Philly Cheese Steak Recipe

Man, do I ever love cheese steaks.  I have never been to Philadelphia, so I can't really compare the ones that I make to the originals, but I would think that they can hold their own.  I love the combination of the warm steaks with onions and gooey melted cheese.  The thought just makes me hungry.  I tried out this way of making cheese steaks the other day, and all three and a half of us really enjoyed them.  For these cheese steaks, I had a big, left over barbequed Strip loin that I used, but in at the end, I will talk about cooking with a raw steak.  The important thing also is the choice of meat.  You have to use a good cut of meat like a strip loin because no one wants tough steak.  Here is what you will need.

1 large strip loin, trimmed of fat and cut really thin
3 strips of bacon, cut up into pieces
3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
2 shallots or red onions, thinly cut
1/2 red pepper
1/2 green pepper
1 cup of beef broth
3 tbsp of heavy cream
shake of Worcestershire sauce
Sourdough bread
slices of real mozzarella (the nice stringy kind that you get in a ball), or Provolone
Pepper

In a frying pan over medium heat, put in the cut up bacon and start frying that.  I used the bacon instead of olive oil to add to the flavours because, as we all know, bacon makes everything better.  When the bacon starts to cook, and some of the fat has melted off, add the garlic, shallots, and peppers.  Saute the veggies until the start to get soft.  Add the beef broth and Worcestershire sauce and reduce the heat.  Add pepper to taste.  Let the concoction reduce until there is about a third of the liquid remaining.  Add the meat and heavy cream.  Coat the meat with the sauce and reduce the heat.  Cut up the bread and put it on a cookie tray in the oven for a few minutes until is starts to toast a little.  Take it out and top with the meat and veggies and a generous amount of cheese, which is what puts this over the edge.  Throw the sandwiches back into the oven until the cheese start to melt and get all gooey.

Some Alternatives:

-You can make these without having the meat pre-cooked.  Again, I just (oddly) had a left over steak from a previous night.  To do this, after the veggies have started to cook, throw in the raw meat into the pan.  Because it is cut so thin, it will not take too long to cook, only a couple of minutes, just until it doesn't look raw anymore, but it can still be pink.  When you add the beef broth, the meat with continue to cook.  You don't want to over cook the strip loin, as it will get tougher, the longer it is cooking.

-Add whole peppercorns to the mixture for some added kick

-I like the open faced sandwich, but you can certainly make it on a submarine bun.  Just remember to toast it a little first, so it doesn't get soggy too quick

-d