Sunday Eats: French Dip Sandwiches

Sunday Dinner

 

Looks pretty decent right? So how did I make this wonderful bounty you see before you?

You will need:

  • 1 chuck roast about 2-3 pounds  (you can use rump, but chuck with a nice bit of fat was the same price per pound)
  • 32 oz of beef stock
  • 1 small-medium onion
  • a clove or so of garlic
  • white mushrooms
  • Worcestershire sauce
  • salt
  • steak rolls
  • sliced Mozzarella, Havarti, and/or Provolone

How to do it:

At 1pm on a Sunday, decide you want French Dip sandwiches that requires the meat to cook for several hours in a crock pot. Dash to the store and buy ingredients. Then come home. Dump your carton of beef stock into the crock pot and turn it on high. Kinda like a preheat. Slice your onion kinda thin and throw it in the crock. Add a couple of tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce (who measures?) and some lovely smoked sea salt.

Turn your attention to your roast. Heat a skillet with some oil and sear that roast. As you sear it, think “hey, I should caramelize these onions a bit” and fish out some onions and throw them next to the roast. After the roast is seared on both sides, toss it into the crock pot. Look at your sad onions. Add some butter and the mushrooms. Sautee them veggies. Toss it all back into the crock pot.

And hour or so later, lament that the liquid is a bit high in the crock. Ladle out a couple of cups into a small saucepan. Boil it. Boil it to death. You want to reduce it a bit (we’re talking like 5 or 10 minutes). Taste it. Is it full of meaty goodness and has a bit of body? GOOD! Dump it back into the crock pot.

Another hour later, reduce some more. Add it back to the crock. Curse yourself for adding the entire 32 ounces of stock. Curse yourself again for forgetting the garlic. Realize you have no actual garlic on hand and make do with a sprinkling of garlic powder.

LEAVE IT ALONE.

Come back after cooking at least 5-6 hours. Take a fork and see if it shreds. Does it shred? THEN IT’S DONE! Toast them rolls. Add your meat. Add some cheese. TOAST THAT SANDWICH! EAT THAT SANDWICH!

What? You want a side? *sigh* Fine. Buy some pre-cut Ore-Ida steak fries. Toss them into the oven on a cookie sheet for 35 minutes at 450 like it says on the bag. Hope you realized you wanted fries BEFORE you declared dinner is done. Take fries out, season to taste, make your plate AND EAT!

What? You want asparagus? *sigh* Gte some fresh asparagus. Trim the lower, woody 2 inches. boil some salted water. Drop asparagus into water for a couple of minutes (2-3 minutes tops). drain, add butter, lime juice, a sprinkling of smoked salt. DONE! EAT YOUR FOOD! ENJOY! Watch the Saints get hammered by the Cowboys (Really? The COWBOYS?)