food Sandwich of the Month

Hey y'all. A recent discussion with THP about Cuban sandwich's in another thread has inspired me to begin this thread.

What is a sandwich? According to wiki...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandwich

I myself shall endeavor to post a Sandwich of the Month for every month. This month I tip my hat to one of my favorite sandwiches, The Cuban.

While I encourage y'all to post up your Cuban for SOTM, for the sake of popularizing the thread, feel free to post your sandwich. Be it BLT, turkey sub, gyro, po'boy, etc.

Some rules.

1 ~ Meet the criteria as linked above according to wiki.

2 ~ True, burgers are sandwiches but as we have other threads devoted to them, we will not include them here in this thread. No burgers.

3 ~ List ingredients and methods of how the sandwich was put together.

4 ~ No matter if it is a classic reuben or tuna salad, include a heat ingredient.

5 ~ Pics are mandatory. Talk is cheap. Show us the money!

6 ~ No tortillas. We have taco threads already, and that also means no stinkin' "wraps".

7 ~ Have fun.

I'll post up my sandwich shortly.

Bon appetit!

I'm all over it. We make smmies all the time. Never made a Cuban tho.
I'm torn between doing RESEARCH, and just making a PB&J... Not. LOL
Cool thread TB, I'll definitely pitch in here.

Missed my chance for a Cuban while in SoFlo.....

...so give detailed recipe/methods, so I can make one here at home, k TB?!?!

Looking forward to this! Cool thread!!!!

So here's my Cuban y'all.

What is a Cuban? The classic Cuban or Cubano, is roasted pork or pernil as is sometimes called, ham, swiss cheese, dill pickles and mustard. The bread is typically a Cuban style bread but more often than not, can be an Italian style loaf or baguette, but generally not overly crusty.

For novelties sake I'll go a little overboard with the step by step pics.

Here's what I got. Not wanting to do an entire pork shoulder, I opted instead to braise a few center cut boneless pork chops. Its all good. I like black forest ham from the deli too. The swiss is some decent but not exceptional generic. Use an artisan style sharper swiss if you like. Mustard is the standard yellow variety which is typical for the Cuban. Pickles are made right here in Texas. I like whole pickled jalapeno's to bite into between mouthfuls of sandwich.



Lay down a nice spread of mustard. Notice I didn't trim the fat off the chops. I like the flavor.



Next, lay a generous amount of thin sliced ham over the pork and then add the pickles and finally the swiss.



The Cuban is most often grilled and pressed panini style. I think its a waste of money to have an actual panini press when I have cast iron laying around. A comal and skillet work just fine.



I like to grill them to where the swiss just starts to melt. You want a nice browning of the bread but not so much that its hard and cuts your mouth when biting into the sandwich.



Now whats not to like about this? I loved it loooooooong time.



Have mercy this was good!



So what y'all got? A Cuban? A club? A sub? A naan tofu chingadera?

Get to posting!

So dig it y'all. This is too funny not to post.

The pics I posted are from last night but the night before that was when I initially began my drunken cheffery.

In true DC form, I came up with the idea to not only use the skillet for the top press but to also heat up Black Betty so that it performed more in the manner of a panini press and toast on both sides at once.

Big mistake.

As you can imagine, I heated the skillet too much and when I went to pull it off, the top half of the sandwich stuck to the bottom of the pan.



I finally got the sandwich freed from its steely bonds and managed to get the whole thing on a plate.

Pickles, bread, scheeze and meat were flying every where I tell ya' and it weren't purdy.



I ate it anyway.

Wimp style.

With a knife and fork.

Salute'!

So basic qualifications are 2 pieces of bread, a spread, and a filling?

You can use multiple pieces of bread.

Or just one piece ala open faced like a reuben.

Got it

Next epic TB thread.... "Seasoning the Bottom of Your CI".

Nice try!

Scoville DeVille said:

Next epic TB thread.... "Seasoning the Bottom of Your CI".

Click to expand...

Just goes to show that no one is immune when the FAIL FAIRY shows up.

Its good to not take ones self to seriously.

oh we do cubans big time here in florida ive had so many good ones at little mom and pops places.

Oh Hell Yes!!!! I'm in on this, but probably not until next week.
I'm gonna do this RIGHT!!!!! Busy until Sunday-ish.

CJ-You'll get that sammy next time, I will stop at nothing to make that happen, my biggest (only) regret from your trip...

And while we all will make awesome sandwiches, maybe better than what you get at a restaurant,
to TRULY enjoy a Cuban Sandwich you have to get it at the counter of a little dive in a Cuban neighborhood,
with an Ironbeer or Jupina (Cuban sodas).

Great thread TB. I'm all over this!!!!

One of the things about being a Human Being is that we can take almost ANYTHING and place it between 2 pieces of bread and deem it edible. I'm going to be enjoying this. Thanks TB, another great thread idea!

I forget the author, but back in the 80s I was into these detective stories, and the main character, a cop or PI or something, had a sandwich fetish. Multiple times thru
the book, he'd create these crazy, over-the-top sandwiches - in hi-def detail! I've been a sammie fan ever since!

TB - that was a glorious experience, drooling over your Cubano!!!!

CJ are you talking about the Deadly Sin Series by Lawrence Sanders? The books The First Deadly Sin through The Seventh Deadly Sin and Detective was Edward X Delaney. Good reads, great sandwiches but Sanatra made some bad movies out of them.

Oh THANK YOU RM!!!!! Been thinking of those books for years, but couldn't recall any specs! haha Delaney - yep, that's the fella! Cantankerous old coot, if I recall! hahaha (well, maybe not THAT old!) I'll get one from the library and try to replicate one of those sandwiches! hahahaha

Meh...sorry but my favorite sandwhich comes from Schlotzki's...The Turkey Bacon Club is simply the best sandwhich for me and their bread is what makes it all the more desirable and delectable.

Other than that, not really much of a sandwhich person.

Oh, if I could make bread like Schlotzki's, then we'd have a thread going on.

edit

I've posted so many sammiches that my Photobucket is full to bursting.....


...but I'll be here soon to re-saw the sawdust (so to speak)...

As some of you know I have started a fun, kick my butt trial with a tree company. Today while eating lunch today I remembered Dagwoods I made while working at the steel mill years ago. Stopped by the store this afternoon for supplies. I am mainly a carnivore as you will see. Add your own rabbit food.

Ingredients:

Loaf Italian Bread
1/2 pound Hickory Smoked Turkey
1/2 pound Buffalo Chicken Breast
1/2 pound Swiss
1/4 pound Boarshead Horseradish Cheddar
1/4 pound Provolone
Miracle Whip
Habitually Orange

???? Late add in to be disclosed ????

This will be for the next 2 days.
Here We Gooooooooooooo!

Bread Sliced



Miracle Whip on the top for this phase
Sliced Buffalo Chicken


A stripe of Habitually Orange


Sliced Hickory Smoked Turkey


Swiss


Boarshead Horseradish Cheddar


Provolone


Time for Stage 2


Continued......
Off to chat to find a poster