Flat Iron Steak Sandwich

Once again tonight's meal was inspired by the Serious Eats Cook and Tell. This weeks theme: Sandwiches!

I am of the opinion that sandwiches always taste better when someone else makes them. I think that is because a truly great sandwich has a lot of ingredients and a lot of steps. So if you can enjoy the final product, without all the effort, it is just tastier.

Before I get started on the sandwich, I must introduce you to my kitchen clean-up helper.

This is Jones. He is almost 11 years old. He has been taught that he is not allowed in the kitchen while I am working (except for, as you can see, his paws). He is very helpful at cleaning up when I am done.

I created this sandwich over the course of a few hours, so I don't have a photo of the ingredients all gathered together. But here's what I used.

2 yellow onions, sliced and caramelized (see below)
1 small flat iron steak, grilled, rested then sliced
a handful of lettuce, julienned (I used red lettuce from my garden)
1 Roma tomato, sliced
horseradish sauce (made from 2 T sour cream, 2 T mayonnaise, 1 T horseradish and 2 T garlic chives, chopped)
3 ounces Seastack cheese (see below)
2 small baguette rolls

For the caramelized onions I warmed a little olive oil in a pan then added the sliced onion. Once it was sizzling I turned the heat down very low (but high enough that I could still hear it sizzle). I stirred the onions every 10 minutes or so.

Here they are at the beginning.

This is after one hour.

This is after two hours.

The smell of onions caramelizing is just delightful.

I thought about using blue cheese for the sandwich (blue cheese and steak is a pretty classic combination) but then I saw that the store had Seastack cheese from Mt.Townsend Creamery and decided that was definitely the way to go.


Seriously if you have not tried this cheese (and you like cheese at all) you have to try this.

To compose my sandwich, I sliced the baguette in half and slathered each side with horseradish sauce. Then I piled on some lettuce, a few slices of Seastack cheese, some grilled flat iron steak, some caramelized onion and a few slices of tomato.

How was it? Yum, yum, yum, yum, yum. Admittedly it was a little difficult to eat (fillings falling out and what not), but it was sooo worth it. So good. Totally worth the time and effort that I had to put into making it myself. The only thing that would have made it better would have been for someone else to make it.

Artichokes with Sriracha Aioli

I was really excited when I found that I would be getting artichokes in my CSA box this week. I love artichokes, but I hardly ever make them because it just seems like a pain (and let's face it, it is). However, if I just happen to have them, you can bet I'm going to cook them.

The aioli was inspired by the Serious Eats weekend cook and tell. The theme of the weekend is sriracha sauce, inspired by an article in this Wednesday's New York Times.

Here the ingredients for the artichokes:

Yep, just two artichokes

I prepared a steamer basket and a big bowl of acidulated water (as an effort to keep my artichokes from browning). Then I trimmed the points off of the artichokes, cut the artichokes in half, removed the choke and peeled the stem.

I worked quickly and put each half in the acidulated water bath before and after cutting.

I used a pan lid to hold the artichokes under water.

When all the halves were prepped I put them in the steamer for about a half an hour (letting them cook until I could pull a leaf out easily). Then I let them cool for a few minutes.

While the artichokes steamed I started work on my Aioli. I've made a fair amount of mayonnaise at home using an Alton Brown recipe (the party mayonnaise is delicious). This uses the same method.

Here the ingredients.

2 egg yolks
1/2 teaspoon salt
a pinch of sugar
1 Tablespoon cider vinegar
1 Tablespoon Sriracha Sauce
1 cup vegetable oil

I combined everything but the oil in the bowl of my food processor.

Then gave it a few pulses. Once it was combined I started adding the vegetable oil in a slow stream.

With the artichokes cooked it was time to try it out.

Hello, delicious much. So, so good. Really good with the artichokes. I think if I was going to make the mayonnaise again (and I plan too because it was so good) I would probably use more sriracha. However, against the mildness of the artichokes, this was just spicy enough. I have enough mayonnaise left for a tasty sandwich tomorrow. I am looking forward to that already!


update:
Sandwich accomplished. Ham and cheddar with lettuce, tomato and sriracha aioli on sourdough. Delicious.