A Damn Good Sandwich

I was cruising the internet after work on Friday and saw an article on Salon.com about a Boston area restaurant's unexpected hit menu item - a roast beef sandwich.

I like a roast beef sandwich as well as the next guy, but I couldn't imagine what you could do to make it a big hit/menu favorite. I realize Arby's has built an empire on roast beef sandwiches so my first thought is it wouldn't be hard to improve on that mass market mediocrity.

So what's the secret to an awesome roast beef sandwich? The basics of course; good meat, good bread and good toppings. This one uses a couple of unusual ingredients and the combination is sublime.

So add Cutty's in Boston to the places I want to check out if I ever blow this town. I want to go to the mother ship and try this sandwich. I want to see how my version stands up to the original, because frankly the one I made is the best damn roast beef sandwich I've ever had!

I made a few changes to the original Cutty's Amazing Roast Beef Sandwich Recipe - I get the impression that Chuck Kelsey, the owner of Cutty's would approve; it sounds like he's a pretty good guy.
So the basis of this sandwich is Roast Beef and Cheese on a Bun. What sets it apart is some jazzed up thousand island dressing and some crispy deep fried shallots - a Vietnamese touch that puts it over the top.

The Kutty Sandwich

Ingredients:

• A Kaiser Roll or a Pub Bun - the original sandwich calls for a pepper brioche roll - I don't know of anything like that available around these parts - but it sounds like a fine idea.
• Thinly sliced roast beef - you can buy it from the deli or make it with the recipe below
• Sharp Cheddar Cheese - I used Tillamook Vintage White
• Jazzed up Thousand Island Dressing (Thousand Island with bit of horseradish to taste) or use the recipe below
• Crispy Deep Fried Shallots - recipe below or buy them pre-made at an Asian Market. You might get by using those Durkee's French Fried Onions of Green Bean Casserole fame, but I don't think it would be the same

 Method: 

• Pre-heat the broiler while you're assembling the rest of the ingredients
• Split the Pub Roll and and top each half with a slice of cheese and put under the broiler until the cheese is bubbly and the edges of the roll are browned.
• Top the bottom half of the the bun with a pile of thinly sliced roast beef
• Top the pile of roast beef with a tablespoon or two of the Thousand Island Dressing 
• Pile on some of the crispy shallots
• Put the top half of the bun on the sandwich and prepare to be amazed!

Roast Beef

1. Salt and Pepper a two plus pound sirloin tip roast - put it in a ziplock bag and refrigerate overnight
2. The next day pull the roast out of the fridge an hour before you're going to cook it
3. Preheat the oven to 500 and let it heat for 20 additional minutes after it comes to temperature - I can't emphasize enough how important it is to properly preheat an oven! Listen Dammit! I know what I'm talking about!
4. Put the roast in the oven and turn the oven down to 475
5. Cook the roast for 5 minutes per pound - I had a two and a third pound roast - I cooked it for 12 minutes.
6. Turn the oven off and DO NOT OPEN THE DOOR!
7. Let the roast cook in the oven for 2 1/2 Hours and DO NOT OPEN THE DOOR!
8. While it's cooking make sure you have a really sharp knife - if you don't, you've got about two hours to get it sharp 
9. Okay, now you can open the door and pull out the roast - let it rest for 15 minutes
10. Thinly slice the roast - as thin as you can - this is why you have to have a really sharp knife

Housemade Thousand Island Dressing

• 1 1/4 cups mayonnaise
• 1/3 cup bottled chili sauce
• 1/4 cup chopped drained pimiento
• 1 or 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1/2 teaspoon worchestershire sauce
• 3 tablespoons finely chopped dill pickle or cornichon
• 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
• 2 tablespoons drained capers
• 2 tablespoons sweet pickle relish
• 2 - 3 tablespoons horseradish

 Mix together all of the ingredients except the horseradish.

Horseradish varies in it's heat level - the idea here is to have just a bit of the heat and taste of the horseradish,  so add a the horseradish a bit at a time until it's right.

