Great British Food Christmas 2024

For the Russian dressing: 1 tbsp onion, finely diced 1 tbsp dill pickle/gherkin, finely diced 170g/¾ cupmayonnaise 60g/¼ cup sour cream (or usemore mayo) 2½ tbsp sriracha, spicy ketchup or chilli sauce (or use 4 tbsp ketchup + 2 tsp Tabasco) 3 tsp horseradish sauce, or to taste 1 tspWorcestershire sauce ¼ tsp sweet paprika 1. Make the Russian dressing by mixing together all the ingredients until combined. Chill in the fridge for at least 20 minutes. The dressing will keep for up to 2 weeks in the fridge. 2. Thinly slice the pastrami. If it has just come out of the smoker and it’s hot, there’s never a better time to eat it. But if not, you can reheat on a griddle or in a microwave. Place a frying pan or a griddle over a medium heat. 3. To assemble a sandwich, take 2 slices of bread. Butter one side of each slice (this becomes the outsides of your sandwich when it’s griddled) and spread a teaspoon of dressing on the other side. Place the warm pastrami on top of the dressing, add 2 tablespoons of sauerkraut, then your cheese. Top with the second slice, and press down. So the outsides of your sandwich should be buttered. 4. Place the sandwich in the hot frying pan or griddle. Slowly brown the sandwich on each side until crispy and warm through. Cut in half, and serve with dill pickles or gherkins. Brilliant bacon bap My favourite way of enjoying cured, smoked pork is: crispy bacon on good sourdoughwith the kids on a Sunday morning. You can always tell when shop-bought bacon has beenwet brined: it’s bland, flabby, and lots of moisture comes out when you cook it. Dry brining bacon at home will give you a far superior product that is simple tomake and tastes better. Pork belly is ideal for making streaky bacon and is the easiest to cure because it has a consistent thickness. Pork loinwill make back bacon, but this is harder to cure because a larger loin can have unevenwidths across themeat. In this recipe, we use maple and juniper to flavour the dry brine, but you could use anything (as long as you use the basic cure ratio: 1kg meat: 250g cure); try thyme and rosemary, chilli and garlic, star anise, or even seaweed! Serves: 3-4 Prepare: 5 days curing time plus ½day smoking time For the bacon: 1kg/2lb 4oz pork loin or belly pork (with orwithout rind) 75g/3oz cure salt/sodiumnitrate 75g/3oz coarse sea salt 6 juniper berries, smashed 40g/1½oz soft light brown sugar 50g/2ozmaple syrup For the bacon baps: 8 rashers cold smoked streaky bacon 2 large flourywhite baps, cut in half Lashings of salted butter Condiment of your choice 1. Place the meat on a board and pat it dry with kitchen paper. Mix together the cure salt/sodium nitrate, coarse sea salt, juniper berries, sugar and maple syrup to make the dry brine, then rub this all over the meat. Transfer the meat to a heavy-duty freezer or ziplock bag with any remaining cure and squeeze out all the air. Place the bag on a tray and refrigerate for 5 days for belly or 6 days for loin (as belly is thinner than loin). Turn the meat daily to ensure an even cure. 2. After curing, remove the meat from the bag, wash off the cure, and pat it dry with kitchen paper. Place the cured meat on a clean tray and leave in the fridge overnight to let the pellicle form. The next day, the flesh should be dry and sticky, ready for smoking (do not put wet meat into cold smoke). Cold smoke the meat for 12–14 hours over oak chippings. 3. To make your bacon baps, grill the bacon until wonderful and crispy on both sides. Meanwhile, spread lots of cold salted butter on both sides of the bap. Place the hot crispy bacon inside and eat it straight away, with a condiment of your choice. I’d highly recommend beetroot ketchup! Excerpt and recipes extracted from Do Smoke: A modern guide to cooking and curing by Jen Goss and Scott Davis, published by Do Books. Photography by Heather Birnie “My favourite way of enjoying cured, smoked pork: crispy bacon on good sourdoughwith the kids on a Sundaymorning” RECI PES | BBQ 39 greatbr i t i shfoodawards.com