How To Make Steak Sandwich With A Kick

My long time martial arts instructor and friend opened his own school so I have resumed training as of this morning. It did not occur to me that he must have learned training techniques from Marquis de Sade until I was doing push ups up and down the length of the floor. You'd do a push up and then while in the up position, move one spot to the side, then do another push up, repeat.
By the time I got home, my appetite was as voracious as a locust that had smoking pot. I stuck my head in the fridge and saw that leftover small roast from the strip loin that I had broken down into steaks. Better yet it hadn't finished thawing, perfect for making a steak sandwich! A steak sandwich with a kick.
Steak Sandwich With A Kick
Serves 4
1 Tbsp butter
1 Tbsp beef tallow or other oil
2 yellow onions, peeled and sliced thin
2 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp all purpose flour
1 cup half and half
1 cup Three Alarm Colby Jack cheese, shredded (or other spicy cheese)
2 Tbsp beef tallow or other oil
4 hoagie rolls
2 lb strip or ribeye roast
Salt and pepper to taste
Over low heat, melt the butter and tallow. Add the sliced onions, season with a little salt and caramelize them for 1 hour.
About 20 minutes before the onions are done, make the cheese sauce. In a small sauce pan, melt butter and whisk in the flour. Keep stirring for a few minutes until you get a blond roux. It will be a dryish paste and have a nutty aroma. Whisk in the half and half, making sure the roux dissolves evenly. Let simmer for 5 minutes and then add the cheese in small batches.
The secret to good steak sandwiches is to cut your meat thin and then pound it thinner. Slice the beef into 1/4" or thinner slices. A meat slicer helps but these were done by hand (my Waring Pro meat slicer died after 2 years). It helps to have the meat partially frozen when slicing but make sure they finish thawing when you start to beat them.

Get a cast iron pan preheated over medium high heat and add the beef fat or oil.  I was using beef fat because 1) I rendered it and saved it from the scraps last week and 2) it has a high smoke point.  

Season the steaks with salt and pepper and then pound them thin with the serrated side of a meat mallet.  Place them into the hot pan.  Work in small batches to avoid overcrowding the pan.  After about 30 seconds, start tearing them apart and toss like stir fry with a pair of metal spatulas.   It should only take about 3 minutes to cook each batch of beef.

How To Cook Pasta E Fagioli

I was having one of those nights last night when I had no idea of what to make for dinner.  Usually I know the night before but the first full work week after the holidays was tiring and I just wasn't feeling inspired.
That was easy, her wish is my command.  I had no clue what Olive Garden's dish was like other than Alexis' description.  I found this recipe on BigOven, made a few changes, and came up with this.
Speaking of BigOven, I've used their desktop software for years.  It's so easy to copy and past a recipe from the blogs I read and save them in my infinitely growing "try soon" folder by using the screen import feature.  I paid $25 for the BigOven desktop software years and years ago but IT IS NOW FREE.  I highly recommend it for organizing recipes, planning shopping, and creating meal plans.  They also have free apps for smart phones and tablets.  I find the apps very handy for quick reference when cooking since my laptop doesn't fit on the counter.
Pasta e Fagioli
Ingredients
1.25 lbs Italian sausage*
1 cup carrots, peeled and julienned  (about 2 carrots)
1 cup celery, diced (about 3 stalks, leaves reserved)
1 cup sweet onion, diced
12 oz V-8 fruit juice
15 oz tomato sauce
3 cloves roasted garlic*
2 14.5 oz cans diced tomatoes, not drained
14.5 oz Bush's Best dark red kidney beans, not drained
14.5 oz Bush's Best cannellini beans, not drained
1 Tbsp white vinegar
3/4 tsp Kosher salt
1 tsp black pepper, ground
1 1/2 McCormick's Mediterranean Sea Salt 
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1 tsp oregano, dried
1/2 tsp thyme, dried
1 1/2 Tbsp basil, fresh chopped
1 1/2 Tbsp celery leaves, fresh chopped
1-2 cups water
1/2 lb ditalini
1/2 cup pecorino-romano cheese, fresh grated for garnish
Instructions
Preheat a large pot over medium high heat.  Brown sausage and remove to colander to drain. (See note)
Saute the carrots, onion, and celery for the mirepoix until softened, 5-8 minutes.  
Return sausage to the pot and add remaining ingredients except the water and pasta.  Add as much of the water as needed to get the mix a little soupier than you want for your final texture.  We used about one cup, but that will be dependent on how much juices you get from your canned goods.
Bring to a simmer and then simmer uncovered for an hour, stirring occasionally.  
Make the pasta according to directions.  
Drain the pasta and stir into the pot.  Simmer 10 more minutes.
Serve with grated pecorino romano cheese.
Notes
Alexis mentioned that the Fagioli she had from Olive Garden had sliced sausage in it.  I thought there needed to be some broken up sausage too.  So I sliced two of the links and browned them.  The other three I removed from their casings and browned them as bulk sausage, breaking them up into fine pieces.  You can just brown all of the sausage in fine pieces but we found using two different textures made a significant impact on the final dish.  Every spoonful had a little sausage in it but every now and then you get a nice big chuck of it.
We usually have roasted garlic on hand because we roast a batch about every other weekend.  If you only have raw garlic, just chop it and throw it in with the mirepoix. 

