I just recently watched a reality cook off battle of the recipes where the host travels to search for dishes that defined a particular place and created longlasting culinary rivalries and then she organizes a blind taste test to settle the food war and to see who is the best. And the episode that I came across is the battle of the pastrami.
OMG we love pastrami and other deli meat, so while watching the show, my mind travels a thousand times that my fingers need to catch up to search how on earth can I make these pastrami! Good thing technology is at its best now a days so while watching the show on tv, I am also doing a research on my tablet. So I look far and wide lol and all I can see is the meat should be cured first which will take a fair amount of time. Well, for all the virgonian out there, we know for sure that we won't be able to wait that long if we want something. LOL so I read and read and read different blogs and recipes. But I'm still not convince to cure my own meat, not that I'm not up for it but I just want a quick result.
The next day we went for a grocery shopping and the silversides are on sale! hahaha and that very moment, my light bulb just lit up! You bet I couldn't wait to go home and start my pastrami adventure!
So here we go, I turned the plain old school silverside into something that is more exciting, flavorful and definitely taste delicious pastrami that once you've tried it, you won't buy the ones in the store.
Life is so short and I know good things happens to those who wait LOL sometimes it's hard to wait for too long when you crave for something. We don't need to cure the meat when we can use something else.
Ingredients
Silverside
Brown sugar
Sweet basil
Smoked paprika
Garlic
Black pepper
Ground coriander seeds
Procedure
Make the dry marinade.
For 1 kg of silverside, the following rub measurement is enough.
Mix: 4 tablespoon of brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon sweet basil, smoke paprika, black pepper
1 teaspoon of garlic and ground coriander seeds
Set aside
Wash you silverside a couple of times and pat dry
Most of the silverside are so chunky
so you might want to cut it in half so that the flavor will infuse the meat
Poke the meat both sides with your knife
Take a spoonful of the dry marinade mixture
and rub it to the meat
Then press and cover the whole meat with the remaining dry marinade
Put it in a ziplock bag and store it in the fridge overnight
The following morning
you will notice that the dry marinade has melted, its totally ok
take you meat out of the marinade, save the marinade.
Bake your meat in the lowest temperature of your oven for 3-4 hours
You can baste the meat while cooking with the marinade but not necessary
After cooking let it cool, we like it cold so I put mine in the fridge after cooling.
Slice thinly and enjoy the yumminess with your sandwich
or if you're like my DH, he ate it on its own hahaha
You might think it's still alot of work but compared to weeks of curing/brining, this is the short cut and definitely worth to try it. Enjoy!!!
