Cubanos

I recently met a couple of Cuban musicians. They were telling me how much they miss Cubano sandwiches and that they sometimes fly to Miami just to get a Cubano fix. I offered to make them some and deliver them to a festival they were playing at the following week. I've been known to make a mean Cubano. In case you have never had one, they are terrific. They are the Blog Techs favorite sandwich. The are sold all over Miami and are a favorite food for people leaving bars late at night.



First you have to marinate the meat. Grate a large onion into a bowl.


Add a lot of minced garlic. I used the frozen cubes and added about 15 of them.


Add a lot of freshly cracked black pepper.


You need a pork shoulder roast with the bone in. this is about 5 pounds.


Sit it fat side up and pierce it all over with a sharp knife.


Add the juice of 3 oranges and three lemons and a cup of oil to the marinate. Add several tablespoons of dried oregano.


Place the roast in a large zip lock bag and pour in the marinate.


Place the bag in the bowl, put it in the fridge and turn it several times a day. I marinated the roast for 2 days.


When you are ready to cook the roast, slide it out of the bag into the bowl along with the marinate.


Remove the roast and brush any marinate sticking to it into the bowl.


Brown the roast in some hot oil in a heavy dutch oven.


Make sure you get a crunchy brown crust on all sides.


When the roast is browned, add the marinate to the dutch oven. Cook the roast in a 275 degree oven for 4 hours. The meat should be falling off the bone and falling apart.



Refrigerate the roast to cool. Then remove it and slice it into thin slices.


Also, chill the marinate in a bowl in the refrigerator. After it has chilled, remove the fat that forms on the top.


Mix the sliced pork with the marinate.


Cubanos can be made on baguettes but you really should make Cuban pane d'aqua.


You can google recipes for the bread. They are formed into baguettes and spread with egg whites.


Slash the tops and bake them in an oven with a pan of boiling water on the bottom. You can see the steam it produces.


This is great bread to use all sorts of ways.


Warm the pork and marinate while you assemble the ingredients you will need. Use baby Swiss cheese slices, yellow mustard and a good thinly sliced ham. And you must use dill pickle slices.


The cheese melts as the Cubanos cook and glue the sandwiches together. First, spread each side of the bread with some yellow mustard. Next put a layer of cheese on each side of a split baguette. Mound some of the pork with it's juice. Fold on some slices of ham. Top with pickles. I forgot to take picks of the cooking process. You cover the sandwiches with garlic butter and place them in a heavy skillet. Place something very heavy on top. Some people wrap bricks in tin foil to weight the sandwiches down. They should end up being 1/3 the thickness of the original sandwich. I used a heavy frying pan with a heavy pot which I sat on top of the sandwiches.


I wrapped them in parchment for delivery.


These are crunchy on the outside with warm layers of yumminess within.


There is nothing quite like a good Cubano!