Don’s ‘Fidel’ Sandwich

OK, normally this would be “A Cuban”

But Don’s ‘take’ on the Cuban is so far off mark, it needs to be called something else. So, of course, it needed to be something left of a Cuban (1950s) , and that would be Fidel.

While we love Cuban sandwiches, Don is not big on the hard, pressed cuban bread. No sandwich should physically hurt to eat it. Thus the he created the “Fidel”. The recipe below is not based on volume. Just what you need for a single sandwich. We usually cook two sandwiches at a time in a large skillet. Two sandwiches takes about 10 minutes.

Ingredients

2 pieces of Italian 5 grain bread. This is a sturdy five grain bread with texture and taste. You could pull this off with a whole grain bread as well. But don’t try this with an Italian or French bread.

1 slice of quality ham. We use Publix Tavern ham, Boar’s Head  is good too.

1 handful of pulled pork (more on this later)

4 thin slices of Monterey jack or Swiss cheese. We like Jalapeno Jack too.

2 slices of kosher dill sandwich pickles

Mustard

Some margarine / butter

Instructions

Heat up a small skillet and melt a small amount of margarine (we like Earth Balance) or butter. Put down your two slices of bread to heat them up.

Heat up your pulled pork in the microwave to warm, just 30 seconds for a sandwich worth. Again pulled pork recipe to follow. We love it when we can pull it right off the cooker.

With a plate on the side, pull off one slice of bread, toss a slice of ham into the pan to heat up.

If your pickle is cold, take two slices and toss them into the pan.

At this point you should be looking at a pan with a slice of bread, two pickle slices and a slice of ham.

With the microwave beeping to warm the pulled pork, open it and dump the handful of pork on the slice of bread. Lay on the cheese. Squirt on some mustard. Lay the heated pickles on top. Lay the slice of ham. Put the other slice of bread on top.

Press with spatchula. Cook for a minute. Flip the whole thing and press again. Look for a golden brown on both sides. We try to only flip it once. Sometimes we’ll cover the first heating with a large sauce pan top, but if you keep the heat low, you won’t need to.

The goal here is to have both halves dry and cooked solid. Otherwise your sandwich is falling apart. If you’re crisp on both sides, and the cheese is melted, you’re good. Serve right off the pan.

Place sandwich on plate and cut in half.

Enjoy the best sandwich you’ve had this year.

If you cooked your own pulled pork..that is.

…………..

Worth the effort?

This may seem nuts for a sandwich, and it is.

BUT, we tend to have everything we need for this laying around except the pulled pork. So, when we cook pulled pork, we have cubans for several days, and we freeze what we don’t eat, so when we de-thaw a pile of pork…yup, it’s Fidel Time again.

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Pulled Pork

Pulled pork? We’ve covered this with our Orion Cooker. It’s simple, a rub with garlic salt, pepper, a little Lowreys and ground pepper. Cook a Boston Butt for 2 hours and bingo…pulled pork. Once the cook is done, we package most of it and freeze.

So, when we have a pile of pulled pork from either a fresh cook, or de-thawing some frozen, we almost always have the ingredients for a Fidel around…and that means GOOD EATS for several lunches.