Sunday Recipe: Cuban Roasted Pork/Cuban Sandwiches

Did I ever tell you about the time I ordered a Cuban Sandwich and got a fried egg? No. Seriously, it happened.

Several years ago, Geargirl and I were traveling in Peru, far up in the Andes in the old Incan capital of Cusco. One night, we walked in search of some specific restaurant in some specific neighborhood, probably just one of the hundred places specializing in potatoes and tubers, but that's a whole other story. At any rate, we didn't find that restaurant. I should mention that simply walking a dozen blocks at that altitude (11,200 feet) made us pant, so not wanting to press on too much further, we just milled around in search of dinner. We found a little sandwich shop -- it was clean, it smelled good and it was right there. I was sold.

Despite my less than stellar menu Spanish, which has gotten me into some hairy situations (pan fried tripe anyone?), Cubana sandwiches were on the menu board. Great. I love Cuban sandwiches. Roasted pork, ham, cheese, pickles. What's not to love, right? We ordered two. In the land of the Incas, I didn't expect a sandwich straight out of Little Havana, but neither did I expect what arrived -- a hamburger on hamburger type roll, with fried plantains and a fried egg. It was most definitely not a Cuban sandwich. But it was strangely delicious.

All of which has zero to do with preparing traditional Cuban sandwiches, but I just like that story. Also, one of these days, I swear I'm going to serve burgers with fried plantains and fried eggs.

Basically, I roasted the pork in the morning and assembled the sandwiches later in the day (i.e., closer to kickoff.) I did consider making a ham, too, but that seemed excessive, even to me. I will say that the roasted pork is fantastic and stands on it's own as a dish.

CUBAN ROASTED PORK
You will need:
2 pound pork loin roast
about 10 cloves of garlic
1 shallot
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons black peppercorns
the juice of 2 oranges
the juice of 1 lemon
the juice of 1 lime
1 spanish onion, minced
2 teaspoons oregano (Mexican if you have it)
1/2 to 1 cup white wine
1/2 cup olive oil

The prep:
Coarsely chop the garlic and shallots. Toss them in the food processor with the juices, peppercorns and oregano. It doesn't haven't to be perfectly smooth, but I found that pulsing it about 10 times gave me the consistency I wanted. Add the onion and olive oil and let it sit while you deal with the pork.

I used regular pork loin roast, so I trimmed the fat from the top of the roast, but you don't have to. But do pierce the roast a whole bunch with the tip of a sharp knife. Pour 2/3 of the marinade over pork, cover and refrigerate overnight, or at least three hours. Refrigerate the remaining marinade, too, because you'll use it later.

When you're ready to roast, add the wine to the remaining marinade, put the pork on a rack in a roasting pan and pour the remaining marinade over the pork. Cook uncovered at 325°F. It should cook about 25-30 minutes per pound, so check it after about 20 minutes and baste it occasionally. When the pork is done, let is rest before you start hacking away at it or you'll have a big mess on your hands. Like I said, I made enough pork to feed the Fidel Castro's cabinet, so I'm going to live on it for days and serve just the roast with some Black Beans and Rice.

CUBAN SANDWICH ASSEMBLY
You will need:
1 pound ham sliced thin, but not shaved (go to a good market or butcher shop and get it freshly sliced -- look for a slightly sweet, soft textured ham with a mild taste. You don't want the flavor of the ham to overpower the rest of the ingredients)
1/2 pound Baby Swiss cheese, sliced (gotta be Baby Swiss. Adult Swiss is not creamy enough. Insert bad joke here.)
thinly sliced dill pickles
yellow mustard
sandwich rolls, preferably fresh from a proper baker (Cuban bread is used for the real deal, but that's about impossible to find in Pittsburgh. I tried using a french roll, not a baguette, but even that was a bit too crusty. The bread needs to be dense and the crust should come from the toasting, so next time, I'm going to try an Italian sub roll. I am open to suggestions, though.)

Preheat a large frying pan to low to medium hot. You don't want it too hot or the crust will burn before the cheese melts and the meat warms up.

Cut the bread into sections about 8 inches long. Cut these in half make each sandwich with the ingredients in this order: pickles, roasted pork, ham, cheese and mustard.

Spread a little butter on the hot frying pan and place the sandwich on the pan. Use a heavy skillet or foil-wrapped brick (or Norton's Anthology of English Literature) to flatten the sandwich. Grill for 4 to 6 minutes then flip over to toast the other side.

Once the cheese is melted and the bread is golden brown on both sides, the sandwiches are done. Slice the sandwiches in half diagonally and serve. If you've never had a Cuban Sandwich before, plan on falling in love. Hard.

Sunday Recipe: Cuban Flank Steak with Chimichurri

A couple of months ago, I was at Penzy's in the Strip District stocking up on spices. I was loading up on Vietnamese cinnamon (which I cannot recommend strongly enough), plus some Ancho chili powder and a handful of other goodies. Then I spotted the Fenugreek, which I needed for some recipe I wanted to try; to this day, I cannot remember what that fenugreek was for, but I did buy it. So I got that going for me. I also grabbed some Mexican oregano.

