In a few more days I guess I’ll have to pick these fiery colored fruits. In the past, around this time of the year, a friend has plucked them off the two decent-sized bushes in my yard to make her popular dulce de rosa mosqueta (rose hip jam.) This year she’s decided to take a break so, instead of them wasting away and I don’t see the birds eating them, something needs to be done. But not with jam. Personally, I can’t stand the stuff. Not jam in general and her recipe was just fine, I think. That’s what others have said anyway. No, something different.

I’ve tried numerous times to get my taste buds to conform with the buds of others I know but they’re being utterly stubborn. Jam, jelly, or syrup. Nothing overly sweet works for me. The flavor reminds me too much of tomato jam, or jelly, and I can’t stand that either. I love all things tomato, well except tomato jam/jelly. Each day I probably eat tomatoes in some shape or form but I will never coat them in sugar. That is exactly what tomato jam tastes like to me. Tomato ketchups and barbecue sauces are sweet and have loads of sugar you may say, and I agree, but there are loads of other ingredients that balance everything out. Speaking of ketchup, I actually tried a rosa mosqueta ketchup from an small artisanal operation based somewhere in Patagonia but it too turned out quite disappointing. In that case, however, I believe it was the recipe.

So, what to do? If anyone out there has any ideas, please pass them along, but be quick. For now, I’m thinking of drying some and using the rest to make some sort of puree to use in sauces. Barbecue sauce? I think I’ll give that a try.

If you are unfamiliar with rose hips, they are the oval-shaped fleshy fruits, or hip, of rose plants. Plucked off a bush and opened, there is really nothing fruity about them in the classical juicy sense. The fleshy tough skin is not unlike a hot chili pepper and the inside is filled with seeds and a hairy membrane–both of which need removing before use. Since rose hips contain very high amounts of vitamin C, they are widely used in some parts of the world for medicinal purposes. The oil from the seeds is said to work wonders on the skin. You can read more about the plants and fruits here

Throughout Patagonia, it’s not hard to find rosa mosqueta sold as artisanal jams and liquors in various gourmet or touristy shops. A good bakery may fill alfajores with the rosy stuff as an alternative to dulce de leche. Restaurants may offer tasty deserts drizzled with rosa mosqueta syrup or perhaps as a sweet-sour sauce to dress a succulent portion of lamb or pork. If you’re ever in the area, try it out in some way or another.

Walk past any dry spice stand in Argentina and you’ll have a hard time missing the adobo para pizza sitting right beside chimichurri mixes, oregano, parsley, and other common herbs & spices. For chefs or home cooks, who see no need in purchasing a commercial blend, this mixture may be custom made before or at the last minute by sprinkling here and there a few simple ingredients. Either way, adobo para pizza is the go to seasoning for adding a spicy herbal kick to pizzas when parsley, oregano, or basil just won’t cut it by themselves.

Although technically, adobo para pizza can consist of many flavorful herbs and spices, there are few ingredients that define the seasoning and, therefore, should always be present. You know, like how everyone expects their chimichurri to at least have garlic, parsley, and olive oil. These are oregano, aji molido, and pimenton dulce (sweet paprika.) After that, local favorites such as ground white/black pepper, ground laurel(bay leaf), cumin, and garlic powder are added into the equation.

Spicy Adobo Para Pizza (all of this does not need to go on one pizza)
2 tablespoons aji molido (substitute with red pepper flakes)
1 tablespoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon pimenton dulce (sweet paprika)
1/4 teaspoon ground laurel (bay leaf)

Mix all of the ingredients and store in an airtight container.

Oh, and if you think adobo para pizza is only for pizza, think again. This mixture is great for sauces, meats, soups, and pasta dishes. Then again, it definitely adds some nice spice to matambre a la pizza (thin flank steak, pizza-style)….

I’ve been meaning to write up a little list on the use of herbs and spices in Argentina, and I’ll get to that eventually, but aji molido came up twice about a week ago so I’ll get it out of the way first. First, there was a comment on the chimichurri recipe post and then one through e-mail; the latter a request for retailers that sell it in the U.S and I listed a couple at the end of this post.

Note: Aji molido (ground red pepper in Argentina) is also known as aji triturado (crushed red pepper) and, at times, aji picante or aji picante molido (hot pepper.) For the rest of this post I’ll just refer to it as aji molido.

(Pakistani Crushed Red Pepper Flakes Bought In U.S.)

(Aji Molido Argentino)

When I first encountered aji molido in Argentina, I noticed a much softer more moist texture, with a slightly thicker flesh, than red pepper counterparts I had seen widely available in the U.S. (See photos for comparison) The level of heat is quite mild yet tingles the tongue as much as biting into a black pepper berry. The heat more from the seeds than flakes. Maybe that’s just my scorched tongue talking. Though, it lacks in heat, is definitely made up in earthy flavor. Lightly sweet and smoky with hints of tobacco and dried fruits.

