Reuben Rebel

I finally made Reuben sandwiches.  I looked at a million different recipes and did a little tweaking.

I owe the most to this recipe:

zingermans-reuben-sandwich-recipe.

Zingerman's sounds like the most amazing deli but it is in Michigan, so a bit far to go for a sandwich.

http://www.zingermansdeli.com/

Here is my version...

Ingredients for four sandwiches:

1 loaf of rye bread
12 slices of corned beef or pastrami
Russian dressing, recipe follows
sauerkraut
12 slices Swiss cheese
Melted butter or olive oil

Russian Dressing:
4 tablespoons mayonnaise
Hot sauce to taste
2 tablespoons sour cream
2 teaspoons chopped parsley 
1 tablespoon minced onion
1 tablespoon minced dill pickle
Fresh lemon juice,good quality creamed horseradish and Worcestershire sauce to taste.

First make the Russian dressing.  Some recipes I've seen use thousand island dressing which is both gross and wrong.  Basically just mix all the ingredients together and leave to meld, I made mine in the morning and left it all day in the fridge.  It was sublime.

The Zingerman's recipe had you bake your whole rye loaf for fifteen minutes to crisp the crust.  I wouldn't recommend doing this.  I don't know if the rye bread I used wasn't quite right.  It was really tasty (it was from Birds, the only place I could find it in Derby on the day I made these sarnies, Jack Rabbit's had sold out and Baked only do rye on a Saturday,) but it was a total bitch to slice after crisping up in this way. The bread went all kind of holey inside and I was lucky to salvage four slices.  I don't see the point when you are frying the sandwich in its entirety, which crisps everything up nicely anyway.

Sooo, warm up your oven to around gas mark 4. Pop your pastrami in some foil, sprinkle with water, wrap it tightly and place it in the oven, leave for about 15 minutes.

Slice your rye loaf (I sliced mine lengthways, which is quite greedy).

Plaster a slice of bread with Russian dressing.  Top with a layer of hot meat, sauerkraut and a couple of slices of cheese. Top with another slice of bread, also spread with Russian dressing.

Brush the outside of your sandwich with melted butter or olive oil.  Place in a hot frying pan, cover with a lid and weigh down with something heavy (i used the mortar part of my pestle and mortar, turned upside down, perfect.)  When it smells done, turn it over and do the other side.

Scoff half a sandwich with fries (and leftover Russian dressing to dip them in).

Go to a gig, drink four pints of cider.  Come home and eat the rest of the sandwich whilst watching and slagging off Florence and the Machine at Glastonbury.  Go to bed.

Darleys

Here is a review of Darleys that I wrote a couple of months ago and did not publish at the time...

Perched right on the river Derwent in the village of Darley Abbey, Darleys is clearly the place to come for a special occasion meal.  There were all kinds of celebrations taking place during the lively Saturday afternoon we visited, from a 60^th birthday to a demure hen do.

Upon arrival, friendly staff ushered us to the bar for an aperitif.  We sipped a sparkling Chilean white and first impressions of the dated maroon décor were immediately forgotten as we guzzled the complimentary home-made crisps (baked fresh each morning) and unctuous olives we were presented with.

Having chosen from the reasonably priced set lunch menu, we were settled at a table and our starters arrived quickly.  Ham hock, locally sourced and perfectly seasoned, came with satisfyingly stodgy yellow corn bread and an abundant Dijon mustard foam.  Nori wrapped salmon with a ginger and soy dip was enlivened by a decadent strip of crispy salmon skin.

Mains were a classic free range chicken dinner and a richly flavoured daube of slow cooked Derbyshire beef, served with thyme dumplings and a bacon sauce.  The intriguing Romanian Pinot Noir we drank complemented both dishes perfectly.

The faultlessly executed food is sadly let down by the restaurant’s interior design, from which no amount of ostentatious crumb sweeping and wine pouring could fully distract us.  Mosaic mirrors, floral curtains with monstrous pelmets and jewelled light fittings vie for attention.  It’s lucky for Darleys that the food and atmosphere more than make up for the disastrous décor.