Every year around this time (when corned beef is on sale) I smoke me some pastrami. My post St Patricks Day tradition, if you will. This year I smoked two small corned beef briskets. On one I used the traditional spiced rub, the one in the packets that come with the meat, and on the second I used a combination of spicy brown mustard, fresh garlic, red pepper flakes, paprika, salt, and pepper.
While this was smoking I made the dough for two sourdough loaves. This is one of my favorite early spring meals, pastrami on sourdough with horseradish mayonnaise. I've had my sourdough starter going for a couple of months now; I started it up so I could make some sourdough English muffins for our superbowl guests. This time I used a fairly basic recipe.
0.5 cup starter
1 cup whole wheat flour
5 cups unbleached flour
2.5 cups warm water
2 tsp sea salt
1 cup whole wheat flour
5 cups unbleached flour
2.5 cups warm water
2 tsp sea salt
Not included in the ingredients is the 12+ hours it takes for these bad boys to rise. Unfortunately, I was called out to work when I wanted to start them baking, so one loaf fell some. Let this be a lesson, do not do time sensitive recipes while on call for work.
