Originally published on Friday, 18th July 2008

 

The ‘Ultimate’ Steak Sandwich

 

Serves 4

A good steak sandwich is a thing of beauty and to make one well is to treat yourself to one of life’s great comfort foods.

A great cut of steak to use for this would be onglet. Also known as ‘hanger steak’, onglet is a cut from across the diaphram and is one of the most flavourful and well used muscles on a cow that can be used for steak.

Try and use a nice, rustic peasant style bread for this sandwich. The bread needs to be strong and dense enough to absorb all the juices and the creme fraiche without becoming soggy.

Ingredients

2 Onglet steaks – 200 grams each
sea Salt
freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp olive oil
2 tbsp grated fresh horseradish
125 ml crème fraiche
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
a small hunk of good quality Stilton or other blue cheese, sliced into small pieces
8 slices thick sourdough bread or other peasant-style bread

Caramelised Onions

2 large onions, thinly sliced
6 tbsp olive oil
a bay leaf or two and a few sprigs of thyme if you have them
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

Season the onglet steaks well with salt and pepper and set aside while you make the caramelised onions.

Warm the olive oil in a wide, heavy frying pan on medium heat and add the onions and herbs if using. Season generously with salt and pepper and reduce the heat to medium-low. Continue to cook the onions slowly and gently, stirring them occasionally for an hour until they have become very thick and are a deep golden colour. Remove the onion mixture from the heat and allow it to cool slightly, discarding the bay leaves and thyme.

Meanwhile, heat the oil in the frying pan on high heat and sear the steaks for one minute per side until browned on all sides. Lower the heat to medium-high and continue to cook until medium rare, 4-8 minutes depending on the thickness of the steak. Allow to rest for 10 minutes before slicing.

Toast the bread slices under the grill or in a toaster until lightly golden.

Combine the horseradish, crème fraiche and lemon juice and slather generously on 4 of the slices of bread and top with a generous quantity of the caramelised onions. Slice the onglet on the diagonal and place on top of the onions. Scatter with the Stilton and top with the remaining 4 slices of bread. Slice the sandwiches on the diagonal and serve.

Jennifer Klinec from Eat Drink Talk has kindly agreed to provide Urban Junkies readers with mouthwatering recipes and foodtips.

To learn more, classes at Eat Drink Talk are held in Jennifer's beautiful loft in Clerkenwell, packed with information and useful tips, and you'll get to sample all of the delicious dishes prepared during class.

 

by JK

In collaboration with Eat Drink Talk