TGC Sliders — That’s Turkey, Guava, Cream Cheese

Take a tray of Hawaiian rolls, cover with tasty ingredients, heat through in an oven, and start chomping.

“Elena Ruz” Sliders

Cuisine: Cuban | Adapted From: My Big Fat Cuban Family

Hawaiian Rolls
Turkey -- we used leftover Turkey Roulade -- but whatever you have leftover is going to be fine
Guava Paste
Guava "Cascos" -- the fleshy part of the Guava
Whipped Cream Cheese
Melted Butter

Cut the rolls in half. Top with turkey, guava, and cream cheese. replace top halves of buns. Paint tops with melted butter. Bake in a 350 degree oven for a few minutes, until everything is warmed through and melted together

The Story So Far

You know one famous Cuban sandwich — the eponymous Cubano — but you should have guessed that a culture that invented a sandwich that perfect had a strong overall sandwich game. But maybe you, like me, grew up in a part of the country without a strong Cuban presence, and you’ve never had a Medianoche or the sandwich these sliders are based on, the Elena Ruz.

I say “based on” because this recipe is twice removed from that sandwich, which originally uses strawberry jam instead of guava, is served on a whole roll, and at least in one recipe I saw, coated in mayonnaise and then griddled. Our adaptation of the slider recipe from My Big Fat Cuban Family omitted sesame seeds and bulked up the guava paste with strips of the guava “shells.” It also used the leftover Turkey Roulade recipe we had for Thanksgiving.

Variations

First, you could try the original recipe that inspired K.

Then you could try the original, full sized sandwich with strawberry preserves.

Hawaiian rolls are a good fit here because they’re slider sized and the sweetness goes well with everything else, but changing up the bread would likely change the character of the whole sandwich in fun ways.

K: The Elena Ruz sandwich is sometimes made on medianoche bread, which is a sweet, eggy bread not entirely unlike challah, so Hawaiian rolls work well with the sweetness. (The medianoche sandwich is basically the same contents as a Cuban sandwich–roast pork, ham, Swiss cheese, mustard, dill pickles–on this sweeter bread, then pressed on a plancha grill. Like el sanguich cubano, the medianoche is amazing and thinking about it makes me homesick.)