a worthwhile effort

a little more than two weeks ago i started the slow process of making a reuben from scratch. i corned my own brisket, fermented cabbage into sauerkraut, and worked on making my own rye bread. the weeks of waiting are finally over and today i finally get my homemade reuben.



like i've said before, the bread makes the sandwich. that's why i've done a few batches in preparation for today. it's a good hearty rye bread

here is the brisket following 2 weeks of brining and four hours of boiling. the flavor is great, much better than store bought corned beef.

this is the results of my first attempt at room temperature brining. the sauerkraut turned out delicious.

i kept the pot that boiled the meat in hot so i could steam the sandwich filling and melt the cheese.


it worked really well, the cheese is perfectly melted


the final sandwich, it's sloppy, real sloppy. it's also the best damned reuben i've ever had.
this was the star of the show, but i have another trick up my sleeve. this next sandwich seemed logical with the ingredients at hand.

I decided to make my version of a spike's junkyard dogs classic, the reuben dog. this was my hangover cure when spike's was still open on thayer street in providence, although i haven't had one in almost a year.

i treated the dog the same way as the brisket, kraut on the bottom and a dog wrapped in swiss cheese

i didn't have a proper bun, but i had white bread. so i put the dog on the bread and topped with my homemade thousand island dressing. once again, so sloppy but so good. this experiment was totally worth the couple weeks of waiting

a day in the kitchen pt. 3

luckily for me i was able to get the ingredients for salsa. tomatoes, onions, jalapenos, cilantro, and lime juice.

the longer the salsa sits the better, this didn't get a chance to sit but it's still delicious

after a few hours the meat was falling apart. i shredded the meat and skimmed off the fat. to finish it i added cilantro, a little chili sauce, and some more cumin.

on the tortilla i put a layer of white rice, a layer of bean, meat, chili sauce, salsa, lettuce, cilantro, and cheddar cheese; i overfilled it a bit.

i managed to get it rolled but i ended up with it all over me; it was all worth it. that is a damn good burrito

a day in the kitchen pt. 2

after a short break i got back to work. i decided to start on the chili sauce.

i toasted chili flakes with salt in a dry pan, when they're about to burn i added white vinegar and brought to a boil.

i then added jalapenos, more chili flakes, cayenne pepper, and more vinegar; i then boiled for about 10 minutes

here is the final product, i put it in a food processor and blended it with garlic and oil.

it's now time for the tortillas

here are the dough balls, i cut them in half and rolled them thin

you cook them in a dry cast iron skillet, they take about a minute each.

after the beans boiled for awhile i drained them and mashed them with chicken broth and chili sauce.

this is the meat a couple hours into cooking, not done yet but the broth is delicious.

a day in the kitchen pt. 1

today's food may not qualify as a sandwich in some peoples eyes, those people can fuck themselves, but it is certainly a cousin to the sandwich family. i am talking about the taco family and a little bit more specifically the burrito. i had 6 pound chunk of brisket in my freezer, dried black beans, and a stocked spice rack; i'm in for a day of serious cooking and a night serious farting.



i cut the brisket into chunks to speed up cooking. i also used no fat in the pan, instead i place the meat fat side down to start.

i took the time to develop a good sear on the meat, the more color the more flavor

i reiterate i put no fat in the pan, that all beef fat right there

here we have black beans following a quick soak, bring to a boil and steep for an hour.


i have the bean in a pot with beer, water, spices, smoked pork neck bones, and fat back. i'm going to boil the shit out of it then make refried beans. hence the prior comment about serious farting.

in the beef pan, i sauteed onion and garlic, added a bunch of spices, a can of beer, 2 ladles of homemade tomato sauce; i'd use crushed tomatoes over canned tomato sauce, and a can of red beans. i put the chunks of meat back in the sauce and they're cooking in the over at 350.

these are the main components of the meal. i still have some cooking to do, the meat and beans are going to take awhile. in the mean time i have chili sauce and tortillas to make; and hopefully salsa if i can get the ingredients.

ben hungry

last night i made another attempt at rye bread in preparation for my Reuben experiment, the beef is corning and the kraut is fermenting. i used it for a meatloaf sandwich to end all meatloaf sandwiched last night; it was terrific but a photo couldn't give that brown mass the respect it deserved. this afternoon when i woke up i had a loaf of great rye bread, i got the recipe down this time. the way i see it, to properly enjoy day old bread it has to be toasted in some form or another. this makes the grilled cheese family of sandwiched a go to idea for day old bread.

