The Ultimate Salt-Beef Sandwich

I could quite easily write a blog just about sandwiches.  From a Classic Club to a Banh Mi, a Cucumber Sandwich to a Spanish Omelette Bocadillo, there are endless fantastic variations just waiting to be recreated.  But my latest obsession has been a perfect Salt-beef Sandwich.  I have been reading a lot about The Rubens Sandwich and I wanted to give it a go.  So last week I put a fantastically cheap piece, of the somewhat neglected cut, brisket into Brine and now it is now bubbling away gently on the stove, as I write. 

The first meal will be a simple supper, as Nigel Slater would say, of poached salt-beef with just the accompaniment of some boiled New Potatoes, Carrots and Celery from the pot and some horseradish or mustard. In fact I think I have some beetroot in the fridge left, from my Riverford Vegetable Box so I might knock up some Chrain - Horseradish and Beetroot Relish.

I have made this Salt-beef recipe (or corned beef as they call it in Ireland and across the pond) many times before and it is from the fabulous “Charcuterie, The Craft of Salting, Smoking and Curing” by Michael Rehlman and Brian Polcyn. 

I am very keen to invest in a Smoker for my back garden.  Ever since giving up smoking a few years ago, I have been constantly drawn towards products which are smoked in some sort of desperate, nostalgic recreation of this lost pastime of my youth.  Instead of sitting on the deck in my back garden smoking, I have images of sitting feeding exotic woodchips into my smoker before tucking into home-smoked Hickory Mackerel and Maple Cured Smoked Bacon.  In the meantime, I am still saving up for this expensive piece of kit.  Well, at least the ones I have my eye on are.  It’s a tossup between the Weber 47cm Smokey Mountain Cooker or a ProQ Frontier at the moment, and if anyone out there has any advice into helping me make up my mind, your comment would be very much appreciated.

But back to my sandwich. There are many questionable stories into the history of The Reuben’s sandwich which is basically melted Swiss cheese, sauerkraut, Thousand Island or Russian dressing and salt-beef, in toasted rye bread.  But I wanted to know how it held up to my all time favourite of salt-beef, half/half mustard (half American - sweet, and half English - for the kick) and loads of pickle cucumbers, also on Rye.  

I made up my Reuben’s, and I have to say it was damn fine.  The only thing I wasn't sure about is the Sauerkraut but I reckon that is because it is shop bought and not home made.  I tried my own favourite again.  That was damn fine too.  And then I had an idea.  The ultimate Salt-beef sandwich.  Just put everything in it - so I did, and it was fantastic!  Here it is.  The first ever recipe for "The Melman" -The Ultimate Salt-beef Sandwich. 

I felt I needed to work on the Sauerkraut. The best I had managed to  find was Krakus, in my local polski sklep but it wasn't great. Sauerkraut is cabbage with has been fermented and also, more importantly in times before refrigeration, preserved. It is immensely popular in many European countries including Germany and Poland but also Alsace, where the name comes from, and France where it appears in the famous dish, Choucrout Garni. This is a substantial meal with the addition of sausages and potatoes. The very thing to sustain you through the cold winter months.

The fermentation process in the cabbage produces Lactic Acid Bacteria and therefore is Bioactive and probiotic like those expensive little drinks such as Yakult. Interestingly there are versions of recipes based on fermented cabbage from all round the world. Kimchi from Korea, Tsukemono from Japan, Suan Cai from China and Atchara from The Filipinos.

The recipe I have used is in the very same book I was using for the salt-beef. I have always been slightly put off by the thought of fermenting barrels of cabbage out-side my back door, but this recipe sounded fairly straightforward, so I decided to give it a go. It is one week into its two week fermentation and looking good. I will let you know how it turns out.

The Melman (The Ultimate Salt-beef Sandwich)


Rye Bread - Cucumber Pickle Juice Rye loaf

Salt Beef
Pickle Cucumbers (Sweet and Sour)
English Mustard
American Mustard (French's Classic Yellow)
Swiss Cheese
Sauerkraut
Thousand island dressing

Butter one side of your slices of bread and place the slices buttered-side down on a large piece of wax paper on a flat surface. Spread with half/half of the mustards. Top with a slice of Swiss cheese. Cover in slices of dill pickle and then slices of salt-beef. Using paper towels, squeeze out excess moisture from the sauerkraut. Top with sauerkraut. Add another layer of salt-beef and a second slice of Swiss cheese to each sandwich. Coat the second piece of bread with thousand island and place dressing side down on top of the cheese. Butter the side facing out.

