Cheese Steak

Well we're not from Phili, we've never been there and we don't know anyone there......but we still wanted to make a cheese steak.  Definately not authentic I'm sure but it is damn good! 

We started by roasting a nice head of garlic

Now we turned that into some roasted garlic hummus.  For this we tossed the roasted garlic cloves with a can of chick peas, salt, white pepper, and a quarter cup of extra virgin olive oil

With the spread made we had to make the buns.  We stuck with the no knead bread from "Artisan Bread in Five Minutes A Day"

For the basic buns you just combine:

2 Cups Water

.75 Tablespoons Yeast

.75 Tablespoons Kosher Salt

1 Tablespoon Sugar

1/4 Cup Melted Butter

3.5 Cups Bread Flour

Then toss it into fridge over night, shape into sub bun shapes and let rise for about 45 minutes while you preheat the oven to 350 degrees

And after they baked for half an hour

Now we make a red wine beef broth to give the beef a bath a little later on.  We start by frying up 1 large carrot, 1 rib of celery, 1 large onion, and 3 cloves of garlic

Then I added a couple cups of red wine, a cup of beef stock and a tablespoon of thyme and let it all cook together

Then it was time to puree it all together

Now it's time to concentrate on the beef.  For this we used tri tip

This was a beautiful cut of meat.  Unfortunately we just couldn't cook it whole so we put it in nice little slices

And we grilled them up with a little salt and white pepper

After they were seared real nice on both sides we gave the beautiful slices a nice little bath in the red wine broth

Now to focus on the mushrooms, onions and the peppers.  We used 2 anaheims, 2 poblanos, 2 thai, and five serrano chiles as well as oyster mushrooms and a couple of small onions.

We started sauteeing the onion, then added the peppers and finally the mushrooms.

And for the final component, the cheese sauce.  For this I choose to use Oaxaca Cheese.

We mixed it with 1/4 cup of half and half cream over a double boiler and melted it down

And finally it all comes together.  Basically we have a homemade bun, smothered with roasted garlic hummus, then the red wine bathed beef, then the peppers, onions, and oyster mushrooms, and finally the cheese sauce.  This was the best sandwich any of us had ever had!

Corned Beef on Rye

We were at our butcher, Pete`s Mountain Meats in Port Alberni, last Saturday.  He tossed us a brisket flat he had cured for corned beef and we went to town.  If you`re ever in Port, stop by, he makes incredible products, all of the sausages and pastries are exceptionaly incredible.

After much debate on what we wanted to do with the corned beef we came to a consensus.  First a sandwich.....We made our own rye bread, coated the pieces with an asiago cheese spread, pile on some kraut, smoked corned beef, and jarlsberg cheese.  Finally we coated the bread in butter and fried it all up like a grilled cheese sandwich.  Then we made a has out of the rest, check it out and enjoy! 

First up the rye bread.  I`ve been making a lot of breads out of the Artisan Breads In Five Minutes A Day cook book.  While the breads are not 100% as good as ``traditional`` breads I find that if you increase the hydration a bit it comes very close and you have fresh bread whenever you need.  Definately a good plan.

2.25 Cups Water
.75 Tablespoon Yeast
.75 Tablespoon Kosher Salt
0.5 Cups Rye Flour
2.75 Cups Bread Flour

Working the dough as little as possible mix all of the ingredients together, it should come together like this.  Then let it sit at room temp for a couple of hours, covered, and put it into the fridge over night.

In the morning take it out of the fridge, handling as little as possible shape into a ball, coat in flour, and proof at room temp for a couple of hours, in the mean time pre heat the oven to 450 degrees with a baking stone in place and a pan below to catch water.

Place a few slashes in the bread before baking it....

Place it on the stone in the oven, immediately dump one cup of cold water into the pan below the baking stone and close the oven door.  Bake for about half an hour.

Now to make the cheese spread.

1 Cup Mayo
0.5 Cup Diced Green Onions
0.35 Cups Asiago Cheese
0.25 Cups Diced Mushrooms
8 Ounces Sour Cream

Mix together all the ingredients in a pie pan

Top with more asiago cheese

Bake in a 350 degree oven for half an hour

Now it`s time for the main event....the corned beef!

We tossed it on the smoker with a little cherry wood, bringing the temperature up slowly to 350 degrees

After about an hour a half the brisket flat was at about 155 internal and looked like this

We tossed it in a pot with a little beef broth until it was tender, about another hour

The corned beef is all done!

Now to assemble the sandwich.  First asiago cheese spread on each slice of bread along with kraut on one side

Added on a pile of smoked corn beef and jarlsberg cheese

Now it is time to sautee it like a grilled cheese and end up with one wicked sandwich!

The leftover corned beef was turned into one wicked has the next day.  We started by shredding, soaking, drying and frying a few potatoes with salt, pepper, smoked paprika, and thyme.

In the mean time we sauteed jalapenos, zuchinni, orange peppers and onions

Added mushrooms

Corned Beef

Cooked it down

Finished the potatoes

And assembled one hell of a wicked meal!