Forest Gate Steak and Cheese Sandwich

This is one of those meals I whip up for myself when I had a shoddy day at the office, the weather is crap, there's nothing on TV and I need a special treat to compensate for all of this. Some people would probably rather eat a chocolate gateaux or some other sweet little inspiration on these occasions, but for me it's savoury all the way. Unfortunately this recipe is profoundly un-vegetarian, but I am sure you could replace the steak with a nice big slice of eggplant.

Right, let's go:

Ingredients:

• 1 Steak (rump, sirloin) per person
• 1 onion per person
• Red Wine (nothing spectacular. remember, you're cooking with it)
• Hot English mustard
• 2 fresh petite pains per person
• olive oil, salt, pepper
• cheddar (I use mature australian cheddar, but YMMV

Chop the onion in thin rings and heat up some olive oil in a medium sized frying pan and add the onionrings. Let them simmer on medium heat, occasionally stirring them so they don't burn. Keep an eye on them while you prepare the rest of the food and switch off the heat when they are nice and soft and caramelised.

In the meantime take a heavy cast iron frying pan and pour a generous helping of olive oil in it. Midly salt and pepper the steaks. Heat the oil on maximum heat and add the steaks when the oil starts to smoke. Fry them on each side for ca 1 minute and then reduce the heat to minimum. Now add ca 0.2 litre of red wine into the pan and stir with a wooden spoon to create a nice fond. Keep the steak in the red wine until the fluid is reduced almost completely and you have a nice sauce.

Halve the petit pains horizontally and spread a thin layer of mustard on each side. Cut the cheddar in thin slices and add some on one side of each petite pain. Now add the sauteed onions onto the cheddar. Take the steaks out of the pan and cut them into thin (the thinner, the easier to eat) slices, and stack them densely on the petite onions. Now sprinkle generously with sauce. Close the sandwich with the other half of the petite pain, and cut the sandwiches vertically in half (or even thirds, depending on your hand size), et voila:

Tuck in!

Have it with your favourite tipple of choice: I personally would probably go for a dark ale like Dark Island, but a nice glass of Cabernet might be your preference. Anyway, sit back, munch through your sandwich and let yor sorrows drain away.

Bon appetit.