Sunday Gravy with yeah right: The Cubano! 2.0

Good morning sports fans!

Well will you look at that? We’ve got shitty preseason NFL action all weekend long! The Premier League fires up on Friday and baseball is rounding into pennant drive form. In addition Aussie Rules football is down to the last couple of weeks of regular season. This is the good shit we’ve got right here. It all almost means something.

What’s also uncanny, each team I support in each of those leagues is supposed to be relevant!

I know!

Not sure that’s ever happened before. Hell two of them are practically locks for the playoffs.

Where’s my fainting couch?

Sunday Gravy is also nearing the finish line as we prepare to return to the game day live blogs. Trust me, I know all of you are ready for that. Hell, me too! Plus I’m getting close to vacation time.

I’m fully fucking psyched!

Fear not. We won’t lose focus on the last handful of episodes. We’ve got some goddamn gravying to do!

We’re making an old favorite and quite possibly one of the greatest sandwiches of all times. The Cubano!

I am also issuing the official Sunday Gravy guide to “What is a sandwich” to end all of the insanity.

Remember, the origin story said The Earl of Sandwich invented the sandwich as a way to consume meat and other substances between slices of bread so he could play cards at the same time and keep his hands clean.

First argument: A hotdog is wrapped in a bun. That buns’ purpose is to deliver the dog and its various toppings to your goddamn mouth WHILE KEEPING YOUR HANDS CLEAN!

Ergo, a hotdog is a fucking sandwich. Period.

That’s the key. Can you eat the item with one hand while playing cards and keeping your hands clean? Boom! That motherfucker is a sandwich. Some of that other horseshit straightens itself right out after that. For instance, can you eat a taco or a burrito with one hand while playing cards and keeping your hands clean?

Try it and let me know how that shit works out for you.

It would be great research to hear how your fellow card players responded. 

Today’s tasty bastard is most definitely a goddamn sandwich.

As you are all fully aware the baseline ingredients of a Cubano are roast pork, ham, swiss cheese, pickles and mustard, layered then pressed and smashed panini style. What makes today’s version unique is the prep for the pork.

Remember this shit? Back from 2016 I believe? Yes we did make a Cubano once before.

Rather than using a roast pork shoulder, like we did in 2016, I thought we could vary up the prep. Just to, you know, change shit up a bit. Basically this is me giving myself permission to make a 2nd Sunday Gravy about the Cubano because I really, really wanted one.

These fuckers are addictive like that.

Inspiration for the sous vide pork via clutteredKitchenKeto.com.

Cuban Style sous vide pork tenderloin!

2 lbs pork tenderloin two pieces

2 tbsp ground cumin – freshly toasted and ground would be lovely

1 tbsp ground oregano

2 tsp salt

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp onion powder

black pepper to taste

2 tbsp orange juice

1 tbsp lime juice – juice of 1/2 lime basically

Grab some pork tenderloin.

Not a terrible price either. As per custom, the bag comes with 2 tenderloins and they’re both going down today.

Get them in a bag. Not the first bag that they came home from the store in but another new bag. The kind you seal and soak in a sous vide.

Next we build the mojo for the marinade.

Combine the dry ingredients.

Tell you what, that freshly toasted and ground cumin makes a big difference here. Huge flavor and aroma bomb. Really hits the olfactory happy button.

Next add the orange juice and the juice of 1/2 freshly squeezed lime to the seasonings.

Pour this mixture into the bag with the tenderloin and give the loins a full and proper massage.

A sentence that most people rarely get to write.

Obviously we won’t be using standard cooking technique today. If you have a vacuum sealer go ahead and apply that fucker now.

Quick aside, as much as I enjoy the sous vide method, the vacuum sealer element is fucked. Guess that’s on me for having a shitty vacuum sealer but I think I’m going to just stick with the 1 gallon zip top bags for the sous vide going forward. This sealer shit always allows water to get in the bag and I didn’t ask for that shit!

We’re going to cook at 140 degrees for 4 hours today.

Get this fucker up to temp.

Drop the bag-o-meat into the now heated fish tank.

And well? Relax for 4 fucking hours.

Swear to god this fucking thing felt like an eternity. I was positive the timer was going to go off so I checked how much time was left.

Sonuvabitch!

When the slow motherfucker DOES eventually reach the finish point, we’re going to remove the pork from the – now soggy – bag and we’ll give that bastard a proper searing in a hot skillet.

Go hot and fast with the sear. High heat, splash of oil, just a couple minutes per side type of deal. 

Remove the pork and leave that skillet out for now. 

Ok time to build the beast.

One of the primary keys to a good Cubano is using the right bread. I didn’t feel like baking bread today. I thought about using a loaf of French bread but figured it would be too high of a bread – to – filling ratio.

Inside my grocery store they had a big display of freshly baked bolillo rolls.

That should work nicely.

This sandwich will not properly work without some quality mustard and pickles.

Get some.

Ready to do this damn thing?

Let’s construct!

Slice the roll and add on the mustard and pickles. Use as much mustard as you like. The final sandwich can handle quite a bit of mustard.

Get some slices of ham on there next. I like using Black Forest ham for its salt level and fairly neutral non-smokiness. You do what you prefer.

Next, thinly slice up some of our pork and layer it on. Look how perfect that pork is cooked.

Holy shit!

Next add some Swiss cheese slices to the top and slap on the top part of the roll.

Using the same pan you seared the tenderloin in go ahead and toast up that sandwich.

Here’s a trick for giving the sandwich the “Panini treatment.” Use an inverted plate and press the shit out of that goddamn thing.

Cook for about 3-4 minutes per side. Flip the thing over and repeat.

When the other side is toasted, slice the sandwich in half for service.

C’mon! You can do better than that!

Can you maybe zoom in a bit on that?

Here, have a bite.

That motherfucker is PERFECT. The pork is super tender and flavorful, then you get the salt of the ham, tang of the vinegar and pickles. Those pickles are as dilly as a ding dong day too. That bread was made for this. Bless you bolillo rolls. I’ve been searching for a good “melt” sandwich bread and this is the best I’ve used so far. These fuckers made my regular sandwich rotation permanently. The bread doesn’t get in the way but just does its job. Excellent.

Damn, grab yourself a fistful of cold ones, maybe a bag of some nice crunchy kettle cooked chips and get that Cuban party started, baby!

One of the best prepared tenderloins I’ve made to date and goddammit I’ve made a bunch.

Do this one folks, even if you don’t have the sous vide and cook the pork in the oven, this bastard is worth ALL of the effort.

Today’s “Fun” holidays courtesy of “A Bit of Good News“: “August 10 is World Lion Day, National Bowling Day, National S’mores Day, National Spoil Your Dog Day, Duran Duran Appreciation Day, Garage Sale Day and Vlogging Day.”

Fuck it Dude. Let’s go bowling. 

And there you go! Enjoy the preseason games today. Keep your fingers crossed and hope all of your players stay on the field and off the PUP list.

See you again next week, OK?

OK.