no my wishes were for you to offer this up so I can order five bowls of this rice.
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More uses for my hoshigaki. This time Korean style Gotgamssam with toasted pecans. Have to say it’s a perfect mignardise for a Michelin star restaurant 
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It’s Orthodox Lent so no meat, fish or dairy for me for quite some time. Usually I get tired of it fast, but this year I am enjoying the challenges of cooking within the limits.
First beans and greens tacos;
then cauliflower steaks,
and tonight it was vegan borsch with cashew cream instead of smetana
My cholesterol is always great this time of year…
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That’s amazing!!!
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can you send the online ordering page? these look great and I’d like to order some
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Sorry about your tree. Renovation debris is no joke. We have ficus hedges that began to decline about 3-4 years after our neighbors on the other side of the hedge did some construction … the tree company we hired for remediation tested the soil and said that most likely it was from the construction including the workers washing down the work site and their tools, putting chemicals into the soil which unfortunately have a long life. On a food related note, I’m going to try that gorgeous soup you made!
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Thanks @spicygal. Yeah. 
I also think the roots were smothered by too much dirt when they planted the African daisies. Weird thing is the African daisies are blooming like crazy now that the dead lemon tree has been removed. Maybe a coincidence. 
Good tip about soil testing. I’ll have that done before putting in another tree. Sorry to hear about your ficus!
Back to cooking. Here’s the soup recipe.
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Here’s my Pastrami based on chuck cured for a week smoked for 3 hours then sous vide for 24 hours. Sandwich based on the one from Frenchies in Paris
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Man, you do good sandwich! And meat, apparently!
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Nice looking pastrami. I thought that those 2 steps would normally be reversed. Sous vide first then smoke. Does this process still retain any bark on the outside - was there even any bark to begin with such a small amount of time smoked?
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I got good smoke flavor and tender meat, great flavor from the spice layer wasn’t really trying for bark to be honest. Plus it was just easier to do it that way, I could only really watch it smoking for 3 hours before sealing it, putting it in the water bath and heading out to work.
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So when are we all coming over to your place? 
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Nice! Can I ask what temp you sous vided at?
We also started doing pastrami (instead of corned beef) last year and we’re still working out a couple kinks/preferences but this year we did:
- Week long cure using the Serious Eats corned beef mix with less allspice and powdered ginger
- Soak overnight
- Sous vide at 154F for 24 hours
- Apply the Meathead Goldwyn pastrami rub (from the book, not from Amazing Ribs, which has a different recipe for some reason)
- Smoke for 4 hours at 225F, hold in half hotel pan inside soft cooler
- Serve from chafing dish to keep it pliable
@js76wisco We do the sous vide followed by smoke because the process is a little simpler for us and for the bark. It does have more/harder bark as you mentioned but to be honest, it’s almost a little too much bark…? That is, it’s good but skews a little more towards BBQ than pastrami. We like it and it’s not really one or the other, anyway, so we go with what we like. However, given pastrami is traditionally smoked and then steamed the result seems a little closer to the real thing when you smoke and sous vide than the reverse.
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I actually used The Gregory Marchand recipe I found in French along with the coleslaw and other parts I found. He actually cures for 2 weeks which seemed excessive looking at the numbers it seemed fine to shorten it so I did. The brine was fantastic -super aromatic as was the pastrami spice rub. I used spices from the Reluctant Trader where I could (ordered some smoked peppercorns to add in but they didn’t come in time)
Really I wanted to use boneless short ribs but couldn’t find any so I did just under 5lbs of the squared off chuck from Whole Foods.
In any case the sandwich with Savora mustard, red cabbage and beet slaw, home made Russian dressing (including recipe for the relish lol) was delicious.
I would definitely try to get short rib or beef cheek next time I went 140 and if I plan it out better I’ll go 48 next time. I believe that he smokes for 6 and sous vides for 6hrs all at 85c/185f on brisket.
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Where’s that OMIGOD button!!!
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Thank you!
@WireMonkey thanks for your steps. I guess pastrami don’t need bark and most delis last step before serving is steaming. The last time I had pastrami was a brisket pastrami type thing at Heritage BBQ so my mind was thinking elsewhere.
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