Purple

Purple

Tuesday 24 August 2010

Steak Sandwich

Today I decided to experiment with a steak sandwich. There is not a lot to one of those so this wont take very long. Also much of the cooking of steak is down to personal preference of how long you cook it for. I like mine well done. I know that many would put a well done steak in the bin, and I do understand why. It does toughen up. But that is how I like it and I think that you should eat food that you like. So I’ll leave you to decide how long to cook it for and whether to fry, grill or griddle it.


Part of my experimentation was with the cutting of the steak to see if the way you cut it changes the texture. I must at this point say that this cutting idea is not mine. I am quite a fan of Heston Blumenthal, although I don’t think that I could attempt many of his recipes. I had his big recipe book for Christmas a couple of years ago. It is great to read, but you need a big lap. Unfortunately, I have one of those. But as for cooking from it, well I think that you would probably need the support of a few chefs and two or three days to do even a part of recipe. Anyway onto the slicing of the steak. Mr B suggests, if I remember correctly, that you should slice across the grain of the meat, like you would a piece of wood. This way, when someone bites into it they are biting down through the grain. This did seem to work. I sliced half of it with the grain and half against it. The half that was sliced with the grain did seem tougher than the half that was sliced against it. Whether this was wishful thinking I don’t know. I’ll have another go the next time I do steak.

The next bit of the experiment was with the sandwich, or rather rolls. I griddled the steak, so had a hot griddle to toast the rolls on. Grilling them would do just as well. While the rolls and the steak were on I set about making a spread for the bread. I decided not to dress the salad, but to concentrate on a spread for the bread that would add flavour. For two medium rolls I made the following:

1 tbsp mayonnaise

1 clove of garlic

½ tsp French grain mustard

Chives – as many as you think

2 Spring onions

Salt and pepper to taste

Put the mayonnaise into a bowl. Finely chop and mush the garlic to a paste using a knife and few grains of salt. You could put it through a garlic press if you like. What you don’t want is any big bits of garlic. Big bits of raw garlic are not nice. Add the mustard and mix. Taste the mixture to see if it needs a bit more mustard. You can be fairly heavy on the mustard as the spread is spread thinly onto the toasted rolls and coupled with the salad and steak it doesn’t become too overpowering when you eat the whole lot together. Chop or snip the chives and mix in. Chop the spring onions. I like the bottom end of the green bits so I add those. If you don’t leave it out. Taste again. You cant do too much tasting. Well you can if you eaten it all before it gets to the plate, but you know what I mean. Add seasoning to taste.

Spread the mixture on both the cut and by now, toasted sides of the rolls. Lay a salad of your choice on the bottom and add the steak on top.

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