Homesmoked Pastrami and More Corned Beef Sandwiches

Just received my Grassland Beef from US Wellness YAY! Remember my corned beef/pastrami post? Well this is getting better and better! I have not attempted to corn my own beef yet but I with my order in it is all getting a little bit sweeter. US Wellness is a pretty great site for all your meat needs, beef, pork, game, and seafood. I got some beef cheeks, 6lb brisket and my corned beef brisket and flatiron. Produce from the site are from neighboring family farms that raise their animals with lots of love, care, and attention. www.grasslandbeef.com check it out!

awesome stovetop smoker

nifty steamer o'mine

 pastrami (brisket)

 

corned beef (flatiron) see the difference in grain?

I was uber excited when I stumbled upon their own corned beef! and the best part is...it’s brined msg, gluten and nitrate free! So of course I HAD to get it... and I figure I get a few pounds worth so I could make pastrami and corned beef. Oh yeah..forgot to mention that I got a stovetop smoker too!! (pastrami here I come!)

At the moment I have the smoker smoking up and the corned beef steaming beside it. This house is starting to smell like a hickory smokehouse...and Katz deli... Amazing! I’m allowing the pastrami (brisket) to smoke for an hour on low medium heat and then steaming it for a couple hours till meltingly tender. The corned beef (flatiron) has been steaming for about an hour and I’ll let it go for a few more.

2 hours and a few groaning bellies later...I decided it was time for us to chow down. I prepared my sauerkraut and homemade russian dressing, and had picked up a half loaf of blackforest rye (SO GOOD!) Assembly time! Slice up the corned beef thinly against the grain (it was meltingly tender after 2.5 hours) and keep warm, slather your slices of bread with dressing and top on side with swiss, or emmenthaler cheese and toast til melty, while thats melting load up your other slice with meat then sauerkraut then top with cheesy toast. eat immediately!

The pastrami ended up smoking for 2.5 hours and it wasn’t as tender as I’d like so I allowed it to steam for another hour or so but I think it needs a bit more. Taste wise it was there, and I recommend anyone to try this if you don’t have the time to brine your own meat. I highly recommend the corned beef flat iron...it was like butter. Aesthetically because of the lack of nitrates it didn't have the nice pink color but that didn't bother me one bit as the flavors spoke on its own. 

 

Oatmeal Raisin Chocolate Chip and Coconut Cookies

 I am not a baker per se and I most prefer cooking in general but in this family they’re not huge lunch eaters so sometimes I can only bake or everything will be wasted! So there I was staring at the pantry for ideas...I knew I wanted to make cookies for the cookie jar was screaming to be replenished and I saw that we have a whole bunch of rolled oats that were about to expire. I was more than delighted at the thought of some hearty oatmeal cookies...then I rummaged some more and ended up with chocolate chips, raisins and flaked coconut. Oooh, I was suuuper excited now! I haven’t had oatmeal cookies in like a month! haha.. can you tell how happy I am right now? SUPER



Make sure you have many mouths to feed because this recipe yields about 5 dozen cookies or so...Or you can keep them to yourself if you desire...like myself. But I say everything in moderation...I eat one and leave the extra 4 dozen and 11 cookies for the other stragglers.


Oatmeal Raisin Cookies with Chocolate chips and Coconut

1 C butter

1 C brown sugar

1 C white sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 C sifted flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 C rolled oats

1 C semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 C raisins

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and vanilla, and beat well. Sift the dry ingredients and add to the creamed mixture along with the oats, chocolate chips, and raisins. Mix thoroughly. Drop from a teaspoon onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake for about 12-13 minutes. They should be browned on the edges and just set. Allow to cool on the pan and transfer to cooling rack till thoroughly cooled.
Note: If you don’t use raisins, you can increase the chocolate chips to 1 1/2 cups.

Best Banana Bread

perfectly browned banana bread

 I woke up to the most beautiful Saturday amidst our weird winter this year and I felt like baking. Go figure...I was leaning towards bread but failed to find any yeast in our dry pantry and then I remembered buying really spotty bananas and decided on banana bread instead! YEAH! I love banana bread and wonder why I don’t make it more often...perhaps it is the lack of mouths to stuff...and the cries of “oh dear...you’re baking some more? I’m going to grow 2 bellies!” Well, I can’t blame you if you can’t resist...they are good... hah!