I had pooh-poohed the notion that Mexican oregano was all that different from the Greek variety, but I was there, so what the hell. Then I used it and it turns out that Mexican oregano is to Greek oregano as Thai basil is to Italian basil, which is to say, they're more like cousins than siblings. Yeah, you can see the family resemblance, but still, the flavor is most definitely it's own.

I mention this because I use the South of the Border oregano in my marinade for Cuban flank steak. I was having a meat craving the other day and my trip to one of my favorite new spots -- Brgr in East Liberty -- didn't quite quiet the meat monster within, so I decided to feed the meat monster with a flank steak today, using a variation of a recipe I tried over the summer (original here: the Three Guys from Miami.) I have adapted the recipe a bit, tweaked some ingredients and use a flank steak, whereas the Guys from Miami use a skirt steak. Personally, I love flank steaks because they are a pretty affordable cut (as steaks go). I'm serving the steak with a chimichurri and cuban black beans and rice on the side. That recipe follows, too.

You will need:
For the marinade:
10 cloves of garlic, peeled and coarsely chopped
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper
3/4 c freshly squeezed orange juice
1/4 c freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/2 c freshly squeeze lime juice
3 to 5 shallots, minced
2 teaspoons mexican oregano
1 cup olive oil

For the chimichurri:
1 large bunch of cilantro leaves
2 cloves garlic
1/4 cup vinegar (cider vinegar will do)
juice of one lime
2/3 cup olive oil
1/2 cup yellow onion (diced)
healthy pinch of red pepper flakes

The Prep, Part 1 -- The meat:
Into the juice mixture, add the garlic, shallots, oregano, salt & pepper. Let sit at room temperature for about 30 minutes, then whisk in the olive oil. Place your flank steak in a baking dish and cover with the marinade. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least four hours; if you have time to do it overnight, even better.

The Prep, Part 2 -- The chimichurri:
While your meat is marinating, you can make the sauce. Be lazy. Use the food processor or your blender. Put everything except the olive oil in the food processor - garlic, cilantro, onion, lime juice, crushed red pepper and vinegar. You don't want to liquefy it, so pulse it quickly until you have a thick mixture, but not a paste. Add the salt and olive oil. Give it a taste. You may need/want more salt, more vinegar or more lime.

The Prep, Part 3 -- The Heat:
When you're ready to start cooking, get your grill really nice and hot. If you have one of those indoor grill pans, then I'm really jealous, because I'll be braving the cold and the ice outside using the gas grill one last time before bidding it a tearful goodbye for the winter. You can cook the meat from rare to well-done, but I recommend it on the rare side, as I think the flavor and texture are so much better that way. Be sure to let it rest for a few minute before serving.

Serve with the chimichurri and voila!

The Cuban Black Bean Recipe is here in a separate post.

I know these seem like a lot of instructions, but this is all do-ahead stuff, so it's great for entertaining. Once you get the marinade done, you can just kick up your feet and let it do it's thing. Now get to work.

And Go Steelers!

Cuban Black Beans and Rice

I had a friend of Cuban descent who made the most wonderful, simplest Cuban black beans. If you don't like spicy food, never fear - these are decidedly not hot. They are sweet and tangy and reminded me more of American soul food than what we think of as Latin American food (which has been inaccurately pigeon-holed as hot nachos or something like that.) I don't have his exact recipe (which I think was his abuelas), but I have come up with something that pretty closely replicates his recipe:

You will need:
1 bag of dried black beans
1 large yellow onion (or two small ones)
1 bell pepper (whatever color you prefer - some like green, but I like red)
2 cloves of garlic, finely minced
2 carrots, finely diced
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1/2 cup white wine (anything you have on hand will do)
2 or 3 tablespoons of vinegar (cider vinegar works just fine)
2 tablespoons of salt (I think it's about that much. I use a palmful.)
2 bay leaves
pinch of Mexican oregano

The Cook, a/k/a The Long Simmer:
Pick over beans, discarding any shriveled ones of foreign particles and rinse well.

Heat a large stock pot, add some olive oil, then the chopped onions and garlic; saute over low heat. Add the chopped pepper and carrot; and also season with a big pinch of kosher salt. Cook for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add the rinsed black beans, the cumin, bay leaves, a pinch of kosher salt, the wine and about 6 cups of water. Bring to a boil, then reduce to simmer. Cover and simmer for about 1 hour. Give it a taste. Need more salt? More cumin?

Then add the vinegar, the sugar and the oregano. Partially cover and cook until the beans are soft, which will probably be in two to four hours. You may need to add more water through this process (I almost always do.) Give the liquid a taste every 45 minutes or so, and you can adjust the flavor. What you're after is something both sweet and savory, tart and rich. They'll probably need to cook four hours total, but you can walk away and just check in on them from time to time. And you want them to be stew like, so that they make a thick, black sauce.

Serve hot over white rice. Babaloo!