiency is badass!

FAQs
  • Why not homemade Italian beef? >> That's a whole other recipe. Instead, I rely on my excellently sourced food purveyors here in the greater Chicagoland area. We have the finest foodstuffs the world has to offer, and they're all at my fingertips.
Vienna Beef. Excellent. Get some.
  • No hot peppers? >> I made this last night and added hot giardinera. It was good, but a little too much for this sandwich. For a spicy beef sandwich, just do the beef, hot giardinera, and Provolone cheese. Baptize that sandwich in the au jus - a delicious Italian beef.

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