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Rainy Day Steak Sandy: Flatiron Steak with Grilled Leeks and Sheep’s Milk Cheese

Posted on | April 15, 2009 | 2 Comments

It’s a cold rainy day here in Washington, a shining example of T.S. Eliot’s tortured plea: April is the cruelest month.

I’m guessing, though, that if T.S. turned his attention to a scrummy steak sandy, as another man might say who knows a little something about cold rainy Aprils (Mr. Jamie Oliver), it wouldn’t have seemed quite so bad.

One of my favorite aspects of a steak sandwich is how one rarely plans to make them. They just kind of show up, emanating typically from leftovers or moreovers, and those moments at the dinner table when everyone looks at their plates and then around at each other and nod in agreement “steak sandwiches, tomorrow.”

They are proof positive that one can be creative with ingredients outside the confines of meal planning.

As an aside, a friend stated to me, a few weeks back, that “yes, cooking is easy of you have all these ingredients around.”

Well, my good friend “these ingredients” are merely those that are fresh, healthy (no pesticides, antibiotics, heavy processing) and available, and those that come in the weekly haul from the CSA. It’s amazing what one can do with food if you stick to simple, fresh and available ingredients as well as those products you have taken the time to get to know. And this last facet, that of self-education, isn’t really that difficult. Our country is the most advanced consumer nation in the world. We ask multiple rounds of questions and do academic-level research for most of the purchases we make, what we put on and around our bodies. Yet, when it comes to what we are eating, what we are putting IN our bodies, education somehow becomes inconvenient. Remember, we are what we eat…and as Michael Pollan said so eloquently, “it turns out we are also what we eat, eats.”

But I digress…

My particular foray into the steak sandwich pictured above began with a quick analysis of my fridge after a weekend/early week busy with house guests and multiple dinner parties.

I had several moreovers:

• Leeks (Dupont Circle Farm Market) from Molly’s delicious Leek and Black Pepper Risotto with Truffle Oil (coming soon)
• Grass-fed flatiron steak from a repeat attempt at my chipotle rubbed rib eyes
• Everona Dairy (Virginia-and-proud) Sheep’s milk cheese (Stony Man, made from Everona’s Friesan Sheep)
• Half an organic baguette, just this side of french-toast worthy authentic pain perdue

The leek provided the onion flavor I wanted, and Everona’s sheep’s milk cheese – among my favorite cheese provided what I can only describe as the taste of the farm – nutty, hay and milk, and fresh, sweet air; Everona manages, somehow, to capture all these flavors in their cheese.

I grilled the leeks quickly under the broiler, then sliced the flatiron steak and placed the pieces atop the leeks and atop one half of the baguette. Next, I placed three slices of the sheep milk cheese over the steak and leeks and placed back under the broiler until the cheese melted and browned.

I whipped up a quick mix of horseradish and brown mustard to slather on the other side of the sandwich and, voila; a cup-a-tea later, and steak sandy in hand, I successfully warded off the persistence of the cold and rainy spring day, and resisted the urge to turn to poetry.

Will

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