Bife Ana Steak Sandwich from The Eagle

Right I love the Eagle. Its a great pub and restaurant (they don't like Gastropub)although I notice they slip it into the title of their book. It's an unstuffy spot that's got cracking, fresh seasonal food. It has very fine ice cold Red Stripe on draft. Their Bloody Mary's have fresh horseradish, celery salt and sherry and are exceptional. And their non-alcoholic dinks are a bit special too.

But the Bife Ana – the Eagle steak sandwich - is a joy.

Here's the recipe

Ingredients (serves two)

500g/1lb 2oz rump steak – thinly sliced

2 large crusty rolls – we use stone-baked Portuguese rolls called carcacas

2 tbsp olive oil

Cos lettuce leaves

Salt

For the marinade

1 onion – thinly sliced

1 garlic clove – chopped

1 small dried chilli – crushed

1 bay leaf – broken up

1 tbsp chopped parsley

1 tsp dried oregano

2 tbsp red wine

3 tbsp olive oil

Freshly ground black pepper

Method

Mix together all the ingredients for the marinade, add the steak and leave to marinate for a few hours (but no longer than 8 hours). Remove the steaks from the marinade, then strain the marinade and set aside.

Warm the rolls in a medium oven. Heat a heavy-based frying pan until very, very hot, then add the olive oil and fry the steaks very quickly. If your pan is hot enough, they will need to be turned within a minute.

Remove the steaks and keep warm, then add the dry ingredients from the marinade to the pan with some salt.

Cut the rolls in half and arrange the Cos lettuce and then the steaks on the lower halves. Add the strained marinade liquid to the pan and let this reduce a little, then pour into the top halves of the rolls.

Close the sandwiches and eat immediately, with both hands.

Yum.

The Eagle's new cookbook is available in The Eagle itself here or on Amazon here