This is a simple recipe, it also gives out the most marvelous aromas of sweet banana and hints of almond and vanilla throughout your house. It is divine! I managed to get this recipe from T’s aunt’s friend. I had the opportunity of hoarding her recipe binder equipped with my pen and pad of paper, during T’s cousin’s birthday celebration a few Sundays ago. I ended up with 5 recipes until my hands and procedures were pretty much illegible. And I’m not particularly proud with my penmanship either...but I’ll try and work on that in my own private hour. Anywhoo...so if you have some extremely overripe bananas please don’t throw them out! Make banana bread!

I just had to show you this gorgeous bunch of dill I got at a local farm...it smelled so fresh and divine!

Best Banana Bread
3 ripe bananas
1 C sugar
1 egg
1.5 C flour
1/4 C melted butter
1 t baking soda
1/2 t salt

Preheat oven to 325F
Mash bananas with fork, add egg and mix.
Add butter & dry ingredients and mix well.
Bake for 1 hour 15 minutes. Test with a skewer it should come out clean.

Hoisin-Ginger Roasted Chicken

Every chance I get I always make a point to make lunch at home. Lately it’s been quick lunches like sandwiches, quesadillas, left overs and such just because of time constraints. But I had the chance today and I wasn’t going to pass that up. We’ve been having lots of western options so I was veering towards some asian flavors. I shopped around the two refrigerators we have and ended up with a whole bird and a bounty of asian staples.

T isn’t a huge fan of chicken when it isn’t done right...he’s quite a picky eater and to make a chicken worthwhile to him means a moist, tender, and flavorful one (he thinks rotisserie chicken is too bland). So I began playing around in my mind with different things I could do to flavor up this bird and I started grabbing garlic, ginger, coriander, hoisin and sesame oil. This is a good marinade for chicken, pork, or beef and if you like heat don’t be shy to splash some sriracha or sambal into the mix. I served up the chicken with ginger scented brown rice and a quick broccoli and carrot stir fry. I plan to make ssam’s or pulled chicken sandwiches with a tangy asian slaw with the leftovers!

serve it up with brown rice and some veges!

Hoisin-Ginger Roast Chicken

1 young whole bird
7-9 cloves of garlic (minced)
5-6 inch knob ginger (minced)
3/4 hoisin
1 T sugar
2 T sesame oil
1 T soy sauce
1 T coriander seeds (grinded)
1/2 C water
1.5 C chicken broth

Preheat oven to 350F.
Mix garlic, ginger, hoisin, sugar, sesame oil, soy sauce, and water. Take marinade and slather all over the chicken, slather it inside the cavity as well. Place it in a ceramic pan along with your chicken broth, and roast for 1hr 15mins. Baste every now and then. Remove chicken and allow it to rest for 5 minutes and serve!

V-Day Red Velvet Cream Cheese Swirl Hearts

 Valentines Day is just around the corner and what’s better than a cheesy treat? I’m thinking something along the lines of red velvet. So this year I decided on making a red velvet cream cheese swirl cake. While I was grabbing my rectangular baking pan I felt that cutting them into squares were not exciting nor valentiney enough...and then I rummaged through Mrs.M’s cookie cutter drawer and found one shaped like my heart. Perfect!

If you love the combination of sweet, salty, tangy, creamy and chocolatey...this is without a doubt a winner. Trust me on this one! It’s moist, tender, and not too sweet! And I added vanilla seeds just because I love seeing the black specks on the cheese layer!



But before we go through the recipe.. thought I'd share my kitchenaid catastrophe with all of you...

in house mechanic...he can now add kitchenaid pro into his resume

I bought this 3 weeks ago from craigslist and I must be honest...it was a pretty good deal. And after just using it once, I tried to run it again and all I hear is a jammed motor...then I thought perhaps that's why the deal was so darn good. Fortunately I found this professional mechanic we call T who started digging around. In his surprise and soon after mine...this kitchenaid had about 1 quart of extra grease globbed all over and around the motor...but that wasn't the culprit...it turns out that the worm gear rotor broke in two!  Thankfully its a cheap and easy gear to find... I'll be more wary of my craigslist purchases from now on...

greasy and broken worm gear

imagine a mound of grease in there...

Fortunately the kitchenaid wasn't needed for this recipe...but be my guest if you'd like to use one.
 
