Pastrami & cream cheese sandwich

For ➊ sandwich
2 slices of bread, white or wholemeal
100 g cream cheese
a few salad leaves or gherkin slices
4 pastrami slices

Spread the cream cheese evenly on the 2 bread slices.

Place the lettuce leaves on one slice of bread.

Add the pastrami on top and close the sandwich by placing the other slice on top.

*Add gherkin and mustard at the last moment for a version closer to the American classic.

Pastrami came to the US with immigrants from Romania. The name was coined to sound like 'salami' in New York City in 1887 by Jewish butcher Reb Sussman after he was given the recipe by a Romanian immigrant. He introduced the classic warm pastrami rye sandwich and soon opened the first New York deli. The pastrami sandwich, stuffed with a gargantuan amount of beef immigrants had never known in Europe, became a celebration of the rich new country. This recipe is a modest variation on the meat monster.
The pastramă preservation method to brine and spice meat is related to the similar basterma, still popular in the regions of the former Ottoman empire.

Mititei (Romanian minced meat rolls)

For ➍
250 g coarsely minced pork
250 g coarsely minced beef or lamb
1 onion, finely chopped
3 garlic cloves, crushed
½ ts harissa
1 ts sweet paprika
1 ts cayenne pepper
1 ts thyme
½ ts baking powder
1 ts ground caraway seeds or cumin
1 ts marjoram
salt & freshly ground black pepper
½ ts allspice*
meat, chicken or vegetable stock, for basting*
1 tbs olive oil

Combine all the ingredients, apart from the olive oil and stock, together in a large mixing bowl. Knead together for 5 m. (Cover and refrigerate for 5 h to enhance the flavour.*) Wet your hands and divide the mixture into handpalm-sized balls, then roll into small sausages of about 10 cm long.

Heat the oil in a large heavy-bottomed frying pan or griddle. Cook the sausages over a medium heat for 20-30 m. Turn them several times during cooking and baste with a little stock to keep them moist*.

Serve with mustard as a snack (with drinks). Serve with a salad of sliced peppers or/and cabbage or potatoes as a small meal.

*Optional.

This is a national Romanian dish, similar to Balkan cevapcici.
Read tip on minced meat & salt