Thursday, February 26, 2009

Monte Cubano

This is the cover recipe on the March issue of Gourmet: the Monte Cubano sandwich. Take a Cuban sandwich, and instead of pressing it, dip it in egg and fry it like a Monte Cristo.

Flippin' geniuses, those people.

Monte Cubano sandwich

In a (futile) attempt to make it a wee bit healthier, I used wheat bread and left out the mayo. The "dipping in egg and frying in butter" probably negated a lot of that.

Monte Cubano sandwich

The wheat bread probably wasn't firm enough for this, but I was able to de-soggify it with a 15-minute trip to a hot oven.

Monte Cubano sandwich

Space needed: Minimal.
One plate to build the sandwich, one bowl for the egg, and a frying pan on the stovetop.

Cost: Under $5.
The ingredients for one recipe-specific sandwich come out to about $3.50 (to be exact, $3.46 according to prices here in the DC/Baltimore area). I ended up only needing one slice of cheese for full sandwich coverage, so mine came in at $2.86. That was with Boar's Head meats and Alpine Lace swiss; store brand deli products would have easily knocked this down to less than $2.50.

Recipe: Monte Cubano from Gourmet magazine, March 2009