Oh, my … as I type these favorite sandwich recipes my appetite alarm is sounding!
I learned about this sandwich from ordering it at a Jewish delicatessen and restaurant named Gamiel’s® in Wilmington DE in the early 1970’s. Actually, I learned a whole lot about Jewish foods in general, eating there many times. No doubt as I remember specific food items I will include the recipes in this book.
I used to make this sandwich for my best friend, Morrie Shaffer, when he would come to visit. He loved it.
The flavor combinations in this sandwich make it very popular. It is served hot with a side of kosher dill pickle and potato chips. The cured meat taste of the pastrami, grilled and piled high, is delicious. Add plenty of melted Swiss cheese on top of the hot pastrami and the two flavors are like the perfect marriage, intense and contrasting and clearly a "natural" combination.
The products that take this sandwich to the perfection level are very fresh seeded rye bread, grilled on one side with butter, and strongly flavored brown deli mustard. The pickle is a texture and taste contrast with a bit of crunchy moisture, albeit salty, and a strong garlic overtone. The potato chips might be considered a quiet food used to cleanse your palate for the next bite of sandwich.
You definitely want to make this sandwich as it is easy to make and most yummy! I recommend either cold beer or a soda as an appropriate beverage.
If you want to take the sandwich to a new, very high level ... make the pastrami and make the rye bread. Both recipes are in Food Nirvana.
Ingredients:
¼ lb. or more of top quality pastrami (not the cheap stuff ... or check out the Food Nirvana recipe for making Brine Cured Smoked Pastrami)
2 large slices of fresh seeded rye bread (check out the Food Nirvana recipe for making ... Ray's Rye Bread)
3 sandwich size slices of Swiss cheese
2 to 4 tbsp. of a Brown Deli Mustard
1 medium to large deli style kosher dill pickle (often sold from plastic tubs)
1 oz. of Potato chips
1 or 2 tbsp. of soybean oil (optional ... not needed if you've made the pastrami)
2 pats of butter
Directions:
Butter the slices of rye bread on one side and grill them to a light golden color in a skillet over medium heat. Remove them from the skillet and generously slather Brown Deli Mustard on the soft inside sides of the grilled rye bread. Set these aside on a paper plate.
Grill the pastrami on a medium hot grill or in a non-stick skillet after heating the soybean oil and spreading it over the grill or skillet surface. Store bought pastrami will shrink in size as it grills and loses moisture. This is to be expected and the pastrami is not done until it has shrunken.
Alternatively, if you make the pastrami it won't shrink, plus you simply warm it in the microwave oven with Swiss cheese on top!
Put the pastrami on a paper plate, formed into the shape and size of the rye bread, then put the Swiss cheese on top and heat it in the microwave oven just long enough to warm the pastrami and melt the cheese ... about one minute.
Put the pastrami and cheese between the slices of the grilled rye bread and cut the sandwich diagonally with a sharp knife. Heat the cut sandwich in the microwave oven for 30 seconds. Serve the sandwich on the paper plate with a bowl or bottle of some extra Brown Deli Style Mustard and the kosher dill pickle and the potato chips.
Serve the cold beer.
Expect applause.