This recipe takes a half a day, and the sandwiches are eaten the next day. It's really good. This recipe makes about sixteen big sandwiches.
Pre-heat the oven to 375°F, with the roaster in it. Have a fan running or open a window. While heating the oven, take four, heads, of garlic, leaving each whole (easy to peel after cooking, just smash and strain). Add four celery stalks and one giant (restaurant size) carrot, clean, peel, trim, and break into four or five large pieces. When the oven and roaster are hot, move the roasting pan to a medium flame, adding olive oil to cover the bottom, and sear a five pound tied sirloin of beef on all six sides. After all sides have been seared, add 12 ounces of red wine, and the vegetables.
The beef roast in the picture had little or no fat on it, so I put a few chamorro (beef shanks) in for flavor. Just take the fat out when the stock is cold!
- Saute' a tablespoon or so of tomato paste in the olive oil for about a minute.
- Put the roaster with the beef, vegetables and wine back in the oven, and cook at 375°F for five minutes on each of the four long sides to complete "sealing" the beef. This step releases the complex mixture of creosote and ash that makes charred meat taste so good - the residue stays in the roaster.
- During the last five minutes, set the oven temperature down to 275 - 300°F.
- For long cooking like this, I prefer dried herbs; fresh herbs should be added only near the end of cooking; so, the dried herbs to be added here are;
- two bay leaves,
- ¼ teaspoon or a large pinch each of;
- oregano,
- thyme,
- sage,
- and parsley.
- Toast then grind about a half-teaspoon of coriander seed.
- Add a vegetable or beef stock, and enough water to submerge the beef about half way.
- Salt to taste. Remember the vegetables have a high salt content.
Cover with the lid, and let cook at 275°F for three to four hours, turning over each hour. Keep the meat wet!
If you can't wait (this smells great while it cooks), add a small quartered potato or two per person, during the last half-hour of cooking, and leave the pot uncovered. Add a spicy green salad, and you have supper for tonight. Only slice off as much beef as you need tonight, and leave the rest whole to chill, so you can slice it very, very thin tomorrow. Also, save all of the cooking liquor, pass it through a fine food mill and refrigerate. You must remove the bay leaves before passing the liquor through the blender, the carrot and celery are optional, but the peeled garlic is a must to go through the blender with the rest of the stock.
The sandwiches are the real treat. Especially the "relish."
- Take 1 clove of marinated (pickled) garlic per sandwich
- Add celery, pearl onion, carrot, or whatever from a jar of giardiniera plus a marinated hot pepper or peperoncini.
- Chop the ingredients until finely minced but not a paste.
Make the sandwiches.
- Preheat an oven, maybe with a pizza or baking stone, to 400F
- Take the "au jus" from the roast, which you had, yesterday, passed through the blender and strained with the fine mesh out of the fridge and remove any solid grease from the top.
- Heat the gravy to boiling, and if it's too thick, just add some boiling water
- Take the beef out of the fridge.
- Get your sharpest carving knife and sharpen it further
- Slice the beef very, very thin. Nah, it should just tear to shreds!
- Wet your hands and "dry" them on the split rolls on which you'll make the sandwich, and put the rolls into a 400F oven for three minutes.
- Spread a tablespoon of the "relish" on each half of the roll.
- Add two strips of roasted sweet red ( or green) pepper per sandwich.
- Dip the beef sandwich in the gravy, making it as wet as you want, and pile it on the bread.