yesterday we sampled our first piece of beef from our meat share. i decided to take the sirloin tip roast (aka tri tip) and roast it - maybe make some steak sandwiches.
when i said that mike said, "yes! yes! like those sandwiches with that cheese spread you did that one time!" i think he was referring to these sandwiches.
and when he was done eating - two (!!) sandwiches later - he said, "ahhh....yes. that was exactly what i wanted!"
(side note - he is trying to quit smoking. for real this time he says. this has increased his appetite like 10-fold. he ate an entire box of cinnamon toast crunch in one day. yipes!)
i leafed through my meat cookbooks and then took to the web for inspiration. i stumbled across this recipe for harissa-crusted tri tip and i thought spicy steak sammiches sounded just perfect!
first things first - the beef. mmm!
so, i didn't have any caraway seeds. but i did have cumin seeds, mustard seeds and coriander seeds. since i'd adding ground cumin later i decided to go with the coriander seeds. i love them. i always put them in my chili and i love the taste. and i'm no dummy - i know that caraway seeds and coriander seeds aren't the same.
so i toasted up those coriander seeds and then added some olive oil and a buncha garlic cloves and covered the pan and removed it from the heat. while that was hanging out i grabbed my mini-food processor and added a few heaping blops of chili garlic paste, some cumin, some chili powder and a few tablespoons of tomato sauce.
i added the coriander-garlicy-oil and pureed it and then seasoned it with just a pinch of salt.
i reserved some of the sauce (to spread on the finished sandwiches) and then schmeared the rest of it all over the tri tip.
i lined a small pan with foil and put one of my cookie-cooling racks inside. the meat went on the rack and roasted in a 400 degree oven for about 50 minutes or so until it was medium rare.
i also did some oven fries and those were in the oven for about 40 minutes. they were by far the best oven fries i've ever made and i think it was due to the higher oven temperature (400 degrees) rather than the 350-375 i usually use. and while the meat and fries were cooking i slowly sauteed onions, mushrooms and red peppers in a lil' butter and canola oil.
once the meat reached 135 degrees i took it out of the oven, covered it with foil and let it rest for about 10 minutes. during the resting period i toasted the buns under the broiler. once they were golden brown i schmeared them with cheese.
i sliced up the meat and layered them on the cheesey buns with the sauteed veggies and a little of the reserved harissa.
YUM!
you'll notice that the meat on my sammy doesn't look too rare. the ends were cooked much more than the middle which was a little too rare. i'm not sure how to remedy that. and i'd also slice the meat thinner and then maybe cut it into chunks so it's easier to eat. this was a VERY messy sandwich!
