So last night's neighborhood wine tasting was Caribbean themed. The food has to be what you can eat with fingers or forks only--we don't provide knives and spoons--we don't want wine glasses being knocked over by slicing elbows and we don't want people bringing food that spreads on a plate.
So I had this idea that I could use lavash bread (flat, thin and placemat sized) to encase the contents of a typical Cuban sandwich--I've used this 'bread' to make variations on grilled cheese sandwiches before and they would hold easily for reheating on site, so why not.
They were the most popular food item at last night's tasting! And they couldn't have been easier: all the ingredients came from Trader Joe's and Costco. I'm almost ashamed to admit I didn't even smoke my own pork--I was going to but then discovered that Costco sells shredded smoked pork, and I didn't have a lot of free time last week so heck.
The ingredients were lavash bread, dijon mustard, sliced Havarti cheese, sliced lunchmeat ham, pickles sliced in lengths and that smoked pork. The assembly went bread, mustard, Havarti (two rows of 2.5 slices to cover the bread, this is the glue), ham (three slices, the Costco ham is about 3.5" x 7"), a stripe of pickle slices, and pulled pork on top of the pickles. Roll very tightly, line up in a cookie sheet, then top with a weight to compress (I put another sheet on top then stacked a few iron skillets on it). After about ten minutes' press, you'll now have tubes of sandwich about 1" tall, 2" wide and about 10" long that will slice into about 11 individual 'sandwiches' (when you cut them later). To complete the pre-prep, pan sear to get brown and crisp upper and lower outer sides then place on rack on a shallow baking pan. At party time, toss the tray into a 400 F oven for about 15-20 minutes to heat thru. Allow to cool for about five minutes, then slice and remove to a platter.
For service, it's best if you lay the sandwiches on their sides. Think of a sushi roll--it's easier to eat when biting into it cut-side up, plus they look cool. Teeth mashing down on top of the flat sides might squish out the contents.