Upgrading the Roast and Sausage Poor Boy

John Linn

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I'm a sucker for poor boys of all types: hulking sandwiches filled with fried catfish, oysters, and shrimp and beefier equivalents stuffed with sopping-wet roast beef or hot Italian sausage. No matter the filling, I prefer them served with crusty French bread and gobs of spicy remoulade, with a smattering of shredded lettuce and slices of fresh tomato. So when I decided to put together some poor boys on Saturday night, that's the exact formula I followed. Only, I didn't have all night to slow-cook a hunk of round, rendering it into the shredded slurry of meat and gravy emblematic of N'awlins roast beef poor boys. Instead, I opted for a quick alternative, briefly marinating two inch-thick top sirloin steaks and grilling them to a vibrant-red medium rare alongside a half-dozen spicy sausages. Here's how it went down:

(Click any picture for a high-res version)

Starting with the sirloin steaks, I rubbed them with olive oil, a dab of Worcestershire, cumin, chili powder, salt, and plenty of course ground black pepper. Then I set my grill on high and tossed them on, turning them only once and cooking about 6 minutes on each side. At the same time, I threw on the sausages and let them char alongside the steak. After I took the steak off to let it rest, I dropped the temperature to low and closed the lid on the grill, finishing off the sausages for another 5 minutes or so.

John Linn

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When I took them off and cut them up, the sausages were still teeming with juice and the steak was rosy red inside with plenty of tasty char on the surface. I sliced everything really thin to pile it on the sandwiches.

John Linn

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In the meantime, I threw together a quick remoulade in the food processor made with:

1/4 cup mayo
3 Tb dijon mustard
1 Tb olive oil
1 Tb cayanne pepper sauce
2 Tb chopped onion
1 Tb capers
1 hulking clove of garlic
handful of crushed red pepper
juice from half a lemon
salt and black pepper to taste
handful of chopped parsely

To assemble: Take a nice, crusty loaf of French bread and cut it into four pieces. Slice each piece open and rip out a bit of the bottom piece of the bread to make a pocket. Now stuff that sliced sausage and steak into the pocket and top with shredded lettuce and slices of tomato. Add enough remoulade to coat the lettuce, then add more. Serve with a robust beer like Bell's Oberon ale and a fat sack of kettle-style potato chips, Zapps if you have 'em. Enjoy!

John Linn

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