Preheat a griddle or frying pan to medium heat. Cook the sandwiches on one side until the bread is golden brown. Use a spatula to carefully flip the sandwiches over and finish cooking on the second side. Cut the sandwiches in half before serving.

Sauerkraut

The Brine - 4 litres water and 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons / 200g Kosher salt
1 green cabbage, about 3lbs / 1.5 kg, shredded or thinly sliced.

Combine the water and salt in a small pot and bring to a simmer, stirring to dissolve the salt. Remove from the heat and let cool, then chill. Combine the cabbage and brine in nonreactive container. Cover the cabbage with a piece of cheesecloth or a clean kitchen towel. Weight the cabbage and cloth down with a plate, pressing down so that the cabbage is completely submerged. Cover loosely with cling film and set in a cool place for 2 weeks (no hotter than 70 to 75 degrees F. / 21 to 23 degrees C. or non beneficial bacteria can begin to thrive.) Drain the cabbage, reserving the brining liquid; the cabbage should have a pleasant sour-salty flavour and although its green colour will have paled, it should still be crunchy. Strain the braising liquid into a pot and cover and refrigerate the cabbage. Bring the brining liquid to a boil. Remove from the heat and let cool to room temperature, them chill. Pour enough of the cold brine over the sauerkraut to cover it completely; discard the extra brine. Store, covered in the refrigerator for up to 3 weeks.

Thousand Island Dressing
Mayonnaise
Tomato Ketchup (a good quality one if possible)
Lemon Juice
Tabasco
The mix is up to you.

Onion Bhajees and other stories

I have just looked in the fridge and I have a glut of onions.  This is often the way when you have an organic vegetable box delivery.  There is often a glut of something, and this time it is onions.  Last time a made a batch of Onion Marmalade, which is delicious with fresh bread and cheese. 

I am tempted to make a classic gratinated French Onion soup but I know that my stock of stock in the freezer is currently very much depleted and although I don't think stock is always necessary for soup, for a really good French Onion soup you really need a beef or ox-tail stock as a base. 

Then I remember a huge bag of Gram flour that I bought, firstly because it came in a very beautiful bag and secondly because I had intended to make some Rotis, only to discover that Rotis use chapatti flour.  Gram flour is make of ground chickpeas (chana dhal) and is therefore gluten free, which is great for Celiacs, but not for Rotis.  Anyway, I remembered that I had seen a recipe on the back of the packet for Onion Bhajees.  The recipe, it turns out, apparently comes from their acclaimed cookery book "The Flavours of Gujarat" by Jane Breddy for Virani Foods, so I thought it was definitely worth a try.  Unfortunately it called for, amongst other things, rice flour, which I did not have. 

And then I suddenly had an overwhelming desire to accompany my onion Bhajees with some poppadums and homemade Indian chutneys. I had a craving for a delicious sour and spicy lime pickle, a sweet and aromatic mango chutney and cool and fresh cucumber and mint raita. So I decided to set off to Tooting, where I know there is a large Indian community, so there was bound to be exciting shops waiting to be found, and stock up on Indian goodies. 

I had not been to Tooting for many years, as when I lived in Shepherds Bush, Southall so abundantly satisfied all my Indian cookery shopping requirements. However, Tooting did not disappoint.  I found numerous shops selling every spice, herb, pulse or types of flour you could ever require.  Plus lots of lovely vegetables and fruit at great prices.  I picked up my limes, for my lime pickle, (5 for a £1) and mangos for my mango chutney (4 for £1), which I thought was quite a bargain.  I bought a selection of Poppadoms to fry at home. I have never made my own yet and I have heard it is not easy but the bought ones are great and come in a huge selection.  I particularly like the little baby ones which are great for a snack or canapé when entertaining.  I also like the large ones with either cumin (Jeera) of black pepper.

