Ingredients
- beef topside 1kg
- garlic 2 cloves, cut into slivers
- olive oil
- onions 2, halved and sliced
- American pale ale 500ml
- bay leaves 2
- black peppercorns 6
- sub rolls or long soft rolls 4, halved
- Dijon mustard for spreading
- emmental 16 slices
Method
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Step 1
Heat the oven to 150C/fan 130C/gas 2. Heat an ovenproof casserole. Make incisions all over the beef with a small, sharp knife and push in the slivers of garlic. Rub the topside all over with oil then season well.
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Step 2
Put in the pan and brown on all sides, until it has a really deep colour. Spend a bit of time doing this, as it will all help the flavour of the gravy. Lift out of the pan and add the onions with a pinch of salt. Cook on a fairly high heat until the onions have started to break down and turn golden. Add the beer and bring to a simmer. Add back the beef with the bay and peppercorns and cover with a lid. Transfer to the oven for 3 hours.
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Step 3
Take the beef from the gravy, trim away any fat or other straggly bits, cool to room temperature and chill for 2 hours (this will make it easier to slice, see note). Once chilled, slice the beef as thinly as possible. Strain and warm the gravy, before serving.
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Step 4
Warm the rolls in a low oven, then split and spread thinly with mustard. Drop the beef into the gravy for a few minutes to reheat then stuff it into the baguettes along with a few slices of cheese. Serve the rest of the gravy on the side in bowls for dipping.
Cooking then chilling the beef is a trick that delis use, which makes it so much easier to slice the meat thinly. A couple of hours is enough but you could also make this a day ahead, and chill overnight, just make sure you chill the gravy too.
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Nutritional Information
- Kcals 400
- Fat 17g
- Saturates 9.7g
- Carbs 22.2g
- Sugars 4.9g
- Fibre 1.9g
- Salt 1.2g