Argentinean cuisine

Empanadas - Argentine dumpling ( pie) ?

Spanish contribution to the world’s culinary art is also the famous empanada - „rolled in bread”, i.e. a kind of a large stuffed dumpling. Every region in Argentina has its own empanada, which differs one from another above all with their size and stuffing. They may be fried or roasted. If they are fried, they are fried only on lard. Round dough should not exceed 15 cm in diameter. Classic stuffing for empanadas is made of beef. According to the traditional recipe beef needs to be cut into fine pieces, but at present mostly minced meat is used. Then onion, raisins, olives and one hard-boiled egg are added to the stuffing. Emapanada does not necessarily have to contain meat. In Argentina there are also empanadas with yellow cheese and ham, with spinach and bacon or with chicken. It also happens that they have sweet stuffing but then they are called pastel or pastelito. Epanadas should be eaten using hands, with Argentinean red dry wine. In Argentinean cuisine there are also strong influences of the Latin American countries. These are dishes where the main ingredient is corn, mainly boiled, e.g. locro (soup for cold days – made of corn and meat), humita (made of corn and white cheese), tamales (a dish made of meat, corn and other vegetables, rolled in corn leaves and then boiled). Argentineans like red meat the best, but they also willingly eat fish and frutti di mare. In rivers they have excellent fish, such as dorado or surubí. They taste best roasted with different kinds of herbs on a grill. 

 

Yerba mate

A traditional drink in Argentina is tea yerba mate, whose exceptionality consists in the way it is served. And this is the way – it should be served in small, special cups made from gourd, wood or porcelain, through a metal straw with a sieve at the end.

  

 Grilled meat - Argentine specialty

Cattle which came to Argentina because of the Spaniards quickly got used to immense flatlands and in no time started to feel at home. As the time passe, the aborigines learned to hunt them on horses. This is how the ethos of the famous Argentinean gaucho was created – gaucho being „he who knows the secret of preparing meat”. We can meet them even today. The only means of transportation of a real gaucho is a horse, and wonderful flatlands with animals grazing there for the year round are his whole life.
If we get to be at someone’s place for a BBQ, which is simply loved by Argentineans, you must be aware that the food portions are going to be huge. We also have to be prepared that besides meat there might also be other animal parts on the grill, such as testicles or guts, which for some may cause the feeling of repulsion. Meat, before roasting, should be set away for a few hours in chimichurri – i.e. in a pickle based on garlic, parsley, bay leas, salt, oil and a little vinegar or lemon. During roasting the liquid can also be poured on everything that is on the grill.