World Yums

April 29, 2011 2:13 am

Argentine Recipe: Caramel-filled Butter Cookies

These pastries are called alfajores in the native Spanish language of Argentine. These treats are consumed at any meal, between meals, and at tea.

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cups sifted flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 pound butter, softened
1 teaspoon lemon zest
4 egg yolks, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup dulce de leche
1 cup grated and sweetened coconut, fresh or dried

Directions:

Combine flour, salt, sugar and baking soda in a bowl. Cut in the butter with a pastry blender or 3 knives. Work in the lemon zest then mix in the egg yolks and vanilla. Shape the dough into 2 balls and chill for 2 hours.
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees of Fahrenheit. On a floured surface, roll out each ball of dough to a thickness of 1/4 inch. Cut into 2-inch rounds and transfer the rounds to a Silpat-lined cookie sheet with a spatula. Bake 15 minutes or until done. The cookies will be dry but not brown.
When the cookies are cool, spread 1/4-inch thick layer of dulce de leche
(caramel filling) on one cookie and top it with another. Press together gently and roll the seam of each sandwiched cookie in grated coconut.

Makes 25 sandwiched cookies.

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April 29, 2011 2:07 am

Argentine Recipe: Orange Honey Almond Cake

Recipe adapted and adjusted, original recipe “Orange Cake” adapted from Shirley Lomax Brooks’s cookbook Argentina Cooks! My modifications were making half of the sugar honey instead. This created a denser, moister cake. I also topped the iced cake with chopped, shelled almonds. Another difference is that I used a standard 13 x 9 inch baking pan with the same temperature, but a slightly shorter time by five to ten minutes or so.

Ingredients:

1 cup butter, softened
2 cups sugar
4 whole eggs plus 2 egg yolks
1 3/4 cups flour
1 1/2 cups blanched and finely ground almonds
2 cups confectioners’ sugar
grated rine of 1 orange
1/4 cup orange juice

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit. Cream the butter and gradually add the sugar. Beat the mixture until it is light and fluffy. Add whole eggs and extra yolks one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in the flour and almonds and pour the mixture into 9-inch tube pan lined on the bottom with waxed paper. Bake for 1 hour, or until a clean broom straw or wooden toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Turn the cake out on plate and allow it to cool.
To make the frosting, mix confectioners’ sugar with orange rind and orange juice until smooth. While still warm, spread the cake with the frosting.

Serves 6 to 8.

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April 29, 2011 2:01 am

Argentine Recipe: Cucumber Salad

Recipe adapted from Shirley Lomax Brooks’s cookbook entitled Argentina Cooks! This is a simple and refreshing first-course, using simple and basic ingredients. Note that English cucumbers are more similar to the real recipe than American cucumbers, because the American variety is waxed on the outside and needs to be peeled.

Ingredients:

2 cucumbers (peeled if waxed) and thinly sliced
1 teaspoon salt
2 medium tomatoes, peeled and choppedc
2 tablespoons olive oil
Juice from 1/2 lime
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Mix cucumbers with salt and let stand for 30 minutes. Rinse and drain cucumbers thoroughly. Add tomatoes and toss with oil. Remove seeds from lime and squeeze lime juice over the salad. Season with salt and pepper.

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April 29, 2011 1:56 am

Argentine Recipe: Chimchurri Sauce

Adapted from Shirley Lomax Brooks’s cookbook entitled Argentina Cooks! Chimchurri sauce is a necessary element in an Argentine asado. Also, it is often eaten with broiled or roasted poulty as a sauce, or beforehand it helps marinate the meat.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup olive oil
1 1/2 cups red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons hot paprika or 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 bunch fresh parsley leaves, minced
1 teaspoon crushed black peppercorns
2 teaspoons dried oregano
2 bay leaves, crumbled
1 teaspoon salt

Directions:

In a large jar, combine the oil, vinegar, paprika, garlic, parsley, peppercorns, oregano, bay leaves, and salt. Cover the bottle and shake well to mix the ingredients. Refrigerate the chimchurri until ready to use. Moisten the cooked meats in each course with a little of the sauce and serve the remaining sauce in a sauceboat at the table.

Makes about 2 1/2 cups.

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April 29, 2011 1:50 am

Argentine Recipe: Pan-Grilled Steak

Recipe adapted from Argentina Cooks! by Shirley Lomax Brooks. This is such a simple, simple, simple way to cook meat. I’m not even a fan of steak. However, after trying this recipe, I love it! - at least this recipe’s one. All you need is olive oil and salt.

Ingredients:

4 beef steaks, 1 inch thick
1/2 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons coarse kosher sea salt

Directions:

Marinate the steaks in olive oil for at least 30 minutes. Drain off the oil - leaving a light film of oil on the steaks - and salt the steaks on both sides. Heat a well-seasoned cast-iron skillet over a high setting. When hot add the steaks and char on one side. Turn the heat down to medium and continue cooking for about 4 minutes for medium rare. Turn the steaks with tongs and turn up the heat to high. Be careful not to cut into the steaks while turning so that they don’t lose any of the juices. Sear the second side of the steaks, then turn the heat to medium and cook for another 3 minutes for medium rare. Add 2 to 3 minutes per side for well-done steaks. Serve with a green salad, Aji Asado (roasted marinated peppers), and Papas al Horno (roasted potatoes).

Serves 4.

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Buenos Aires

April 28, 2011 11:56 pm

The capital of Argentina is Buenos Aires. It is an outwardly ultra cosmopolitan city, often called the “Paris of Latin America”. Haute couture is commonly sported, and cuisine can match the high standards. The city is similar in feel to a Western European city. However, beneath this cosmopolitan and sophisticated surface, there is the Latin American passion for life. Buenos Aires is just as sensual and seductive as it is cosmopolitan.

