Thursday, April 16, 2009

Don't try to eat ArgentinaaAAAA

The truth is... you should try to eat Argentinian food if you haven't yet.

Trying to relive my trip to Buenos Aires, I suggested to my cousin Carol that we put together an Argentinian style feast. Argentinians are masters at soccer, tango and best of all the art of cooking steak. Until this day I have not found a culture that prepares steak better. Though it’s very difficult to duplicate the steaks in Argentina, my cousin did a pretty damn good job at bringing these skirt steaks to par.














While the food was being prepared, Jaquie put together original Sangria. It's made with 2 bottles of Red wine, 2 shots of Brandy, 4 cups of club soda, 2 oranges, 2 lemons and 2 apples. The fruits are chopped into chunks and dropped in the mix. Make sure you squeeze the oranges and lemons before you add them to the beverage. Add sugar to taste and VoilĂ  !















The Sangria did wonders at taking our minds off the smell of lunch but we still needed something to munch on so I decided to grill the Provoleta early. Provoleta is simply Provolone cheese cut a half inch thick topped with dry oregano and grilled until the top and bottom are browning. It really takes skill at mastering the timing which was proven by the fact that I burned the first one. Luckily Jaquie will eat anything burnt. A very handy trait to have around an amateur cook.

I tasted Provoleta in Buenos Aires and thought it was genius. It's a great way to build up an appetite for a juicy steak.














I was also in charge of the Chimmichurri sauce which I got from epicurious.com. I usually try to find recipes written in Spanish because I feel the more old school, the more authentic. But I found such a variety of recipes that I figured I would give this well known site a try. It came out really good even with the extra garlic clove. Enough to deserve drenching the plate.















Realizing that Argentinian empanadas would be very time consuming, we opted for patacones more commonly known as tostones (flattened green plantains) which are traditionally served in the Caribbean and the Northern part of South America.

Additionally we had some ribs that fell right off the bone, two different kinds of rice and some homemade Mango salsa which paired lovely with the tostones.














We enjoyed the rest of the evening finishing the sangria and playing cranium. All agreed that every element of this home cooked meal was delicious. If you don’t believe me ask Puma, my cousin’s hairless cat. She was sneaky enough to steal a piece of meat from the kiddie table. I didn’t know cats ate steak.

3 comments:

  1. The provoleta looks sick! Can you send me the recipe? I'd love to make it.

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  2. Amazing pictures. So hungry.

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  3. We had lots of fun that night ......Everything was delicious!! We must do it again very soon!! Im ready for another night of cooking and games and of course SANGRIA!!! Cheers!

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