Pastrami Reuben Sandwich

The pinnacle of cured meats, pastrami, is the unique creation of the Romanian-Jewish immigrants of New York.  They took brisket of beef and salt-brined, spiced, hot smoked, chilled, steamed, sliced it and served it on rye bread.  When this group started to move out of New York and into other parts of the country, the recipe started to change and so the pastrami itself.

I was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York and until 3 years ago, when we retired, lived in New York all my life.  I have had pastrami sandwiches outside of the Big Apple but there have been times when I was not sure if the meat I was eating was pastrami at all.  I gave up ordering it anywhere but New York.

A couple of weeks ago we were in New York at my son Joe's house and he wanted to treat Soko, for Father's Day, to a sampling of delicious deli meats from the best place to buy those meats, a Kosher deli.  Joe ordered from Ben's Best in Rego Park.  This is his "go to" deli for pastrami, corned beef, tongue and more.  We decided that if he ordered extra pastrami we could have the traditional pastrami on rye for lunch and I would make, for the first time ever, Pastrami Reuben Sandwiches for dinner.  The Reuben's were absolutely delicious, but I am sure they were because we had the best pastrami and had nothing to do with my cooking skills!

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Pastrami Reuben Sandwiches

Ingredients (per sandwich)

2 slices rye bread

1/4 - 1/2 lb. pastrami

2 slices swiss cheese

1/4 cup sauerkraut

1 - 2 Tbsp. Thousand Island dressing*

1 Tbsp. butter softened



*Thousand Island Dressing Recipe

1/2 cup mayonnaise

2 Tbsp. ketchup

2 Tbsp. sweet pickle relish

2 tsp. finely diced onion

1/8 tsp. kosher salt


Directions

Prepare Thousand Island dressing.  Spread 1/2 Tbsp. butter on a slice of the rye bread.  Put the slice, buttered side down, on frying pan.  Top bread with Thousand Island dressing, slice of swiss cheese, pastrami, sauerkraut then second slice of swiss.  Spread the second slice of bread with the remaining butter.  Place this slice, with buttered side up, on top of sandwich.  Cook on medium-low heat until golden brown.  Flip sandwich over and cook until bread is golden brown and cheese is melted.

Enjoy!

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