Tango

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The Cordoba Region

April 28, 2011 11:49 pm

Cordoba is a favorite vacation spot for many Argentines, but it is often overlooked by outsiders. It is a very picturesque and simplistically beautiful. There are gently burbling rivers from the mountains and hills in the Sierras de Cordoba of the Andes foothills, all the way to the sea. The riversides house many idyllic villages. These rivers are not very creatively named Primer, Segundo, Tercero, and Cuarto - First, Second, Third, and Fourth. People often picnic alongside the rivers. The rivers themselves run with supposedley therapeutic mineral waters, originating from the mountain tops with crystal streams and rocky waterfalls.

The cuisine here is also simple as well as traditional. It is more conservative than Buenos Aires. The cuisine is full of creole food and dishes like empanadas and crudites with fancier dips. There are many distinguished churches and universities here, amonth the largest and most respected in Latin America. Cordoba is the center for education, fine arts, archietecture, and other forms of high culture.

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What is an Asado?

April 28, 2011 11:41 pm

If beef (and meat in general, really) is such a signifcant part to the Argentine cuisine, it’s no wonder that barbecues are just as essential. Beef is often cooked until medium, rather than rare like it is more commonly prepared in the United States. Another difference between the American and Argentine culinary ways with beef is that Americans commonly cook the T-bone steak, whereas it is not common in Argentina. Also, most meats in Argentina, in line with their cuisine’s philosophy, is very simple. It is only marinated in seasoned olive or grapeseed oil, then salted, then grilled over charcoal.

Beef

So, what is the barbecue called? An asado. These asados are a common part of the culture. The Argentine people are very friendly, and very easily welcome visitors, even foreigners, to their home-based asados. These home-based asados are all-day events, featuring a variety of grilled meats. Preparation begins in the morning, while guests arrive around noontime. The multiple courses are served when they are ready from the grill. First is a beef or pork sausage. Next is the chinchulines: crunchy, salty, grilled small intestines. This is not the most appealing of foods to one from the United States. However, in Argentina, animal organs and other various parts, such as the inkbags of an octopus, are used in cooking too. After the chinchulines is another organ meal, usually with kidney, sweetbreads, hearts, and sometimes mountain oysters.

Asado

A large group asado may roast an entire quarter of beef, a whole lamb, or a whole pig. A smaller group may roast a whole baby lamb or kid. Do not be alarmed - kid is a goat meat, not referring to human children. Sides include a variety of simple marinated vegetable and/or fruit salads, chimichurri sauce, and roasted marinated peppers. Desserts are simple, like a fruit bowl or alfajores, or filled cookies. The asado ends with the setting sun for these home-based asados. However, there are also asados in restaurants that the Argentines frequently eat at as well.

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The Pampas Region

April 28, 2011 11:23 pm

The Pampas are a very unique region in Argentina. It is truly the heartland of the country. Dry in the grasslands, the Pampas form an arc around Buenos Aires with many estancias, or cattle ranches. Besides the dry zone, there is also a humid zone.

Pampas map

When the Spaniards left the area to live in Uruguay for a more laid-back lifestyle than the heavier ranchwork here, they left behind many cattle and horses that have since multiplied and multiplied in population. Also, the native people of the area have burned the scrub growth on the ground, and as a result, grasses have flourished for an even more optimal environment for animals and game.

Las Pampas

With all the horses and ranches, it is no wonder how the legendary gauchos lived and impacted the area. Gauchos are independent and self-reliant cowboys. The local cuisine, with the influence of such gauchos, is simplistic, wholesome, and oriented around beef. For example, the fairly common stew dishes in this area of the country feature 3-4 inch squares of beef, whole onions, yams, and potatoes, and oversized carrots. All the quantities are gigantic while the ingredients are few and basic.

Los Gauchos

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Week 2: Argentina

April 28, 2011 11:06 pm

Moving to the opposite side of the world and hemisphere, I have made the random and spontaneous decision to explore Argentina this week. I have never met someone from Argentina, nor am I very familiar with their culture, so it is going to be an enigmatic start. However, after researching some of the distinct regions, I have already fallen in love with the place.

Argentina map regions

Argentina is the second largest country in South America, and it is as long as the United States is wide. This means a lot of variety in geography. The country is most famous for its meat, as it is the number one producer of grass-fed beef in the entire world, along with corn and wheat. As for wine, it’s also at the top at number five. Basically, from my impression of the country based on what I’ve been researching and experiencing so far, the country is abundant with life - food, drink, and the latino “vivacity”, as author Shirley Lomax Brooks of Argentina Cooks! articulates it. It’s true. Dinnertime is at 10:00 pm, when the night is only just beginning for many. Wine is drinken by all ages of the population, including children, and at all meals except for breakfast. Beef and other poultry is also consumed at most meals, in many courses, and everyday. The poultry is all free-range as well! This just goes to show how natural and abundant the country is in foodstuffs.

Night life

So, who are the Argentine people? Ethnically speaking, Argentines are the descendants of the European immigrants who first came to the country. These people came from Spain, Eastern Europe, the British Isles, France, Italy, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and later, Yugoslavia, Greece, and Levant. There are also local Indian tribes within the country. This cultural and ethnic mix made its impact on the cuisine. Argentine cuisine is Italian with a Spanish flair, dependent on quality ingredients while less reliant on spices (a true deviation from last week’s Indian cuisine!), generally meat-centered, and overall very simple and hearty.

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World Yums

argentina cuisine

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Buenos Aires

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The Cordoba Region

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What is an Asado?

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The Pampas Region

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Week 2: Argentina

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