therealdesign

Many years ago, I developed the very first "Dip" sandwich featured on the national sub shop Quizno's menu. It sold millions and millions of sandwiches and it really was quite delicious.  I can't  share that exact recipe with you but, here's  a recipe you can make at home with a bunch of ingredients easily found at your grocery store that is equally as delicious.

 French Onion Roast Beef Dip Hero

Serves 4

4 hero rolls

Non stick vegetable spray (as needed)

1 lb cooked roast beef, sliced thin

1 large onion, sliced thin

1 T butter

1 T olive oil

1 1/2 cups beef broth

4 T pesto sauce (available in the refrigerated case at your grocery store)

3 T Hellman's mayonnaise

4 T Regianno Cheese, grated

1.  Slice the hero rolls and spray the insides liberally with non-stick vegetable spray.

2.  Place the opened rolls in a large saute pan or griddle and grill for 2 minutes or until nicely brown.

3.  Remove the heros and melt the butter with the olive oil and heat on medium flame in the same pan.

4.  Add the thinly sliced onions and cook for 5-8 minutes or until the onions are golden brown (stir frequently).

5.  In a small sauce pan, heat the beef broth for 2 minutes and add the thinly sliced roast beef and cook for 2 minutes.

6.  While the beef is heating up, combine the pesto sauce with the mayonnaise and mix well.

7.  Paint the inside of the hero rolls with the pesto mayonnaise, pile the roast beef inside and top with the caramelized onions.

8.  Sprinkle the grated cheese atop the onions.

9.  Serve each hero immediately along with a small cup of the hot beef broth for dipping.

This classic English Dessert was insanely delicious sweet gooey and Indulgent. One of the best desserts I ate while in London! This is a recipe from a small UK restaurant chain called Giraffe
Serves 8

Pudding

1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
180g butter, softened
240g dark brown sugar
2 medium eggs
375g plain flour
1tsp baking powder
75g sultanas (golden rasisins)

Toffee Sauce
100g dark brown sugar
100ml double cream

Method-Preheat the oven to 180˚C. Line a brownie tin with baking parchment. Bring 250ml water to the boil, add the bicarbonate of soda and set aside. Whisk the butter and sugar and beat in the eggs. Fold in the flour, baking powder and sultanas. Stir in the reserved water. Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin and cover with buttered tin foil. Bake for 40-50 minutes or until the mixture is cooked - an inserted skewer should come out clean. Leave to cool for five minutes and turn out onto a chopping board. Remove the parchment and cut into squares.

To make the toffee sauce, dissolve the sugar in a deep pan 200ml of water over a low heat. Turn up the heat and boil until caramel point is reached. The mixture will be a dark mahogany brown. l Remove from the heat, allow it to cool for a couple of minutes and then add the cream. Take care, as the mixture tends to bubble up. Mix gently. You may need to return it to the heat briefly to loosen it. Serve with the toffee sauce.
Adapted from 'The Giraffe Family Cookbook' by Hugo Arnold, published by W&N at £9.89

2012 was a big year in England, especially for London; the host of The Queens 60th year Jubilee and of course the Summer Olympics. I traveled to London recently, and just missed the Paralympics closing ceremony by a day. The city of London was its best, tourists still lingering a few days after the Paralympics ended. I was really impressed with the food; the day of boiled beef is long gone. This is a NEW Britain and from a food perspective, I was shocked. The restaurants were diverse featuring many of the ethnic cuisines you would find in America such as Middle Eastern, pan Asian, Spanish, and French with a fair amount of classic American joints. What was most noticeable though, was the public transportation hubs that were filled with kiosk after storefront selling fine food to go. Tenderloin of Beef seared and served with white asparagus wrapped in a see-through oven-able tray as well as fresh sausages, steroid free chicken, very cool filled pasta, lots of organic and free range meats could all be bought at the train station on your way home from work. I suppose London might not have a well respected culinary identity other than bangers and mash, pastys, the aforementioned boiled beef and sticky toffee pudding, but it was quite evident that the citizens of England want, and pay for clean labeled, high quality and delicious foods…perhaps the US will follow suit. The people by the way, were gracious, kind hearted and couldn’t have been nicer.