Grub Hacker

Fresh Pastrami

I've been waiting to make something that I considered to be appropriate for my first blog post here, on Grub Hacker.  Surprisingly, none of the imaginative wild game dishes created in my kitchen seemed to be able to make the cut, and I ended up choosing this! 

Inspired by the most recent episode of No Reservations, and an appealing recipe in Charcuterie, I decided to make fresh pastrami. There's nothing quite like getting fresh, hot pastrami on rye bread from a hole in the wall deli; the results of the following foray into recipes from the aforementioned book are just as fulfilling. 

The recipe is very easy, just brine, smoke, steam and serve.  Pardon all of the pictures, I'm just becoming more comfortable with my camera and starting to get good pictures.  My only regret is that I am unable to stop time and passing by clouds in order to have the sunlight right for pictures.

Homemade Italian Beef Sandwiches

So I was at restaurant depot the other day and saw a beef knuckle roast.  I picked one up since for one, I had never seen one, and two, it was cheap.  At the time I had no clue how I was going to prepare it but figured I would let things evolve over the course of the week. This cut is lean and as it turns out has a ton of flavor and great value at 1.60 something a pound.

The timing of  Paupered Chef:Homemade Italian Beef post this week was perfect and it provided a perfect fate for this nice looking cut of meat.  I know the recipe did not call for this cut but it worked out perfectly and if you can get your hands on Beef Knuckle its worth a go.  This basically is the Paupered Chef's recipe that is doubled and tweaked a bit.

  Question O the Day

 

Have you ever bought something with no clue how you were going to prepare it?  What was it?  What inspiration did you draw from?