Cuban sandwiches have been consuming all of my
thoughts. It all started
with the homemade pickles I posted about on Friday. I had eaten them on a sandwich of
sourdough bread with ham, Jarlsberg, and honey mustard. The sandwich was really good (these pickles take everything
from good to great) but I kept envisioning something else and I finally
realized that I was hankering to use them in a homemade Cuban sandwich.
As
I have mentioned before when it comes to cooking (and my endless stream of
cravings) I am a go big or go home kind of person. Buying ham and swiss cheese
from the neighborhood bodega was not going to cut it in this situation – I knew
this required me making everything from scratch starting with the pork.
Traditionally
Cuban sandwiches are made with slow roasted pork. Sadly, working in corporate America 10 hours a day does not allow me
enough time to make slow roasted pork on a regular basis. I knew I could achieve the same
flavors from a roasted pork loin. I
used Mark Bittman’s recipe for roasted pork loin with garlic and rosemary as my
jumping off point. I
slipped small slices of garlic into the pork before coating it in my rosemary,
garlic, cayenne, paprika rub and let it roast. It came out beautifully and tasted
even better - the skin was crackly and the meat tasted subtly of sweetly
roasted garlic with just a little bit of heat from the cayenne. It made the perfect dinner with a side
of roasted vegetables but it will be better encased in homemade Cuban
bread. Looking forward to
seeing my sandwich dreams come to fruition…
Roast Pork
with Garlic and Rosemary
Recipe
adopted from Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything
Salt and
freshly ground black pepper
2
tablespoons minced fresh rosemary leaves or 1 teaspoon dried rosemary
¼ teaspoon
cayenne
¼ teaspoon
hot smoked Spanish paprika
1
tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon
minced garlic + 1 clove garlic sliced thin
2 pound
boneless pork roast (mine was a little less)
1 ½ cups
stock, dry white wine, water (in a pinch!) or a combo of all 3 (which is what I
did – you use what you have!)
1
tablespoon butter
Heat the
oven to 450. Make little slits
throughout the roast – in each slit slip a slice of garlic. Mix a liberal amount of salt and pepper with
the rosemary, cayenne, smoked paprika, sugar, and garlic and rub it all over
the roast. Put the meat in a roasting
pan and put it in the oven. Roast,
undisturbed, for 15 minutes.
Pour ½ cup
of wine/stock over the roast and lower the temperature to 325. Continue to roast adding about ¼ cup of
liquid every 15 minutes or so. If the
liquid accumulates at the bottom of the pan, use it to baste; if not, add more.
Start
checking the roast after an hour (it will probably take more like 1 ¼ hours). When it is done an instant read thermometer will
read 145 -150 degrees – transfer to a warm platter. Add the remaining liquid from the platter to
a pan and allow it to reduce a little.
When it has reduced add the butter and stir. Slice the roast and serve with sauce. Save leftovers for sandwiches!
No comments:
Post a Comment