Well as I indicated in my last post, I have this last little recipe to use up the rest of the corned beef from last week.  This can be as simple or as complex as you’d care to make it.  The Reuben is one of Tara’s favorite sandwiches so I decided to go all out.  I made a loaf of seeded rye, made Thousand Island dressing using homemade mayonnaise and homemade spicy ketchup with harissa, homemade sauerkraut, and we used gruyere cheese.  If you want to go to some or all of those lengths to tackle this classic sandwich, I can assure you that it definitely tasted great.  The good news is that you don’t really have to in order to produce a good quality Reuben using your own corned beef.  Recipes for homemade ketchup are readily available on-line and each one has slight differences in flavor, heat, and sweetness.  So, look around and see if you can find one that suits your taste.  The sauerkraut that I made came from the Kitchn.com and involved only cabbage, salt, and time…super easy and super good, though your arms will get a workout when you massage the water out of the cabbage for 10-15 minutes.  Otherwise, that’s all it takes.

If you don’t want to make your own bread (something I find really rewarding), try to find the best quality seeded rye that you can.  Even if you don’t feel like making your own mayonnaise or ketchup for the Thousand Island dressing, it definitely is worth it to make your own using good quality store bought versions.  As I said, this can be as simple or as complicated as you wish to make it!  And with this, we conclude the corned beef recipes until next year around St. Patrick’s Day 2016!  Recipe follows after the jump…

Ingredients:

2-4 Oz. corned beef per sandwich

1 Loaf seeded rye bread

2 Slices Swiss or gruyere cheese per sandwich

Thousand Island dressing

Sauerkraut

For the Thousand Island dressing:

½ Cup mayonnaise

1/3 Cup ketchup

1 Hard boiled egg, chopped finely

3 Sweet pickles, chopped finely

2-3 Tablespoons chopped onion

1 Clove of garlic, finely chopped

Salt and Pepper

Instructions:

Make the Thousand Island dressing:

• Combine all ingredients and mix well. Salt and pepper to taste.  Seal in an air tight container and allow to sit in the refrigerator for at least four hours.  Can be made ahead and will last about 2 days in refrigerator.  Allowing the dressing to rest allows the individual components to combine together to improve flavor and texture.

Make the sandwich:

• Heat the oven to 300 degrees.
• Place large skillet over medium heat for five minutes or so.
• In the meantime, assemble the sandwich with dressing on both sides of the bread, then the corned beef, the sauerkraut, and finally the cheese. Place a bit of butter in the pan and reduce heat to low.  Place the sandwich in the pan.
• Heat the sandwich on low heat until both sides are nicely browned and toasty. Remove the sandwich from the pan and place it on a baking sheet and then place baking sheet in the oven.
• Continue making the sandwiches, placing each in the oven to finish.

The sandwiches are ready when they are toasted nicely on both sides and the cheese has melted.  Serve immediately while hot.  Enjoy!