OK, I admit it… I LOVE Pastrami!
Fifteen years ago I was a bit of a newbie to the food scene. I mean, I knew about food… Steak, Pizza, Burgers, Ribs, Wings, etc. – but ask me about anything outside of the American mainstream and I was clueless.
Then I visited NYC and did a web search for where to eat in the city. Classic Jewish deli’s kept coming up as a place that everyone should experience. I decided that this would be one of our stops and we hopped on the subway to Katz’s.
One look at that Pastrami sandwich and I was blown away…
Piled high with that pink tinged meat, I knew I had to try one. Needless to say I was not disappointed.
Fast forward to last month and we were once again in NYC with friends to see the Christmas Spectacular and of course, stop at Carnegie Deli to have a mountain of meat on rye.
After a couple of days back home I decided I needed to try making Pastrami myself so that I could enjoy one of these delicacies anytime I wanted. So, I began the quest for the best method of making perfect pastrami which I’ll share in another post.
This post is about using that meat to create the perfect pastrami sandwich.
I like to start with marble rye bread… but for this particular photo shoot, all I had on hand was regular rye. I begin by buttering one side of each slice and then toast it litely in a small skillet. This is going to be the inside of our sandwich.
Next I lay several slices of Pastrami in the skillet and allow it to carmelize some of the fat. while I put a nice portion of deli mustard on the bottom bread. After the meat is heated through I pile it on along with a couple of slices of cheese. A nice aged swiss works well here.
There is a nice layer of juices & pastrami bits in the skillet that I then use to toast the top side of the top bread, and then put the assembled sandwich in the pan for final toasting. I cover it for a minute or two to allow the cheese to melt.
The pickle jar was empty so I was forced to eat it with a couple of chips. To be honest, it really didn’t need anything on the side.