Asado Argentino

The secret to "Argentinian Asado" is in the meat and the fire. The cattle in the Argentinian Pampas is fed with wild grass on the open range. This creates a super lean meat with pronounced flavor. The grass fed beef needs to be cooked in the different way than the corn-fed American beef. The heat should be gentle and even, with no direct flame or smoke to pollute the flavor. The smoke can make the outside of the steak greasy. The meat is cooked medium-well or "a punto" and with the slow and gentle cooking the meat will turn into a tender beauty. So let's go into details.


What kind of beef?
Pasture-raised grass fed beef. You can google on the Internet to find your local producer and local stores that sell this kind of beef. Try in Whole Foods and local butchers. The cuts are different in the US, but a close match is the New York strip or rib eye. You will need 10-12 oz per person and coarse sea salt.


The fire
The tradition is open wood fire in a big fire pit. You can use hardwood lump charcoal. Let the charcoal ash over completely before you star cooking in a medium heat fire. You should be able to place your hand 1 inch over the grill (parilla) bars for 2.5 seconds, no longer.


How to cook
Salt only the side you are going to cook first. Place the steak over the grill for about 6 minutes, then turn the brown side up, add the salt and let the steak cook for 6 more minutes without touching or turning.  The time can vary depending of the thickness of the steak. Make sure no direct flames or smoke touches the meat.
As you can see, no condiments (other than salt) or sauces are need for cooking.
The typical asado usually displays meat including a good beef rack cut across the ribs (tira de asado), a piece of flank (vacio), T-bone steak (bife de costilla) and rib eye (bife de chorizo); cured meat including sausage (chorizo), blood sausage (morcilla) and cheese (provoletta, see previous post) are also included.
You can side the steak with chimichurri sauce (see recipe in this blog) and a house salad made of fresh tomatoes, strips of fresh onion and romaine lettuce condimented with salt, oil and red vinegar.
The kind of grills we use in Argentina are a masterpiece of culinary architecture. Almost every house with even a small backyard has one.

Provoleta (Grilled provolone cheese)

This is a classic for the "Asados" (barbecue). It is a thick layer of melted provolone cheese served as an appetizer before the meat. You can eat it alone or with bread. The real recipe call for grilling the cheese directly in the "parilla", however this is very difficult to master. Here is a easier version.

1 inch thick slice of provolone cheese
3 tsp fresh oregano, chopped
1 tsp crushed red pepper

You will need a cast iron griddle, aluminum plate or thick aluminum foil for this recipe. Put the griddle over the grill and wait until it is super hot. Add the slice of cheese and top with 1/2 of the oregano and 1/2 of the pepper. Wait until the bottom turns brow and begins to melt. Turn over, top with the rest of the condiments. When the cheese begins to melt and the bottom is brown is ready to enjoy...!!!

I will talk about "Asado" next time. Don't forget to check the "chimichurri sauce to accompany the meat...

Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provoleta has some interesting facts about provoleta.