Steak sandwich

This is one of my mum's favorite things and she enjoys them however they're made but she will recognize right off it's not the real thing. In her world there is but one true Philadelphia steak sandwich and this is not it. 

You need to have the right bakery around the corner, and you need a big flattop grill, and the right cut of meat sliced just the right thickness, and authentic cheese sauce made from a single ingredient, that inexplicable American cheese, and cooks with east coast attitude that doesn't stop, those things together are transformative.

No it innt. I just made that up. If you would go there and have one you'll think it's not all that and wonder what the fuss is about. Probably. Then a week later crave that exact same thing again made the exact same way. Probably.

This sandwich is mind blowingly excellent and the bread is simply the best and all its elements fine but it hasn't satisfied a craving for Philadelphia steak sandwich ordinary as those things are.

This is a terrible thing to do to a steak, I realize that, but I don't care. 

Maybe it would help to say I don't have any teeth and slicing it up makes it easier to swallow. 

The other day at the neighborhood grocery there was a brief shuffle and a woman emerged apologetic for no reason at all, her two little kids were right there no problem that I saw but the woman was flustered, right there in front of the Polident as it happened. 

So I grabbed a box and held it up and asked the two boys if they knew what it is. They said,  "No." The woman was wondering who is this man who asks strange random questions no child could reasonably answer totally non sequitur like that to the shopping trolly scuffle.

"It holds your teeth in. It's glue. Temporary glue. 

Some people can take their entire teeth out and put them back in" 

I pantomimed someone removing their teeth. The boys were incredulous. 

"True faxs. My nana could take her whole teeth out. She did once and blew my mind. I tried to learn the magic trick of teeth removal for years. Never forgave her for messing with my mind like that. See ya." 

These onions were started first long before the meat was sliced. They're eventually caramelized which is a lot different from grilled. In Philadelphia you'll have grilled onions and they're wonderful not caramelized onions. It's one of the things that makes this sandwich better, that is different, and so also the reason why it will not satisfy a craving if the craving is for a particular Philadelphia steak sandwich. 

The bread was made and baked yesterday this is the bottom showing the segments. A segment is sliced off the size of a hotdog bun and then sliced. The two slices of a single bun are the thickness of Texas toast, but the crumb is more dense than that. These buns are actually meals themselves. The density of this bread and its sop-ability is akin to a muffin but with a rich yeasty aroma.

The bread you'll have for this in Philadelphia is excellent, delivered that morning, and it's integral to their sandwich. This bread is better than that, extraordinary even one day old. 

You can have whatever kind of cheese you want but the best seller in Philadelphia for this sandwich  is the liquid form of American cheese pumped from a #10 tin. 

I think. 

This is that with grated Asiago added. And, Man, is it ever delicious. I cannot explain why.

Open face cheeseburger with tomatoes

Open-face, broiled, twice. Once to waterproof the bread with cheese, which will not completely work, and secondly to finish. 

In the style of croque-monsieur sauf viande hachée place de jambon et fromage. Cheeseburger! Instead of ham and cheese.

There are onions underneath the meat patty. One entire onion caramelized for forty-five minutes on low, and the meat patty fried separately.

Anything you do like this with bread and cheese and anything else and with an oven, baked or broiled, turns out a bit like a pizza, a deep-dish pizza with heap big awesome carnivore topping. There's no escaping it. 

And let me tell you it is the bread that makes it, really it is. 

They're hotdog buns, ten made at once as one large loaf then separated cut off one by one divided between the bumps, then each one sliced for a pocket bread to hold a hotdog or a similar hoagie type submarine sandwich filling. 

And this bread is so good just an hour out of the oven, and fast to make too, as far as bread goes. You cannot do better than this. It has butter, olive oil, egg and milk, so brioche. It has one short first proofing mostly to autolyze, then a longer second proof whereupon salt is added. So backward from the usual way, and not stretched to redistribute this time although that would have been easy enough. I was pretending to do things the way a manufacturer would do them to make it go very fast for bread, except with better ingredients. It's wonderful. Now I wish I had tried things this way earlier.

Potato, egg, bacon, cream sauce

The power and the glory of commonplace potato is fully actualized with the assistance of fortified cream sauce. This is breakfast of egg and bacon with potato and toast in gnocchi form.  The toast in the state of flour that helps make near pasta out of potato. Pasta but not quite, more fluffy than that. These are soft as clouds.

Potato clouds studded with bacon bits, what's not to like? 

Do not smash the potato.

It's be kind to the baked potato day.

Fluff the potato.

But eventually you'll have to press. 

Press eventually, but do not smash. Got it?

A potato is microwaved and riced. If you don't have a ricer then push through a strainer, not a fine strainer but a coarse strainer. If you lack a ricer and also lack a coarse strainer then grate the cooked potato so the bits fall into loose piles of starch grains. 

Keep it loose. 

Beaten egg is drizzled loosely onto the loosely piled potato.

Along with the minimum amount of flour possible loosely combined, handled loosely.

The whole time thinking, "Am I doing this loosely enough? How will it hold together if I keep it this loose? Will a thing loose as this even work? This seems too loose."

My nutmeg was down to remnant bits so that's replenished. 

Nutmeg goes with cream.

Heated cream would work all by itself, this is enhanced with tiny nearly imperceptible amounts of

* butter, can you believe I put butter in cream?

* mustard powder

* garlic powder

* coriander seed powder

* s/white p

This gnocchi is shallow fried because I had the oil right there available, otherwise they'd be sautéed in butter and probably with sage. 

Potato, beef broth

A cubed potato boiled in commercial beef broth. That's all.

Dolled up with additional flavors. A few alliums, a few ground spices, a few whole seeds. That's all.

Caramelized onions cannot be rushed. They undergo modifications as they cook slowly. Eventually they'll become sweet at about forty-five minutes on low, depends on the type, and they pass through a slightly vinegary stage at about twenty-five minutes, some of them do, that's when these onions were stopped. So this broth has a very slight vinegar tang that would become sweet if left to caramelize longer. 

If your onions go too fast and start to burn then they can be doused with water to slow them back down. 

This is a satisfying in-between meal. Half this amount would be a good starter for a multi course dinner.

Tacos

How to make taco seasoning without a package of taco flavoring mix.

Assemble the spices that go into the packages and improve on them. Leave out chile powder, that's a combination of things that is already covered.

* cayenne chile powder

* paprika smoked, hot, whatever

* coriander seed powder

* cumin seed powder

* dehydrated onion -- but you'll use real onions for improvement

* garlic powder -- but you'll use real garlic for improvement

That would be the basic flavor spice elements but you could also consider

* turmeric 

* oregano, especially Mexican oregano

* tomato paste, just a tablespoon or so

* tequila or vodka, beer, or nearly any wine, I personally like sake a lot

* Worcestershire for its tamarind and its anchovy

* s/p

* something sweet so all that doesn't get oppressive

* starch to thicken if you want meat suspended in sauce

* beef broth if you want more liquid

Using thin strips of meat is better than ground beef. Using sliced slowly caramelized sliced onions is better than diced onions.