What's the best thing you've made lately?

Pork roulades filled with fontina, basil and toasted pine nuts.

Grilled portabello "burgers" w/ garlic/tarragon mayo. My wife said it was so good she wished it would never end. Haven't heard that in a long time

Pastrami, every year around St. Pat's day I make bulk purchases of corned beef briskets. It is always on deal at that time and the stores have large quantities so I have a large selection. I want briskets that have a little fat cover on one side and some marbling. I avoid both overly lean and overly fat briskets. I purchase at least a dozen every year.. I then keep them in my freezer.

When I want to prepare one, or a few, I rinse off the briskets and soak then in water for at least a day. Sometimes as many as 3 days. I change the water every few hours and continue to rinse them. Most of the raw corned beef we see in stores has been frozen. Freezing corned beef as with ham brings out the salt. I want to remove as much salt as possible. After soaking I dry off the briskets and "rub" them. The rub is a combination of black pepper, paprika and any spices that come with them or whatever I desire. I mix the rub in my spice grinder and then using red wine vinegar make a wet paste.

I wrap the rubbed briskets in plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for 1-3 days. I turn them once or twice each day. Then they azre unwrapped and placed fat side down in my smoker. I smoke them for two hours using a combination of nut and fruit woods. The briskets can then be refrigerated and finished later or go directly in a moist oven of 275-300 degrees. The briskets are placed on a lipped cookie sheet, loosely covered with foil. On a lower rack is a cake pan filled with hot water. Every hour or so you may have to pour off the juice from the cookie sheet. They should be baked off at least 4 hours. For a party I take the pastrami briskets and further finish them by steam. You could just steam them and avoid the baking process, however I found the briskets turn out better with some oven time. In the winter during cold (below zero) weather I have done them in my crockpot with liquid smoke.

[Jenise]

Pastrami, every year around St. Pat's day I make bulk purchases of corned beef briskets. It is always on deal at that time and the stores have large quantities so I have a large selection. I want briskets that have a little fat cover on one side and some marbling. I avoid both overly lean and overly fat briskets. I purchase at least a dozen every year.. I then keep them in my freezer.

When I want to prepare one, or a few, I rinse off the briskets and soak then in water for at least a day. Sometimes as many as 3 days. I change the water every few hours and continue to rinse them. Most of the raw corned beef we see in stores has been frozen. Freezing corned beef as with ham brings out the salt. I want to remove as much salt as possible. After soaking I dry off the briskets and "rub" them. The rub is a combination of black pepper, paprika and any spices that come with them or whatever I desire. I mix the rub in my spice grinder and then using red wine vinegar make a wet paste.

I wrap the rubbed briskets in plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for 1-3 days. I turn them once or twice each day. Then they azre unwrapped and placed fat side down in my smoker. I smoke them for two hours using a combination of nut and fruit woods. The briskets can then be refrigerated and finished later or go directly in a moist oven of 275-300 degrees. The briskets are placed on a lipped cookie sheet, loosely covered with foil. On a lower rack is a cake pan filled with hot water. Every hour or so you may have to pour off the juice from the cookie sheet. They should be baked off at least 4 hours. For a party I take the pastrami briskets and further finish them by steam. You could just steam them and avoid the baking process, however I found the briskets turn out better with some oven time. In the winter during cold (below zero) weather I have done them in my crockpot with liquid smoke.

Under your tutelage a few years ago, I discovered just how good this is. Highly reccomended!