@Bart Ell Your sandwich was a little more challenging that I expected. I kept changing my mind but I figured I'd just spin the wheel and pick one. Here it is:
I want this sandwich pressed in the style of a Cuban sandwich (not the ingredients per se). No panini press either. I'm using a brick and a pan. Yep, that's right. No worries though, the brick is clean and wrapped in aluminum foil. We'll need a nice Cuban roll, or French bread (roll) or even Italian. They all are quite similar. I'll go with French bread (sliced horizontally) or a nice fat baguette sliced the same way. Let's assume the roll is 8 inches long and as wide as your typical hoagie roll.
The meat will be braised short ribs. (2 lb. - boneless) The cheese I chose was Canada's own Boivin Extra Aged Cheddar. Other ingredients will include sweet piquanté peppers. (a small jar of Peppadew brand is good) Onion, garlic clove, green bell pepper and a bay leaf. Salt & pepper. Olive oil. Red Wine. Tomato paste. Beef stock. Butter.
I want to brown the short ribs first. Hot pan, add a splash of olive oil. Sprinkle each side of the ribs with S&P then place in pan/skillet, or even Dutch oven. After the are nicely browned they will be covered and baked at 300 degrees for 2.5 hours or until fork tender. Check at the 2nd hour. I want them to hold their shape until they are pressed in the sandwich.
Take a spoon or spatula and lightly coat all the ribs (each side) with the tomato paste. Place the ribs in an oven safe vessel that will have a tight lid. Drop in a clove of garlic and a bay leaf. Add 1 cup of red wine (whatever you like) and 1 cup of beef broth/stock. If this were for a dinner we'd add veggies and a whole lot more. Anyway...
While they're baking dice one green bell pepper and half of a large onion. We are looking for a small dice, not chunks. Drain 1/2 cup of the sweet piquanté peppers and roughly chop them. Sautee the bell peppers and onion until they start to soften. Remove from heat and mix together with the sweet peppers.
Slice some of that cheese! Slice the bread/roll horizontally. Crust side on top.
Once ribs are done and fork tender, remove, discard the garlic and bay leaf, and let cool enough to handle. Then we build the sandwich. On the bottom of the roll, layer some of the cheese. Then put the chunks of tender short rib on there tightly together until covered end to end. Cover the top of the ribs with the mixture of bell pepper, sweet pepper, and onion. Cover that with layers of the cheese then the top part of the roll.
Get a pan and put on medium heat with 2 tbs of butter. Once hot and the butter is melted place the sandwich in bottom side first. Take the brick and lay it on top. Use a spatula to lift it and take a peak. You want it to be golden brown but not too crispy. Remove and add 2 more tbs of butter. Turn the sandwich upside down and place in pan. Give it more brick! Same procedure...let get golden and slightly crispy. Once done, remove from pan.
The braised short ribs will have started to break apart from the weight of the brick and the cheese will have melted throughout thus binding it all together. If your lucky some of the cheese melted out and got a little crispy. Yum!
You could cut it in half like it is or wrap in parchment paper, foil, whatever, then cut it. I want the roll to not only be slightly griddled crispy but have some of that butter soaked into it, tightly hugging everything into a tight sandwich. Bart should have slippery fingers after eating eat. When he bites into it that rich tender short rib should be in tune with the mild onions and bell pepper; plus the sweet tanginess of the piquanté peppers will match with the reduced tomato paste/red wine flavors. The cheese accents it all perfectly, IMO.
Hopefully
@Bart Ell enjoys this. Some of you as well. If not, just curse me out, and make me sit in the penalty box and feel shame.
Cheers!