Sandwich Cubano

Tonight's sandwich, as promised, is the Cuban sandwich. This is Kyle's favorite sandwich (and quite possibly his favorite meal), and since our marriage almost 4 years ago, I've been trying to re-create this sandwich. For the most part, I've missed the mark one way or another. However, this time, I decided to reference this book:

This is the cookbook of the Columbia Restaurant, a Florida restaurant with locations in Ybor City, Sarasota, St. Augustine, St. Petersburg, Clearwater Beach, Celebration, and Riverwalk Tampa. I have only visited the St. Augustine location and I truly believe that no trip to St. Augustine is complete without a stop for fantastic food and excellent sangria in this gorgeous, historic restaurant.

The recipe in this book calls for three meats: roasted pork, ham, and salami. If you know me at all, you know that there are at least two meats on that list that I'm just not going to eat. So, for this post, I am also going to give you an alternative to this traditional Cuban sandwich, a "Leslie" version if you will. Since the Croque Monsieur has a variation (the "Croque Madame"), we will call this variation "La Senora."

But we'll deal with La Senora later.

First, I marinated the pork in a mixture of orange juice, lime juice, olive oil, oregano and garlic. Then, I roasted it in the oven. My roasting pan is getting a lot of action this week. Here's what it looked like when I sliced it:

The cookbook was pretty specific on the layering of the ingredients: "ham, pork, salami, cheese, and pickles." Not wanting to take a chance with screwing up this sandwich again, I followed this exactly. Yellow mustard, not Dijon, is called for. It can be served warm, cold, or hot pressed (which Kyle requested).

For La Senora, I left out the ham and salami and substituted rotisserie chicken. Everything else was the same, and I hot pressed La Senora in the panini press as well.

The verdict? Success! Kyle, the Cuban sandwich critic, loved it! Comments made during dinner included, "This is excellent, babe!" and "I know I married you for a reason!" Aw, how sweet... I think...

He also requested that I not only make it again, but that I make him one to take to work for lunch tomorrow.

Tomorrow's Sandwich: Philly Cheese Steaks!