There’s nothing quite like a good Cubano sandwich. Layer on layer of pork – roasted loin, ham and salami with Swiss cheese, pickles and a schmear of mustard, pressed like a panini until the cheese is melty. On the West Coast, unless you’re at a Cuban restaurant, it’s not a sandwich you see all that often. There are exceptions – the last one I had was actually a couple of years ago at Matt’s in the Market here in Seattle. We also have a Caribbean place called Paseo that’s supposed to have a great Cubano-like sandwich. But really, there's no reason you can't make a pretty good Cubano, or perhaps more accurately here, a medianoche sandwich at home. (The main difference is the bread).
The mojo(ish)-marinated pork started as tacos for Saturday night’s dinner, but as I thought about the leftovers, Cubano-inspired pulled pork sliders seemed like the perfect lunch for us and a great idea for the Super Bowl next weekend.
Look at your cookbook shelves. How many of those books do you cook from and how many do you just skim now and again? There’s no crime in cookbook as lookbook, but I have to believe most authors are hoping you’ll actually make the recipes. With Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi’s Jerusalem
, the photos are gorgeous. It would be easy to let it just be a lookbook. But you'd be missing out. To get us cooking, not just looking, Beth of omgyummy and her friend Sarene have created a virtual cooking community centered around Jerusalem, where we’ll be cooking from the book, sharing our results and talking ingredients. Ahead of official kick-off, on Sunday I made the Barley Risotto with Marinated Feta.
Sliding in to the second week of January, it’s so-far-so-good on getting more exercise, eating more vegetables and whole grains and less meat and butter. Of course, while the new year always feels like a good time for a fresh start, I had the “benefit” of a blood test in late November that reminded me I needed to get moving and pay more attention to my cholesterol. So yeah, even if you feel like you're doing (most) of the right things, you really should have it checked every five years. Everything is documented in a food diary, and I’ll tell you, soup has been a savior as a vehicle for extra veg, beans and grains, whether its vegetarian chili, chicken tortilla, or this minestrone.
Ever get the feeling we’re all making the same 100 recipes in slightly different ways? I make a black bean salad periodically that’s just a thrown together mix of black beans, corn, red onion, tomato, sometimes cucumber and avocado with lime, cumin and olive oil, and a little salt and pepper. A few states over, it’s got black-eyed peas, jalapeno and cilantro and they call it Cowboy Caviar. Call it what you want, this salad doubles as a rustic salsa, and it’s spot on for those of us getting our vegetable on, for those watching football and for general New Year’s good luck.
After one last sip of champagne, we’re collectively about to lay down the cheesy appetizers and cookies that sustained us through December and trade them in for big bowls of salad, platefuls of roasted vegetables and after work trips to the gym. If that transition seems tough, there’s hardly a book better than Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi’s Jerusalem to inspire you. Currently ranked #57 on Amazon’s bestseller list, it’s clearly a book a lot of us got for Christmas and Hanukkah.
Everything, and I mean everything, in this book looks fantastic. Even vegetables I don’t usually care much for, like eggplant and okra, are enticingly photographed. Not knowing where exactly to start, I took Emmy’s (of Emmy Cooks) advice and started with the roasted butternut squash and red onion with tahini and za’atar. Spoiler alert: It’s DELICIOUS.
