Cuban Sandwiches

Sharon and I partnered again with Mike and Anita to host a party in the building and invite a few of our friends.  This time, with the summer well on its way (or at least as far as it seemed we were going to get it), we decided to use the terrace and cook on the grill.

To make it easy on us, and be able to feed the almost 30 attendees, we decided to make Cuban Sandwiches.  With that excuse, we bought a few Cuban flags and made it a Cuba Libre party.  The excuse seemed to suit everybody.

The pork had a dry rub of powdered dry mushrooms, brown sugar, sweet and spicy Spanish pimenton (paprika), cumin seeds, fennel seeds, coriander seeds, salt and pepper.  Along with the pork and as the traditional recipe called, we included ham, cheese, pickles and mustard.  Instead of Cuban bread, we used French baguettes (the take and bake kind).  

The biggest problem we had was that we did not have a press large enough for the sandwiches (ore so since we had nine baguettes (including some that had just roasted veggies and chèvre).  To make up for that, we placed two cookie sheets upside down on the grill and buttered the top surface.  We then placed the sandwiches on top and then paced another two cookie sheets on top which were weighted with some brinks (I was told not to ask were they came from).

The result was terrific and very well received.  We also served a very fresh black bean soup sort of reminiscent of a gazpacho and more traditional black beans and rice with lots of cumin.  For dessert, we had a tres leches cake which the bakery decorated with another Cuban flag.  A great summer afternoon to remember.