Red velvet layer
2 sticks unsalted butter, melted
1 3/4 C sugar
2 t vanilla extract
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/4 t salt
1 T (or more) red food coloring
2 t vinegar
4 eggs
1 1/2 C all-purpose flour

Cheesecake layer

2 8 ounce packages cream cheese, softened
1/2 C sugar
2 eggs
1 T vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350˚F. Grease and flour an 9x13 baking pan, and set aside. Add melted butter to a large bowl then add the following ingredients, in this order, stirring after each addition: sugar, vanilla, cocoa powder, salt, food coloring and vinegar. Whisk the eggs in a small bowl and then stir into the cocoa mixture. Fold in the flour just until combined. (Don’t overmix!) Set aside at least 1/2 cup of the batter for the top; pour the rest of the batter in the baking pan, spreading evenly across the bottom.
For the cheesecake layer, beat the cream cheese, sugar, eggs, and vanilla in a medium bowl until smooth. Carefully spread the cream cheese mixture on top of the brownie batter in the pan, then plop spoonfuls of the remaining brownie batter over the cream cheese. Drag the tip of a knife through the red velvet and the cream cheese to create swirls. Bake for 30 minutes or just until the center of the cheesecake part is set. Let cool completely on a wire rack before cutting. Remove from pan and cut with cookie cutter! or leave them as squares.

Peanut Butter Cookies & Andrew Zimmern

I'm sure I'm not the only couch potato in town.... I am guilty of being one and apart from food network and the cooking channel one happens to be the travel channel. I enjoy Andrew Zimmern’s Bizarre Foods, although I dislike his disgust over durians...they’re like one of the most amazing foods ever! I had the chance to meet him at Babson University during one of his talks about harnessing sustainability in this country. He was freshly adopted to be one of Babsons’ entrepreneurship leaders of his time. Anyway, he got to talking about how in this generation families no longer deal with their own businesses anymore. For example...3rd or 4th generation fisheries...how there could have been 60 families then but now there is only 1 or 2. He continues to tell us how we no longer practice the art of doing what our ancestors did to survive and provide. We merely just shut one eye and say its too hard and go the easy route of importing from another country where really...we can easily get it from our neighboring states. I didn’t learn a lot but I absorbed the reality of how lazy this generation is becoming...I hope we can turn that around.

Enough of that...let’s just get down to the yummy stuff.

I have made these cookies a million times but for some reason they’ve never made it on the blog. Perhaps its because they are gone by the time I get ready to photograph them...I tell ya...they go lightning fast. I think its the peanut buttery aroma that permeates through the house that brings people in...and gosh are they addictive.

This is one of the easiest recipes known to man. If you enjoy peanut butter on its own or just in general...these cookies take it to another level. Imagine eating peanut butter but instead of its creamy/crunchy paste form this is crispy, chewy, and just so darn delicious. And if that isn’t heavenly enough just add chocolate and it’ll be orgasmic.

 

 
 Peanut Butter Cookies
yield: 38-40 cookies

1 1/2 C creamy Peanut Butter
3/4 C granulated Sugar
1 T salt
1 large egg
2 T vanilla essence

Pre-heat oven to 350 F. Prepare a sheet pan with parchment.
Combine all ingredients with a spoon. The mixture should pull away from the bowl and spoon, if not add a tad more sugar.
Roll ping-pong size balls and set them an 1 1/2 inch apart. Pat them down a tad and bake for 14 minutes until lightly golden. They will be a bit soft but will harden when cooling.
Leave them to cool on the sheet pan for 5 minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack to cool fully.

You may want to give them a cross-hatch design with a fork if you like. Or dot them with chocolate chips! Or... stuff a whole oreo in between two peanut butter balls. Do as you like!

Superbowl Sunday Feasting

I’m quite sad to say that I am a Superbowl Sunday virgin. Despite my 9 years of attending an American school back home I have yet to experience this very tradition. I am thrilled however that this year will change all that. I’ll be spending it with T’s family and Lord knows I am extremely excited! Mrs. M is by far the most loyal and over zealous Patriots fan I have ever come across. She has embellished the tele room into a Patriots den, every window, and crack of wall space left has been adorned with Patriots memorabilia...this includes a pompom she acquired during one attendance at the superbowl a few years back. The NFL network should really catch wind of her...they’d be pleasantly surprised.

Alright so ya’ll know what I’m going to get at..and to be nice, I’ll spare you the surprise. I’d say these are staples for a typical superbowl sunday noshing. I have warned my fellow Patriot fans to avoid a carb overloaded breakfast for there will be some serious jaw action and expanding bellies just in time for the game, during, and after.

