Chimichurri!

Thats right Chimichurri!  (Chi - mi - chu - rri)  If you have enjoyed bar-b-que Uruguayan style, then there is a good chance you have also had the pleasure of trying Chimichurri.  Typically it is used as a sort of 'spread' on your juicy bar-b-qued meat to give it an extra little kick!  In most cases however it is a mix of parsley, garlic, oil and vinegar, but what I am gonna show you now, is a little bit different.  It is a must try if you are doing your own asado at home!

Ingredients:

1/2 cup olive oil

1 1/2 cup red wine vinegar (I ended up using Balsamic for my pictures)

2 tbsp hot paprika or 1 tsp cayenne pepper

4 garlic cloves, minced

1 bunch of fresh parsley leaves, minced

1 tsp crushed black peppercorns

2 tsp dried oregano

2 bay leaves, crumbled

1 tsp salt

Find yourself a large jar and combine the oil, vinegar, paprika, garlic, parsley, peppercorns, oregano, bay leaves and salt.  

Cover the jar and shake well until the ingredients have mixed thoroughly.  Refrigerate the Chimichurri until you are ready to use it.  Now the next time you have an asado, you can liberally brush some on your cooked meat and enjoy!

Alfajores!

Hello again!  This is somewhat of a continuation of my last post about Dulce de Leche.  Alfajores aren't easy to find (at least here in Canada) unless you go to a specialty store.  So for those of you that haven't had the chance to try them, they are essentially two shortbread cookies with Dulce de Leche in between them and lined with coconut.  Sometimes you can get them chocolate dipped - which is my personal favourite.  For this post however, well do it the original way with no chocolate.

Ingredients:
1 3/4 cups sifted flour
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 pound butter, softened
1 tsp lemon zest
4 egg yolks, lightly beaten
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup dulce de leche
1 cup grated coconut

Method:

Combine the flour, salt, sugar and baking soda in a bowl.  Cut in and combine the butter and lemon zest.  Next mix in the egg yolks and vanilla.  Once combined, place dough in the fridge for 2 hour.

Preheat your oven to 325F.  On a floured surface, roll out the dough to 1/4 inch thickness.  Using a small glass or other mold, cut out 2 inch diameter circles.  Transfer them to a wax papered baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes or until they look done.  They should not be brown, but should be dry.  I don't like mine to be too hard, so I take them out a bit earlier.

Once the cookies are cool, spread about a 1/4 inch thick layer of dulce de leche on one cookie and top with another.  Then you can roll the edges in the coconut.

And your done!  I hope you enjoy these, they are not everyones favourite, but I like them!

Dulce De Leche

Here is another recipe for you all that I got from my new book on Argentine cooking.  I am sure many of you have tried Dulce de Leche in one form or another.  It has become quite popular in the last couple of years with companies coming out with lattes and ice creams of that flavour.  Most of the time it doesn't seem to taste quite right though.  At least in my opinion of course ;)  Either way, it was and still is one of my favourite sweet indulgences.

There are two basic ways to make Dulce de Leche.  One way is using condensed milk and the other is this way I am going to show you now.  Either way works, although I must say that the condensed milk produces a bit of a better dulce to work with.  I will eventually post how to make it that way as well.

Oh and just a warning - making Dulce de Leche is a timely process.  So don't attempt to make this if you need it quickly or have to go out.  No matter how you make it, with condensed milk or otherwise, it can take several hours.

This recipe should make roughly 1 cup of dulce.

Ingredients:

2 cups milk

3/4 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla

dash baking soda

Method:
Combine the milk, sugar and baking soda in a small saucepan and bring the mixture to a boil.  Lower the heat and keep the mixture to barely a simmer for about 2 1/2 hours while stirring occasionally.

Eventually over time your mixture will begin to take on a golden color like this:

Once it starts to gets to a thick and spreadable consistency (something like peanut butter) you can add the vanilla and let it cool.  This is what mine looked like just before I removed it from the heat.

 

As I was saying before, this is only one way of cooking this.  Hopefully soon I can post the other way of doing it and you can decide which tastes better.  Worth a try either way! Enjoy!