Football Eats 8: Potato Pancake Corned Beef Sliders

Now that was a good day of games. In addition to the UCLA and USC games I always enjoy watching, there was South Carolina-LSU, Stanford-Notre Dame, West Virginia-Texas Tech, and the Red River Shootout (yeah, I know they want it to be called the Red River Rivalry now, but "they" can go to hell). Not to mention the extra-innings Yankees-Tigers game.

A few months ago, during my first visit to Junior's, I noticed on their menu an item called "Something Different": brisket on potato pancakes. I wasn't sure how that would be and I opted not to order it. A few weeks later I saw a man make corned beef sliders on potato pancakes on Food Network. (I refuse to say the name of the man, as he is the most annoying personality I have ever seen on Food Network. Which is quite a bold statement, I know. But I would rather take a car trip from San Diego to Boston with Guy Fieri, Paula Deen and both the Neelys than watch a complete episode of this dude's show.)

But the appeal of making sliders out of potato pancakes was growing on me. And a couple of days ago I spotted a "thin cut" corned beef at the market across the street. I decided to go for it.

The full-size briskets they have usually weigh between four and five pounds; it's just too much for the two of us. I don't mind some brisket leftovers... but at a certain point I can't keep making new meals out of brisket and I have to throw out a lot. But this size is great. 

This is what it looks like after a few hours in the slow cooker. Pretty gross, right? No worries, the fat flavors the beef as it cooks, and when you pull this out of the pot, the fat peels off with even the slightest touch. 

Right before assembling the sliders, I fried up the latkes. Only about two minutes on each side, they cook pretty quickly. 

I diced up the corned beef and placed some on each potato pancake. 

I spooned some slaw - from a deli down the street - onto each pile of meat. 

I was all set to buy a bottle of Thousand Island dressing (whatever was on sale, I think Wishbone) when I spotted Brianna's "Zesty French" dressing next to it. I love Brianna's blue cheese dressing, so I decided this would be the better choice. 

Sometimes I make something new and I'm 100% sure it's going to be good. Many of the other football eats fall under that category. But I won't lie to you: I had no idea what to expect from these. I thought there was a chance the potato pancakes would be too greasy and completely dominate the flavor. 

Fortunately, they were freaking awesome. I won't necessarily say they were better than if I had used slider buns and pressed them on the panini press, but who knows? The crispy, warm potatoes certainly held the ingredients together wonderfully, and they tasted damn good.

This might be one of those things that I really like but I never actually make again... but that's okay. They were great this time.