Emeril's Roast Beef "Debris" Po'Boy

From Emeril's Kicked-up Sandwiches by Emeril Lagasse

Taste: 4 of 5

Difficulty: 1 of 5

Time: 3 of 5 (about 4.5 hours total)

Price: About $30

So, I had a hankerin' for a roast beef hoagie.  Not just any hoagie, but a Cappriotti's roast beef hoagie.  A hoagie is equivalent to a sub, or submarine sandwhich, or a hero.  I'm told that other parts of the nation will look at you like you have 3 heads if you say "hoagie."  But that's what the greater Philadelphia area refer to it.  Cappriotti's is a local fast food chain in the Delaware valley, and other parts of the US, offering better-than-average-quality sandwhiches--more like a mom and pop shop. They have this sandwhich called the "Bobbie" which is your gratuitous post-Thankgiving day feast sandwhich--turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and mayo--which they claim has won one of the Best Sandwiches in America award from AOL.com.  I also like the Capastrami, which is like a heart attack sandwhich--hot pastrami, cole-slaw, russian dressing, and swiss. Wow. so good.  Joe Biden periodically does his politcal "I'm one of the people" stop and orders a sandwhich so it's kind of a thing in Delaware so you know that politicians will stomach a sandwich. 

But what sets apart Cappriotti's from all the other sandwich and hoagie chains is they don't use lunch meat.   They use meat like it was just pulled off a bone.  Shredded meat.  So when you order a roast beef hoagie with provolone, it's real pulled shredded roast beef not some processed beef sandwich (which has its place).   When you eat that turkey--it's like real thanksgiving day turkey.  And it is probably the best roast beef hoagie there is.  It has a deep beefy flavor unlike any of the deli meats.  Not salty at all.  Just pure cow.  Yum.

With my cravings in mind I sat down to look through my cookbooks to see what I was going to do next and I saw this one.  Emeril's Roast Beef Debris Po' Boy.  When I saw Roast Beef debris I immediately thought of Capriotti's roast beef.  Wouldn't it be great to make my own shredded beef?  I imagined that the beef would taste the same.  

What's a Po'Boy?  I didn't know before I started.  Nobody could really explain it to me only, it's a sandwhich, and it's often associated with Louisiana, and I hear it often has oysters or some type of fried seafood.  But after looking around I see that roast beef is often a popular filling.  One of the key components of a po'boy is the french bread it is typically served on, crispy outside with a chewy interior.  Basically, a Po'boy is a regional hoagie.  Looking at the ingredients it sure looks like a hoagie to me.  Chuck Roast, provolone cheese, lettuce, tomatoes.  Emeril adds some pickles and hot sauce too.  Ok, not something I'd put on my hoagie, but being true to the recipe and in the spirit of the po'boy, I resove to eat it that way.

It started out with the 3.5 lb chuck roast I got.  You start out by going "Billy Bats' on the chuck roast with your knife just like in the opening scene of Goodfellas except for you fill the stabs with garlic--a lot of garlic.  This roast beef will be a slow roast so you aren't going to end up with a rare inside.  It will look more like a pulled pork.  You will need a dutch oven to roast it.  But first the pan-sear.

Nothing unusual happened. This was fairly standard.  The recipe said let it get really brown on all sides.  I was afraid that the frond would burn (tasty bits of beef that start to stick on the bottom of the pan), so I didn't cook it the 4 minutes on each side.  I did about 3--you can see what I ended up with.  I'm not sure if it could go longer or not--please comment if you think otherwise.

 After the recipe tells  you to add a bunch of beef stock to the bowl.  It said 2 cups.  I added two cups, but it barely came up the sides of the roast beef in my large dutch oven.  The recipe called for a 6qt dutch oven, I'm not quite sure how big mine was, and it's too late to figure that out now.  Always know the size of your pans before you start cooking.  Pay attention to the size as it can have an affect on your recipe! The recipe later states that you should always have at least one inch of liquid in the pan at all times.  I only had 2 1/2 cups of homemade stock left over, so I had to turn to boxed beef broth which I hate doing, but I always keep it around for emergencies.  In retrospect, I probably didn't need it.  The juices from the beef raised the liquid level at least another inch.  The house smelled like I had a beef Glade plug-in.  The aroma of roast beef just permeated my house.  It was intoxicating.   I loved it.  After three and a half hours I had this:

And you could tear it apart...

Assembling the sandwiches was easy.  I took a big helping of the roast beef, toasted it in the oven on top of the bread and melted some provolone on it.  I added the lettuce, tomatoe, and yes even the pickles and hot sauce.  But the secret ingredient here was the jus.   Ahhhh beef juice.  How I love thee. I could write poems about you.  Soaking the roll in this took away some of the crispness but I was left with a delicious sandwhich.

So, did it taste like Capriotti's?  Yes! It actually did!  I was pleasantly surprised that this tasted similar to what Capriotti's has to offer.  I could have used better bread, but I don't know of any good close bakeries that I was able to get good bread from.  The roast beef was a pure, savory, beefy flavor.  It melted in your mouth.  It was so tender.  The tartness of the pickle, and the crispness of the lettuce contrasted the beef flavors and textures nicely.  And, what's better is I have a ton of it left over which I stored in the freezer to eat another time.  So this was a pretty economical meal.

As for the wife test, that weekend we went to Hershey park to spend a day with the kids.  To save some money, I made her a sandwich.  When she bit into it, I heard an immediate "mmmm" muffled by the full cheeks.  You know it was a success.

This has been my third time cooking from this book, with the first being one of the best things I have ever eaten (the meatloaf sandwich was levels above fantastic) and they have all been successful.  Looking forward to more sandwiches from Emeril!