Monthly Archive: February 2012

Let them eat cake

Sunday, February 26, 20120

Crab pionono

Buenos Aires Herald
On Sunday supplement
Food and Wine

On a purely observational basis as an outsider, it’s pretty clear that Argentines have a sweet tooth, or is that sweet teeth? Some days it seems there is a confectionary on every block in the city, tempting us with pastries, cakes, tarts, cookies, and more. Kiosks and drugstores display rack after rack of candies, cookies and the ubiquitous alfajores.

So it’s not really a surprise to find that, while not topping the charts, Argentina racks up an impressive per capita consumption of sugar – pretty much only coming in behind Brazil and Australia, and more or less tying for third place with Thailand at a bit over a whopping 40 kilos per person annually. Brazil and Australia, just for the record, come in at just over 60 and 50, respectively.

One of the oddest concoctions here for those of us from abroad is the pionono. At its base it’s simply a jelly roll, or Swiss roll, and there’s nothing odd about it when it’s wrapped around pastry cream or chocolate or dulce de leche or… well I could go on. Where it goes off the rails at first blush is when it’s filled with savory ingredients. Common choices are chicken or tuna salad, ham and cheese, cream cheese and olives, and similar sorts of fillings. The striking contrast between the sweet cake and the savory filling is, at first jarring to many who didn’t grow up with the combination.

Now perhaps it shouldn’t be, after all, I grew up in the Midwest of the U.S. where a Monte Cristo sandwich is a popular lunch treat – ham and/or turkey and Swiss cheese layered in bread, dipped in beaten egg, fried, and then served up topped with a fruit compote, maple syrup (our favorite), or powdered sugar. McDonald’s McGriddle breakfast sandwich of egg, bacon, cheese and maple syrup pancakes is a worldwide hit. The French bake Brie “en croute” and top with figs and walnuts. Salted caramel. Candied bacon. It didn’t take long for the savory-sweet combo of a pionono to grow on me, nor on many of my expat friends.

Still, I tend to find the versions at my local casas de comida to be a bit overbearing, often too sweet on the cake and too heavy on the mayo in the filling (the quantitatively impressive use of mayo in South America, particularly at the tables of our neighbors to the west in Chile, is another whole mystery to be explored one day). So, I make my own. While you can buy a premade pionono cake layer in most grocery stores and bakeries these days, why not give a try at one yourself, which also allows you to flavor it as you like?

5 eggs
50 grams sugar
1 tablespoon honey
60 grams 0000 flour
1 tablespoon red pepper flakes (Japanese shichimi is great here too)

In a mixer begin beating the eggs at high speed until they are light and frothy. While the mixture continues to beat slowly pour in the sugar and honey. After about 6-7 minutes you’ll have a stiff, whipped mixture. With a spatula or large spoon, gently mix in the flour and seasoning (feel free to substitute dried herbs or other spices), making sure to get it nice and evenly mixed. One note for celiacs – gluten free flour mixtures, cornstarch, rice flour, and/or mandioca (yuca/tapioca) flour will work fine. The mixture will deflate some, not to worry. Butter or oil a baking sheet (roughly 28cm x 38cm), smooth out the mixture and pop it into a 170°C oven for 7-8 minutes until it’s lightly browned and firm to the touch. Remove, let cool for 2-3 minutes, and then loosen it all around with a spatula and flip out onto a clean kitchen towel. Immediately roll it up in the towel and leave to cool (just helps it hold its shape later on).

When cool, unroll and fill with your choice of savory fillings as mentioned above – one of our favorites is to spread it with softened goat cheese, then scatter thinly sliced endive, roasted red pepper strips, and fresh seafood (cooked) like crab or shrimp. Roll up, chill in the refrigerator, slice, and serve with everyone’s favorite here, salsa golf. Oh, there’s yet another topic for a column.

A series of recipes and articles that I started writing for the Buenos Aires Herald Sunday supplement, Food & Wine section, at the beginning of 2012. My original proposal to them was to take local favorite dishes and classics and lighten them up for modern day sensibilities. We’re not talking spa or diet recipes, but at the very least, making them healthier in content, particularly salt, fat and portion size. As time went by, that morphed into a recipe column that, while emphasizing food that is relatively “good for you”, wasn’t necessarily focused on local cuisine. At the beginning of 2013 I decided to stop writing for them over some administrative issues, but it was fun while it lasted.

