Category: gherkin

salt beef bagels

I’ve been enjoying Tom Kerridge’s Proper Pub Food, a series where the affable chef cooks some of his favourite dishes. It’s got some great ideas and tips, and a decent range. I don’t think anything’s going to top the brisket from the first episode, a sandwich piled high with pickles and other goodies. “You can buy salt beef, but I’ve made my own” got my attention. The Tom Kerridge salt beef was thick and flaky so I grabbed my pen, ready to receive the recipe. Unfortunately it moved on to a method for pickled veg. Now the veg is awesome I’m certain, but not the star attraction as far as I’m concerned.

I really like the recipes on the program but it does suffer from being BBC cooking-show-formatted to death. Opening scene in his restaurant? Check. Fluffy indie tune interstitials? Check. Irrelevant mixing with the riff-raff? Check. It looks like it has slipped from a late Spring TV slot too, featuring asparagus and barbecue recipes. They lose their lustre on a rainy October evening. I could stand to hear the phrases “ultimate”, “cheeky” and “amazing” a few less times too. Tom’s a big enough character to overcome this however, with great cooking tips and must-make food so I hope it gets another series.

For another view, here’s Danny from Food Urchin’s thoughts about the show.

Lacking a Tom Kerridge recipe for salt beef, I set about making my own. I’ve been a fan of brisket for years, but somehow making salt beef had never occurred to me, so I hit the books. First up a five day brining, something salty and sweet to kick it along. Then a gentle poaching to cook it through, then a final heat through to serve. It sounds like a lot of stages, but none of them are difficult and mostly leaving it to do it’s thing.

And every bit of it is worth it. I’m sorry if you came here for a recipe for Tom Kerridge salt beef, but I reckon he’d be pleased with this. Toast up some bagels, pile the condiments high and let people make their own. Everyone will love it.

Tom Kerridge’s book, Proper Pub Food, is available from Amazon.

salt beef bagels

Course Brunch

Cuisine Jewish

Servings 8 people

Author Gary @ BigSpud

Ingredients

1.5 kg beef brisket rolled and tied

For the brine:

300 g salt
250 g brown sugar
4 leaves bay
1 tablespoon fennel seeds
1 tablespoon black peppercorns

For the poaching:

1 carrot chopped
1 onion chopped
1 leek chopped
4 cloves garlic bashed

For finishing:

100 ml beef stock
Knob butter

Instructions

Combine the brine ingredients in a saucepan with enough cold water to cover the beef. Bring to a gentle simmer, stirring to dissolve the salt and sugar. Allow to cool completely and transfer to a clean bowl with the beef. Ensure the beef is completely submerged (I weighed mine down with a Kilner jar filled with rice). Place this in the fridge for five days.
When the time's up rinse the beef and place in a saucepan with the chopped veg. Cover with water, bring to the boil then gently simmer for 3 - 4 hours until you can poke a knife into the meat with no resistance.
You can serve the beef straight from the broth, else allow to cool. Carve thickly and reheat in a shallow frying pan with the butter and stock for a couple of minutes. Serve with a toasted bagel and your choice of mustards, sauerkraut, gherkin, mayo, cream cheese or whatever condiments do it for you.

Tags social, tom kerridge

cabbage cheese food gherkin pastrami sauerkraut

reuben-style sandwich

Goodness, those New York delis know how to make a decent sarnie, don’t they?

This is a take on classic Reuben sandwich, which has about a thousand origin stories. Whatever its beginnings, this stacked snack is packed with sharp, salty, savoury delights. I can’t claim this is authentic; just “inspired by”. I’ve put lovely, lovely Comté in here. The sweet nuttiness is brilliant with the strong meaty flavours.

I had to buy an enormous jar of sauerkraut to make this; just as well I’ve discovered I have a real appetite for it!

Reuben style sandwich (serves 1):

6 inch french stick bread

2 gherkins, sliced

2 slices pastrami

1 slice salt beef

30g Comté cheese, grated

Mayonnaise

English mustard

1 heaped tablespoon sauerkraut

Preheat your grill to high. Slice the bread in half and pop under the grill and heat the cut side until dry and crisp. Remove one side from the grill and spread over mayo and mustard as desired. Brush the other side lightly with oil, top with the sauerkraut, meats, gherkins and cheese and put back under the grill until the cheese starts to melt. Sandwich together and munch happily.

beef food gherkin mushroom rice sour cream

beef stroganoff

I must have made beef stroganoff to a different recipe each time I’ve made it. There’s always beef, always mushrooms, always paprika and a creamy element. But like many of the best recipes, once you hit the familiar targets the rest falls where it may.

I’ve tried this version from Lawrence Keogh on Saturday Kitchen. The key here is the acidity brought by the white wine vinegar and white wine, which gives you a great contrast against the cream. This dish has everything going for it, a sharp-creamy sauce, crunchy pickles, tender meat – what a treat.

Adapted from Lawrence Keogh’s recipe. His recipe calls for a pilaff too, I sped it up by using plain boiled rice on the side

Beef stroganoff (serves 4):

450g rump steak pounded thin and cut into long strips

2 teaspoons sweet paprika

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

30g butter

½ onion, finely chopped

150g button mushrooms, sliced

1 teaspoon tomato purée

50ml white wine vinegar

75ml white wine

200ml double cream

A few slices of gherkin, julienned

125ml sour cream

Flat leaf parsley, finely chopped

1 pinch sweet paprika

Sprinkle the beef strips with the paprika and season with salt and pepper.

Heat a large frying pan with the vegetable oil. Colour the beef as quickly as possible, making sure you keep them as rare as possible, then tip the meat into a colander, reserving any juices that drain off.

Using the same pan, turn the heat down and add the butter, onion and mushrooms and cook for one minute.

Add the tomato purée and cook for few more minutes, stirring the ingredients together. Turn the heat up again and add the white wine vinegar. Cook until completely evaporated.

Add the white wine and cook until reduced by half then pour in the double cream, bring to a boil, and season with salt and pepper.

Turn off the heat and tip in the beef and juices. Stir through to warm.

To serve, pour the stroganoff into a large warmed serving dish and sprinkle with dill pickle. Drizzle the sour cream over the top then sprinkle with chopped parsley and dust with paprika. Serve with rice.

Tags lawrence keogh

bread food gherkin pastrami

pastrami sandwich

I bloody hate rubbish sandwiches. Particularly those sweaty little things in a triangular plastic box that are both cold and miserable (very British I suppose). When the weekend comes, I demand a decent sarnie.

There’s loads I love, but I really dig salt beef, and in particular it’s butch cousin pastrami. Not a big deal in the UK, this peppery meat with it’s ruby flesh it’s utterly moreish and wonderfully carnivorous. So I fancied some today.

To make it as perfect as I could, I prepared ahead and made some bread too. Quite a bubbly and crusty one, so plenty of mouth feel. Then I added a little butter to each open side to prevent the bread getting soggy. I mixed some English mustard with a little mayonnaise to get that creamy colour, and slapped that most American of sandwich ingredients on top: slices of crunchy, sweet pickle. (Or ‘gherkin’ if we’re going to be British about it). Then waves of tasty meat.

There’s so much flavour going on here, it’s marvellous. Chewy bread, crunchy gherkin, the tang of mustard and tear of meat… that’s a sandwich.