FOODNOTE - At El Sanjuanino, in Buenos Aires

The house red immediately suffused warmth in my chest (it´s slightly cool outside after the rain, fall is coming). The wine is not bad (El vino es no mal) - it´s a house ¨blend¨ thick with tradition. The condiment on the table - a main stay - before my empanadas came, is hot chili oil - tasting it, I say, hot herb oil of Italian savor. (By the way, the wine carafe is a ceramic peguin; pretty odd but works well with the personalities here of the clever wait staff - old porteños not friendly not rude but cool.) The corn and cheese empanada is pretty tasty - the kernels pop and the pie pie is perfectly chewy and crunchy. Here comes my lorcos - squash and meat stew (wll give it a taste). Oxtail, creamy soup of distinct provenance - maybe an unknown flavor to me, certainly original; it has a hint of peanut sauce but very subtle; squash butter washed; nothing stands out; it´s just regionally good - like herbs and tendons became stock. The composition of the herb oil is really excellent with the pie; it´s polished and makes you want to drink more vine to balance. There is a very cured, crunchy hard chorizo in the locros - the stew I´m having with my pie - like it was marinated in olives and acorn for centuries, and blessed by the mission church. I can´t get enough of the oil - the herb oil - I just dumped a huge dollop on my last empa. I will fork it like a cake! FYI: The peguin carafe is only 3 bucks! It´s one of the best wines I´ve had, given the food I´m having now. The new combinations and discoveries, the relaxed (not loud) accordion orchestra piped-in Spanish fiesta music, and being in Argentina the first time, brings this country in small plates! I had written a note on a napkin about my impression here at this restaurant and had asked a solo customer (like me, but who looks Latino) to translate for me. I´m memorizing it now so I could sound impressive to the waiter when I say it to him. I think I know how to say, ¨What is the best dessert here, sir?¨ Como es el mejor el postre aqui, señor? I enjoy the fact that I can linger here. Here comes the flan! - with walnuts! and caramel nutella?! Where is the sweetness that´s run of the mill in typical Spanish flans? The intense sucre in the syrup? What is this dessert? It´s French!

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ALMOST ARGENTINA

This is, "technically," a cabbage torta - again, a Melissa Clark-inspired dinner I made last night.
Why I titled this blog "Almost Argentina" is because I'm going there next month to train with a local chef. That country's staple is empanada.

I've been really wanting to make empanadas since my travel last Christmas in Vermont, where one of the folks we met there gave me a free farm fat to render as lard, and use that in my dough. Finally, I did. (I can just imagine how I'll be doing the "real thing" in Buenos Aires at the chef's home whose offerings as presented, I might add, have a very poetic ethos photographically and journalistically.)

Here's the recipe/measurements for the dough:
1.5 cups flour, 1 cup rendered lard, 1 tsp fine salt, and 1/8 cup sugar, if you like it savory. 
(Combine, knead, ball, wrap-rest in plastic for 20 minutes, then roll pin flat to a quarter inch thin, approx 11 by 14 rectangle.)

Cook veggies this way (a new trick, bottom-up caramelizing): oil large pan, medium low heat, onions, cooked fingerlings potato, cooked garlic cloves, cabbage (in that order, onions on the bottom), and spices on top - sweet paprika, Herbs de Provence, salt and pepper, of course, a little sumac, a little za'atar, a good drizzle of vinegar- rice wine, cider, balsamic, lemon, whatever you have. The trick is - cover pan with foil, and let it alone for about 20 minutes, "mas o menos." What you'll be looking for is the blackening of the onions, and by this time all the juices have synergized, and the veggies have wilted like nature's biomass. 

Spoon over filling onto the dough at one side and grate over tons of mild easy-melt cheese recommended by your local cheesemonger,  and then flip the other side over and seal with a fork on all sides, brush beaten eggs over to color gold, and bake at 350 for about 40 minutes. And there's your "torta," for now. 

But it's almost Argentina.         
 




 

   

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"NEWSpieces"

I'm talking about the diced grapefruit rinds - my new herb. To make sense of it, meet my flour-less vegan cookie flavored with it, on top left. I toasted raw oats with diced ginger and grapefruit rinds until granola-golden. I would've used flour for this recipe, but I didn't have it. Warm cookie is a cozy feeling, I'd do it anytime, and what I have in the moment would suffice:

• 3/4 cup toasted oats-ginger-grapefruit (3:1 ratio oats-grapefruit, and just a tad of ginger)
• 1 cup cooked oatmeal porridge (just in water, but spiced with juniper berries until clumpy thick)
• 1 tbsp orange zest
•  2 tbsp baking powder
• 1 tbsp cornstarch dissolved in a little soy milk
• 2 pinches fine salt
• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup prunes-dates combo (macerated in a little olive oil)

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl until mixed through completely and adhere like a muddy ball. Before baking, grate around with nutmeg and cinnamon. On a baking sheet lined with parchment, spoon off unformed clumps of cookie mixture one at a time spaced evenly. Stick sheet in the oven that had been 375 - and in about 30 minutes (a little more not less), Spring will come. Check the bottom of the cookie - the "top soil"; it should be "earthy." Welcome home.

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HEIRLOOM ORANGE MARMALADE MINT CAKE

Winter in the city, and baking, have a natural loveliness together - because the fruits and gardens are inside your home, for the time being. I bake with a farm on mind. I make hot Grecian mountain flower Chai tea, and I slice up my cake. The recipe is exactly the same as the lemon cake two recipes back. The only difference is the added mint. Well, in your garden, you can gently pick those out.

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SALT: MINE

This "canary" is baked fries - potatoes and carrots - with a "Colombian" touch, seasoned with malty vinegar and oil. All you have to do to start "digging" is, once you've cut up the pieces, season well with salt and pepper, oil and vinegar (a Spanish sweet vinegar would be great), plus a dusting of flour for texture. Toss everything in the large bowl with your hands, making sure each piece is "exfoliated" through. Three quick squirts of fresh lemon juice would be great prior to baking. To achieve "deep-fry" crunchiness to the "potarrots," here's what you need to do: Bake at 375 on oiled baking sheet for about 30-40 minutes - checking for tenderness and browning. If soft enough, take the sheet out and switch oven setting to broil, and close door for about a minute - then return the fries in to crisp in the mine for another 7 minutes (again checking to make sure that charring is perfect at the tips and sides; please don't burn them).  Remove when done.
To serve: wrap fries with parchment paper, cone-shaped, and stick them in a white bistro bowl. And "singing," sprinkle the diamonds on top.
For the dip: combine ketchup, mayo, hot sauce and Dijon - balance to taste FIRE!  

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