Serving, Not Making, Pastrami

[Chris Amirault]

I've been making some terrific pastrami lately and it's got me wondering what I should be doing with it. Sure, I have the "on rye" concept down, but are there other serving suggestions to consider?

[heidih]

We ate a fair amount of pastrami when I was a kid as my dad would bring it home unsliced from the shop. We were not sandwich people. Basically we treated it like ham and enjoyed it with various potato preps, and warm red cabbage or cabbage slaw, or creamy cucumber salad.

[JBailey]

The classic hot pastrami and corned beef. In Chicago, the center of the universe for this combo is Manny's Cafeteria.

[SylviaLovegren]

Well, you could always send it to ME.

[JAZ]

How about pastrami hash?

[Andrew Fenton]

How about pastrami hash?

You beat me to the punch. This is what I do with all the unevenly-sliced and end pieces left over from when I make pastrami. It's tremendously good.

I also save the liquid left from the steaming session and use it later. Sure, it's mostly salt and smoke, but it works great as a soup base, or to cook greens.

eta: in the Fentondome, the fate of leftover barbecue is usually Brunswick stew. I've never used pastrami for that, but I bet it'd be good.

Edited April 25, 2011 by Andrew Fenton (log)

[weinoo]

Pastrami and eggs?

[jsmeeker]

Pastrami and eggs?

that sounds good. Either in an omelette or just mixed into scrambled eggs.

[weinoo]

Pastrami and eggs?

that sounds good. Either in an omelette or just mixed into scrambled eggs.

It's made like Pam's salami and eggs.

[Chris Amirault]

Are there classic sides? Those potato salads and slaws Heidi mentioned sound really tasty....

[heidih]

Mine were not "classic" just tasty I think horseradish and mustard of course would be traditional in some fashion.

[DanM]

I would use this opportunity to break out Hamelman's Bread or Peter Reinhart's Whole Grain book and work on my rye bread skills.

Another option is to slice it thin, fry it, and put it on top of your burger... It's kinda the kosher version of bacon on a burger.

Dan

[djyee100]

You could look to recipes using basturma (aka pastirma, pasturma), the Turkish relative of pastrami. I've tasted this bean dish from Paula Wolfert's Mediterranean Clay Pot Cooking, and it's delicious.

White Beans with Spiced Beef:

http://books.google.com/books?id=HT6D2fD4qIwC&pg=PA248&lpg=PA248&dq=wolfert+beans+spiced+beef&source=bl&ots=GLZzfwgVMg&sig=BLaXcqifVEQyX2ZsXNUYhWrFSZM&hl=en&ei=dUu2TeKNDo-WsgO0sJGpAQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&sqi=2&ved=0CBYQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false

I've also tried small filo pastries stuffed with basturma, grated kasseri cheese, and fresh chopped parsley. Those were memorably good.

[Ashen]

Well this is a bit out there but les trois brasseurs in Montreal serves a flammekueche( similar to a thin crust pizza from alsace region of france) with Montreal smoked meat. It is crazy good and I wouldn't see why pastrami couldn't work just as well..

[Octaveman]

pretty much all the ideas I had were already put out here but one of my all-time fav pastrami sandwiches served at a local Jewish deli (D.Z. Akins) is a Pastrami Rueben...toasted rye, sour kraut & cheese.

[Chris Amirault]

All sounding very tasty, but Ashen, I need to know more:

Well this is a bit out there but les trois brasseurs in Montreal serves a flammekueche( similar to a thin crust pizza from alsace region of france) with Montreal smoked meat. It is crazy good and I wouldn't see why pastrami couldn't work just as well..

I loves me my Montreal smoked meat, so I'm intrigued. What else is on there?

[emannths]

Ooo speaking of smoked meat, some chopped smoked meat/pastrami on top of poutine is really tasty.

It would also be a nice component of choucroute garnie. Maybe served with a slice of rye toast. Come to think of it, if you piled the choucroute and pastrami on top of the rye, maybe add a little cheese... Gah! It's so easy to get sucked in!

[Chris Amirault]

Pastrami, potato salad, sauerkraut:

[FrogPrincesse]

All sounding very tasty, but Ashen, I need to know more:

Well this is a bit out there but les trois brasseurs in Montreal serves a flammekueche( similar to a thin crust pizza from alsace region of france) with Montreal smoked meat. It is crazy good and I wouldn't see why pastrami couldn't work just as well..

I loves me my Montreal smoked meat, so I'm intrigued. What else is on there?

The most traditional topping for the Alsatian flammenkuche (tarte flambee) is creme fraiche (fromage blanc also works fine), onions, bacon (diced in lardons).

I am sure it would also taste good with diced pastrami.