The Cubano sandwich goes uptown

So what do you do when you have five delicious smoked pork tenderloins and not enough mouths to finish them off? Well, you give some away to friends and family -- then you think up a clever ways to use the leftovers. In my case, this means a twist on a classic street food: the Cubano sandwich.

A Cubano is usually made up of a couple of slices of pork loin, some ham, cheese, and pickles with mustard on a fresh white bun. Yah - it's tasty, but given its All-Star ingredients (two types of pork man!) I always felt it under-performed a bit. With one pork loin leftover from my experiment a few weeks back sitting in the freezer I figured I'd use it as the base for my own spin on the Cubano classic.  

Instead of ham I substituted pancetta, which I cooked up in a grill pan:   
   

Stepping in for the pickle slices was some raddichio, which I grilled as well to take away some of its bitterness.

 

Next I whipped up  a quick garlic mayo and slapped it all together in a fresh whole-wheat bun. Add a salad (my wife's idea) and a rhubarb soda (my wife's good idea) and there you have it: the Uptown Cubano:

Oops -- forgot the token pickles on the side. Let's try that again.... 

I demand my close-up!:

Humility aside (y'know, because I'm known far and wide for being humble) this is a really, really good sandwich: it's succulent, salty, sweet, garlicky --- and I even forgot to add the avocado which my wife insists would have made this nosh a true All-Star. The Steve Nash of sammys!

Here's the recipe:

Uptown Cubano Sandwich 

One crusty soft white(ish) bun
Three slices of smoked pork tenderloin (recipe here)
Two slices of crispy pancetta
Sliced radicchio
One ripe avocado 
Olive oil
Salt and pepper
1- 2 Garlic cloves (to taste)
Mayonnaise
Pickles

1) Make garlic mayo: chop garlic very fine and mix with about 1/4 cup mayonnaise. Let site for 15 min.
2) Grill pancetta on a grill pan or BBQ; set aside.
3) Slice Radicchio (including core) into 1/2 inch slices. Brush with olive oil and sprinkle with a little salt and pepper.
4) Grill on a grill pan or BBQ until soft and showing grill marks.
5) Slice avocado.
6) Sandwich assembly:
Slice the buns, spread on garlic mayo to taste, add pork, pancetta, radicchio and avocado.
Serve with a pickle on the side, and a lightly dressed green salad.

Smoked Pork Tenderloin (or a four-step process to converting your vegetarian friends into unapologetic meat-lovers)

I usually approach new recipes for ye olde smoker with an ounce of caution, in part because I have so many good ones in rotation already. But when I came across this unique one for smoked pork loin in Extreme Barbeque a couple of months ago, I'll admit my interest was piqued. 

Here's the thing: I typically don't stray too far from lower-end, fatty cuts of meat when it comes to smoking. I've tried leaner cuts a couple of times (baby back ribs and a rack of lamb) and the results were pretty lackluster. not sure if it's something about the amount of fat, but in general the pricier the cut of meat the less tasty it seems to turn out. Plus, there's sort of an unspoken ethos among smokers that is all about elevating humbler "lower" cuts of meat into kick-ass creations.  So starting with a blue-ribbon piece of meat seems like a massive cheat.

In this case I made an exception, in part because this recipe looked challenging - and in part because there was a great deal on pork loin at my local grocery store. Warning: this recipe is pretty challenging. It involves a fairly time-consuming four-step process that will probably scare most novices away. But it's worth the work.

I have given this recipe a spin twice this year (thrice if you count some pork chops I used) and it has been met with success and high-fives all around. The first time I smoked five pork loins, and if my curious, hungry neighbours can be considered good judges, this one immediately earned a spot on my summer rotation. One pal -- a committed vegetarian -- said it was the single best thing he had eaten in 20 years.

Before you start make sure you give yourself 24 hours. That's the time frame you'll need to complete the brining, rubbing, smoking and glazing that this recipe entails. Sounds time-consuming, I know, but as with all good smoked food most of the time is the meat just sitting in a fridge, brining/curing. That's definitely the case with this recipe.

Step One: Brine-baby-brine.

Immerse your pork loins in a large bowl of cold water that includes equal parts brown sugar and kosher salt or sea salt. Add extra seasoning as desired (here, I've tossed in an onion, a few garlic cloves, some peppercorns and a few bay leaves. celery is good too.) Pop the bowl in your fridge overnight.

Step Two: There's the rub.

Take the meat out of the brine and pat dry. It'll look like this: 

Then apply a dry rub that consists two tbsps each of: black pepper, white pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, paprika and chili powder. If you don't like it spicy reduce the amount of chili powder and replace it with some sugar (white or brown). They should now look like this:

Step Three: Smoke 'em.

I put these in for about 2.5 hours at a general temp of about 200 F. I opted for some cherry and some apple wood for the smoke.

Step Four: Glazing over.

I usually avoid glazes or bastes, but this one is an integral part of the final product with fruity flavours that set off the spice of the rub and the saltiness of the brine really well. Just heat up 1/2 cup fruit jelly (white grape, peach or apple will do) in a pot with an equal amount of BBQ sauce (or ketchup, really), two tbsps of cider vinegar and the juice from 1/2 a lemon.

When the cooking time is about up, slather this mix over the pork -- three to for times each side should do.

Here's the final product fresh out of the cooker. (The rock glass of whiskey is optional -- though comes highly recommended.)

And here it is, sliced and ready to serve.

I can't speak highly enough about this recipe. It's great the first night as a main course, and makes for a great sandwich the next day -- especially if you get a little fancy. But more on that in another post. I think the secret here is the brining, which gives the pork a sweet, sugary tenderness unlike any other.

If you try this out, let me know what you thought in the comments below.