Steak Sandwich with Garlic Crème

A great Friday night dinner would have to be the steak sandwich, easy to put together & its almost like having take away (which keeps Michael happy) but of course much better, this is Bill Granger’s version from Sydney Food which apparently has been on the menu at his place from the start. It has all of the right ingredients for me, onions, a bit of salady stuff, crusty bread & the garlic crème for me is ever so much nicer than tomato sauce – a condiment I don’t have a very good relationship with as un Australian as that may sound.

Steak Sandwich with Garlic Crème

3 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup finely sliced onion
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
8 thick slices bread, such as ciabatta
1 bunch rocket
4 ripe tomatoes

Garlic Crème
2 egg yolks
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
2cloves garlic, crushed
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
1 cup canola or other mild oil

Heat 2 tablespoons of the olive oil in a large frying pan over medium heat, add the onion & cook for 10 minutes, stirring frequently, until golden. Add vinegar, salt & pepper & cook for a minute longer until caramelized. Remove onion from the pan & set aside.

Meanwhile make the garlic crème. Place egg yolks, vinegar, garlic, salt & pepper in a bowl & whisk until combined. Add the oil drop by drop, whisking constantly. When the sauce starts to thicken, add the oil in a steady stream until the oil is fully incorporated. If the crème is too thick, thin with a tablespoon of warm water.

Using the same pan as the onions, heat the remaining olive oil over high heat. Add steak to the pan and sprinkle with salt & pepper. Cook for 1 minute, turn & cook the other side for a further minute.

Spread the bread with the garlic crème. Place rocket on the 4 ‘bottom’ slices of bread & top with tomato. Place onions on top pf tomato, followed by streak. Cover with second slice of bread. Serves 4.

Pan Toasted Sandwich with Tomato & Fontina

Well finally I have a cheese sandwich to blog. This is from Bills Sydney Food. As he is so famous for his brekky thought I would start trying out his recipes. This sandwich is described as perfect hangover food, sorry can’t confirm or deny as last night was a dry night for me. The recipe was devised by Harry’s bar in Venice. I used an olive & rosemary bread that I bought over at Ceres on the weekend & substituted gruyere for the fontina, (Michael was set to do the shopping & couldn’t find any fontina). I halved the ingredients & still had heaps of oil leftover which I have saved & still managed to make 4 sandwiches, the loaf was a smallish size. Also Bill says that if you don’t have 2 hours to hang around & wait for the tomatoes too marinate, 5 minutes will do, mine were done for about 1.5 hours & the flavours of garlic & chilli really came through, a really tasty brekky sandwich & of course the variations are limitless, add prosciutto, rocket, etc.

Pan Toasted Sandwich with Tomato & Fontina

100ml extra virgin olive oil
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 red chilli, chopped
1 teaspoon salt
freshly ground black pepper
4 tomatoes, cut into 1/2cm thick slices
8 large thick slices wholemeal bread
75g fontina cheese, finely sliced
16 basil leaves
50g butter

Place, oil, garlic, chilli, salt & pepper in a shallow dish & mix well, add tomatoes & marinate for 2 hours. Brush one side of each slice of bread with the oil from the tomatoes. Place the cheese evenly on top of half the bread slices on the oiled sides. Top with basil, tomatoes & a 2nd slice of bread, oil side down.

Melt half the butter in a large frying pan over medium heat & add the sandwiches, cover with a plate & weigh down with some cans. Cook until golden brown, flip & repeat.