Happy St. Patrick’s Day! By the time you are reading this blog, you probably already have your corned beef and cabbage cooking, your green shirt pressed and maybe a pint or two in the fridge. If you are Irish, it is a day to celebrate an amazing cultural history, and if you aren’t Irish, you spend the day pretending that you are!
Given the fact that there are gathering limitations this St. Patrick’s Day there will be one thing a lot of us will have in common... leftover corned beef! If you are making corned beef at home, the standard size corned beef brisket is about 3 pounds and that is about 6-8 servings (here is a recipe from The Chopping Block if you didn’t get it started yet).
For the average American, the first two things you create with leftover corned beef is a good Reuben Sandwich and some Corned Beef Hash... but let’s not be “average.” I tried to think out of the box this past year and was inspired by a book I found in the library called “Will It Waffle” by Daniel Shumski.
Simply stated, this book is a compilation of different dishes you could make in a waffle maker including a vast array of sandwiches. It's a whimsical rediscovery of an appliance that many of us have in our homes but only use for its one intended purpose.
It is really quite simple and almost genius to use the waffle maker like a regular griddle. Essentially a griddle is a flat iron cooking surface that is used to cook food. So what if we omit the flat part of that definition? A waffle maker works the same way and you get the bonus of textural waffle holes! (And what kind of monster doesn’t like waffle holes?)
I started using my waffle maker as an easier, mindless way to griddle with the bonus of it being kind of fun.
With that in mind and thinking about St. Patrick’s Day, I started to experiment with corned beef. To begin, I bought some deli corned beef, thin sliced Swiss, a can of sauerkraut and whipped up some Russian dressing. (And when I say whipped up, I mean that I combined a couple packets of ketchup, a heaping tablespoon of mayonnaise and a giant teaspoon of horseradish.)
My goal was to see if my Reuben would waffle, which it did beautifully. You know what else waffled? My original idea for this blog on the Irish tradition of Reuben sandwiches. Tradition Spoiler Alert: A Reuben is not Irish; it is an American deli favorite.
Waffled Reuben Sandwich
Scroll down for a printable version of this recipe
Serves: 1 sandwich
Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 5 minutes
Rye Bread (You can use large slices or do a little party rye version)
Swiss Cheese, thinly sliced
Russian Dressing (You can sub in Thousand Island if you like a sweeter sauce.)
Corned beef (I used some shaved from the deli.)
Sauerkraut
1. Heat up your waffle maker to the highest setting. Place down one piece of rye bread. (If you are making multiple sandwiches you can build them off of the waffle maker.)
2. Top with one slice of cheese.
3. Spread a little of your Russian Dressing.
4. Top with Corned beef
5. Top with sauerkraut.
6. Top with another piece of cheese.
7. Top with your final piece of bread.
8. Place it in your waffle maker and lower the lid. You don’t want to squish it too much or all your filling comes spilling out. Instead, let it cook a couple of minutes and rotate it…don’t flip it. Note: the picture below shows how it looked before I rotated.
9. In addition, you will notice that I put my “wet” ingredients in the middle. This helps keep your bread from getting soggy.
10. It only took about 5-6 minutes to completely get melty. I also really like the fact that since the waffle maker is nonstick, I didn’t have to butter my bread like I would normally do on the griddle.
This is “average” sandwich sized bread.
And here is a fun “party” rye version with the sauerkraut on the side.
The other innovative waffle maker discovery was Tater Tot Corned Beef Hash. This is the dish you pull out when you are hosting a brunch or trying to use up a bag of tater tots you bought as part of the weird things you need to have in the freezer during a pandemic.
Tater Tot Corned Beef Hash
Serves: 2
15 ounces of thawed out tater tots
1/4 pound of corned beef
1/4 cup of shredded Swiss cheese
1. Heat up your waffle maker.
2. While it is heating up, mix the ingredients in a bowl.
3. Put about half of it on your waffle maker and don’t freak out when you hear the sizzle.
4. This is the most important step: shut the lid and do not peek for at least 4 minutes. It needs some time to get brown. And if for some reason you do decide to lift the lid and half of it sticks, just carefully pull it down with a heat proof spatula and shut the lid again. (You can see in the picture below the lower quadrant where I lifted the cover too early.)
5. Gently lift off the waffle maker when it is all brown and toasty. Mine was cooked in 6-7 minutes.
6. I served mine with a poached egg on top, a little sauerkraut and a generous spoonful of hollandaise. And yes, you can pour a little hollandaise in each little waffle divot!
The wafflization of my meals has really been a novel way to have some extra fun in my kitchen and jazz up my normal Sunday brunch offerings.
But if you are yearning to get out of your own kitchen, The Chopping Block has some fun brunch classes offered in-person at Lincoln Square. Yep, in-person hands on and demo classes are back with the obvious safety precautions in mind. And, of course, virtual offerings are here to stay. Be sure to check out:
In-Person at Lincoln Square:
- Bonjour Brunch Sunday, March 21 11am
- Bloody Mary Brunch Demo Sunday, April 11 11am
- Mother's Day Spring Brunch Sunday, May 9 11am
- New Orleans Brunch on the Grill Demo Sunday, May 23 11am
- Brunch al Fresco: Demo on the Patio Sunday, May 30 11am
Virtual:
- Virtual Weekend Brunch: Eggs Benedict Saturday, April 3 11am CST
- Virtual Sunday Brunch: Crustless Quiche Sunday, April 18 11am CST
Be prepared that until you familiarize yourself with your waffle maker, you may have some missteps but have fun while you do it and remember...
“Wherever you go and whatever you do, may the luck of the Irish be there with you.”
Waffled Reuben Sandwich
Ingredients
- Rye Bread
- Swiss Cheese, thinly sliced
- Russian Dressing (You can sub in Thousand Island if you like a sweeter sauce.)
- Corned beef (I used some shaved from the deli.)
- Sauerkraut
Instructions
- Heat up your waffle maker to the highest setting. Place down one piece of rye bread.
- Top with one slice of cheese.
- Spread a little of your Russian Dressing.
- Top with Corned beef
- Top with sauerkraut.
- Top with another piece of cheese.
- Top with your final piece of bread.
- Place it in your waffle maker and lower the lid. You don’t want to squish it too much or all your filling comes spilling out. Instead, let it cook a couple of minutes and rotate it…don’t flip it.
- In addition, you will notice that I put my “wet” ingredients in the middle. This helps keep your bread from getting soggy.
- It only took about 5-6 minutes to completely get melty. I also really like the fact that since the waffle maker is nonstick, I didn’t have to butter my bread like I would normally do on the griddle.
