Argentine cuisine has a perfect mix of European and Latin American influences
credit: le petit cook blog
The name “Argentina” is derived from Latin argentum (meaning “silver” in Spanish. While much of the understanding of Latin American food in India has been Brazilian and Portuguese, Argentine cuisine is unique, delicious and certainly wholesome. Here are recipes that will help you put together a perfect two-course Argentine meal.
lamb empanada
An empanada is a stuffed bread or pastry baked or fried.
ingredients
Empanada dough
500 gm flour
10 gm salt
100 gm butter
1 egg yolk
250 ml water
Lamb stuffing
600 gm sunflower oil
7 kg onion
100 gm sweet paprika
5 gm cumin powder
300 gm butter
50 gm salt
10 kg lamb meat as sirloin or lamb leg (serves four)
method
For the dough:
Make a tender dough using flour, butter, salt, yolk and water. Rest the dough in the fridge for an hour.
Roll the dough in 2 mm thickness.
Cut in round shapes preferably of 12 cm diameter.
For the stuffing:
Sauté onion brunoise in butter and oil. Brunoise is a French cooking term meaning to cut a vegetable into small cubes of precise and uniform measurement. A regular brunoise gives you cubes of 3 mm.
Add some salt. Then add the diced meat (1/2 by 1/2 cm cubes); don’t cook too much and the meat must be juicy.
Season with sweet paprika powder and cumin. Add the stuffing in the round shaped empanada dough and fold it into half moon shape or any shape you desire.
Bake or fry it till light brown.
flan de leche
Ingredients
200 ml milk
200 ml coconut milk
250 ml condensed milk
1 piece vanilla bean
5 egg yolks
2 whole eggs
method
Mix all the ingredients together. Strain the mixture and portion out in ramekin moulds.
Bake for 20-25 minutes at 160 degrees Celsius in a double boiler. A double boiler (bain marie technique) is used to heat materials gently without burning or scorching them. A bain marie is a water bath that helps the flan cook evenly and prevents it from cracking by creating a humid environment in the oven. To make one, pour hot water into a large, wide pan into which you can fit the baking dish or ramekins. Set the baking dish or ramekins into the water bath. Make sure the water isn’t so deep that it rises up the sides of the baking dish or ramekins. You don’t want the flan to be tainted with water.
Once cooled, demould and serve with fresh cream
Executive chef Godoy is from Alvear Art Hotel, Buenos Aires, Argentina. He visited Taj Mahal Palace for a food promotion recently.
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