Friday, September 28, 2007

Chimichurri Recipe


Finally, what you've been asking for: the Chimichurri recipe. Now you will be able to prepare this sauce and give your barbecues a delicious argentinian touch.
First, let me tell you some facts about Chimichurri. It is a sauce originally from Argentina that has a liquid consistence and it's used with grilled meat and chorizos. It is told that its name comes from a british called Jimmy McCurry who invented it in the 19th century. But that's one of various versions about the origin of this sauce's name.


OK, let's go with the recipe. You will need:

1/4 Cup of Water
1/2 Cup of Olive Oil
1/4 Cup of Vinegar (Red wine type will be good)
1/4 Cup of parsley, chopped in little pieces
1/2 Onion, chopped in little pieces
1/2 Red bell pepper, chopped in little pieces
2 cloves of garlic chopped in little pieces
1 spoon of dried oregano
1 spoon of paprika
1 spoon of salt
1/2 spoon of black pepper

Now let's prepare it. First, put all the ingredients except the oil, the water and the vinegar into a large bowl. Make a nice mixture with all of them. Then add the water and the vinegar and mix again. You can let it rest for 30 minutes now. After that, add the olive oil and mix one more time. Now you have the chimichurri almost ready. The only thing that you must do is to let it rest in the fridge for a whole night or even 1 o 2 days. That will give the sauce a better taste. Some people store it in the fridge even for a week or more. I hope this recipe helped you on making this great sauce. See you next time with another great recipe from Argentina!.

Friday, September 7, 2007

Argentine barbecue recipe (asado tips)


In Argentina, a barbecue is called "asado". If you are invited to an asado, you will enjoy delicious argentine meat and a nice meal with friends.
Most people here in Argentina has their own recipe for the asado. Here we will give you the most common way of preparing a great argentine barbecue.
First of all we will choose the kind of meat we will be serving and we must have in mind that one person will eat a little more than 1 pound of meat. The most popular kinds of meat in an asado are: Asado, Vacio, Entraña, Chorizo and Morcilla.
Before we start preparing the meat we must check that it's not frozen (only if it was prevously frozen, of course). If the meat is still frozen it might end up a bit raw in the center.
Then we should season the meat with salt to enhace its flavour.
To prepare the grill it is always good to clean it with paper (a newspaper will do a good job). Then we light the fire and add a mountain of charcoal to get some nice red hot charcoals that will cook our meat. It is very important that we have full control of the fire, its intensity and the distance between the grill and the fire. We must ensure that the charcoals will stay red and hot until all the meat is cooked. We will give you advices for a really great charcoals fire in future posts.
When our fire is ready, we pass to the cooking part. Always put the meat with the bone part down. If it's not a meat with bones, then you must put it with the fat part down. It's also important that you don't move the meat to another place, it has to stay in the same place untill it's cooked. Otherwise it will get too many marks from the grill pattern and that will change its flavour. If the meat needs to receive more heat, just move the hot charcoals beneath it. You should distribute the charcoals equally through all the bottom of the grill.
Half an hour after we start with the meat, we put the chorizos with some toothpicks nailed on it in order to let the fat out of the chorizo.
The morcilla only takes about 15 minutes to get ready. Some people nail it too with toothpicks.
Later, when we notice that the bone part is roasted (or the fat part, depending on the kind of meat) and the meat is half-cooked, we must turn them to cook the other side. Try not to nail it too much or it will loose its juices.
When we feel the meat is ready to be eaten... we remove it from the grill and cut it in order to serve it. It's always a good choice to eat it with some tomatoe-onion-lettuce salad or french fries, and a nice red wine.
Well, ¡that's all!. We hope you and your friends enjoy a nice argentine barbecue or, as it is called here: ¡a nice asado!.

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

5th Tango Dance World Championship review


From August 16th to 26th, 2007 the Buenos Aires Ministry of Culture held the 5th Tango Dance World Championship. Since 2003 this contest gathers in Argentina the best tango dancers of the world. Year after year this competition has turned more international. 479 couples from 154 cities from around the world participated this year, 11 of them were from Japan (the biggest representation of a non-latinamerican country).
The Tango Dance World Championship final was held on the Rural Society with more than 3,000 people enjoying the show. Argentine contestants Inés Muzzopappa and Dante Sánchez won the Salon Tango category. Between the finalists excelled many couples from Colombia, Russia, Germany, Italy, Spain, Japan and USA.
This contest comprises two categories, Salon Tango and Stage Tango. The Salon Tango category consist in all the tradicional way of dancing tango. On the other side, the Stage Tango category is sort of "fantasy tango" and includes artistic and synchronized tango dance moves.
In ten rounds, the couples danced along with music from great orchestras playing songs from famous tango composers such as Anibal Troilo and Osvaldo Pugliese. The jury was captivated by the winning argentine couple, both 20 years old. They danced amazingly with elegance and style in every step on the dance floor. Finally they won the cup and a 2,000 dollars check.