Corned Beef Salad

CORNED BEEF SALAD

I just love corned beef made as a  boiled dinner and sandwiches of all kinds.  So of course when Saint Patrick’s Day came around last month I bought three corned beef briskets on sale and froze two of them.

On the weekend I made the traditional corned beef, cabbage, potato and carrot boiled dinner (takes some time to cook, but simple to make- a Dump Cook's dream)  and I enjoy it very much.  Then there were the leftovers:
SANDWICHES OF COURSE. .......BUT: I have come to realize I really do not like “my” leftover corned beef sandwiches.   No matter how I dress up the slced meat with coleslaw, dressing and cheese, it just seems they are fatty (even thou I trim it well and slice it across the grain)  and not as tender as one finds in a good Deli. I think it has to do with how the meat it brinned and then sliced.  They slice it so very paper thin  (only achieved by a machine slicer) and pile it a mile high and use  glorious fresh Rye bread.  Firstly, I dont take the time to brine the meat overnight nor do I have a professional slicer.

So I did not want to waste any of the good meat in a not-so-good sandwich but I really wanted to use the meat.  I remembered back to a ham salad sandwich my sister once made for me and thought why not try this with corned beef?

Out came the blender, a jar of pickles , a crusty baguette of bread and some mayonnaise.  Nothing could be easier.  All things were in my pantry and I was ready to go.  The meat was very flavorful by having cooked in all its pickling spices and the juices of the vegetables the night before., so I thought this was gonna be so easy.

Simply process until a smooth spread

I began mixing it and I tasted the mix, I then decided a squeeze of lemon and some mustard would spice it up, so I added them at the last moment. Yup, it was easy and pretty tasty for a quick fix!

Ingredients:

A good pound of cooked Corned beef sliced (from leftovers of your boiled dinner, dont use deli sliced meat as you can go straight to making a good deli sandwich being it has been brined and sliced thinly))

3 spears dill pickles

¼ cup mayonnaise

½ teaspoon Dijon mustard

Squeezed juice of  a ½  lemon

Half of a baguette of bread sliced in half (open face style) toasted

Mix all but bread in food processor until blended to a creamy texture with slight lumps.  

Spread on toasted bread and serve open face style.

It is not all that pretty and looks a bit sickly by color, but it is just yummy!  After tasting the sandwich I then thought of numerous other ways to add some changes.

TIPS:

Variations :

add chopped ½ onion

add 1 hard boiled egg chopped

Add a splash of hot sauce.

Thousand island or Russian dressing instead of Mayonnaise

Wrap in lettuce leaf instead of on toasted bread

Add Boiled potatoes sliced and plate on lettuce

Capers would be a nice décor added

As always be your own Creative Dump Cook and change this recipe to what YOU have on hand!