Cubanos - Cuban Pork Sandwich

I've received an e-mail from Nick, the writer of Blogtastic Food, and he invited me to do some collaboration. He created his own pulled pork recipe and started to ask other bloggers to turn it into a new dish in their creative way and when we all finish the brainstorming and post our creations, all of the recipes -based on his pulled pork recipe- will be collected in one of his future posts.

So I've started to thinking about how can I use pulled pork, when I played Chef movie in the background. I really wanted to try classic Cubanos for a long time, so why not turn these great sandwiches into Pulled pork Cubanos?

Let's see what will you need for the preparation.

Ingredients

Smokey and spicy pulled pork
Cheese slices
Pickled gherkins
Ham
Baguette
Melted butter
Mustard

Before we build the Cubanos let's talk about the ingredients from the list above, a bit more detailed:

As I mentioned earlier, I prepared my pulled pork according to Nick's recipe - click on the link in the list.
If you want to make classic Cubanos, let's use some slices from my Cuban Mojo Pork, but make sure, that you sear them on butter before you use them for the sandwiches. You can see this version of Cubanos in the second picture.
Cheese is originally any kind of Swiss cheese, but I've used matured Cheddar in the Pulled pork Cubanos and Maasdam in the Classic Cubanos.
The pickles could be pre-sliced, or you can slice them before you build the sandwiches, according to your preferences.
I used smoked ham for my Cubanos, I think it could be any type of ham, but it looks better if it's not wafer-thin.
I chose a simple baguette, but if you can find Cuban baguette or hoagie roll that's more authentic :)
I melted some premium Danish butter and used a silicone brush to cover the baguettes.
My choice was Dijon mustard cause it's tasty and colourful enough to get a nice result.

Instructions

Cut the baguette into 15 cm long pieces, then cut them in half, and toast the cut side in a cast iron grill pan, on medium heat.
Place them on a plate, spread some mustard on the top slice, then create a layer from pickles, next layer will be ham, then cheese and the pulled pork or the seared Mojo marinated pork slices, finally close the sandwich with the bottom slice of the baguette.
Use your silicon brush and cover the whole sandwich with melted butter on the outside, then place it back into the pan, and use a cast iron heavy skillet -or one of your heavy pots, like I did- to press it down a little bit. After about 1 minute turn the sandwich upside down and place your heavy skillet on it for another minute. If you have a contact grill you can use that, and that way you won't have to turn the Cubanos.
It's ready when the cheese started to melt and the crust is golden brown... like at the Chef movie!

Enjoy!

PS: Scott, thanks for the pan! :)

I'm so glad that I got an invitation to do this creative collaboration, and I'm looking forward to seeing all of the creations! Thank you, Nick!