Crispy Fried Shallots

Ingredients:

• two cups of peeled sliced shallots - slice them a scant 1/8th inch thick
• four cups of canola oil

Method:

1. Slice the shallots and lay them out on a sheet pan to dry for 20 or 30 minutes
2. Heat the oil to 350 in a deep sauce pan - a 3 qt pan is good
3. Add the shallots to the oil - be careful - they have a lot of water and the pan may want to boil over
4. The oil temperature will drop to about 250 - keep it here and cook for 10 to 15 minute until the shallots are caramel brown - peanut butter brown is almost too much.
5. Drain the shallots on several layers of paper towels

This will keep for a week or so in a covered container

Since it's Kentucky Derby Weekend - I've been drinking a few mint juleps

Mint Julep

• 2 to 3 ounces bourbon whiskey – I used Buffalo Trace
• 4 to 6 sprigs of mint
• ½ to ¾ ounce simple syrup (1 cup water, 1 cup sugar – bring to a simmer and then cool)
• crushed ice

1. Add mint to bottom of glass.
2. Add simple syrup and gently muddle mint into syrup, rubbing it all around the sides of the glass. Do not over-muddle the mint - the idea is to bruise it and get the essential oils into the syrup
3. Pull out most of the mint, leaving the minty syrup behind.
4. Fill glass halfway with crushed ice.
5. Add bourbon. Jiggle ingredients but do not stir.  The drink should get mintier and a bit sweeter as you get to the bottom of the glass
6. Add crushed ice on top until mound forms.
7. Garnish with large mint sprig

What's in a name? That which we call a rose

The Monkey Gland is a most unfortunately named cocktail. Frankly it bothers me more than just a little that I like this cocktail as much as I do.

I don't know if there is another drink that I like that has a name with such an "Ick!" factor. I suppose that this is one of those "a Rose by any other name would smell as sweet" things.

I like Manhattans - the name sounds like a sophisticated cocktail from a sophisticated city - I can imagine drinking them at a cocktail party in a Manhattan Loft with Dave Brubeck and Paul Desmond playing a soft version of Take Five in the background - not on a cd or vinyl - the two of them together again - I know Desmond is dead, but I saw him playing with Brubeck once; front row, center. Amazing - pretty vivid imagination in play here don't you think, but I really was front row, center.

A Sazerac conjures up images of a smoky joint in New Orlean's or bottles of Rye Whiskey, Absinthe and Peychaud's Bitters. Max Rebennack; Dr. John the Night Tripper playing "Right Place, Wrong Time"

Martinis make me think of riding the Green Tortoise to San Francisco - My cousin Mark picked me up - several hours late and I was irritated . We stopped and had a pint of Anchor Steam with a couple of Martini backs to calm me down. It was some funky place that served barbecue turkey legs. I guess I should have some Grateful Dead song rolling as I write this bit, but frankly I'm drawing a blank - Truckin' doesn't really seem like appropriate martini music - but then again, barbecue turkey legs don't seem like the kind of finger food that would go with martinis either. Canapes and Julie London would be more like it.

I don't have any positive imagery with the Monkey Gland cocktail. Somehow what comes to mind is a doctor doing physicals on a bunch of naked guys lined up at the old military induction center near SW 5th and Taylor in my aborted attempt to join the Navy in 1972 - maybe Country Joe McDonald got through to me. Sorry, it's not a pretty picture - more "Ick Factor"

Maybe there is hope though as noted below it was also known as the McCormick - which somehow reminds me more of little tins of herbs at the grocery store. Then again, the story also includes the real origin behind the name of the cocktail.

From the Washington Post – Washington, D.C., Apr 29, 1923:

“Preparing for a busy tourist season, Frank, the noted concocter behind the bar of the Ritz, has devised a new series of powerful cocktails, the favorite of which is known as the “monkey gland”, or , as it is popularly called, the “McCormick.”
Like Frank’s “poixxito quinte” [?] gloomer raiser, the monkey gland requires absinthe to be perfect, but its amateurs have found anise a substitute with a sufficient kick.
For the benefit of friends over in America who have not exhausted their cellars, here is the recipe: half and half gin and orange juice, a dash of absinthe, and a dash of raspberry or other sweet juice. Mix well with ice and serve only with a doctor handy. Inside half an hour the other day Frank purveyed forty of these, to the exclusion of Manhattans and Martinis.”

 Monkey Gland or McCormick

1 1/2 oz. London dry gin  (I use Cascade Mountain Gin)
1 1/2 oz. orange juice
1 tsp. grenadine - make your own - it's so much better
1/2 tsp. Absinthe

Stir with cracked ice and strain.