Hola! Bienvenidos a mi post sobre platos de Argentina.
I was quite interested in Argentina because, other than having heard their steak is good, I’ve never eaten Argentinian food, other than putting chimichurri on – you guessed it – a nice medium rare steak. What may be a controversial opinion to some – I actually prefer my steak cooked medium, rather than rare or medium rare, a matter of personal taste. But I digress.
Argentina was still completely uncharted territory for me. I do feel like people in Europe and the US tend to over-generalize the majority of the rest of the world, so I could say I’d been to Ecuador and Colombia once before, trying some of the local dishes, so South American food is familiar to me. But to me, that feels a bit like saying “oh yeah I have an idea what Laotian food will be like, I’ve been to Korea”. If anything, in my research, I’d most closely compare it to a mix of South American, Spanish and Italian flavors. So let’s get cracking on research.
Figuring it out
One thing was for certain, I was going to make steak with chimichurri, since that was the most well-known Argentinian dish to me. Other than that I was a bit lost. So I did a bit of googling and found some sources about traditional argentinian dishes. And a blog that once again happened to cover them all! Either I’ve been very lucky in the countries I’ve chosen – or the research part of this endeavour is less convoluted than initially feared. Either way, big thanks to Paulina Cocina for sharing her Argentinian cooking skills with the world!
The recipes are in Spanish but if you don’t speak it your browser should be able to translate adequately. I’ve been very lucky to have my wife and a little green owl to teach me Spanish but I know everyone has a different journey/heritage and on here it’s usually English that unites us in common understanding. 😊
This week’s menu (2025/05/18)
(Sorry for the mess, lol. It had been a busy day.)
The dishes:
Appetizer:
Empanadas de Carne Cortada a Cuchillo (Steak Empanadas) (Recipe)
These little pockets of goodness are basically seared steak with veggies, baked into a crispy empanada shell. As popular as meat pies, hand pies, calzone, … are in the world, I think it’s safe to say, meat baked in to bread is generally a winning combination. These are no exception to the rule.
Locro – a hefty stew. (Recipe)
With corn, meat, beans, sausage, and pumpkin you won’t be hungry after this, let me tell you. In winter I can definitely see myself making it again. According to Paulina, whose recipe it is, this is a popular winter dish and I can understand why.
I left out the pig skin and intestine, since I’m less experienced in handling these ingredients and I had a bit of trouble sourcing them. Cross-referencing various recipes, it does seem to be somewhat optional in terms of what meats specifically you add.
Main:
Steak with Chimichurri (Recipe) and Salsa Criolla (Recipe)
I actually found a second-hand sous-vide stick for this steak! Still figuring out how exactly to work it but it was nice to have a convenient method to have the steak already at temperature when I was going to sear it. The real talking points are the chimichurri and the salsa criolla – both great in my opinion. One vinegary, one fresh. As I’ve learned, though, my wife doesn’t like the vinegary taste of the former. So maybe give your folks a taste-test before slathering the steak in it!
Dessert:
Alfajores (Recipe) – one of the best cookies out there
As I was looking up recipes, my Insta kept showing me “List of the World’s best cookies” and Alfajores were generally top 3, if not first place. Having tasted them, I can agree that this is a quality dessert. Honestly, having more than one might be a bit over the top since they’re so sweet, but they do have a moreish flavor that you keep grabbing another bite of.
All in all my Argentina experiment gets a 4/5 ⭐️! I do wish I’d gotten the steak to be a bit more tender. I gotta fiddle a bit more with the sous-vide.
Thanks for reading!
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