I also found some Panch Puran, affectionately known as Bengali 5-Spice, which is a combination of Fennel seeds, Mustard seeds, Cumin seeds, Fenugreek seeds and Nigella seeds which I am quite excited about, as they all flavours I love and I only recently discovered that there was a specific mix, which is apparently used in many traditional Indian dishes.  I decided to add some to my Raita to spice it up. I also bought some bunches of coriander (2 for £1.20) and mint (2 for £1) and finally found the dried Kashmiri chillis which I had been searching for, for weeks. 

The Onion Bhajees were delicious and lovely dipped in Raita or with a dollop of spicy, sweet mango chutney.  Unfortunately my lime pickle is not quite ready.  I will let you know how it turns out in 5 weeks or so.  Not much sunshine in England at this time of year!

Onion Bhajees

8 oz pure gram flour
1 tbsp rice flour
1 tbsp sesame seeds

1 tbsp dhana-jeera powder

2 tsp chilli powder

1/4 tbsp turmeric

1 - 2 tsp salt

2 large onions, cut in half and sliced finely

1 tbsp finely chopped coriander

7 fl oz water

Oil for deep frying

Sieve the gram flour into a large bowl then mix in all the remaining dry ingredients together with the onion slices and chopped coriander. Gradually add some water, mixing thoroughly until a thick batter is formed and the onions are well coated.

Heat the oil to a depth of 2" to 3" in a wok, karhai or deep-fat frying pan over a medium heat. When it is the correct temperature a drop of batter will rise immediately to the surface without turning brown.

Drop heaped teaspoons of the onion batter into the oil (take care not to make the Bhajees too large otherwise the centre will not cook). Fry a few at a time, turning if necessary, for about 5-6 minutes until golden brown. Repeat until all the Bhajees are cooked allowing time for the oil to reheat between each batch. Once finished deep frying drain the onions Bhajees on absorbent paper.  Deep frying the onion batter in sunflower oil is the healthiest option.

I got this recipe from a website on the net http://limepickle.com/chutneys-pickles/lime-pickle-recipe.html and it contains loads more information so check it out.

Lime Pickle

16 Limes
5 tbsp salt
3 tsp turmeric
1 tbsp white vinegar
250 grams mustard seeds
50 grams crushed fenugreek seeds
10 tbsp red chilli powder.
1 tsp asafetida powder
2 cups vegetable oil

If you can, put the lime pickle in a room where it will catch the sunlight or is near a radiator. This lime pickle recipe can be made all year round!

Cut limes into small pieces or quarters. Add salt, turmeric and white vinegar. Stir well making sure that every piece of Lime is covered. Then set aside in your storage jar.
Stir the marinade every alternate day for 4 weeks or longer until the pieces of Lime are quite soft and tender. Remember to seal the container when you have finished!
Add the crushed mustard, asafetida, red chilli powder, vegetable and mustard oil.
Mix well and wait for 1 additional week before using the Lime Pickle.

This mango chutney is really delicious.  It has more of a kick, is much more flavourful and less gloopy than the readymade varieties.  It is really worth the effort.

Mango Chutney

1.5kg (3lb) mangoes, peeled and diced
2 large red chillis, de-seeded and chopped
60g (2oz) fresh ginger root, peeled and finely grated
juice and finely grated rind of 1 lemon
500ml (1 pint) white wine or cider vinegar
750g brown sugar
1 teaspoon cumin powder
1 tablespoon salt
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 teaspoon allspice powder
1 teaspoon turmeric (optional)

Place all ingredients in a pot and bring to the boil, stirring often. Cook for 1 hour or until mixture is thick.  If necessary drain the mango and return the liquid to reduce until really thick.  Adjust the seasoning.  I added more salt and chilli. Bottle and seal.

Raita Recipe

Raita also sometimes referred to as Raitha, is yogurt based and eaten as a sauce or dip. The raita recipe described below is a very popular side dish that goes well with hot and spicy Indian food.

250ml natural yogurt
½ cucumber, finely chopped
handful Mint leaves, washed and finely chopped
pinch of salt (add as required)

Panch Puran, toasted and finely ground

Coriander to garnish the raita

Mix all the ingredients together and adjust seasoning to taste.  When making this Lime Pickle recipe, note that setting aside should be at a comfortable room temperature, not cold.