Adventures in Cooking....Grilled steak sandwiches with Chimichurri Sauce (Argentine style)

My favorite place in Argentina was this road side lunch stand. They served the best sandwich de vacio or steak sandwich with grilled egg, onion, cheese and chimichurri sauce. I loved it so much I would plan my weekends so that I would be in the Palermo area so that I could eat one, and I took every one I knew (Nick when he visited and new kids from the internship program) to the place. I have to say it was by far my favorite thing to eat in Argentina. Since Nick and I butchered up a bunch of steaks not long ago (post on this soon), I have had quite a few steaks in the freezer and decided it was time to make my favorite sandwich.

So here you go.

Argentina style steak sandwich. 

For 2 people you need.

2 fresh sourdough rolls sliced in half

2 thin cuts of steak

Some medium cut onion rounds

Jack cheese

Montreal steak seasoning

2 fried eggs

Season the steaks with Montreal seasoning. BBQ the steaks and onions regularly, add the cheese to the steaks when you have 2 minutes left of grilling time. Add the roles to the BBQ to get crispy.

While you are BBQing fry the 2 eggs.

Assemble the sandwich (bread, steak, cheese, onion, egg, chimichurri (see below for recipe), bread). 

Chimichurri Sauce

The original recipe I used needed to be tweaked quite a bit, my version is below.

1 bunch fresh parsley

2 bay leaves

3 tablespoons minced garlic

1 1/2 teaspoons smoked paprika

1 tablespoon fresh oregano leaves

1/2 cup red wine vinegar

1 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 small white onion

1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper (definitely not Argentine, but I like spice)

Put all ingredients into a food processor, chop until you have a smooth sauce with small pieces of parsley visible. This made about 1 1/2 cups of sauce. I recommend putting what you won't eat up in 2 weeks (it will go bad, even in the fridge) in an ice cube tray in the freezer and to pull out a cube and de-thaw as needed. 

I hope you enjoy, preferably with a glass of Malbec, we did!

The artichokes were to get some green in the meal...

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