Ottawa Curdwich, Take One

On the trip home from the US with Jon, the two of us talked about Philly Cheesesteaks. If Ottawa had a sandwich named after it, what would it be like? We started coming up with ideas. Shredded beef. Cheese curds in the tradition of poutine. Caramelized onions. Maple syrup.

I made the sandwich this weekend.

Curdwich Filling (Original)

• 2 lb, Beef Sirloin
• 1/2 Tsp Salt
• 1/4 Tsp Pepper
• 1 Tbsp Oil
• 2 Cup Tomato Sauce
• 1 Medium Onion, Chopped
• 1/3 Cup Brown Sugar
• 3 Tbsp Maple Worcestershire Sauce
• 2 Tbsp Lemon Juice
• 2 Tbsp Wine Vinegar
• 2 Tbsp Mustard Sauce
• 2 Tsp Chili Powder

1. Mix all of the ingredients except for the beef in a slow cooker.
2. Place the beef. Set on high for 5 hours. When ready, the beef will just pull apart on prodding.

Preparation

You need to set aside about six hours for this. I first got the slow-cooker up and running, then I made the bread. An hour before serving, I started on the sides of roasted garlic potatoes and the caramelized onions.

When it got to serving time, we placed the curds first in the bread. Then we laid on the filling, and covered it with the caramelized onions.

Thoughts

I made my go-to bread loaf these days (3 cups flour, 2.5 tsp yeast, 1 tbsp sugar, 1 tsp salt, 1/3 cup oil, 1 cup water, Italian seasoning), and cut it up to make two long buns. The bread proved too soft to handle the juicy filling. So the first change would be to find stronger bread – perhaps a loaf of French bread.

The maple flavour didn’t come up at all, so Jon suggested basting the beef in a maple BBQ sauce.  He also suggested less sauce. Otherwise, it was delicious. This recipe is open to tweaking, thus why it’s called “take one.”