KHS Homecoming 2011: Tom's Chris Steak House

If you've been following this blog you might recall the 'fine dining' menus for my daughter Nora and her friends for their high school homecoming festivities. Parents participate as waiters and kitchen staff. It's been a blast. As usual a mix of couples, singles, long time friends and new faces among the kids resulted in new and energetic parental labor.

In 2009 it was "Looks Like a Kid's Menu" in which 'kids dishes' were taken to an innovative and high level - such as a recreation of Grant Achatz's PB&J and a 'deconstructed hamburger with a constructed tower of chili cheese fries'.

Last year the menu was "Tastes From (Almost) Every Continent".

Yesterday's event went down the path of 'high end steak joint' - with Italian influences. My good friend Chris Day again tended the grill and prepped with me for hours and hours. So we labelled the effort as Tom's Chris Steak House. The menu is below, with links to several similar from here or Be A Better Cook. Other recipes to follow in due course. Wow - I like that unintended pun.

My friend Tootsie Urwiler did a professional photo shoot of the event. We'll share a complete photo essay / multimedia thing soon as we work through the hundreds and hundreds of great shots she captured. Here's her website - www.TheBubbleYears.com 

Tom’s Chris Steak House

An evening of fine steakhouse dining inspired by the elegant style of Mario Batali’s Babbo and the comfort of Frankie’s 457 Fourth Street Spuntino. These two ends of the dining spectrum have been transplanted from New York to Texas for our honored guests.  


REFRESHERS

Apple – Ginger Spritz

Pomegranate and Soda

STARTERS

Roasted Corn, Bacon and Cheddar Gougeres
Antipasti: Cravanzina Two Milk Cheese, Aged Provolone, Molinari  Salumi

Verdure a Scapece: Marinated Roasted Eggplant, Zucchini, Squash, Cauliflower, Red and Yellow Peppers and Olives

SALAD

Caesar Salad, Garlic-Rosemary Croutons, Crispy Pancetta

Homemade Rustic Bread

ENTRÉE

Porcini Crusted Grilled Ribeye

Grilled Calamari Steak with Tangerine Vinaigrette 

Cheesy Grilled Polenta

Spinach with Roasted Shallots and Garlic

Summer Vegetable Scafata: Asparagus, Artichoke, Baby Carrot, Fennel, Haricot Vert, Leek

DESSERT

Hazelnut Panna Cotta Topped with Amaretti Crumbles and Raspberry

Family Dinner for the staff:  Texas Hill Country Sausage and Seafood Gumbo (Shrimp, Crawfish, Crab).

Bears Win! Bears Win! We Win with Chicago Style Italian Beef Sangwiches

Monday Night Football, September 27, 2010

Bears 20 - Packers 17

It's a rivalry you group up with in Chicago, and the intensity of the rivalry has only increased in the last couple decades. Bears-Packers. This past Monday was the 180th meeting of these two teams. 180. Think about that you Carolina Panther fans.

Anyway, we had just completed the massive homecoming menu, weren't in the mood for a lot of cooking on Monday, but DID have some steak left over. So I came up with the idea of slicing up the steak and putting it into a Chicago style Italian beef sandwich (often pronunciated as "sangwitch" by the local denizens).

The biggest problem was that we weren't cooking the beef, we already had cooked steaks. So the delicious juices that help create the sauce for the beef sandwiches wasn't going to develop. I went ahead and made a decent sauce with beef stock, red wine and a couple dried herbs. Why dried? Well, trust me, those sangwitch shops are not gourmet outposts. And I wanted to get as close as I could to the real thing, given my previously mentioned limitations.

The next thing I considered was toppings. There are two Chicago style approaches, roughly.

• Hot - which means Giardiniera, a spicy mix of peppers, onion, cauliflower and other vegetables.
• Sweet - which implies pan roasted bell peppers. Usually green, sometimes green and red.

I had some Giardiniera on hand, but Margie and the kids would probably pass on the spicy version. In fact, most of them would pass on the sweet version too, but whatever. So I went "High End Sweet", and slowly cooked onion, garlic and fennel with red, orange and green peppers. I added a few fennel seeds, dried oregano (bowing to local tradition) and hot pepper flakes. It looked like this, and was delicious.

In the end, we had a surprisingly nice interpretation of an Italian beef sandwich. And a GREAT outcome, as the Bears took advantage of the Packers 18 penalties (their most since 1945 when they played the Boston Yanks) to win the game and start the season at 3-0.



Chicago Style Italian Beef Sandwiches

Sauce
2 cups beef stock
1/2 cup red wine
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
(I swear, this is the first time I've recommended two dried herbs. But, we're trying to stay authentic-like)
Salt and Pepper to taste
     --- Bring sauce ingredients to a boil in a small sauce pan, then simmer while making peppers.

Peppers and Fennel
1 small red onion, sliced
1 bulb fresh fennel, white parts, sliced thinly
1 red pepper, seeded and sliced
1 green pepper, seeded and sliced
1 orange or yellow pepper, seeded and sliced
2 garlic cloves
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano (again, an homage)
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes, or to taste
Salt and fresh ground pepper
      --- Add 1-2 tablespoons olive oil to a skillet over medium-high heat
      --- Add onion and fennel and cook for 5-6 minutes
      --- Add remaining ingredients, cook for 5-6 minutes
      --- Lower heat to medium-low or low.
      --- Cook for 5-6 more minutes, or until peppers are soft, but have not changed colors.

Sandwiches
1 pound of thinly sliced steak or roast beef (don't forget, this recipe was a way to use leftovers). I'll publish a "real" Italian Beef recipe someday too.
8 thick sandwich rolls
      --- Add beef to sauce and let sit over low heat to warm through.
      --- To serve, use tongs to place beef into sliced rolls. The rolls CANNOT EVER be toasted, just in case anyone from outside Chicago gets any crazy ideas.
      --- Spoon additional sauce over the sangwitch to make it as "dry" or "wet" as you prefer.
      --- Top with a generous portion of mixed peppers and onions.