The Cuban Sandwich Recipe

The Cuban Sandwich Recipe

Ingredients

Makes 10

PORK:

• 4½lb (2kg) boneless pork shoulder
• 10 garlic cloves, peeled
• 1 heaped tbsp sea salt
• black pepper, to taste
• ½ tsp cumin seeds
• 2 tsp dried oregano
• 1 onion, grated
• finely grated zest of 1 orange
• finely grated zest of 1 lime
• 2/3 cup (150ml) freshly squeezed orange juice Scant 1/3 cup (80ml) freshly squeezed lime juice
• olive oil
• 10 Cuban-style bread rolls (or a baguette or panini-style bread if no Cuban bakers are to hand) Dijon mustard, to taste
• 20 cooked ham slices
• 10 Swiss cheese slices
• 3 dill pickles (pickled gherkins), drained and sliced, or to taste Butter

Method

1. Start the pork the day before you want to eat it
2. If the meat has a thick layer of fat, make some scores in it so the marinade can penetrate
3. With a pestle and mortar, pound together the garlic, salt, a decent amount of black pepper, and the cumin seeds
4. Mix in the oregano
5. Place the pork in a non-reactive dish and smear the garlic-oregano mixture al over it
6. Mix together the onion, the citrus zests and juices, and a good glug of olive oil and pour this over the pork
7. Turn the pork over in the marinade, then cover and refrigerate overnight, turning occasionally (if you’re awake)
8. The next day, preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C) Gas 2
9. Transfer the pork and marinade to a roasting pan, cover with aluminum foil, and roast in the oven for 2 hours, basting occasionally
10. Remove the foil and roast the pork for a further 1½ hours, until the meat is fork-tender and the top is browned
11. If it gets too brown, replace the foil
12. You may also need to add a little water during cooking if the pan gets too dry
13. When the meat is cooked, remove it from the oven, cover with clean foil, and let rest for at least 30 minutes, before slicing and serving
14. If you do find that the roasting juices have caramelized too much, try adding some warm water and stirring to reconstitute the sauce
15. To assemble the sandwiches, cut each Cuban rol almost in half lengthwise, leaving a join along one side
16. Brush the crust lightly with olive oil, then spread the top half of each rol with Dijon mustard
17. On the bottom half of each rol , layer on some of the roast pork and the roasting juices
18. Add 2 slices of ham, fol owed by 1 slice of cheese, top with some dil pickle slices, then add the top half of each rol
19. Heat a skil et or frying pan (or a panini press, if you have one) and melt some butter in it
20. Add a sandwich to the skil et (cook 1 sandwich at a time)
21. Press the sandwich down and then weight it down with another heavy skil et placed on top, so that it is about one-third of its original thickness
22. Cook until golden, then turn over and toast the other side until golden
23. Cut in half diagonally and serve
24. Cook and serve the remaining sandwiches in the same way

Full List of Sandwich Recipes
Full List of Juice Recipes