A fisherman & his family for dinner

What do you serve a fisherman and his clan for dinner? He's not a commercial fisherman, but they eat a ton of salmon and often shares it with us. Last night, I was compelled to serve something COMPLETELY opposite of light, fresh, briny seafood, the "off the hook" roasted pork sandwich. I know, again with the pork...but I love it and it's so versatile!  Did I mention that my amazing butcher has naturally raised pork and it's delicious and not expensive? This bone-in pork roast was about $4/lb! This is important as my fisherman friend and my family can EAT!

First, I sear the pork roast on all sides in my heavy bottomed, large saute pan. The searing takes about 5 minutes each side to get a substantial sear. This application is also excellent used with beef as well.

Second, place the roast into a stockpot containing 1 large can of enchilada sauce (I use mild), 1 Tablespoon each; dried cumin, dried garlic, dried oregano. I also included several stocks of fresh cilantro and 1 dried bay leaf. This simmering brew is on medium heat, lid on, for about 1/2 to 1 hour depending on your level of sear, the size of your roast and ultimately, the internal temperature should read 155 degrees in the thickest part of the roast. You could turn the pot down lower and simmer even longer if you wanted some pulled pork sandwiches, maybe 2 hours on medium-low. Any way you slice it (ha, ha!) take your roast out of the stockpot and let it rest for 15 minutes to redistribute the internal juices.

The sandwich building process is a series of personal choices, whims and what's in the fridge. I had just purchased some outstanding spicy pepper jack and aged cheddar cheeses at Costco, had tomatoes, avocados and sweet California onions from Sunny Farms.

I chose to grill the onions for this sandwich-shocking, I know:)   The pealed onions were sliced into almost inch thick rounds and grilled until tender on medium high heat for about 10 minutes or until soft and somewhat translucent. This grilling brings out even more of the natural sugars and carmelized them for another flavor component, The slightly smokiness of grilling is also pleasing to my palate.

I sliced the huge rustic loafs of french bread in half, put slices of cheddar on one half and spicy pepper jack on the other and broiled until melted. The sliced tomato, avocado, pork roast and grilled onions were piled on and fresh ground sea salt and pepper to top off the sandwich seasoning.

The buxom beauties were served with oven roasted yam fries. They're also uber-simple and the application easily to potatoes, turnips, sweet potatoes and various other tubers. Peal, slice into wedges, cubes or spears, toss in large bowl with olive oil, sea salt and pepper and roast on cookie sheet of choice for about 15 minutes on 400 degree oven set on bake, or less than 15 minutes if on convection bake. The amount of crispiness and thickness of fries will effect your cooking time as well. Be your own captain of this ship...garlic, pepper flakes, cumin, chipotle powder, fresh herbs are also interesting flavor embellishments.

Really?! I'm just sayin' "now THAT is a sandwich my friends"! My fisherman, his family and mine gobbled them up with gusto! I think you and your peoples will too.

Enjoy your day my friends.