Food

While I'm trying to get my internship figured out, I'm learning to enjoy my role as ama de casa. I joined a gym, (where I have a fitness instructor named Fabio!), and spend my mornings cleaning the house and going grocery shopping. I made friends with the woman who works in the bakery a couple of blocks away, and when she heard that I was having a hard time getting used to Argentine food, she offered to teach me to cook. This is her recipe for milanesa, the simplest and most common way to cook meat here:

Beat two eggs with Provencal spices (dried garlic and parsley), and fresh minced garlic, if you like. Meat for milanesa is generally thinly sliced beef or chicken fillets - dip one of the fillets in the egg mixture, and roll it in breadcrumbs. Cook in a hot oven for approximately five minutes on each side. Serve with lemon to squeeze over the top.

This is a recipe that one of the ladies at church gave me, after she made it for our community meal last month. It's rich and filling, great for cold weather:

Guiso de Lentejas

500g lentils
200g pancetta (thin-sliced Italian bacon)
3 chopped onions
1 red chili, minced
2 chorizos, cubed (Argentine chorizo is more solid and less spicy than the Mexican kind)
2 potatoes, cubed
2 carrots, cubed
2 vegetable buillion cubes
Salt and pepper to taste

Soak lentils in 1 liter of water for 4 hours. Saute the onion and chili in oil in a large pot. Add the lentils with the water, carrots, chorizo, pancetta, vegetable cubes, and salt and pepper, and boil for 15 minutes. Add the potatos and boil for 15 minutes more. Serves 6.


I went to my first asado last weekend, on the first nice spring day of the year. The church has a lovely back patio with plants, tables, and a parrilla, or outdoor grill. We spent the afternoon drinking mate and eating delicious Argentine meat, and came home smelling like barbeque.