Reuben Sandwiches

A reader commented to me recently and I quote .....

"Miss CCC, you are amazing.  Thanks to you I have learned to feed my family food they love.....I can go to your blog, plan for the next week and do my shop.  It's changing my life, making me more organised, and they actually like my cooking - unheard of."

To me this is like music to my ears!  The reason I bring this quote to your attention is not to gloat - but it does make me question my reasoning behind why I don't post all of the dishes that I make?  Why do I feel compelled to only blog about meals that I tend to think of as "recipe book food" and not the humble stuff that is more often than not, what we eat?  Why do I think that the food that I have to whip up on a busy sport night is not what would actually benefit all those other busy mums out there?

I am going to take a bit of a rethink here and actually let you know about a lot more of the meals that we consume here on a regular basis.  I put my hand up and admit that sometimes I take the easy way out.  Some nights we are running around for many hours before we finally all get home.

So let me give you a real glimpse into our lives.....

Friday night we had rugby until around 7:30.  When we arrived home it was cold and dark - and they were all hungry.  I had asked before we left what we should do about dinner - had several contingencies in mind - but I was told "don't worry about food...you are always thinking about food!!"  Now, though reality had hit the fan and I was faced with - we want pizza for dinner!!!  I had to turn around and make pizza dough - thank god for the thermomix - making pizza dough is really only about 2 minutes of kneading - the rest proving.  I have a tendancy to keep all those little tidbits of leftover meals in ziploc bags in the freezer - you know that last couple of meatballs - the last couple of sausages..... so I thankfully I was able to rustle up a "meatlovers" pizza in no time at all.  A little foresight meant that I had also picked up some lovely prawns at the fish market - and a prawn, basil and tomato pizza was also on the menu.

Saturday we had the Blue Eye Cod with Kaffir Lime and Chilli Pilaf.  "The Darlings" of course did not have this (they had actually filled themselves up after rugby - yes, another game!!) - but for them I prepared Teriyaki Basa and plain boiled rice.

Sunday - I had that in the bag! I wanted to Make Reuben Sandwiches.  Have you ever had a Reuben???  A good Reuben is a glorious thing.  Now while I do not profess to have made the perfect sandwich - it certainly filled their bellies!

So what does a Rueben involve?  Well there are a couple of schools of thinking here - you can make it with Pastrami - or you can use corned beef.  I chose the latter - and simmered a piece of corned beef in the crock pot all day.  As for the other elements...... there are those that say a "thousand island dressing" is the condiment of choice - while others say that a "Russian Dressing" - with horseradish is the way to go.  I had been perusing Pam's menu the other day and decided to make thousand island type spread she prepared.

Reuben Sandwich

Rye Bread
Corned Beef
Sauerkraut
Swiss Cheese
1 tbs mayonnaise
2 tsp pickle relish
2 tbs tomato sauce (ketchup)

Combine mayonnaise, tomato sauce and pickle relish in a small bowl.

Spread the rye bread with the "dressing"  add slices of corned beef, swiss cheese, and sauerkraut.  Season with salt and pepper.  Either pan fry in a dry frypan, or in a sandwich toaster until bread is toasted.

Serve with fries.

There you have it Dear Readers - not everything that we eat here ends up on the blog.  This was a  simple, tasty meal - that really anyone can produce.

What do I look for each week when I start to plan my menus?  I look for inspiration!  I think I will now try to share with you the plain, simple (and more often than not un-photogenic) meals that we actually eat.  If they can help inspire, or make life easier for someone, then this blog has been successful.

Dear Readers please share with me your thoughts and ideas of ways that I can help you too.

Corned Beef with mash and mustard sauce

Now that the weather is cooling down, and the days seem so much shorter, making your meal in the slow cooker is a great option.  Simply place it all in the crock pot - turn it on and forget about it until dinner time.

One of our all time favourites is corned beef.  Most times (unfortunately) there are never any leftovers - such the favourite it is.

It's a cold day here today - and this is the perfect warm you up meal for those cold winter nights!

Corned Beef
Cooked the way my Mum does it - well kind of - she doesn't use the crock pot - she cooks it on the stove

1 piece of corned beef
1 carrot, cut into large chunks
1 onion, quartered
1 tbs brown sugar
2 tbs white vinegar
2 whole cloves

Place the carrot, onion, brown sugar, cloves and white vinegar in the crock pot bowl.

Wash your piece of corned beef well, under running water.  I also like to remove as much of the fat as I can. Place on top of the vegies.  Cover with water.  Put the lid on the crock pot and allow to cook on low for 8-10 hours.

Serve with mashed potato, vegies of choice, and we like to top it with a mustard sauce.

I know I blab on and on about the thermomix, but one of the great things it does is make mashed potato.  It is so smooth and creamy.

Mashed Potato
Thermomix EDC Cookbook


1kg potatoes, peeled and chopped into 2cm cubes
250g milk
salt to taste
30g butter

Place the milk, salt and potatoes into the TM bowl.

Cook for 20 minutes at 100 degrees on speed 1.

Insert the butterfly.  Add the butter and mash for 20 seconds on speed 3.

Place in the Thermoserve (that has been preheated with boiling water while you are cooking the potatoes) to keep warm while you prepare the sauce.

One of the other great things the Thermomix does, I have now learn,t is making bechamel sauce - wow - no standing and stirring to avoid lumps - simply bung it all in the TM bowl and turn it on!!!

