The Brownifer Cuban Sandwich

We were inspired by our visit to Stick a Pork In It to create our own version of the Cuban Sandwich. We hit the Internet Super Highway and did some research on the history of this tradition.

I won't bore you with the research, you can look all of that up yourself.  But we decided to stay authentic, leave off the salami and give it our own flair with Brownie's smoked, pulled pork.

In researching this sandwich, I found that Cubans are very adamant that you use Cuban Bread for this, so I did some reading on that as well. My adventure perfecting Cuban Hoagies finally came together in batch #3, they were delicious! You should definitely give them a try - not sure this would have turned out the same if we hadn't used them!

Now, pulled pork takes quite a few hours to do and you can't really time it. It's done when it's done. So we decided to make a Cuban Night of it and invited friends over for Mojitos and a Cuban-themed meal.  This also gave us a chance to get more opinions on our creation, which we love.

I'll shut up now, here's what we did:

Ingredients:

Pulled Pork (smoked on your own BBQ grill if possible)
Ham slices (we had the deli slice ours so the thickness was where we wanted it and uniform)
Brick of Swiss Cheese, thinly sliced
Sandwich Slicer Pickles (we even found organic ones with no artificial dye!)
Mustard - lots of mustard!
Cuban Hoagies (substitute any hoagies or bread - you know what you like)

Directions:

• Slice Hoagies sandwich-style
• Put mustard on both bread slices. A lot of mustard - and don't be shy - use that mustard!!!!!
• Lay top and bottom on broiler tray and liberally add a layer of sliced Swiss Cheese to each and put under the broiler on low until the cheese is melted
• Lay down your ham slices on the bottom slice of your sandwich (our bread used two slices)
• Lay down a layer of pickles - thick as you like (we used four to cover the bread)
• Top with pulled pork and put the top on your sandwich, pressing down so that cheese can do its job and hold everything together
• Slice sandwich at the diagonal

We served our Cubans with some traditional sides that I found recipes for here.  They turned out really well!  There were two of us in our dinner party who are not fans of sweet potatoes - and we loved the potatoes!  So even if it's not your thing, give it a try!  And the beans were so flavorful but a word to the wise, (learn from my Mojito-fueled mistake) measure your salt!  I always under-salt things and Brownie is always adding more salt to my recipes so ... in my mind I needed to add more than it called for.  Don't.  They tasted fabulous, but I used way too much salt.

These sandwiches were the talk of our Memorial Day weekend!  All of our guests loved them, but only one could finish the whole thing!  They're large.  We finished the night off with Mojitos, spiced rum and cigars by the fire .... all of us too full to eat anything else.

Try these out and let us know what variations you used and how they turned out!

¡Que aproveche amigos!

Stick a Pork In It - Lebanon, OR (Review)

Someone Brownie works with recommended we try Stick a Pork In It.  They're a food truck in Lebanon, usually parked in the Mega Foods parking lot on Main Street.

We have eaten here on a couple of occasions and the food was consistently delicious!  Brownie is a pulled pork aficionado and  he will be the first to tell you that this is some good pork!  "I thought it had a good smoke flavor, wasn't dry, and was evenly pulled."

I am a huge fan of Brownie's pulled pork, I just don't think it gets any better.  But this truck definitely has their pork down to an art! Now, if you've driven by and rolled your eyes thinking, 'another BBQ truck?' - that's not what this is!  This is about pork and they play with it well!

Cuban Sandwic

There aren't a lot of places locally to order a Cuban Sandwich, so if you stop by here, be sure to try theirs!  It's done the traditional way with sliced pork loin, ham, swiss cheese, mustard and pickles and it's really good!  I love that they have this twist on their menu!

We've tried just about everything on the truck by now and we have our favorites! Thing #5 refuses to eat BBQ because it 'tastes like smoke'.  But the rest of us who've eaten it definitely have an opinion!

Pork Tacos w/Cilantro Lime Slaw

Porkadilla with BBQ Sauce

Traditional BBQ Sandwich

Brownie and I both agree that if you have to order just one thing, you really must try the pork tacos with their signature cilantro lime slaw!  It's a flavor punch with just the right amount of spice that compliments the pork perfectly and we can't get enough!

Thing #3 highly recommends the Porkadilla with BBQ sauce - he said it was 'Heaven.'  Thing #4 cleared his throat and asked about their Dad's BBQ.  Thing #3 quickly added, 'Well, except for your barbecue, Dad!'  Have I mentioned how smart our Things are!?  :-)

The traditional BBQ sandwich is also there if you're really craving BBQ but in our humble opinion - it's not the best thing on the menu - we recommend branching out!

We have also tried the strawberry lemonade blended and unblended, Brownie prefers it blended so the muddled strawberries don't block his straw, I prefer it unblended; I'll happily deal with muddled strawberries on my own. 

We will be returning often I'm sure; we still have not been able to try the Cuban Potato Ball.  In true food truck fashion, they run out before we get there.  So they must be good!

We rate our restaurants on our Brownifer scale and I feel like it must be mentioned that one of the areas where they scored a 5 was customer service!  They have proven that they love their business and their customers are their #1 priority!  Trust us, they will feed you well, keep you happy and coming back for more!

On our Brownifer Scale, Stick a Pork In It came out with a 4-Star rating!  It's well worth trying out and making one of your go-to BBQ stops!  We don't even want to hear how far the drive to Lebanon is.  It's worth it.  Just go!