Perfect Comfort Food: Pork Tenderloin Cubano Style | Vicki James
I wrote this blog post during the pandemic. Although the sheltering at home phase is behind us, I thought we should revisit the wonderful recipe.
Sheltering at home during the pandemic made me crave comfort food. I think many of us wanted dishes we all knew and loved in our childhood. Meatloaf, mac and cheese and fried chicken were especially appealing. Covid made it risky out there and staying with the good old tried and true felt right. It remains a part of our current nostalgia for simpler times.
Covid locked us in. So, maybe you were thinking more about travel and escape.
Although we could not physically journey to exotic ports of call, that doesn’t mean we couldn’t take our taste buds on a trip- to Cuba! That is exactly what this recipe does.
I am wildly in love with this recipe. It’s piquant, meaty, cheesy, and tangy all at the same time, with the best flavors of your favorite Cubano sandwich rolled into divine slices. I can hear the rattle of the maracas and feel the heat of the tropical nights. Are those steel drums playing in the distance? Serve the pork with black beans and rice and see if you don’t feel like you’re on vacation. It’s the flavor break that brings pure food joy.
Ingredients
1 pound whole pork tenderloin
2 tablespoons whole grain Dijon mustard
1/3 cup chopped cilantro
3 slices Swiss cheese
3 slices of Black Forest ham, paper thin.
1/3 cup chopped bread and butter pickles
Salt and pepper
Kitchen twine
Cut four pieces of kitchen twine in equal lengths.
Slice the pork tenderloin in half, without cutting it all the way through. You want to be able to open it like a book. Pound the meat with a kitchen mallet until it is the thickness of a thin chicken cutlet. Place the lengths of kitchen twine under the meat. Later, you are going to roll it up like a jelly roll and will need the twine to tie it so that it stays in place while cooking. Spread the mustard all over the pork. Sprinkle the chopped cilantro down the center portion of the tenderloin.
Halve the cheese slices and lay them down in the center of the pork, lengthwise. Follow with the ham slices. Lastly, sprinkle the chopped pickles down the center. Salt and pepper the meat.
Starting with the long side of the meat, roll it up carefully so that the filling stays inside the roll. Tie the ends of the twine together to keep all the yummy bits from coming out. Having an extra finger in the house helps. If you are by yourself, it may be easier to use toothpicks or skewers.
Grill the pork over charcoal for about 20 – 25 minutes. Allow it to rest for 5 minutes before slicing crosswise into 12 pieces.
The recipe should serve 4 with 3 slices each. Some Cubano lovers might find it easily consumed by two. No one I know, of course. But with some great sides, it should be plenty for 4.
Bonus: unlike a Cubano sandwich, it’s a low carb delight. If you used dill pickles instead of bread and butter pickles, it might even be Keto. Not being a nutritionist, I can’t say for sure. A three slice serving clocks in at just over 200 calories. Drink rose wine with the meal (sadly, this is not included in the 200 calories). Enjoy the break in your comfort food routine. You can always have meat loaf tomorrow!
Vicki James
Havana Cuba Photo by Alexander Kunze on Unsplash