ready to bake! the roundish marks on the dough are from the Quinoa
Laura is a tough customer and I have been working quite a while to find the perfect hard roll for her to enjoy. She’s very fond of breads from Germany and Scandinavia… particularly rye.
So after some fussing with good breads… I found one that meets her expectations.
So what do I have in this roll? Rye flour (loved by Scandinavians and early New Englanders) , wheat flour, Quinoa ( the favored grain of the Incas — although it is a seed), wheat germ, millet ( the original grain of ancient China), gluten, egg, dried diced onions, garlic powder, sea salt, black pepper.
So why go to all this work you ask? Love and the heart, after all, were introduced over a meal.
Oh, I think most folks have marinated meat and many have seasoned meat and tossed it into the freezer for a version of ‘dry curing’… however, I have to confess that curing my own meat was new to me and I took my time to study what everyone else had done before making my first corned beef.
There are quicker ways that the 3 week method I adapted, but I can’t think I would like any recipe better. In fact, I always liked corned beef… but now I LOVE it! The difference is — of course — all the wonderful things you can do that most commercial folks leave out due to time or expense. Making the corned beef only gets you half way to making a finished Pastrami ( smoked corned beef is now called Pastrami)… which I have to tell you was really superb!
In the first “In laws” movie, they discussed a recipe where the pollo (chicken) had to be marinated for 6 weeks… well we’re talking only 3 weeks or so for corned beef. Obviously, there are a wide variety of food safety issues that you need to become familiar before you attempt this… but once you have it down… it is a wonderful experience!
Here are the basic ingredients for the corned beef step …
5 cups water, 2 Heineken beers
1 1/2 cups salt
1 cup dark brown sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons Prague Powder (a preservative and really not good for you… oh well!)
1 crumbled cinnamon stick
12 allspice berries, 8 cloves, 9 juniper berries
1/2 tablespoon each of: ginger and mustard seed
1/2 teaspoon each of: red pepper flakes, caraway seed and coriander
3 bay leaves crushed
After three weeks or so, I will drain soak in fresh water to reduce the salinity and rinse several times before I re-season and then smoke the beast!
So, why do I go to the effort? Laura loves Pastrami… now she loves mine, better.
Although it’s still half a month off, what a great birthday present! One of the things I missed about the south is the flavor of really smoked foods. Here in California, folks throw some wood on the coals and call that ‘smoking’…oh please!
Laura was horrified that I might convert an old water heater into a smoker, so I think she did the next best thing by finding a superb smoker for my cooking pleasures! Weber makes a wonderful smoker in two sizes that she bought through Sears on line that is wonderful.
The pictures above are of me opening my ‘surprise’ and my smoker going at 4:30 am this morning! I have been making my own corned beef these past weeks and smoking converts it to Pastrami… my wife’s favorite meat! Ah… I see there was method in her gift!…. smart girl.
There are many great recipes on line, so I would follow them or check on the ones at Morton.com. However, my basic corned beef spices:
1/2 tsp of each: red pepper flakes, Carraway and Coriander
crushed cinnamon stick
1/2 tbsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp each of: mustard seed, ginger
1 tsp of black peppercorn
8 whole cloves
6 Juniper berries ( a strong taste)
12 allspice berries
6- 8 lb brisket
my brine mixture containing 5 cups water and 3 cups ( 2 bottles) Heineken beer ( in my daughter’s honor)
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Now to convert Corned Beef to Pastrami requires smoking for about 6 hours or so.
After washing and soaking I added the following seasonings prior to smoking: Pimenton ( Spanish smoked Paprika), salt, black pepper, garlic powder and a smattering of Pickling spices
Folks who know me, know I love to experiment with various recipes and ingredients. Here’s one the health food folks will just love… it’s called Quinoa (‘kinwa’). Although many use it as a grain, it is actually a seed and legend has it that it was the favorite ‘grain’ of the Incas. (read about Quinoa here)
I love Corned Beef or Pastrami any day of the year, not just on Saint Paddy’s Day.
Although Corned Beef by itself can be a bit overwhelming to some due to its strong taste, baked in a pie it becomes wonderful! The beef is well balanced in the pie with the inclusion of eggs, cheese, sauteed vegetables, gravy, a buttery spiced crust and a small inclusion of Sherry with the corned beef after cooking and shredding.
