Absolutely Indulgent Steak Sandwich

In my defense, these were originally supposed to be crostini. A friend and I were talking food and he mentioned these crostini he’d made and…You know how the last one was “basic bitch recipes to do easily?”

This is not that.

First things first. We garlic confit some beets. Take beets (in my case, vacuum sealed, skinned beets), dice into cubes, add to an oven-safe ramekin with about half a head of garlic, peeled as individual cloves. Preheat oven to 450 because you don’t want to wait 2 hours for the confit. Stick in oven, and check out as it turns into the color of a sunset (I’ve actually literally never had beets before outside of salads. I am *fascinated*)

Also decide to pickle red onions. Because. (source: https://www.loveandlemons.com/pickled-red-onions/, these go on everything)

Two cups of white vinegar, two cups of water, ⅓ cup of cane sugar, 2 tbsp of salt.

Cut red onions into short strips, place in jar with two teaspoons pepper corns, garlic to your hearts desire. When salt and sugar has dissolved, pour over the onions, gently close jar and let sit on the counter for awhile. When warm but not hot, stick in the fridge.

Check your bread. Discover your baguette is moldy (nooo) and mourn the hard work. Toss moldy bread out. Do a lil biga for a ciabatta. Grab two slices of current loaf (challah). Discover inside of loaf is a tiiiny bit squidgy. Fine, pan fry it.

Let the steak dethaw. Salt, pepper and paprika both sides thoroughly. Preheat cast iron to medium high heat. Add some vegetable oil to the pan to preheat with it until shimmery. Go back three times in a row for the spatter screen. Start one side, place screen, clean glasses from spatter.

Flip to the other side. Add a tablespoon of butter and two crushed garlic cloves, baste the steak as it cooks. Take out when done to your preference. Let rest for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, pull the beets out.

With the steak scrapings in the pan, add two Tbsp of butter, and stir with your basting spoon. As the butter melts, add your remaining onions that didn’t make it into the pickle jar. (Let the record state I also made fudge caramel chocolate chip brownies for future me)
Toss in a generous slug of red wine, worcsetshire sauce, salt, pepper, and reduce for a little while. Add about a teaspoon of duck fat. After mixing, add about a tbsp of flour to thicken, and then about a 1/4 cup of chicken stock for more homogeneity. Pour into a heat safe bowl.

Dice up some basil leafs off your plant.

Timer goes off. Slice steak thinly.
Toast bread with butter on each side. Smear one side with spicy brown mustard. Add steak in correct layering so as to hope to not come apart. Realize this is futile as the bread is challah so the sandwich may not survive the dip process. Don’t care! We proceed.

Grate parmesan over the steak. Add the caramelized onions cooked in the pan, the beets, gently distributed, as much goat cheese as your heart desires, drizzle with aged balsamic glaze (which is hhhh still one of the best things I’ve ever spent money on), basil shreds, and orange zest. Cut sandwich in half. Dip into the sauce.

Take a bit and nearly fall over from how utterly delicious it is. This is absolutely one of the most gilding the lily things I’ve ever cooked, and I’m not mad about it at all. Good lord.

Anyways the rest of the steak gets to become breakfast, the challah is fucking amazing, I’m totally making it more often. And the dip. Also the brownies smell delicious as a gift for future me.

Goddamn