Posh thai steak sandwich (Sandwich)

Member Name: Suzela

Product:	Sandwich
Date:	13/03/09 (345 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Quite easy to do and relatively healthy

Disadvantages: Not good if you don't like the marinade!

I love having friends over for dinner but when they say "yeah we'll pop in for lunch" my heart sinks. What do you serve? You have to think about portion sizes, not doing anything too heavy but not doing something too bland and you also have to resist the temptation to go "actually I know a nice pub that does great food".

So a couple of years ago I came up with this recipe for a thai style steak sandwich (you can substitute the steak for chicken or tuna steaks or you can use portabella mushrooms for vegetarians - i always allow two mushrooms per person). It is easy to make, although it does use a few ingredients which you may not have readily to hand if you are not a seasoned thai food cook at home. But these are readily available in all good (and possibly some bad) supermarkets. You can prepare the steak (or equivalent) a few hours in advance as well so you are not slaving in the kitchen when your guests arrive which is also a big advantage!

Preparation time: 10 minutes
Marinating time: 20 minutes to 2 hours
Cooking time: 6 to 16 minutes for steak or fish. Chicken will be 20 to 25 minutes

Ingredients:
100 to 200g of rump steak per person (try and get it with as little fat as possible or cut it off). Leave the steak whole and slice after cooking so it doesn't over cook.
a finger's worth of fresh ginger
2 or 3 cloves of crushed garlic (you can use one if this is too strong for you)
1 red chilli, finely chopped (you can deseed if you wish but I prefer not to)
2 tablespoons of thai fish sauce
juice and zest of one lime
1 tablespoon of rice vinegar
3 tablespoons of light soy sauce
1 tablespoon of dark soy sauce
1 or 2 teaspoons of sugar to taste (you don't need salt due to the salt in the soy sauce and fish sauce - the sugar helps to balance)
a good grind of black pepper
Handful of chopped coriander
Rocket or other salad leaves
a spring onion per person (optional)
ciabatta rolls (the ones which are the same size as you would get from a sandwich shop).

Method:
1: Finely peel and chop the ginger.
2: Crush the garlic and add this and the ginger into a large bowl
3: Add the the finely chopped chilli and lime zest
4: Add all the wet ingredients and stir. Add sugar to taste
5: Place the pieces of steak (or equivalent) into the bowl and make sure it gets a covering of the marinade.
6: Put the bowl in the fridge for a couple of hours , turning the meat (or whatever) occasionally so that it gets equal chance to stand in the marinade licquor. You can just marinade for 20 minutes but to really tenderise the meat the longer you can leave it the better. If you are using mushrooms you only need to do this for 30 minutes tops.
7: When you are ready to serve lunch, heat a griddle pan or frying pan with a little oil (or frylite oil if you are being very healthy) and cook the meat to everyone's liking. Rare steak usually takes about 2/3 minutes a side and well done usually 8 minutes a side for the size of steaks you are cooking. Reserve the marinade.
8. Whilst the steaks are cooking split the ciabatta roll and add the rocket or salad leaves.
9: Finely chop the spring onion and reserve for the "drizzle".
10: Once the steak is cooked put to one side on a warm plate for a few minutes whilst you reduce the marinade slightly to form the drizzle for the sandwich. Add the spring onion at this stage.
11: Slice the steak/meat/mushroom and arrange in the ciabatta before spooning over a tablespoon of the reduced marinade and serve with kettle chips or just on its own.

This is a really adaptable recipe and it goes down a treat. The marinade is lovely and rich but fragrant and fresh and the meat is really tender and succulent so you don't need to keep too much fat on it. The marinade drizzle and the meat juices soak into the ciabatta and make it even more moist and yummy. If you are worried about the salt content of some of these ingredients use reduced salt varieties of the soy sauce. It is also surprisingly filling but you don't feel bloated after.

If you wanted a stickier and sweeter version of this you just need to add a couple of tablespoons of honey at step 4 in the method instead of the sugar. This gives the meat a lovely sticky caremalised taste and is totally scrummy.

You can also add button or straw mushrooms and onions if you want to. They can get a quick dip in the marinade and they can be fried or sauteed if you want to bulk out the sandwich.

All I can say about this sandwich is that is always goes down well and is delicious. It is quite an easy way to make a steak sandwich quite posh!

Summary: Most delicious!