Grounded
Wednesday, November 17, 2010 at 8:39PM Lunch sucks. I haven't eaten a a homemade lunch in several years. I don't even know what one consists of. For the last four years, I've been travelling the country and eating all of my meals out on weekdays. Eating out gets old, but it still beats a lifeless brown bag special. The only redeeming quality of weekend lunches are that they aren't actually lunches at all, but brunches--with bacon. Now that I find myself home for a week, what am I supposed to amiably eat at noon?
The first step of the solution is to create a grocery list. After much thought, I write down 'bread' and 'lunch meat.' Sounds pretty lousy. Great sandwiches consist of more than two cold, heartless ingredients thrown on top of each other. I need great bread, great meat, and great condiments. This obvious award winning combination inspires me to make my own lunch meat. Cold cuts aren't going to cut it this time. I need hot cuts from a slowly roasted side of pork.
First I take a side of pork and rub it down with cumin and salt. Next, I cut slits in the pork and fill them with garlic cloves and chipotles. Then, I rub the whole beast with adobo sauce. The roast goes in a pan with filled with crushed tomatoes, any remaining chipotles, golden raisins, garlic cloves, cilantro stems, and water, which is then placed in a preheated 250 Dg oven for 4-5 hours. Every hour, I baste the roast.
Once the pork is cooked through, I pull it from the oven for slicing. The pan is filled with a smoky salsa roja, enhanced with pork fat, which will be served as the sandwich's main condiment. I gently place the sliced pork on a toasted bolillo (a savory Mexican-style baguette), then slather with the salsa roja from the pan. Finally, I garnish with pickled red onions and crumbled queso ranchero, then top with the other half of toasted bolillo. The result is a bite of moist, tender pork engulfed in a spicy salsa roja, combined with the cooling, creamy taste of queso ranchero and the sweet, acidic crunch of the pickled red onions between two pieces of chewy, toasted bolillo. I never knew lunch could actually be enjoyable.
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Escabeche de Cebolla, Lunch, Mexican, Pork, Queso Ranchero, Sandwich in Food, Recipe 
Reader Comments (4)
Nice! What time is lunch tomorrow? Haha! Looks very tasty. Boneless pork?
It could be boneless pork. I used a leg. So raw 'ham' or even shoulder would work great! The cruel part is I started it right before I got called to Dallas, so it's sitting in the fridge all by itself right now.
So let me get this straight....I THINK about lunch at 5 am, GO to the grocery/butcher shop at 6 am, put the roast in the OVEN by 8 am, slice roast and build the sandwich and eat around 12? I'll think about it. Does sound pretty goo
d tho.
Toni, that's a 3 lb roast! You could cook it all Sunday, and just eat it on sandwiches throughout the week. Eating well is all about planning :D