South East Asian Lamb Pastróme

So why the heck did I decide to make another pastrami? Of course this is a rhetorical question that can only be answered with one word.... "Quest". I am on a quest to make unique Kosher cured meat. 

Along the journey I came across some interesting ingredients and I decided to use them in a unique manner. Believe me it was not easy. Over a course of three hours and gulping lots of water I think I arrived at a unique cure. The cure is far from being perfect but I thought I'd give it a shot. No one is really going to know how it's going to turn out until we taste the cured cooked hunk of meat. 

These ingredients are not typical for a pastrami so I thought I would talk about them a bit before moving on. 

Hawaiian Black Salt- This salt taste great. There's a hint of sweetness and earthiness and I just love the color. It's mostly used a finishing salt but I thought it would go great in the cure. I have read it tends to bleed a little which I found curious and I thought would work great with cure.

Dark Muscovado Sugar- One of my favorite sugars. The sugar has a molasses flavor and it's better than brown sugar. The molasses is formed naturally and not added like Brown sugar. 

Demerara sugar- This sugar type is cane sugar with fairly large grains and has a pale amber color. It has a pleasant toffee flavor and can be used in place of brown sugar. 

Grains of Paradise- What can I say? I love this stuff and I use it often in place of pepper. It has a peppery taste with hints of citrus.

Chinese Long Pepper- This is a description from serious eats website. The authors description is beautiful. "Its flavor is much more complex than black pepper, reminiscent of spice blends like garam masala more than a single spice. It possesses black pepper's heat and musk, but in a less harsh, more nuanced way, tempered by sweet notes of nutmeg, cinnamon, and cardamom. Its finish lingers on the tongue with a tobacco-like coolness; where black pepper stings, long pepper balms." 

Coriander- How do I love the. It's reminds of a cool winter morning when inhaled. I use this in a lot of my dishes. From Pastrami to sauces. It's commonly used as whole or ground. Roasting or heating in a dry pan heightens the flavor of course. It's used in curries and and garam masala.

Ground ginger- What can I say. It smells fresh and taste great. Comes from the ginger root. This stuff is used as a palate cleanser with sushi, it used in stir fries, desserts, and pastrami's and has many other uses. 

Kaffir Lime Leaves- The leaves have a limey fragrant aroma that is just beautiful. Use primarily in Tai cuisines for soups and curries. 

Dried Galangal- Comes from the ginger family. Used in soups and stews. Very fragrant. 

Ceylon Cinnamon- Hailed as the true cinnamon. Much healthier than the Cassia version. It's much milder (not harsh) than the Cassia version with a hint of vanilla and a warm floral note with hints of honey fruit. It has a deeper cinnamon flavor which is unlike cassia. Cassia can be harsh whereas Cylon has a deep cinnamon flavor that plays well in savory dishes. 

Lime Peel- slightly sweet yet bitter, while aroma is tart and sour. 

This is my spice mill I used to experiment. I must have spent 3 hours testing different ingredients and combination until I got it just right. No to mention all the water I drank to cleanse my palate.  

Pre-measured ingredients nicely laid out in bowls. I like being extremely precise when it comes to measurements and recipes. 

NOTES TO MEASUREMENT & APPLYING INGREDIENTS.  

One technique that is unique to my process is the way I apply the dry-rub and cure. Some people combine the salt/cure, herbs and spices together first then apply to meat. I like to first combine the Salt, cure then apply to meat making sure I get it into every nook and cranny. When you apply everything at once some of the rub is going to run off the meat and you never know how much cure actually got on the meat. It's imperative that the right amount of salt and cure makes its way on to the meat. 

The next step is just as easy. Take the Grains of Paradise, Chinese Long Pepper, Coriander and toast just a bit in a dry fry pan to bring out their natural oils. Take the above ingredients and the Dried Galangal, Kaffir Leaves, Dried lime peel and toss in electric spice and grind. Add all the ingredients together and combine thoroughly with the exception of the salts and cure. 

I started out with American Lamb. I used used this product before and it was amazing (Lamb Pastrami). Prefer this Lamb over the Austrian Lamb. 

Netting removed and opened up. 

I butterflied it open a little which thinned out the walls a little which will ensure cure penetration. I plan on using Transglutaminase to make this whole again. The Lamb Pastrami  I made a few weeks ago underwent a different procedure. The mistake I made was this. I first molded the muscle into a cylinder using Transglutaminase then proceeded with the cure. The cure took a long time to reach center and to be honest I think the very center did not get cured to 100%. This new procedure/technique is superior. Cure first then mold using the TG. It will be evenly cured and molded to perfection.

Salt and Cure thoroughly applied getting it into every nook and cranny. I combined the rest of ingredients doing the same. 

Vacuumed sealed!!!! All residual stuff that fell on plate was placed in bag too. Nothing went to waste. Will be flipped every day in the refrigerator for 21 days. 

After a thorough rinse this is what it looks like after 21 days. 

Very difficult to do but I found a way to put it back together using of course Transglutaminase (RM).

Getting ready roll it up in a tight cylinder using professional 24 inch plastic wrap.

All rolled up!! The Transglutaminase RM will need 24 hours to set up. Afterwards the Lamb will be double vacuumed sealed then Sous-Vide for 9 hours at 131 f degrees. 




After the elapsed time the Lamb will be Ice-Shocked then refrigerated overnight.

Here is a picture of the lamb after 24 hours of refrigeration.









All Pastrami's need a rub. 

Roasted at 190 degrees (no smoke) until an internal temp of 131 degrees was reached. At rest it climbed to 134 degrees.