In Argentina, those who enjoy aji molido’s flavor and spice will add it to all sorts of dishes, but there are a few classics, depending on whose recipe you are looking at, where the flaky red stuff is a downright requirement. These are, but not limited to, chimichurri, empanadas, pizza, stews, sofrito, and adobos for meats. At an asado, one can often see a spicy reddish chimichurri packed with aji molido right next to the mild version.

From reading various sources, my belief is that aji molido is simply from the same peppers used for certain types of pimenton or paprika–peppers from the capsicum annuum species. I could only find one company that clearly translates aji molido as hot paprika so I’m taking their word for it. The aroma, flavor, and level of heat are practically the same. If aji molido has picante prominently resting between the two words then the mixture may consist of cayenne peppers. If so, the packaging will often state such information. As to which specific peppers are used for the general mild aji molido, I’m still looking, or I should say waiting, for a definitive answer. The Intsituto Nacional de Technologia Agropecuario (INTA,) or National Institute of Agricultural Technology, lists anaheim and jalapeños as peppers [.DOC file] used for pimenton picante (hot paprika.) For now, I’m leaning on anaheim as lead pepper for most major brands of aji molido in Argentina.**

Aji molido can be bought at:

Gaucho Gourmet
Amigo Foods

**I’ll update this article when someone replies to my inquiries.

This just caught my eye yesterday but it seems to have been playing for a while. (I don’t watch much TV except for documentaries and a few cheesy serials here and there.) Hellmann’s, the mayo people, have a set of 3 commercials promoting the use of their ketchup as a subsitute for any other form of tomato sauce. Now I use ketchup from time to time when whipping up a quick bbq sauce but this is just WRONG!

April Fools!!!

Soy is such an awesome crop. Soy can fuel our cars, feed our bellies, and be the clothes on our back. I’ll bet they’ll even be able to make soy charcoal so that we can grill soy turkey legs. All of those minerals, vitamins, and proteins. Soy hamburgers taste just as good as the real thing. Soy milk with calcium carbonate. We won’t even need cows anymore. Soy can replace wood so we won’t need trees anymore. And what’s good about that? With all of the forests gone we’ll have more room to plant soy! But we need forests for water you say? Pfft, I’m sure we can easily filter the exhaust of our cars running biofuel in order to gather our daily water needs. Soy is the future.

Here’s a great recipe with soybeans.

1 Cup ready-to-use drained soy beans (canned, re-hydrated, etc)
3 Tablespoons red onion; finely minced
2 Tablespoons red bell pepper; finely minced
1 1/2 Teaspoon flat-leaf parsley; finely chopped
2 Tablespoons olive oil
2 Tablespoons red wine vinegar
salt & pepper to taste

Mix all of the ingredients together. Cover and refrigerate for at least an hour. Gently stir occasionally. Remove from refrigerator 15 minutes before serving to allow the mixture to warm up a bit.

April Fools!!!

April Fools!!!

You can’t go wrong using carrot salad to accompany many different types of vegetarian fare. Today I’ll be using it as a side to a delicious tofu burger I’m making that will be topped with alfalfa sprouts, portabello mushrooms, and cherry-pecan soy mayo.

About one medium-size carrot per person. Only use firm unblemished organic carrots that have deep orange hues. Wash and peel carrots. Slice a little bit of the thin end off and a bit off the end where leaves sprout. Grate the carrots with a cheese grater. Season to taste with a little splash of lemon juice, salt, and pepper. Raisins or beets are great additions.

April Fools!!!

April Fools!!!

Yesterday’s post might have weirded out some of you but I’ve been doing a lot of soul searching lately. You know what? I feel great!! I stayed up into the early hours of today discussing with my wife, plus a few phone calls to friends and family, on how to combat the various demons inside of me. What a relief! I feel as if I’ve unbuckled a backpack with a ton of bricks off my shoulders. What’s the great news?

I’M GOING VEGETARIAN!! Seriously! No, really!

Well, at least for a year just to try things out. That’s the time table that we all thought would be appropriate for me figure out where I want to head in life with regards to my overall diet. Strange huh? Now, I’m sure this comes as a disappointment to many of you, that’s an understatement, but I sincerely hope that you understand how important all of this is for me. It’s a personal challenge that I truly need to overcome.

I’m also sure you are wondering what will become of this site, but fear not my friends. All of the previous posts and images will remain. That is the past and there is no need to do away with a wealth of information that could still benefit so many. Also, there are so many tasty vegetables and grains that can be cooked on the parrilla, so perhaps I can sway this site toward a theme of vegetarian asado. Chimichurri is vegetarian so I can continue to post many different versions of those as well.