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Buenos Aires Herald, Newspaper articles

Ears of gold

Sunday, February 19, 20120

Humitas en la olla

Buenos Aires Herald
On Sunday supplement
Food and Wine

If you read the modern food press, you couldn’t be faulted for coming away with the impression that corn is the root of all evil. Movies have been made, books have been written – it makes us fat, it ruins our lives, it steals our money, it kisses babies, causes polygamy. I don’t know, I grew up with fields of corn surrounding us, stalks waving in the breeze, and we ate the stuff all the time, fresh from the field, packaged from the grocery store, and in a wide variety of forms. I’ll give you that there may be some evidence for the evils of high fructose corn syrup. Some. There’s debatable evidence on both sides of the argument.

But in its natural state there’s little more glorious in the grain world than corn. Despite being a grain, or cereal, it tends to be treated as a vegetable (except in dried form where we have polenta, grits, and porridges), and is more often cooked in ways that a vegetable would be. It’s reasonably nutritious, by no means the most, though it is one of the few grains or vegetables out there that supplies any quantity of the amino acid lutein, a necessary nutrient. Oh, and it tastes delicious, right?

An indigenous grain to southeastern Mexico, it was domesticated by the Taino people and due to its relative ease to grow, spread throughout the Americas, where it is the principal grain grown. Not all of it is grown for food, a large percentage (in the U.S. alone some 40%) these days goes to the making of biofuel. Here in Argentina, while not the largest crop grown (although until the introduction of massive soy farms, it pretty much was), some 13 million tons of corn is produced annually, making it the sixth largest producer of corn in the world.

And, Argentine cuisine makes good use of corn. Whether it’s rounds of choclo in a stew, dried white corn in locro, toasted corn kernels as snacks and garnishes, ground, dried corn in tamales, or, ground fresh corn in the local favorite, humitas, it’s all around us.

Now, many of us have tried empanadas filled with either whole or fresh corn, and also the steamed, corn husk wrapped humita version, one of the most common things I hear about them is “they’re too sweet”. Look, we all know that Argentines, particularly here in Buenos Aires, have a bit of a sweet tooth. It’s just built into the culture, and, we get used to it – it’s not that hard of an adaptation. But not all versions of these dishes are sweet, and one of my favorites is the humitas en olla, a classic of Salta that’s even got a bit of spice. I’ve spiked it up a notch or two and replaced the traditional beef fat with olive oil and the cheeses with lower fat versions, but I guarantee it’ll put humitas in a whole new light.

Humitas en Olla

6 ears corn on the cob
4 green onions, finely chopped
1 wedge or slice of yellow squash, in small dice (about 200 gms)
1-2 jalapeños, minced
100 grams olive oil
120 ml of low fat or skim milk
150 grams light port salut, cut in cubes
basil, chopped or shredded
salt, pepper to taste

Scrape the kernels from the cobs – it’s best to actually use a grater to do this, if you don’t have one, cut them off and give them a quick whirl in a food processor or blender, or even chop by hand.

In a pot (“en olla”), cook the onions , squash and chili in the oil with a little salt and pepper and cook over medium heat for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the grated corn, and just enough of the milk to keep it a wet mixture. Cook, stirring regularly, as it absorbs the liquid – add more milk as needed. When the corn is cooked through, add the cheese, and cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture pulls away from the sides. Season to taste and garnish with basil.

A series of recipes and articles that I started writing for the Buenos Aires Herald Sunday supplement, Food & Wine section, at the beginning of 2012. My original proposal to them was to take local favorite dishes and classics and lighten them up for modern day sensibilities. We’re not talking spa or diet recipes, but at the very least, making them healthier in content, particularly salt, fat and portion size. As time went by, that morphed into a recipe column that, while emphasizing food that is relatively “good for you”, wasn’t necessarily focused on local cuisine. At the beginning of 2013 I decided to stop writing for them over some administrative issues, but it was fun while it lasted.

