Next week, school will start here in Arkansas. This has me thinking about my days in High School. I have been able to reconnect with a lot of classmates through Facebook. So to all you former Calaivers out there, he is a memory from the cafeteria. Once a week, usually on Friday, the cafeteria would serve Roast Beef PoBoy’s with French Fries and a Cinnamon Roll. This was, in my mind, the best lunch they served. It was a typical New Orleans style Roast Beef PoBoy, one that requires lots of napkins. You can usually judge a great Roast Beef PoBoy by the number of napkins needed to clean up the drips of gravy.
2 lbs Beef Round, I used a bottom round Roast Water, enough to cover by one inch in a dutch oven
Bring the water to a rolling boil. Add the beef roast, when the pot comes back to a boil, reduce the heat to medium to medium high, you should have a heavy simmer. Cook for about 1 to 1 1/2 hours. Remove from the liquid and refrigerate until cold. Reserve about five cups of the broth, you won’t need all of it, but keep some to thin the gravy out if necessary.
While the beef is cooling make the gravy.
Gravy
1/2 Cup Flour 1 Tbsp Garlic Powder (must be powder, not granulated) 1 tsp Black Pepper 2 tsp Kosher Salt 1/4 Cup Oil 1 tsp Kitchen Bouquet 3 Cups Broth, reserved from the boiled beef (maybe more if your gravy gets too thick)
Bring 3 cups of the reserved cooking liquid to a boil in a small saucepan. In a small bowl whisk together the flour, garlic powder, black pepper, salt, then the oil and kitchen bouquet, when thoroughly blended, whisk the mixture into the boiling broth, whisk together well, and bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. If necessary add a little of the reserved broth if the gravy is too thick. It should be. not too thick, not too thin. Let the gravy simmer for 20-30 minutes adjust for seasonings, it should have a good amount of salt as the beef has none.
Preheat the oven to 350 F. When the beef is cold, slice it as thin as possible and lay the slices in a 9X9 baking pan. The thicker your slices are, the longer it will take in the oven, so slice thin.
Cover the beef with 2-3 cups of the gravy. Place into the oven 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until the beef is fall apart tender.
Making the sandwich
4 6” pieces French Bread Mayonnaise 2 Tomatoes, sliced 2 Cups shredded Iceburg Lettuce 1 Dill Pickle, sliced The Roast Beef from the above recipe
Slice the bread in half lengthwise and lay both halves side by side. Slather a bunch of mayonnaise on both sides.
On the top half, add pickle slices, tomato slices, and 1 Cup of the lettuce. On the bottom half, add 1/4 of the beef and gravy mixture. Fold the top over the side with the beef and put on a sheet pan. Repeat with the remaining sandwichs. Place the sheet pan in the oven for 2-3 minutes to crisp and warm the bread.
Enjoy!!!