Review- Outstanding!!!! All the flavors came through. However I will reduce the salt back just a tad. Wife loved it but I thought it could have used a little less. 

The question now is how should one eat this marvelous Lamb. If it was me I would make Pickled Veggies. I would layer the lamb in crunchy bread along with an aioli and the pickled veggies with some cilantro.  

Take some Daikon Radishes and julienne along with Carrots, Seedless Cucumber, Red Onions and a colored Bell Pepper if you want. Blanch veggies first and set aside. Bring your favorite Vinegar, some water, and olive oil to a boil and toss over veggies. I like White wine Vinegar or Champagne Vinegar. You can customize the flavors to match your dish. In the jar containing the veggies toss in your favorite stuff. I.E Bay Leaf, all and any herbs, Asian spices and herbs to match this dish, Peppercorns, Star Anise, Cardamom Pods, Ginger, Orange peel, Lemongrass and sugar or honey to taste. 

   

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Shefele "פּאַסטראָמע" Pastróme

Shefele "פּאַסטראָמע" Pastróme

Lamb Pastrami with a touch of Yiddish flare. Why? Why not I say!!! I have made Beef, Turkey and Duck Pastrami so why not try Lamb and see what happens. I have a killer recipe that must stretch its wings. Besides I love lamb. BTW-Shefele is Lamb in Yiddish. 

Let's begin the journey by saying I have been wanting to make Lamb Pastrami for quite some time but sourcing American Lamb is hard and I am very picky. I went to Ray's Meat Market in Gig Harbor and purchased the perfect boneless Leg of Lamb. I looked at about a half a dozen until I found the right one. I wanted the leg to be big but have the right shape. My buddy Mike works there and he was nice enough to bring them all out for me to pick from.  

Unpacking the Lamb and evaluating how I wanted to proceed. Yes every step is important. 

Ok....all unpacked. This is the step where I decide how I am going to reconstruct the Lamb into a Pastrami. I looked at every opening and decided on a course of action. I planned on using Transglutaminase to bind the meat. I wish my daughter was home to assist with the camera. I was not able to take pictures and apply TG and wrap in plastic.

So I applied the TG to every opening, nook, cranny, and to every knife mark. I wanted all the proteins be bind and be seamless. I used probably 6 feet of plastic wrap to ensure the the shape of the lamb. I used rope and several tying techniques to secure lamb. 

Vacuumed sealed up to ensure shape and help bind the proteins. It will take a minimum of 24 hours for the proteins to bind. 

A thing of beauty. I waited about 30 hours before unveiling.

Perfect!!!!

As always I took the whole spices herbs,(Bay Leaf, Grains of Paradise, Coriander,Juniper berries, Whole cloves and mustard seeds) and placed them in a dry pan and applied a little heat to them to bring out their oils. Ground in a spice grinder. NOTE: Picture is not from this recipe. 

Click Here for Recipe & Click Here For Dry-Cure-Notes

One technique that is unique to my process is the way I apply the dry-rub and cure. Some people combine the salt/cure, herbs and spices together first then apply to meat. I like to first combine the Salt, cure then apply to meat making sure I get it into every nook and cranny. When you apply everything at once some of the rub is going to run off the meat and you never know how much cure actually got on the meat. It's imperative that the right amount of salt and cure makes its way on to the meat. 

Now the simple part. Combine the rest of the ingredients and pack them on to the meat. There will excess rub that will fall to the side but don't worry about this. Make sure to coat every inch of the piece of meat. No rub will go to waste because the excess rub will be tossed in bag.

Carefully place your meat into a vacuum seal bag making sure not to scrape off too much rub. Make sure all salt and rub gets into that bag. Refrigerate and flip every day for 21 days. If this was a smaller piece of meat it would only need about 14 days. I am using a precise equilibrium cure so I am not worried about over curing because that can't happen. 

Meat is all cure now and ready for the next step. I actually cured the lamb for 25 days instead of 21. I think it's important to point out that I was right on the cusp of having to inject the cure but only time will tell if I was right or not. It's girth is somewhat big and I wanted to make sure the salt and cure made its way into the center. 

Rub applied and ready for smoke. I spray a little canola oil on the lamb to help the rub adhere. 

In my smoker and will cold-smoke for 9 hours using A-Maze-N cold-smoker. Note: outside temp was only about 60 f and by night time it had fallen to about 47˚ƒ. 

COLD SMOKED FOR 9 HOURS

Next step will be a double vacuum bag seal. The Lamb will be Sous-Vide at 131˚ƒ for 12 hours. note: important part!!! After the long thermal bath I will shock the lamb in an Ice-Water bath, refrigerate overnight. The following day or there abouts I wll hot smoke the Lamb. 

This beautiful lamb was Sous-Vide for 12 hours at 131˚ƒ. Came out perfect. I am coating coarse ground black pepper for the next step. 

Hot smoked between 180-205˚ƒ until an internal temp of 142˚ƒ is reached. 

The review following gratuitous pictures. 

 

Review- It came out great as expected. I used a lot of my other recipes to extrapolate a perfect recipe. It cured actually 25 days instead of 21. It was on the thick side and was concerned about cure reaching the center. Any thicker I would have injected the cure at 200 ppm than dry-cured for 21 days. The 131˚ƒ was perfect!! I will say having a professional Berkel slicer really helps. Slicing this by hand and getting this thin slices is the key to a perfect lamb pastrami. If you don't have a slicer you may need to cook it at higher temp or a little longer to get if softer to slice.  

Note: things to consider. Cure the lamb in this stage which will help the cure penetrate the center.  After cured apply TG and wrap up. 

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