Down to the nitty gritty... the options include spinach and artichoke dip, salsa and baked wholewheat tortilla chips, and for dinner pulled chicken tacos and tortillas with the works. And not forgetting dessert...patriotic cookies, seriously! They’re a riff on red velvet cookies, blue food coloring and marshmallows included...they’re quite the psychedelic tidbit.

What a bummer Pats...well I guess there's always next year. 

To start things of... 

carb free and guilt free!

Scrambled eggs and Ham
2 servings


4 eggs
kosher salt
1/4 C milk
2 1/4 inch thick sliced ham
1 T butter


Whisk eggs, milk and salt thoroughly. Place your non-stick saute pan on med-low heat and swirl the butter around. Once heated pour in your eggs and with a heat-proof spatula swirl it around so it doesn't overcook easily.


Below are the recipes...eat them anytime for any occasion

look at that oozy hot cheesy mess

Spinach Artichoke Dip

2 9 oz bags of spinach
2 12oz jars of artichokes (drained and chopped up)
1 Cup fresh basil
4 garlic cloves
6 oz light cream cheese
1 lb mozzarella cheese (separated into 2)
3/4 C chicken broth
1 can black eyed peas (drained)
2 T paprika
2 T worchestire sauce
kosher salt
black pepper

Pre-heat oven to 375 F.

Bring a pot of salted water to a boil and have a bowl of ice cubes and water ready. Once boiling add spinach and basil, blanch for 30 seconds and shock in ice water immediately. Wring out all the water, chop it up roughly, add the artichokes and set aside. In your food processor combine garlic, chicken broth, cream cheese, black eyed peas, paprika, and worchestire sauce. Process until you reach a smooth paste. Taste for seasoning, and add salt if necessary. Fold in 1/2 lb of mozzarella cheese and spinach and artichokes into the bean mixture. Spray your casserole dish with non-stick spray and pour it all in. Top with leftover mozzarella cheese and bake for 15-20 minutes until its bubbly and browned on top.
Serve with pita chips, baked tortilla chips, bread sticks...etc!
I fathom they’ll be amazing as a sandwich.

Salsa

1 1/2 C cilantro leaves and stems (roughly chopped)
5 large tomatoes (quartered)
1/2 medium yellow onion (diced)
1 jalapeno (diced)
1/4 t cumin
kosher salt

Combine all ingredients into your food processor and process to your desired consistency. Taste for seasoning and add enough salt for your desired taste.
Serve with tortilla chips. Or if you like you can bake them yourself at home * see note below.

*baked tortilla chips

1 pack of fresh corn or flour tortillas
PAM olive oil spray
1 T cumin
kosher salt

pre-heat oven to 350.

Cut tortillas into 8 chips. Lay them as a single layer on a sheet tray. Spray them with olive oil and sprinkle cumin and a little salt. Bake for 15 minutes till lightly browned and crisp. 

 

Slow Cooker Pulled Chicken
6-8 servings

I made my own “taco” seasoning since its super easy and so much better than the store bought kind. Who needs added msg? see recipe below.

8 chicken thighs (skins removed)
4 garlic cloves (crushed with skins on)
1 Can whole peeled tomatoes
1 bunch cilantro stems
juice of half a lime
enough water or chicken broth to cover chicken in slow cooker

Taco seasoning
2 T paprika
2 T garlic powder
2 T ground cumin
1 T coriander
1 T chile powder
3 T dried oregano
2 T dried basil
4 garlic cloves (crushed with skins on)
1 Can whole peeled tomatoes
1 C water or chicken broth
1 T kosher salt
1 T pepper

Combine taco seasoning, chicken thighs, garlic, tomatoes, cilantro stems and water or broth into your slow cooker sleeve. Turn it on high for 5 hours and bring it down to low for another 2-3 hours or until you can’t wait any longer! Taste for seasoning and add salt and pepper if needed.
Serve with tacos or soft tortillas, salsa, pico de gallo, shredded lettuce, sour cream, and guacamole...everything but the kitchen sink!

swirly action

Patriot Cookies

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 and 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup cocoa powder

Red food coloring liquid or gel

Blue food coloring liquid or gel

marshmallows sliced into halves

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  Line two baking sheets with parchment paper; set aside.

In the bowl of your standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and both sugars on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.

Reduce the mixer speed to medium-low and add the egg and vanilla, mixing well until combined.

Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the flour, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder, mixing until thoroughly combined.

Using a rubber spatula,remove half of the batter into a separate bowl and mix in blue food gel, thoroughly combine.

