Argentinian Food Journal

A picture is worth a thousand words, right?
Well here are a few sketchbook pages from my trip to Argentina, home to coffee, wine, chocolate, pastries and red wine. All the good good bad things...

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Porridge of the Week #28 ARGENTINA SPECIAL!

Porridge of the Week #28
Dulce de Leche and Banana

Category: Flavour

Start by soaking the oats in milk. Chop up a banana (saving three slices) and mash- you could put it in a dribble of milk and quickly heat if that helps to break it down. Stir this into the porridge and then, in a ramekin or bowl, heat 3 tablespoons of Dulce de Leche- although this can be varied to taste.
Spoon the dulce de leche into the porridge whilst heating through, leaving half aside.
Finally, serve up, Top with the banana and a drizzle of leftover Dulce de Leche.

Dulce de leche (dulce- sweet, leche- milk) is a caramelised milk dessert 'sauce' that I have become addicted to whilst in Argentina. It appears the Argentinians share this passion, as they put it in most of their confectionary and puddings. I knew instantly that it would make an incredible porridge. Combined with banana, it is one of my all time favourites. (Yeah, I know...)

The amount I use is only a guide, add it to taste. You may find you too become addicted and need a lot more! I tried this porridge on a non porridge eating Argentinian local and it got the thumbs up! If you like this recipe (I cannot recommend it enough) check back for other dulce de leche themed porridge of the week ideas that I have been concocting...

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Argentinian Curanto

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If you aren't following my steady stream of excited food chatter on Twitter , then you may not realise I am currently doing some extensive food research in the land of wine, coffee, red meat, chocolate and all things toxic- I am eating in Argentina, and I thoroughly approve.

A few days ago I took a 20 hour bus from the capital of Buenos Aires to Bariloche, in the Patagonian Andes where today, I tried Caranto.

Caranto is made by cooking meat and vegetables under ground (The name Calanto comes from the type of rock on which the meat is cooked.) Pits are dug into the soil and wood is placed in them, onto which a fire is built. The fire is layered over with rocks, which are heated by the flames. It takes a few hours for the fire to heat the rocks through, after which leaves are piled onto the hot rocks to trap in the smoke and absorb the fat whilst the meat, which is placed on top, is cooked through from the heat.

My only previous experience of Caranto has been on survival documentaries, and it is something I've been keen to try, so we found ourselves a restaurant where caranto meat was being carried on trays from table to table, distributed by waitresses onto waiting plates. We arrive, and a man pulls back a heavy blanket which covers the pit of leaves, revealing a deep pit filled with whole chickens, piles of apples and lumps of blackened steaks, smoke billowing out from the piles of leaves covering the pit.

A scruffy little caranto pit.
Not a great photo! I will replace it when I get the opportunity so you can get a better idea...

Typically, you are served 5 portions of vegetables and meat- sausage, beef, chicken, lamb and my favourite (unusually) pork; with a soft, wrinkled whole baked apple. Each meat came with a variety of squash mashes and baked sweet potato, brought to the table one at a time. The meat and vegetables (and the very air of the restaurant) smells and tastes distinctly smokey, yet different -more earthy- than typical barbeque'd meat.

I'm not especially a fan of red meat or BBQ food (you may wonder what I'm doing in Argentina... Did I mention the chocolate and the wine..?) but it was nonetheless a good meal, and well worth the very traditionally South American experience.

Please check back for more Argentina posts, including recipes, experimentations with South American cuisine and illustrated gourmet guides!

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Food fact of the Day- Argentina special

Argentina eats the most beef per person in the world, all though the number is in decline, and recently Uruguay has claimed to be number one.

Latest figures say 55 kilos are consumed per person each year- that's 243 8oz steaks per year...

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Mate: A Time to Share

I am always keen to hear about food cultures and cuisines from around the Globe, with a personal passion for travel and street food. I am very fortunate to have recruited two LouLovesFood correspondents, Simon and Ayelen, in Buenos Aires, to report back on the food in a corner of the world I have yet to discover for myself.
I hope you enjoy their maiden post;


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Christmas is a time for giving and sharing, and so it seems appropriate to open our blog with the ultimate communal drink- ‘mate’.


With 98% of Argentinean homes owning the necessary paraphernalia, mate is the traditional Argentinean drink of choice. But mate is not just a drink for the home. From offices to parks, and from businessmen to bus drivers, mate is an intrinsic part of Argentinean life.

Mate is a hot herbal infusion served in a gourd and drunk through a metal straw. The main ingredient of mate is the yerba (that’s sherba to us Gringos); small dry shreds of leaves from a tree principally found in Paraguay, Uruguay, the north of Argentina and the south of Brazil.

Ingredients required for mates
1 cebador (or server)
1 gourd
1 metal straw
Yerba
Hot water (not boiling)
Group of friends and a few spare hours for talking (optional)

The cebador will prepare the mate, filling the gourd two-thirds full of yerba and any additional ingredients (more of that later). While the yerba is still dry the straw is positioned at an angle in the gourd, at which point the water is added. Some people add a little cold water first so as not to burn the leaves. When the gourd is full the cebador will take the first drink, something sometimes seen as an act of kindness due to the bitterness of the initial cup, before refilling it and passing it on to the right. Once drunk it will return to him for another refill and the process continues as the gourd makes its way around the circle, with the cebador changing a bit of the yerba every now and again so as to preserve the flavour.

Each cup should be drunk in its entirety and any English sensibilities must be resisted as regards thanking the cebador: you are not to say “thank you” until you don’t want any more! And if you get too caught up in the conversation and forget you are in possession of the precious mate, don’t be surprised to hear the words ‘no es un micrófono!’ (it’s not a microphone!)

Additional ingredients
Due to its bitter taste mate is often drunk with sugar, but that’s not the only way to have it…

Mate with orange or lemon: Warm the lemon or orange peel over direct heat and chop or grind it as best as possible, before adding to the gourd. In Paraguay it is often drunk cold with orange peel.
Mate with mountain herbs: Made of 95% yerba, 1.5% mint, 1.5% pennyroyal and 1% peppermint.
Mate with coffee: Add two teaspoons of sugar and a teaspoon of coffee to the yerba and mix.
Mate with milk: Replace the hot water with milk!

Mate language:
Bitter- indifference
Sweet- friendship
Very sweet- talk to my parents to ask for my hand
Very hot- I’m dying of love for you
Cool- contempt
Cinnamon- all I think about is you
Brown sugar- I sympathise with you
Orange peel- come find me
Coffee- offense forgiven
Milk- held in esteem
Boiling- marriage
Foamy- sweethearts

Classic accompaniments
Tortas fritas
Churros
Pastries (facturas)
Bizcochitos de grasa

I hope you've loved this post as much as I do! Thank you SO much to Ayelen and Simon for their time and knowledge, I can't wait to receive more.
If you are reading this from foreign climes and have any ideas for content that you would like to share, whether it be a national dish, recipe, tradition or local eatery, please get in touch to become a LLF correspondent too!

loulovesfood@mail.com

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