Now when I see beef shortages and people crying about the high prices of meat I won’t have to shed a tear. Not even one ounce of guilt will enter my mind.

Whew, I feel so good to get this off of my chest. This morning I had an absolutely fantastic wheat germ and goji berry shake. I feel a whole new energy already!

April Fools!!!

April Fools!!!

All of these global farming issues and rising food prices have been on my mind a lot lately. We, as people of this planet, need to come to terms with what is at stake in the future. This troubles me to say the following, heh, I mean look at the general topic of this site. Perhaps all of us meat eaters should lower our intake a bit. Maybe, and this troubles me even more, we should just find the strength to do away with eating meat all together, as united people of this lovely green & blue planet, one step at a time. Then, some countries would not have to be pressured to export grains to feed the cattle or any other live stock in another country. This needs some more thought…

April Fools!!!

-Well my plans to update the design of this site and a few other things have been squashed for the past three weeks due to my ISP screwing over all of its customers down here with connection speeds slightly better than what I had with Compuserve back in ‘93. So while I’m sitting here flushing money down my crapper because I can’t really work and waiting for the new ISP to connect–already a week late, you’ll just have to put up with my foul mood.

-Thankfully none of that farm mess happening up north has affected us much down here. Sure the shelves that hold milk and flour were filled halfway for a few days but beef was always in good supply. Felt just a little guilty filling up homemade flour tortillas with marinated flank steak or carving into a fat colita de cuadril while everyone up Buenos Aires had to dine on pasta. Ok, nothing to laugh at but why not add a little levity to this horrible situation. Hopefully this mess is will be sorted out. Was quite saddening last week to see thousands of liters of milk being dumped when there are tons of schools with no funds to buy milk or bread for their students no matter what the agricultural situation is.

-This past Thursday, a post over at Serious Eats’ Slice inspired me to finally give the 24-hour slow rise a shot for pizza dough. I’ve heard about this method for years, it’s a key to great bread, but just never really followed through with it. Not sure why, maybe because I never plan for pizza, it’s just a spur of the moment craving on any given day; and it has to be made or ordered on that day. So, after reading that post and the comments that followed, I jumped out of my chair and got to work. Actually from the start I liked this method. No warming water. No 5-15 minute wait for the yeast to start burping away in its warm bath. Just mix, knead, and toss in the fridge. Come Friday I was quite happy with not having to do all of the previous tasks. Although I pulled the dough out of the fridge two hours ahead of time, it was still quite cool to the touch but I could wait no longer. However, as the author mentioned, the dough was notably much more pliable and easier to work with than same day dough. Into the oven the pie went with tomato sauce, mozzarella, and a split of half ham/half cantimpalo. (My wife always has to have ham pizza….) No pizza stone at the moment so this was pan pizza. A few minutes before removal, a sprinkling of minced fresh parsley and garlic.

Wow, what a difference in both taste and texture from what I normally make. Granted, the dough should have been kneaded a bit longer and pulled out of the fridge earlier but, still, the crust was quite robust and fluffy. I believe this method will be the norm from now on.

On March 16, the New York Times published a piece titled “Argentine Nights” by Denny Lee that pretty much hit the cliche bullseye on Buenos Aires mainstream media topics such as tango, expats, arts, music, restaurants, and hotels. While skimming through paragraph after paragraph, I asked myself: haven’t I read this before?. Something about how expat artists, musicians, and designers have finally released Buenos Aires residents from the confines of their culture-less lifestyles. As if until the expat stampede arrived, everyone dined on Malbec and steaks while stomping their feet to Gardel singing away on a phonograph tucked into the corner.

Then it hit me.

Washington Post’s “Expatriate Games: Travelers Are Heading to Buenos Aires for the Culture — and Staying for the $250 Rent”

Newsweek’s “The Capital Of Cool: Hip, happening Buenos Aires is luring writers, artists and musicians from around the world”

What did they rehash?

That David Lampson moved down to Buenos Aires to write sitcom material. Amanda Knauer sells her line of handbags at Qara. Gavin Burnett came down to DJ. Niceto Club’s Zizek and Grant Dull. Bohemian living and Prague in the 1990’s. How everything is so cheap. Now, I’ll give the ‘ol gray lady some credit, they did quote and reference other expats but isn’t the overall theme quite similar to the other articles? I’m not saying that the aforementioned people–who I greatly respect–or lifestyle topics should be ignored since they have already been covered, but come on, put a fresher spin on them if you do. This piece reads as if all research was performed through e-mailing and web surfing. Journalism has fallen into the crapper folks.

One more thing, are there no other super cool hotels, clubs, and restaurants other than Home, Faena Hotel + Universe, Olsen, and Niceto?