Add red food gel to your batter in the other bowl and mix thoroughly. *it should be really red

Fold in your red batter into the blue batter just a few times to create a swirl effect. **Do not over mix or it will become purply brown

Using a cookie dough scoop or a tablespoon, drop the dough into mounds about two inches apart from one another. 

Bake for 12 minutes.

Remove before 2 minutes is up and place one marshmallow on top of each cookie, set your broiler on and broil till marshmallows puff up and once lightly browned remove immediately and allow it to cool on cooling rack.

Pecan Cherry Chocolate Chip Cookies

I’ve recently been on a cookie baking binge. So far I’ve whipped up chocolate chip cookies, oatmeal chocolate chip, and butterscotch ones too. I don’t know what’s up next, I’m debating on rocky road and a twist on the old snickerdoodles. I also constantly find myself gazing at tastespotting everyday, in bed before I sleep and as soon as I wake up. Honestly, I can’t help myself. I find inspiration from the pictures and become excited at the thought of making...well anything really!

Today on my cookie baking binge, I’ve conjured up pecan cherry chocolate chip cookies. I wanted some crunch with my chocolate and the dried cherries to bring it all together. I got excited at the thought of mixing them altogether wondering how the flavors would mingle with my taste buds. Thankfully just a short 12 minutes later I was able to devour one, crisp and chewy, sweet, tangy, crunchy morsel it was like heaven in a cookie.

a reason to fill up that empty cookie jar of yours

Pecan Cherry Chocolate Chip Cookies
44 cookies or so

3/4 stick of butter (softened)
1 1/4 C flour
1 C brown sugar
1/2 granulated sugar
1 1/2 t baking soda
1 large egg
2 T vanilla extract
1 tsp salt
1/4 (heaping) chopped pecans
1 bar ghirardelli dark chocolate (chopped up)
1/4 C dried cherries

Pre-heat oven to 325 F.
Prepare a baking sheet with parchment and set aside.
Combine flour, baking soda, salt and set aside.
Cream butter with both sugars. Add egg and combine thoroughly. Pour in vanilla and combine again.
Add in flour in stages and mix through.
Fold in pecans, chocolate and cherries.
 Drop a tablespoon of cookie dough and keep them a few inches apart as they will expand while baking. Pop them into the oven for 12 minutes. Wait a couple minutes and place on the cooling rack for another 5-10 minutes.

Heaven in a Sandwich: Corned Beef/Pastrami Sandwich

black pastrami on dark rye

 I am in love with brisket. It is such a versatile cut of meat that when cooked properly, with any spice and seasoning...it’s going to be good. Even better when its trapped between 2 fresh slices of rye. I’m speaking in particular of corned beef, and pastrami. Anyone who’s ever been to NYC has tried Katz’s...right? I would hope so. I am what you call a reuben crazy, fall to my knees weak when I see corned beef kind of person. There is just nothing like a good corned beef sandwich.

So, what is corned beef? Basically it starts with of course...brisket (navel end or plate), brined in a pickling liquid of nitrates, salt, spices, for about 3 weeks. Then its steamed till its meltingly tender. Pastrami, is corned beef, but smoked after its been brined with pepper and coriander, then steamed till it too is tender and irresistible.

You know what else is irresistible...when I found out that my other half loved corned beef sandwiches nearly as much as I did... I knew he was a keeper. It’s nice to know that I’m not the only one with reuben cravings, piled up high with sauerkraut and oozing emmenthaler cheese.

But even I have not attempted to make my own corned beef or pastrami...yet. This is how I make it at home, with my take on russian dressing.

i think that's your stomach i hear

Corned Beef/Pastrami Sandwiches
2 servings

4 slices dark rye (marble rye is good too)
1/2 lb (deli, fresh) corned beef or black pastrami
4 slices of emmenthaler, or swiss cheese
1 C drained sauerkraut

Russian dressing

2 T sweet pickle relish
1 T worchestire sauce
1 1/2 t celery seeds
1/2 C tomato ketchup
1/4 chilli sauce
2 T whole grain mustard
1/4 C mayo
1 T dijon mustard
a few cracks of the peppper mill

Mix all dressing ingredients together and set in the fridge till ready to use.
Slather a healthy dollop of dressing onto one side of each slice of bread. First lay the corned beef or pastrami on one slice of the bread, I go up about 1 1/2 inches of meat, then lay the sauerkraut on top, top with slices of cheese and place it in the toaster oven on 350 until the cheese has melted. Place the other slice of bread and toast for another minute or so. Carefully remove and eat with pickles if desired!