Electrofries : Argentinean asado

Tuesday, June 9, 2020

Argentinean asado

Argentinean Asado

Asado means bbq and thats Argentina favorite food we are carnivores!.

Eating an asado without being first served offal is like fish without chips or curry without poppadoms. It is a testament to the excellence of the entrails that many Argentines will actually forego the best steaks in the world for a dinner of only achuras (offal).

The Argentine affinity with entrails goes back to the days when the gauchos could eat as much as the cow as they wanted as long as they left the valuable hide. Pioneering the, not particularly complicated, method of slicing a cow down the middle and stringing it up over a fire, the hungry horsemen ate tasty parts of bovine that have now become Argentine delicacies.

The most popular starter is the aforementioned chinchulines (chitterling). The common serving method is to barbecue them until it is crispy on the outside and mushy in the middle. And when they are crispy they are superb, but undercooked they are largely unpalatable. They are usually served at the beginning of the meal.

Known as sweetbreads in English, molleja at their best are the finest item on the menu and often more expensive than a Flinstone-sized steak. Deftly ignoring their biological names (and functions), squirt a little bit of fresh lemon over and prepare your tongue for a very lovely couple of minutes. Molleja always comes from veal and there are two cuts, one is the thyroid gland from the neck, and another rarer and larger cut is from around the heart. The best way to describe them is having the texture of a scallop, with a mild hint of offal and meat.

🇦🇷This guide gives the detail on a menu:

Asado de tira – beef ribs. Probably the most popular cut, it is fatty, chewy and often considered the tastiest part.

Vacio – flank. Another very popular cut (the best in this bloggers opinion) isn’t the most tender, but you can taste the happy cow.

Bife de chorizo – Strip loin steak. If you ask for a steak, this is what you’ll get. It is often sold by the gram, 400g being the usual size. It is tender and with a delicious layer of fat.

Bife de costilla – T-bone. All the cuts are slightly different, but this is the nearest to a T-bone.

Cuadril – Rump. Not as popular as in the US and UK, the rump is tender and meaty.

Entraña – Skirt steak. Like vacio, this thin skirt steak is chewier than bife de chorizo but arguably more tempting. A cut that is becoming more popular outside Argentina.

No plate of meat is complete without the ubiquitous chimmicurri, an oily chilli and spicy sauce. Everyone has their own secret ingredient, but essentials are olive oil, garlic, dried chilli, oregano and salt. It is a rare excursion into spicy foods for Argentines, but much loved and dribbled on most cuts.