Roast Beast Sammies

What’s this, you say? A recipe for sandwiches on a Thanksgiving menu?

Yeah, that’s right. Keep your panties on, I can explain.

It’s always been my opinion that if you’re in the kitchen cooking an enormous feast, you want to keep the masses satiated and in slathering anticipation of whatever you’re preparing. Therefore, whenever I am preparing an enormous meal, I prepare appetizers first.

Oh, the appetizer. The secret weapon of a true cook. If you’re a real fancy bitch, you can call them hors d’oeuvre or antipasto, which are just snobby European ways of saying “food you eat before the food gets here”. Appetizers can really be your best friend. I like to think that they were invented by a harried cook who was sick of people busting into her kitchen to whine about when the food would be ready. I like to think that instead of killing her guests in a spree of gore, she served some cold lamb slices on minted toast instead.

This is an extremely easy little appetizer that looks more impressive than it really is. It has a lot of customization – you can switch up the spread with, say, a pesto or a tapenade (that’s just mashed up olives) or you can change toppings around – cherry tomatoes and crisp romaine would look and taste great, as would roasted garlic or carmelized onions and peppers. The sky is the limit on how fancypants you want to get with this.

The basics:

1 pound high quality roast beef, like from a deli, OR 1 pound thinly sliced Eye of Round

2 cups Au Jus (You can get the packet to make this at the grocery store. I’m all about cheating.)

1 Loaf baguette-style French bread, (that long, narrow bread that makes the itty-bitty slices) sliced

8 oz. Cream Cheese – I use the whipped kind with chives, but you can use whichever flavor you enjoy. I recommend still using the whipped as it spreads easier. You could also roast some garlic to mix in with the cream cheese, it’s delicious.

8 oz. Sour Cream – Not fat free. We’re not here to stress about getting fat, we’re here to make kickass food.

1 jar prepared horseradish – Try to get a horseradish that looks sort of grainy; you don’t want the super-creamy kind for this

Seasoning Salt

Italian Dressing (optional)

1. This step is optional, depending on your preference and time constraints. The night before, take the roast beef and place it in a Ziploc bag; cover with Italian dressing and let it marinate in the fridge overnight.
2. Make Au Jus according to directions. Keep simmering over the stove. If you like garlic like I do, add a few cloves. Take your roast beef (drain off the marinade if you used it) and place in the Au Jus. Let it simmer on LOW heat for five to ten minutes, just long enough to soak in the flavor.
3. While your beef is simmering, arrange your bread slices on a tray and spread on your cream cheese.
4. Mix your horseradish, sour cream and seasoned salt in a small bowl to taste. Use less or more horseradish, depending on how hot you want it. If you do not like spicy food, be careful with your horseradish-to-cream ratio.
5. Remove the beef from the pan and cut or tear into small piles, appropriate to sit a generous amount on each slice of bread. You can try to make it look pretty if you want, but it won’t really matter because it tastes great and will look a bit rustic if it’s just a pile of beef.
6. Top as you wish. Place horseradish cream on the tray for people to dollop themselves, otherwise they’ll complain about how hot it is. If you wish, you can put out the hot Au Jus for dipping as well.

There you have it: A quick and stylish appetizer that’ll shut them up while you get on with the real grub.