Philly Cheese Steak Wraps

One of the highlights of my week is when the teachers I eat lunch with order out on Fridays. We frequently get food from Donzo's, a local restaurant/bar, and my favorite is the Philly cheese steak wrap. Today I was at the grocery store picking up a few things for dinner at my parents' house on Saturday (more on that in an upcoming post) and decided to see if I could make my own cheese steaks. So I quickly reversed course back through the grocery store and picked up a couple bell peppers (red and yellow), some sirloin steaks, and a package of whole grain garden vegetable wraps. I was very excited, especially since my husband had his master's class tonight and would be hungry when he got home.

When I got home I quickly got out my laptop and logged on to foodnetwork.com. I was eager to see what sort of spices, etc. I could add to the cheese steaks to really maximize the taste. What I found was a lot of information about how to properly caramelize onions and peppers (very helpful, but not exactly what I was after), and very little information about flavoring steaks for sandwiches. With very little to work with, I finally shrugged and decided to do my own thing (which has worked out...okay in the past). I quickly dug through my spice drawer and pulled on the onion and garlic powders and, after some hesitation, the marjoram. I also grabbed a can of beef broth from a nearby drawer and a large bowl. Working quickly I mixed my marinade and sliced the sirloin, stirring the steak into the marinade and then setting it aside. Next I got to work on caramelizing my onions and bell peppers, which takes quite a while, as I was about to find out...I also realized that I was quickly running out of both burners and skillets to put on them! Never fear! After the onions and peppers had cooked down in their separate skillets for about half an hour, I combined them into one skillet, and prepared to cook the steak strips in the newly emptied skillet.

As everything finished cooking, I took a moment to inhale deeply and appreciate how wonderful my kitchen smelled. I would venture to say that cooking onions is one of the most underappreciated smells....now stop laughing at me. =] Anyway, the steak was tender, the onions and peppers were perfectly caramelized and the cheese melted over the top of it all was creamy and delicious. Overall, this was a great meal; something that I would describe as simple, but time consuming (mainly because of the amount of time required to caramelize stuff without burning it to a crisp).

Philly Cheese Steak Ingredients:
1 1/2 lbs. sirloin steak, sliced thinly
2 large Spanish onions
2 large bell peppers (one red and one yellow)
1 package whole grain tortilla wraps
1 can beef broth
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon marjoram
3 tablespoons olive oil
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
Salt and pepper
Mozzarella cheese

Directions: Thinly slice the steak into long strips. Place in a bowl and pour a can of beef broth over the meat. Add 1 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper, garlic and onion powder, and marjoram. Stir to mix marinade and thoroughly cover the meat. Set aside. Next halve the onions and slice them thinly. While doing this, melt 2 tablespoons unsalted butter with 1 tablespoon olive oil in a large skillet. As you add the onions to the skillet, separate the slices with your fingers in ensure even cooking. Next, slice the bell peppers into thin strips (note: the thinner the better!). Melt 1 tablespoon unsalted butter and about 1/2 a tablespoon of olive oil in a smaller skillet and add the peppers. Cook both the onions and peppers over medium-low heat, stirring often. Caramelized onions and peppers will need to cook down for anywhere from 30-40 minutes...like I said, this is pretty simple, but still time consuming.

Once the onions and peppers have begun to caramelize, combine them into one skillet and use the emptied skillet to cook the steak strips (I added just enough olive oil back to the pan to *very* thinly coat the bottom). Enough of the marinade sticks to the steak to deglaze the skillet, which is a nice bonus in the flavor department. As the steak strips finished cooking (I would say mine were somewhere between medium and medium-well) I removed them to a paper towel-covered plate to drain any extra olive oil away. Finally, after the steak strips finished cooking I added the remaining marinade to the skillet and cooked it down into a thick and flavorful au jus (which I carefully poured it a small bowl and promptly left sitting on the countertop while Adam and I headed downstairs with our plates to watch Survivor while we ate -- oops). Anyway, here's how it all came together: I took one of the wraps and loaded it with steak strips, covered them with the caramelized onions and peppers, and then topped it with some shredded mozzarella cheese. I stuck the whole thing into the toaster oven to melt the cheese and then wrapped it up and ate every last bite! It was delicious; the marinade was slightly spicy and and cheese was oozy. What a great meal, and one that I'll definitely be making again. Oh! And Adam, who scoffs at the use of whole grain wraps, ate his cheese steak on a whole wheat hoagie roll and said that it was "pretty good." Which, for anyone who doesn't know my husband, is high praise indeed! =]