Recipe by Jodie Smith

Steak Sandwich With Pepper Steak Relish

Name: Steak Sandwich With Pepper Steak Relish
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 10 min
Total time: 20 min
Yield: 2

Serves2 people

Prep10 min

Cook10 min

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Shop the pantry

DCC Pepper Steak Relish 330g

$12.95

Hand-packed and dispatched from our Corio, Victoria warehouse, with free delivery Australia-wide on orders over $100.

The relish goes on the meat and the mustard goes on the bread, because fat and bread get along and vinegar and bread do not. Toast the cut faces in the pan the steak has just left, rest the steak somewhere else, and build at the last minute. Two sandwiches, about 20 minutes.

Jar of DCC Pepper Steak Relish 330g, the relish spread through this steak sandwich

Ingredients

Serves 2. Prep 10 minutes, cook 10 minutes. The relish, the mustard, the onions and the oil are ours. The steak, the bread and the salad come from the same shops you would use anyway.

For the steak
2 x 200g	porterhouse or scotch fillet, about 2cm thick
1 tbsp	Kangaroo Island extra virgin olive oil
	sea salt flakes and black pepper
To build
1	ciabatta or Turkish loaf, cut into two lengths and split
3 tbsp	DCC Pepper Steak Relish
2 tsp	TRCC Spitfire Hot English Mustard
2 tbsp	TGK Caroline's Caramelised Onions
1 handful	rocket or butter lettuce
4 slices	tomato (optional)
Instead of the pepper relish
3 tbsp	TRCC The 'Fighting Furys' Tomato Relish, for a sweeter sandwich

Take the steak out of the fridge 30 minutes before it goes in the pan. A fridge cold steak this thick either stays blue in the middle or overcooks at the edges while you wait for the centre to catch up.

Method

Take the steak out of the fridge 30 minutes ahead and pat both sides completely dry with paper towel. A wet surface steams instead of browning.
Season generously with salt and pepper on both sides, right before cooking rather than half an hour earlier.
Heat a heavy pan or a barbecue plate over high heat until a drop of water skitters and vanishes.
Add the olive oil, then the steaks, and leave them alone for 3 minutes.
Turn once and cook for another 2 to 3 minutes for medium rare in a 2cm steak. Pressed in the middle it should feel like the pad below your thumb with your hand relaxed.
Move the steaks to a warm plate, not onto the bread, and rest them for 5 minutes.
Put the split bread cut side down into the pan while the steaks rest and toast it in the fat that is left, about a minute, until it is gold and crisp at the edges.
Spread the mustard thinly over the top halves and pile the rocket onto the bases.
Slice the steak across the grain into 1cm strips, tipping any juices from the plate into the relish rather than onto the bread.
Lay the slices over the rocket in overlapping shingles so every bite gets an edge, then spoon the relish over the meat.
Add the caramelised onions and the tomato, close the sandwich, press it down firmly for a few seconds and cut it across on the diagonal.

Why the order matters more than the ingredients

A steak sandwich fails in one way and it is always the base going wet. Three barriers stop it and this recipe uses all three. Fat on the bread, which is what toasting the cut faces in the pan drippings does and what the mustard does on the top half. Leaves between the bread and the meat, acting as a raincoat. And everything wet kept above the steak rather than under it. Resting the steak on the bread undoes all three at once.

The same relish is what makes the day after a roast worth looking forward to, which our Boxing Day leftovers guide covers, and if the sweeter tomato version is more your thing there is a whole piece on what to put tomato relish on.

Common questions

What cut of steak is best for a sandwich?

Porterhouse, sold as sirloin in some shops, is the usual answer: enough fat to stay juicy, tender enough to bite through cleanly, and it holds a 2cm thickness well. Scotch fillet is richer and more forgiving if you overshoot the timing. Skirt and flank cost less and taste better than either, but they only work sliced thin and hard across the grain after a short, very hot cook. What does not work is anything thin enough to cook through before it browns, which is why minute steak makes a fast sandwich and never a memorable one.

How do you keep a steak sandwich from going soggy?

Put something greasy between the bread and everything else, and keep the wet things above the meat rather than below it. Toasting the cut faces in the pan fat seals them, and mustard or butter does the same cold. Rocket or lettuce is a second barrier. Then rest the steak on a plate, not on the bread, so the five minutes of juices that come out of it end up in the relish instead of the base. Build it in the last minute before you eat, and if it has to travel, wrap it in paper rather than foil so the steam can leave.

Can I use leftover roast beef instead of steak?

Yes, and it is arguably the better sandwich. Slice it cold and as thin as you can manage, which is far easier than slicing warm beef. Warm the slices for 20 seconds in a dry pan with a spoonful of the relish or a splash of water, just enough to take the fridge off them, then build as above. Cold beef straight from the fridge tastes flat and dampens the bread as it comes up to room temperature, which is the mistake most people make on 26 December.

DCC Pepper Steak Relish is $12.95 for a 330g jar, which is about ten sandwiches, and it comes from the Daylesford Condiment Company range. It sits on our condiments shelf beside the jars that do the same job in a sweeter register. Shipping is free Australia-wide on orders over $100. For a December table, the festive entertaining range is the place to start.