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Buenos Aires Herald, Newspaper articles

A swamp cabbage by any other name

Sunday, February 12, 20122

Salmon Palmito Gratin

Buenos Aires Herald
On Sunday supplement
Food and Wine

Slender cylinders of gleaming ivory, firm on the outside, tender, moist and creamy on the inside. Sounds like perfection in a vegetable, and for some, the palmito, or heart of palm, is just that. But, just what is it? Does it really have anything to do with palm trees? Why do old British cookbooks refer to it as “burglar’s thigh” and Americans call it swamp cabbage? And just exactly what can you do with it?

First off, yes, it has everything to do with palm trees. Particular varieties that are harvested when young, generally when the trunk of the palm reaches about two meters in height and ten centimeters in diameter. Let it go past that point and the inner core of the tree starts to become fibrous and woody. But harvested at that point it’s one of the world’s great under-sung vegetables.

Traditionally harvested in Brazil from wild palms, closely related to the coconut palm, the trees were single stemmed – that meant that for roughly every two dozen hearts of palm stuck in a can a future tree was lost, and they took two years to reach that size. Ecuador, meanwhile, cultivated a “self-suckering”, “multi-stem” variety that often sends up as many as forty trunks, reaching the necessary size within a single growing season, and they regenerate themselves.

Here in Argentina, you see the cans in every supermarket and dietética. On restaurant menus they appear raw in salads, or mixed with shrimp and mayo and stuffed into an avocado half. They’re tossed on pizzas and milanesas, often drowned in swirls of salsa golf, the local mayo-ketchup blend. They make appearances in savory tarts, usually baked with the ubiquitous ham and cheese.

High in protein and low in fat, palm hearts can be cooked in the manner of many another vegetable. An old local recipe uses thin rounds cooked down in a white wine, heavy cream and butter sauce, ladled over slabs of pork loin, covered in cheese, and then baked in the oven until golden brown. It’s an amazing, savory dish that unfortunately is also packed with fat and salt. I’ve taken the classic as an inspiration to create a wonderful salmon dish. And “burglar’s thigh”, “swamp cabbage”? Not a clue. Searched through every historical text I could lay my hands on, print and online, and not one explanation.

Salmon and Palmito Gratin

4 fillets of salmon, 150 gm each, skin and bones removed
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 large clove garlic, finely chopped
1 large shallot, finely chopped
60 ml dry white wine
200 ml plain yogurt
120 ml low-sodium vegetable stock
100 gm palm hearts, rinsed, sliced in rounds (roughly 4 hearts)
50 gm grated cheese (I’m fond of local Romano or Grana Pampeana)
salt and pepper
chives, finely chopped

Sprinkle the salmon fillets with a little salt and several grinds of pepper, and then rub all over with the chopped garlic and olive oil. Let sit for 30 minutes at room temperature. Heat a skillet over high heat for about ten minutes, until it’s hot. Place the salmon fillets in the pan (no extra oil is needed) with the side that had the skin face down. Cook for 2 minutes until lightly golden and then flip them over. Cook for just 1 minute and remove to a baking dish.

Turn the heat down to medium and add the shallots, cook for a minute, then add the wine to deglaze the pan, scraping any stuck bits into the mix. Cook for a minute, then add the stock, yogurt, and palm heart slices. Continue stirring and cook for 10 minutes.. Adjust the seasoning to your taste with salt and pepper. Spoon over the fillets, piling up the palmitos atop. Cover with grated cheese and stick under the broiler for 5 minutes until golden brown. The salmon should just barely be cooked through. Serve, garnished with chives.

A series of recipes and articles that I started writing for the Buenos Aires Herald Sunday supplement, Food & Wine section, at the beginning of 2012. My original proposal to them was to take local favorite dishes and classics and lighten them up for modern day sensibilities. We’re not talking spa or diet recipes, but at the very least, making them healthier in content, particularly salt, fat and portion size. As time went by, that morphed into a recipe column that, while emphasizing food that is relatively “good for you”, wasn’t necessarily focused on local cuisine. At the beginning of 2013 I decided to stop writing for them over some administrative issues, but it was fun while it lasted.

