Peppercorn Steak Sandwich and French Onion Soup (Saturday, February 12, 2011)

Erin and I work at a food pantry once a month and St. Louis Bread Co. always donates a bunch of bread which we leave out for all of the clients to take as they will.  The sweets always go first, and then sliced bread.  There's always bagels and unsliced bread leftover and I got my hands on a pair of long loaves.  I'm not sure what kind of bread it was but it seems like ciabatta.  We went to Soulard Farmer's Market afterward and I picked up 2 ribeyes with no idea of what I was planning to do.  Then when I got home I thought a steak sandwich would be awesome on this bread.  I've also been thinking about making French onion soup and would use the bread for that as well.
For the French onion soup you'll need lots of sweet onions.  I went forward with 6 medium yellow onions and a large red onion.  I sliced them into thin half moons and cooked them in butter and olive oil on medium heat for nearly an hour. For extra flavor I added some fresh thyme, salt and pepper. The recipe I was following said they would turn to a "rich brown" color after about 40 minutes.  That didn't happen, but they were brown enough in my eyes.  I then added about a cup of white wine (Lucky Duck Sauvignon Blanc) and turned up the heat to high to evaporate most of it before adding two cans of Beef Stock.  I let this reduce for about 30 minutes before Erin ladled the soup over toasted croutons of mystery bread and topped it with some Sheep's Milk Gruyere cheese which had a really funky smell but great taste.  We put this in the oven right under the broiler to melt and brown the cheese for about twelve minutes.
While Erin took care of the soup I went outside in the beautiful high 40's weather to grill my ribeyes.  I coated each side of the steak generously with Kosher salt and layed one side into some crushed black peppercorns.  These went onto the unevenly heated community grill in the courtyard for about 4 minutes on each side.  The bread had been split open and brushed with olive oil and it too went onto the grill for about 2 minutes on each side to add some flavor and crunch.  I also made a quick aioli in a blender with two egg yolks, 4 cloves of garlic, juice of one lemon, salt and olive oil.  Blend everything but the olive oil briefly and then start adding the olive oil while blending until you have a thick creamy consistency.  I sliced the steak thin and it was mooing too much for Erin so I killed her portion in a pan.  We lathered the bread with a large spoonful of the lemon-garlic aioli (RAW EGG WARNING, oooh scary), piled on sliced steak and topped with some arugula.  Erin wasn't excited about sandwiches for dinner but I think her mind changed pretty quickly.  I only used one steak for the two sandwiches so you know what's for breakfast!