How To Make Fire Roasted Beef Tenderloin

Have you ever made one of those recipes where at the beginning, you question the quantities of on or more ingredients? And then during the process, you question the quantities of on or more ingredients?
Roasted Beef Tenderloin with Smoky Tomato-Chili Salsa from Wolfgang Puck's Live, Love, Eat! was one of those for me last week. The quantities of the liquids for the salsa seemed ridiculously out of proportion. Fortunately, Alexis and I adjusted on the fly and ended up salvaging the salsa by adding more chunky ingredients to balance out the soupy mess into a reasonable salsa.
The end result was a buttery tender beef roast and a flavor filled salsa that were a food marriage made in heaven.
Perhaps there was a conversion error when they were writing the book. Maybe they just had huge roma tomatoes. Either way, Puck can cook circles around me and it is still a good cook book. I've had it for 5 years or so and everything else I have made from it has been quite good.
Here is what we ended up doing.
Fire Roasted Beef Tenderloin
2 lb beef tenderloin roast (I used a center cut section)
1 Tbsp Dead End BBQ beefrub (sub 1.5 tsp salt, 1 tsp black pepper, ½ tsp garlic powder)
10 small Roma tomatoes, cored
1 small onion, sliced
2 ea chipotle, seeded and diced
½ cup basil, chopped
6 cloves garlic
¼ cup lime juice
¼ cup balsamic vinegar
2 tsp sugar
2 tsp salt
½ tsp black pepper
½ cup olive oil
Prepare grill for direct heat at 400f or medium high heat. Roast the tomatoes, onion slices and garlic, turning every few minutes until the onions are tender and the tomatoes and garlic are blackened and blistered. Remove from heat and let cool. Cut your grill heat to 250f and set up for indirect heat.
Meanwhile, whisk the lime juice, balsamic vinegar, sugar, salt, and pepper together. Slowly add in the oil while you continue to whisk.
Chop the veggies once cooled. Add the chipotle and basil, tossing to mix. Add the liquid mixture until you have the consistency you want for the salsa.
Rub your beef tenderloin with the beef rub and cook over indirect heat (250f as previously noted) until it reaches the internal temperature for the degree of doneness you want. I wanted medium rare so I was shooting for 125f to 130f. This took almost exactly one hour on my Big Green Egg but go by temps, not times.
Change your grill to a direct heat set up and bring the grill heat to 450-500f. Now grill the roast directly over the heat source for about 1 minute per side just to get a darker browning for the outer crust. Let rest for at least 15 minutes. I had a little of the liquid left from the salsa mix and brushed it on as a glaze during the rest.
Slice and serve with the salsa.
We annihilated this dish. There was NOTHING left between the four of us. The salsa is not your normal tomato salsa since it uses basil instead of cilantro and has balsamic vinegar added. But it is perfectly paired with the normally bland but tender beef fillet. It acts more as a "sauce-ah" than a salsa.