Brie Cheesesteak

It seems that the leftover Basics groceries I've accumulated over the past few weeks or so would lend themselves to making a cheesesteak. Since childhood, I have been fond of food combining beef and cheese together, including cheeseburgers, pizza, bolognese and lasagna. I have never tried a Philly Cheesesteak however, and having spent some time in the States walking their streets and sampling their fare, I'm curious about it, and hope that if I were ever to go on a culinary roadtrip through America with like-minded friends, Philadelphia would be one of the stopovers.

In the meantime though, I will have to make do with the groceries I have, and a little bit of applied creativity. The problem however is that I do not have cheese, and one would assume that cheese makes up half the cheesesteak. Of the common cheeses listed in Wikipedia that go into a cheesesteak, Provolone and Cheese Whiz are not easily obtainable in the UK, the former only available at Harrod's and specialist cheese shops, and the latter being almost impossible to find. I could use mozzarella or processed cheese singles too, but I have already covered both in earlier blog posts. 

The next mild cheese I had in mind was the Basics Brie. I remember having come across this variety of cheese in various places, including articles on the Web using it as an ingredient, dinners in ski resorts and at various receptions held by companies to recruit university students. The labelling describes it as a soft mild cheese, which I felt would make it a viable candidate as a cheesesteak cheese. Sad to say then, that the Sainsbury's Basics Brie could be described in three words: "I've had better." Really, you would have thought that the French would have more pride than to make products like this.

So start by slicing up your beef and whatever garnish you wish to add to your cheesesteak. Mix together and season with liberal amounts of black pepper.

Bake a Sainsbury's Basics Part-Baked Baguette in the top rack of the oven, with the prepared beef and garnish at the bottom rack.

Once both are ready, split baguette in half. Put beef on one side and slices of brie on the other. You might find it useful to use a very sharp knife when cutting the brie. A blunt knife would force you to use more pressure, ruining the form of the brie in the process.

Press baguette halves firmly together, wrap in foil, and put in oven at 200 degrees Celsius for about 5 minutes.

It's a shame that I was working with Basics cheese, as I think its regular counterpart would have had more flavour, and lend itself better to the cheesesteak. Overall however, the cheese probably made the sandwich quite filling, despite the reduced amount of beef I had used.

Now, what I actually did with the other half of the baguette would be made known in my next post.

Description	Price per Unit	No. of servings	Trade-up Premium	Trade-up Benefits
Frying Steaks	£6.77/kg	3-4 steaks	+£2.14/kg	More regularly shaped steaks, better cuts of beef?
French Mild Brie	£0.95	200g	+£0.84 for 300g	Better-tasting Brie, choice between French Mild, French ripening or Somerset (prices may differ)