Don't want to read? Click here to see the result
The Beginning
It all began a week ago when the Google Nexus twitter feed (@googlenexus) announced challenge #2: "Challenge 2: Make something geeky & edible." I knew that in order to even have a chance at winning the challenge I had to do something completely different- the week before I'd been talking about making ice cream, and seeing that the new version of Android is Ice Cream Sandwich I knew that I had to make one.
Of course, I knew that everyone would make an Ice Cream Sandwich- so I needed to be unique- I decided on a savory ice cream sandwich. But what? Well, we all know that Andy Rubin was the co-founder of android so the decision was easy- I would make an Ice cream "Ruben" sandwich.
 |
| Raw Beef Ready for cure |
Stage One- Pastrami
I had never made pastrami but I figured that it couldn't be that difficult. I got a piece of beautiful beef from our local grass fed beef farmer (If you're in Victoria I encourage you to look into his products here).
 |
| Beef In Cure |
I placed the beef into a simple brine of salt, peppercorns, bay leaves, cumin and a little sugar. The beef was cut in half and placed in the cure for 5 days.
 |
| Cured Beef after five days |
After 5 days, I removed, and dried excess moisture from the beef- the colour and texture had changed appreciably. Next I rolled the beef in a spice mix of pepper and cumin and placed in cold smoke for 8 hours.
 |
| Seasoned and ready to be smoked |
I smoked the beef for 8 hours using apple wood.
With cold smoking it is important to keep the temperature down- fortunately for the beef (not for me) it spent most of yesterday pouring with rain so the internal temperature stayed very low, I just got wet.
 |
| Smoking In action |
I use the A-maze-n cold smoker in my weber kettle- it smokes for up to 12 hours and requires very little attention.
Once smoked, I needed to steam the pastrami- I decided to steam it over chicken stock I'm sure it made the end product taste better.
 |
| Stock |
 |
| Smoked almost pastrami in the Steamer |
Since I was making soup for dinner I already had some stock so it was easy to add another chicken frame and a couple more onions.
The beef then steamed for 4 hours- ending up with pastrami!
Unfortunately it was close to 2am so I forgot to take a completed photo- I took one today though!
 |
| The Completed and delicious pastrami. |
 |
| Ice Cream mixture warming on top of a boiler |
Stage Two- Ice Cream and Bread
It was sad to do, but next I blended the pastrami with cream, egg yolks and milk (I needed the milk to loosen it all up a little)
I then cooked the mixture over some boiling water to thicken. I then chilled the mixture and placed in the ice cream machine!
 |
| Bread Dough |
I quickly put together some light rye bread dough ( flour, salt, yeast water). and left that to double in size.
Next I kneaded and turned out onto a lined tray, making sure it was nice and thin on the tray!
 |
| Bread Turned out onto oven tray |
I waited until the bread had risen again, brushed with egg and then put in the oven for 20 minutes until amazing looking!
 |
| The Finished Bread |
I had to hold my girlfriend back from eating the entire thing.
 |
| Pastrami ice cream ready to harden |
At this point the ice cream was churned and ready to be put in the freezer (it doesn't look too good I know, but it is delicious!
Stage 3- Assembly
Next up was the assembly- apologies for shoddy video- I basically sliced ice cream, flattened bread, added sauerkraut, and seasoned with mustard (I just realized I FORGOT THE CHEESE!)
I then ate it- DELICIOUS!
 |
| The finished product Me eating the sandwich! |