Mustard Sauce
Adapted from Thermomix EDC cookbook

500g milk
50g flour
50g butter
1 tbs american mustard
salt and pepper to taste

Place the milk, flour, and butter into the TM bowl.  Cook for 7 minutes at 90 degrees on speed 4.  Add the mustard.  Mix for 3 seconds on speed 4.  Season to taste - you may like to add a little sugar to sweeten if you like - depends on personal taste.  If you are not serving children you may also choose to make the mustard sauce using powdered mustard, if I do it this way I add a little stock concentrate to flavour up the sauce.

There you have a wonderful winter warmer the whole family will love.  The kids love it because the meat is so soft - the adults love it because it is pure comfort food at it's best.

What is your ultimate comfort food Dear Reader - please share!

Corned Beef Hash

Leftovers??


IF, and I do mean IF you have leftovers from your corned beef, what can you do with them???  Very rarely do we have leftovers in this house, those lovely pink morsels just seem to get "picked" at until...... hey, where did it all go?  Well, somehow we did have some leftovers, and they managed to survive the day in the fridge.  So what shall I make with them??  I could make a Rueben sandwich - corned beef, with swiss cheese, sauerkraut, and mustard on rye bread, or I could make Corned Beef Hash!!

Tonight faced with only 2 for dinner I decided to give Corned Beef Hash a go.  This is a meal that often features on American menus as a breakfast food, but who says it can't be a dinner food?  It has the two basic elements of a dinner - potato and meat, and with some added extras I think it fits the "easy dinner" criteria very well.

To make enough for 2 this is what I did.


Corned Beef Hash


3 medium sized new potatoes (with skin left on) - cubed
leftover corned beef, around 4 slices
1 small onion, diced
1/4 of red capsicum cut into small pieces
1 dessertspoon wholegrain honey mustard (to taste)
freshly ground black pepper


Placed the cubed potatoes into a saucepan and cover with water, add a small amount of salt.  Bring to the boil and boil for 5 minutes. Drain really well in a colander.

In a frypan heat a small amount of olive oil and fry the onions until they start to soften.  Once they are softened, add the capsicum, cooking over high heat, stirring constantly.  Next add the cubed corned beef, and once that is starting to crisp up, add a small knob of butter.  When the butter has melted add the potato cubes.  Stir constantly over high heat, for a good 5 minutes, or until the potatoes are lovely and golden.  You will get some "sticking" to the pan - just scrape this up - this  adds to the wonderful crispy texture.  Add the mustard and pepper, and salt, if needed.

To serve you can top with a lightly poached egg - this gives it a "sauce" as you break open that beautiful gooey yellow centre.  You can also garnish with cherry tomatoes and steamed asparagus, to help get that veggie count up!  It doesn't seem so much like leftovers now does it??

So tell me Dear Readers do you have a "leftovers meal" you would like to share with us??

Old Fashioned Corned Beef

Fondest Childhood Food Memory

One of the first food challenges on MasterChef was to recreate a dish that conjured up the fondest childhood food memory.  After the challenge my mum asked me what I would have made?  I had to ponder on this and at first I couldn't think what I would have made.  A couple of dishes then came to mind - one was what we now endearingly refer to as "Spaghetti and Chicken" and the other dish was a good old fashioned comfort dish - corned beef, mashed potato, peas and mustard sauce!!!  Bet you can conjure up this in your own food memories can't you?


There are many ways to cook this dish - some cook it in a pressure cooker, some boil it in a saucepan.  I cook mine in a crock pot!!  I also have come to realise that there are many accompaniments to the good old corned beef.  Cabbage, Colcannon, boiled potatoes.... the list goes on.   Here is the recipe for my "Fondest Childhood Food Memory". (FCFM)

1- 2 kg piece of corned beef
2 carrots, diced into 3 large pieces each
1 onion, quartered
6 whole cloves
1/4 cup white vinegar
1 tbs brown sugar

Into the crock pot place the carrots, onion, corned beef, cloves, brown sugar, and vinegar.  Cover with water.  Put the lid on the crock pot - put it on low.  Walk out the door - have fun, go to work..... and come back 6-8 hours later to the wonderful aromas, and a cooked piece of corned beef.

Now to serve my "FCFM" you must have mashed potatoes (and I know you all know how to make that so I won't bore you with the "how to").  Peas and carrots are our usual accompaniment.  Then there is the all important mustard sauce.  Now there are as many variations on this are there are families that eat this dish.  Some make a white parsley sauce, others a tangy mustard sauce, but  "the darlings" they like a sweet mustard sauce. Last night, as they were at camp, and I was trying to make a sauce that didn't use flour as a base I did it a little differently.

Into a saucepan I put one small chopped onion, covered this with approximately 1 1/2 cups of milk and gently simmered it for 5-10 minutes to impart the onion flavour to the milk.  I then strained this and added to the milk, chicken stock powder, mustard powder, ground pepper and a squeeze of honey mustard (just to give it a little sweet tang.  I thickened it with cornflour that had been mixed with a little milk.  Now as I have said, this is a very "personal taste" sauce - so you must add whatever component gives it the flavour that you like.

There you have it my "FCFM".

Dear Readers there is nothing better than coming home on a cold night to the smell of corned beef wafting through your house.  Tell me what smells do you love to come home to on a cold winter night?