“The Straight Shooter”

This is the shooter’s sandwich. The best summer sandwich. Perfect for your next picnic or that upcoming concert in the park.

One French boule or other crusty loaf
2 good cuts of steak
3½ cups mushrooms
1 cup shallots (or sweet onions)
1 pinch parsley (or other favored herbs)
4 tablespoons butter, for searing 
Worcestershire sauce
Salt
Black pepper
Fresh garlic
Horseradish
Dijon mustard 

Dice your shallots and mushrooms into small cubes. Add to a hot frying pan with butter (olive oil if you must). Remove from heat when much of the moisture has evaporated from the pan, and the shallots and mushrooms have the consistency of a tapenade. The mixture should be uniform, and thick enough to stick to a spoon without easily slipping off.

Add black pepper, salt, and some grated garlic to taste. Add a splash of Worcestershire sauce and your herbs (and maybe some brandy, or sherry, if you’re feeling saucy). Stir and set aside.

Remove the crown of your bread by cutting off the top fourth of the loaf with a bread knife. Keep the crown intact. Remove some of the “guts” of the loaf, but make sure to leave some bread in your bread. Really one and a half to two handfuls should be all you need to take out.

Sear and season your two steaks in a pan large enough to accommodate both at once. For this sandwich, the steaks are best cooked to medium, with a little pink inside.

When your steaks are done, place the first immediately into the bottom piece of bread. No need to rest the meat, tuck it straight into the loaf while it’s still hot.

Dollop your mushroom-and-shallot “tapenade” into the sandwich and spread it across the top of the first steak. Place the second steak on top and smear with horseradish.

Smear the inside of the crown of your loaf with dijon mustard and cap the sandwich, fitting the “lid” piece back onto the bottom.

Wrap the whole thing in butcher paper and twine—bundle it like a wheel of cheese in the 19th century. Then wrap it in foil and squish it with a cutting board, weighing it down with some heavy stuff. Then let it sit there overnight (or at least for a good five or six hours).

After the sandwich has set sufficiently, take off the weight and remove the foil.

Slice the sandwich into sixths (or fourths, if it’s a small one), like a pie.

And then you eat it.

In a variation, which I call “The Sharp Shooter,” I add a layer of whiskey cheddar or white cheddar between each steak and the mushroom-and-shallot mixture.