One of my favorite guilty pleasures is a reuben. Piled high with corned beef or pastrami and sauerkraut. Slathered with thousand island dressing. Topped with a gooey layer of melted swiss cheese. Heaven on a plate. I also love the reuben's first cousin - the turkey reuben. It's marginally better for me, but the margins are pretty slim! So, when I saw the recipe in The Dish for much lighter open-faced reuben, I thought, "What's the worst that could happen?" The recipe called for a light slaw instead of the sauerkraut and Dijon mustard instead of thousand island dressing. Absolutely worth a try. Instead of the 1/2" thick slices of pastrami called for in the recipe, I used half of a package of thinly sliced pastrami from Trader Joes. And, since my yellow bell pepper was better suited for the compost bin than the cutting board, I omitted it. It's now working on creating some lovely soil for our vegetable gardens next year.
I've got to say that I loved this sandwich. Would it satisfy a craving for a real reuben? Not on your life. But, it is a great sandwich? Absolutely! The slaw was quite good and will be used in other recipes. A make again for sure.
Open-Faced Reuben
Ingredients:
for the slaw:1/2 small head of green cabbage, cored and finely shredded
1 1/2 T kosher salt
2 T sugar
2 T cider vinegar
1/2 t Dijon mustard
1/4 small red bell pepper, thinly sliced
1/4 small yellow bell pepper, thinly sliced
1/2 small red onion, thinly sliced
2 scallions, thinly sliced
2 t poppy seeds
to assemble the sandwich:
1 T Dijon mustard
freshly ground pepper
2 T extra virgin olive oil
4 1/2" thick slices of pastrami
4 slices rye bread
1/4 pound sliced Swiss cheese
Directions:
for the slaw:
Shred the cabbage.
Put in a colander or a small bowl and sprinkle it with the salt and sugar. With your hand, squeeze the cabbage.
You're trying to crush it to release the liquid. By doing this, you'll need less dressing. Really, it works. Let the cabbage sit for about 10 minutes. Squeeze it a couple of times during the 10 minutes. Rinse the cabbage well with cold water and give it one final good squeeze. Toss it with the rest of the slaw ingredients.
Set the slaw aside.
to assemble the sandwich:
Brush the bread slices with one tablespoon of the olive oil. Toast them under the broiler until they're golden. Top them with the pastrami. Brush the pastrami with a combination of one tablespoon of Dijon mustard and one tablespoon olive oil.
Top the pastrami with the Swiss cheese. Broil until the cheese melts.
Top with the slaw and serve.
adapted from Food and Wine
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Last week was a week of revisions to old favorites... After our Sam's club run, we had plenty of goodies in the refrigerator. I got home Friday evening and was surprised to see Connie's car in the garage. Usually he's at a bridge lesson about that time. So, we had a chance for a quick dinner before his bridge game.
Burgers. About as quick as it gets. I took a handful of very lean ground beef and threw it in a bowl with a handful of crumbled blue cheese. Poured a couple of tablespoons of Andria's Steak Sauce over it and mixed it. I'd decided to get some onions sauteed for a couple of other dishes, so a big skillet-full of onions was melting away - and smelling awesome. There was some thick-cut bacon to be used up so I had another skillet of that going. Hmm, good burger toppings. Once the burgers were done, I topped them with some sauteed onions, a couple of slices of bacon and drizzled them with barbecue sauce.
Chicken Elegante Sandwiches. Chicken elegante is normally served over rice. But, I was in the office and didn't have a way to cook rice. Had the leftover chicken from Thursday. So, I took a box of frozen, chopped broccoli and thawed it. Mixed it with half a can of lowfat cream of chicken soup, an equal amount of lowfat sour cream, some ground pepper and a bit of garlic and a sprinkle of dried minced onion (normally the seasoning is thyme but we didnt' have any in the office. Then, I tossed in a handful of crumbled blue cheese. Toasted some bread, schmeared it with a bit of Durkees, put slices of chicken on top of that then topped the chicken with some of the broccoli mixture and some shredded romano cheese and broiled the whole shebang. Turned out we liked the revision as well as the original!
Crab Sandwiches. Our buddies Nancy and Jeff couldn't go out Saturday when Jeff had to work late at the last minute. So, I wanted an ultra quick dinner. Crabmeat salad sandwiches. Just mixed celery, diced waterchestnuts and some lowfat may with crabmeat and served them on toasted bread with a couple of slices of cooked bacon and some melted truffle cheese.
Crabmeat Omelets. For Sunday brunch, I took the leftover crab salad and used it in omelets. Whipped eggs with lowfat sour cream, some tarragon and some shredded mozzarella. Made omelets then topped them with crab salad and some steamed asparagus.
