Italian Roast Beef Sandwiches

It felt good to spend the day in the kitchen, I have been busy with traveling and working a lot of overtime. Here is one of three recipes I actually had time to pull together. This is a great Sunday dinner recipe. It takes a bit of time but well worth the wait. You may never buy roast beef from the deli again!

Ingredients:

3 lbs chuck roast
8 garlic cloves (remove the skins and slice in slivers)
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
2 teaspoon kosher salt
2 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 teaspoon dried Italian herb blend (use a good quality)
2 teaspoon dried onion flakes
Pinch of fresh grated nutmeg
1 bay leaf
2 cups beef stock
Italian rolls



Directions:
Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Mix all dry ingredients together.  Make slices all over the roast with a sharp paring knife and insert the slices of garlic in the slits. Rub half of the dry mixture all over the roast and place in a large roasting pan and set in the oven. Roast for 20 minutes, then reduce the heat to 250 degrees. Cook for another 20 minutes.

 After the 20 minutes, add the rest of the spice mixture to the beef stock. Pour the mixture into the roasting pan. Cook between 45 min to 1 hour or until internal temperature of meat reaches 130 degrees at center of roast.

 Remove the meat and set aside on a platter to cool. Remove the garlic slices and add to the roasting pan with the juices. Set the roasting pan on the burners and turn the heat to medium high. Scrape up any bits that have stuck on the bottom. Reduce mixture slightly for a few minutes. Then turn off the heat and let the mixture cool. Once the liquid is cooled place in a sealed container into the fridge.



　

Wrap roast tightly in aluminum foil and place into the fridge for a minimum of 1 hour. Place roast in freezer for 1 hour until rather firm (this helps with the slicing process). Slice the roast with a very sharp knife, as thin as possible.

Assembly of the sandwich!
Warm a portion of the liquid, just to a simmer in a skillet and place chosen portion sizes of sliced beef into the juice’s. Cook for about 2 minutes.

Cut the rolls half way down still leaving a good amount of uncut bread at the base or the sandwich, grab meat and move quickly to bun so meat juices can soak into bread.


I decided I wanted to garnish mine with provolone cheese and a large slice of tomato drizzled with an aged balsamic vinegar.

*Normal garnish is giardiniera (Giardiniera is an Italian or Italian-American relish of pickled vegetables in vinegar or oil)*
　

                      Served with a Fennel Slaw, which will be the next post to come.
          And for dessert, I made Lemon & Honey cookies, that will be the third post.