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Buenos Aires Herald, Newspaper articles

Inbre(a)d

Sunday, February 5, 20120

Empanadas

Buenos Aires Herald
On Sunday supplement
Food and Wine

Argentina is known far and wide for its beef, and aficionados will argue the fine points of cooking and presentation at any asado. Yet probably no other item from the country’s cuisine engenders quite so much passion as the defense of one’s favorite empanada. Arguments range from “my grandmother made criollas that your grandmother wasn’t fit to crimp” to “my favorite place has the most perfect… baked, fried, cut beef or ground, potatoes, olives, eggs, onions, or raisins, included or not… and I’ll take you there and prove it.” Culinary historians carry on about the origin of this bread enveloped pastry, tracing it back to Galicia in Spain, or perhaps to ancient Persia. To hear some of them natter about the subject, we’d need carbon dating to settle on their origin.

It should come as no surprise to find that every culture on the planet has some similar dish – from Middle Eastern fatays, to Asian pot-stickers, to the Scandinavian or Cornish pasty, to a classic savory turnover from France or an Indian samosa. Yet, there is something uniquely Latin American about the empanada. The dough is not unique in the pastry world, most often made from simple white flour, eggs, water, and lard or suet. The fillings range from beef to pork to chicken to fish to vegetables. The spices vary in accordance with local favorites throughout South and Central America and the Caribbean. The additions are too numerous to consider. Yet there’s something about them, when one picks them up, hot and juicy, that fits the Latin culture.

Argentines would argue that theirs are the best. Certainly there is a wide variety of regional styles, thankfully most of them are available here in Buenos Aires, including examples from neighboring countries, removing the need to hop on a colectivo and travel province by province to sample them. Here we can find garlicky, spicy catamarqueñas, chock-full of potatoes, green onion packed salteñas, (not to be confused with the Bolivian salteña version which is a whole different thing), white onion filled sanjuaninos, touches of tomato and various cheeses in the tucumanas, salmon and tuna from the shore or packed into Chilean styles, lamb and wild mushrooms from Patagonia, pumpkin based Venezuelans, and finely ground goat or lamb meat in the arabe styles. Cheese filled, corn filled, vegetable laden, or a wide variety of meats abound. Local shops may offer specialty versions, and it is worth seeking out something like smoky pancetta and plum, or spicy sausage and green onion, or even an Italian knock-off like a napolitana.

I’m going to guess that most people aren’t going to take the time to make and form their own shortcrust or puff pastry, and there are plenty of tapas available in any supermarket that work just fine. Here’s one of our favorite, lighter fillings that never fails to wow visiting friends.

Patagonian Style Mushroom Filling

400 grams mixed mushrooms
1 small onion, chopped
1 small chili pepper, chopped
25 ml olive oil
25 grams flour
120 ml fat free or reduced fat milk
salt, pepper
Smoke flavoring (or use smoked salt in place of the plain salt above)
oil

Put the oil and flour in saucepan over low heat, and cook, stirring occasionally, for about 10 minutes. Warm the milk (a minute in the microwave is just fine) and add to the mixture, turn the heat up to medium and cook, stirring continuously, until it thickens. Set aside.. Saute mushrooms, chili and onion in oil until browned. Combine with the white sauce (bechamel). Add a couple of drops of liquid smoke flavoring and then season to taste. Let cool before using. Place a heaping tablespoon onto each empanada tapa and then fold over and crimp to seal. Bake in a 180°C oven for 15 minutes until puffed and golden brown.

A series of recipes and articles that I started writing for the Buenos Aires Herald Sunday supplement, Food & Wine section, at the beginning of 2012. My original proposal to them was to take local favorite dishes and classics and lighten them up for modern day sensibilities. We’re not talking spa or diet recipes, but at the very least, making them healthier in content, particularly salt, fat and portion size. As time went by, that morphed into a recipe column that, while emphasizing food that is relatively “good for you”, wasn’t necessarily focused on local cuisine. At the beginning of 2013 I decided to stop writing for them over some administrative issues, but it was fun while it lasted.

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Buenos Aires Herald, Newspaper articles