Pastrami and warm german potato salad
I’ve love pastrami ever since I first ticked a food tourism box by going to Katz Deli, being overwhelms by it all but managing to order it on rye, and fell in love. Unlike potato salad, which I’ve never liked, until I had a hot potato salad at Kreuz Market and was convinced by it’s mustard and pickles. I’ve never managed to recreate it and I’ve given up trying. Instead I’ve taken the flavours and combined them with airfried potatoes, which are ace. They called it German, I’ve no idea if it was
I had a chunk of topside beef in the freezer and decided to try using it instead of brisket for pastrami and it turned out OK. The topside is a but lean, but had a great flavour and the smoking and steaming resulted in a great texture;
You will need
For the pastrami
- A kilo of good quality beef (mine was from Christmas Farm)
- A tablespoon of black peppercorns
- A tablespoon of coriander seeds
- A couple of heaped teaspoons of ground ginger
- A tablespoon of minced ginger (I used a frozen puck)
- A cupful of fruit wood powder for smoking
- 20g of salt
- A tiny pinch of salt peter (optional)
For the potato salad
- Potatoes, cut into 1 inch cubes
- A handful of spring onions
- A small handful of cornichon (chopped)
- A couple of heaped teaspoons of dijon mustard
- A tablespoon of rapeseed oil
- A tablespoon of white wine vinegar
Do
Pastrami
- Grind all the ingredients other than the beef and the wood powder together
- Rub it into the beef
- Pop it in a sealed plastic tub in the fridge for 5 days, turning every day
- When you’re ready, cold smoke for a few hours. I use a ProQ Cold Smoke Generator and cherry wood powder from HotSmoked
- Steam for 2 hours. This was the first time I’d used the InstantPot for steaming and it worked well
German potato salad
- Oil the potatoes by stirring them round in a big bowl with a lug of oil
- Trim the spring onions and cut them down so they fit in the airfrier
- Pop the potatoes and spring onions in the airfrier at 160 for 15 minutes
- Lift the spring onions out once they are charred, return the potatoes for another 10 minutes
- Mix the spring onions (chopped), cornichon, mustard, oil and vinegar
- Once the potatoes are crisped, stir it all together.
Result
