Toasty Reubens

Tonight I am making Reubens. This tasty sandwich combines some of my favorite things... Cured Meat, Sauerkraut and Cheese.

Ingredients:

Lean Corned Beef (from the deli section of the grocery store or home cooked, see notes on how to cook corned beef at home)

Sauerkraut (I prefer Franks)

Swiss Cheese

Thousand Island Dressing

Rye Bread (I used whole wheat because this is what I had at home, the other day I made my hubby a reuben on a pretzel roll and he swore it was the best sandwich ever)

Butter

Lets get started:

Start by melting 2 tsp butter in a saute pan. Place bread in pan and toast till golden brown (the exact same way you would make a grilled cheese). When one side of bread is GBD (Golden Brown and Delicious) remove bread from pan, place 1 slice of bread toasted side down on a sheet pan, set the other slice of bread aside for now. Smear a layer of thousand island dressing or mustard on both slices of bread.

Now add 1 tsp butter to pan (no need to change pans or even clean it at this point) Add thinly sliced corned beef. Cook over medium heat until it starts to brown and is fully heated. Once your beef is browned on both sides, remove from pan and layer on bread that is on the sheet pan.

Add sauerkraut to hot pan. This will do 2 things. 1) heat sauerkraut 2) get flavor from all those tasty brown bits on the pan that the beef left behind (Chefs call the brown bits "Fond"). Top beef with hot sauerkraut and 2 slices of swiss cheese.

Place assembled sandwich under your broiler turned on high. NEVER LEAVE YOUR OVEN WHILE BROILING. IT GOES FROM 0-60 VERY FAST! Once your cheese is all melty and gooey, remove sandwich form oven and top with reserved slice of toasted bread.

Cut in half and enjoy!

Notes:

I like to buy the uncooked corned beef (the kind that is florescent pink and in a bag). To cook it simply remove it from bag, rinse to remove excess brine, place in a large stock pot, cover with water, add spice pouch that came with the corned beef, simmer for 3-4 hours or until it is tender. As you may know from earlier blogs, I do not own a crock pot but I do not see why you couldn't cook corned beef in one. I buy 2 or 3 corned beef when they are on sale and cook them all at once. Then I seal the cooked beef and a little cooking liquid in bags using a fresh saver sealing machine. Freeze it and you have corned beef ready whenever you want it.

This picture is of a whole uncooked corned beef. When they package it they take this exact thing and cut it in half. Now notice how one side is much thinner than the other? Try and find a piece that looks like that. The other thicker side had a huge fat layer that runs right through it. You will end up trimming and throwing away half your corned beef. Where as the other thin side has very little fat and needs almost no trimming.



If you want to make a lower calorie version of this sandwich simply toast your bread in the toaster, substitute lean turkey breast (left overs from a holiday meal or deli sliced), use mustard instead of dressing (or use a low cal dressing), use reduced fat swiss cheese and go topless (no top slice of bread)