this time i decided to tackle the oft forgotten tuna melt. i used two small cans of tuna a tablespoon or so of mayo, a squirt of brown mustard, some relish, a pinch of homemade thai chili relish, and a splash of red vinegar. this is a dryer tuna salad, i don't like a lot of mayo in mine. i slice 8 pieces of bread, i figured two sandwiches a serving, small loaf of bread, and i was feeding joe mellen as well as myself.


i griddle cook the bread with a thin layer of mayo on pan side an a thin slice of white cheddar on top, i cover and cook until the cheese melts and the bread has a good crust

i then remove the bread and top with tuna salad

there you have it, a tuna melt on homemade rye bread. fucking delicious

bragging up my lunch

my father's birthday was this weekend, so i cooked him a huge roast beef dinner. the meal was great, but the best part was the huge chunk of rare roast sirloin left over in my fridge. this sandwich is far from perfect, no tomatoes, plain white bread. even with those flaws this meat makes a pretty sandwich so i thought i'd show it off anyway

notice the brilliant red color on the meat, makes me ravenous just looking at it. once again it tastes better than it looks.

comfort food on a cold night

i was once again put to the task of making a meal from the freezer. in my search i found a bunch of chicken that seemed to have been in the freezer for a long time, my first thought was soup. i simmered all the chicken, 8 drumsticks and 3 quarter chicken legs, with some celery, onion, carrot, and bay leaves in canned broth and water. i shredded the meat off the bones and put the bones back in the broth, i set the meat aside so i wouldn't overcook it. after a few hours i strained the stock, put the chicken and some carrots, celery, and peas in the stock. after simmering for like a half hour more. i then added pasta to soup.

knowing that i was gonna make soup i decided to make another batch of bread, this time i made white bread with a julia child recipe.

this is the dough right before it went in the oven

this is the final product, not quite as tasty as the last batch but still damn good.

at this point i had bread and soup made which is good, but i wanted something a little bit better. so i went for a classic cold weather meal, grilled cheese and chicken noodle soup.

for the sandwiches i used monterrey jack and cheddar cheese with spicy mustard.


there's nothing better on a cold night than a hearty bowl of soup and a good grilled cheese sandwich, now i'm gonna go enjoy my food coma

a little bit of fun on a boring day

everyboy knows that bread makes the sandwich. i'm in the early stages of planning a from scratch reuben sandwich. the first step is a loaf of rye bread. i had found a recipe online (http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/georges_light_rye_bread/) a few weeks ago and i finally got around to trying it.

as you can see the loaves look great, i've never made a loaf of bread outside of baking class.


the flavor is closer wheat bread than rye bread because i didnt have cocoa powder or caraway seed and i added wheat germ because i had it on hand. all in all i'd call it a success

the chicken kabob wrap

it's no secret that i love middle eastern food. i picked up this love working at tony's clam shop on wollaston beach. the kitchen crew had a couple middle eastern guys running it and i surprisingly good middle eastern menu.

last school year this love became stronger due to the chicken kabob wrap with everything from east side pockets in providence. this is my take on one of my favorite sandwiches.

the idea came from having pre-marinated chicken kabobs in the freezer. i added a few sliced boneless chicken breasts to bulk up the batch and added my own marinade.

awww raw chicken, so tasty

the sandwich is only as good as the bread you use, and in this case the proper bread is pita. you could go by pita if you like, it's good. but i decided to make my own.

http://mideastfood.about.com/od/breadsrice/r/pitabreadrecipe.htm


this is the final dough, pre cooking.


ain't that some good lookin bread; so fresh, so clean.

i'm not going to claim that i know what all the condiments east side pockets uses. i decided to try and mimic it to the best of my abilities with what i have available to me. lettuce and tomato are a given, easy. i know there's hummus on it and i know there is a hot sauce on it. those are the sauces i had the stuff to make; i think there may be a lemon sauce and some tabouli but i don't have what i need to make those.

another thing i don't are chick peas, so i chose to use red kidney beans because those are the beans i had. luckily we had enough lemon, garlic, and tahini around to make hummus.

i make really good hummus, i try to be as traditional as possible with it; oddly flavored hummus like chipotle is offensive.

for the hot sauce i went the sriracha mayo route again. this time i did mayo, srirach, sour cream, franks red hot, and ketchup. the flavor is very similar to what i wanted, the color was just a bit off.

i then griddle the chicken kabob meat, and began to construct my sandwich.

that the pita with hummus and hot sauce



on top of the sauce are tomato slices and shredded lettuce


i just ate and i'm starting to get hungry looking at this

then you wrap it up like a big ole spliff and mao down, knowati'msayin'