Local Recipes

Chimichurri

This is a very typical Argentine sauce added to grilled beef, mutton chicken and piglet.

Ingredients:
½ glass of olive oil
¼ glass of wine vinegar
1 table spoonful of mashed garlic
1 small chopped onion
fine chopped parsley
½ a table spoonful of oregano
½ table spoonful of cayenne pepper
¼ table spoonful of salt
2 garlic cloves
a pich of pepper
salt and black pepper

Preparation:

Mix all the ingredients well, and let the mixture stand for a few hours before using it. You can keep it for weeks in the refrigerator.

Empanadas ( turnovers )
They could be paralleled to Mexican "tacos" or Venezuelan "arepas".

There lots of recipes with different versions on how to make empanadas, each province has its own.
Modern variants can be also stuffed with mozzarella and basil; fish; chicken; bacon and prunes; blue cheese and celery; etc, etc.

Ingredients
4 cups flour
4 tablespoonfuls of lard or butter
1/2 table spoonful salt
2 onions
1 green bell pepper
1/2 kg tenderloin
1/3 cup seedless raisins
1/4 cup green olives, finely chopped
1 bunch green onions, minced
1 hard-boiled egg, minced
paprika
salt
crushed red pepper

Instructions

Dice the beef.
Melt 2 table spoonfuls of lard or butter In a medium-size frying pan. Dice the onion, bell pepper and add to the pan. Saute over medium heat until the onion starts to turn golden.
Add the diced meat. Season to taste with salt, red pepper, and paprika. Saute, stirring occasionally, until the beef turns brown on all sides.
Remove the frying pan from the heat. Mix in the egg, the raisins, the olives, and the green onions. Allow to cool until it drops to room temperature.
While the beef filling cools, pour the flour on a smooth surface, forming a mound. Using the back of a spoon, make a depression in the center. Put 3 tablespoonful of lard in the depression. Mix and knead the ingredients until fully incorporated.
Fill a cup with warm water and dissolve the salt in warm water. Gradually incorporate this liquid into the dough, kneading 10-15 minutes until it becomes smooth and elastic.
Pull off balls of dough about the size of a golf ball. On the floured surface, roll out each ball of dough into a 10-cm-diameter circle. Flour your hands. Hold the dough circle in one hand and place1 tbsp of the filling in the center. Press and crimp the edges together to secure the filling within.
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Lightly flour a baking sheet. Arrange the empanadas on the sheet and until the pastry is golden brown, approx. 10 minutes.

(Or just go to any restaurant or bar in Argentina and order half a dozen without getting al covered in clammy ingredients.)

Dulce de Leche or Milk Jam

Ingredients

3 liters milk
800g fine sugar
2 tablespoonfuls vanilla essence
2 tablespoonfuls sodium bicarbonate

Instructions

Mix the milk, the sugar, the vanilla essence, and the sodium bicarbonate in a large pot. Cook the mixture for approximately 2 hours, stirring constantly so that the sweet does not stick to the pan, until a dense brownish paste is obtained.
Serve with cookies or toast. Can also be used as a filling for "alfajores*, Argentine crumbly, double-layered cookies.