Milanesa con pure (schnitzel with mashed potatoes)

This is the quintessential Argentine meal and I have yet to find an Argentine kid who doesn't count it as their favourite meal (with empanadas and asado coming in close second and third). In effect, it is a thin cut of meat that has been dipped in egg and covered in bread crumbs. And that process alone makes it the ideal food to prepare with kids as they get the hands-on experience of dipping the meat in the egg and then into the dry crumbs and then patting it down so that the entire piece of meat is covered. At this point I would also like to thank my two sous chefs
(Tommy and Anna) for their excellent work en route to this blog post.
Let's get started. There are any of a variety of meat cuts that can be used and all the nBAExpats. Peceto / beef round steaks or roast eye of round, bola de lomo / sirloin tip, cuadril / rump steak and nalga / beef round are the most common cuts. The meat is usually cut less than 1cm thick.
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In a bowl, beat an egg (and crushed garlic for flavour if you desire) with some soda water (for that tip I have my mother-in-law to thank). In a second bowl, bread crumbs which is often flavoured with herbs, like dried oregano.
Then the process is to dip the meat in the egg mixture, covering the entire sur
face, then straight into the crumb mixture, again covering the entire surface. This process often requires more than one turn in the crumbs. To ensure that the crumbs are firmly in place, lay the meat down in the crumbs and pat it with the heel of your hand.
Once all the milanesas are done, they are baked in the oven, on a flat oven tray covered in oil. The crumbs will crisp up and halfway through the cooking process, they have to be turned round. Upon removing the cooked milanesas from the oven, lay them on a kitchen paper towel to absorb the excess oil. Serve with mashed potatoes and whatever else your kids enjoy.
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Colita al horno (oven roast meat)

When I embarked on the writing of this post, I first had to look up what a colita de cuadril was. It is, according to various sources, Wikipedia included, called tri-tip and you should take the time to read up (as I had to) how it is called around the world. In a nutshell, however, it is an amazing cut of meat for its versatility, taste and ease of use. For the purposes of today's post, I will be preparing it in the oven, with potatoes and butternut to accompany it as a meal.
When bought whole, it usually has a layer of fat around it that needs to be cut away to expose the meat. By way of seasoning, I crushed two cloves of garlic, with a little course salt and a few sprigs of rosemary in my mortar and pestle and then added a bit of olive oil to make a thick paste. Then, using my hand, I rubbed this paste over the meat as well as over the peeled potatoes.
I cut the butternut into big pieces, removed the seeds but left the skin on and then added a sprinkle of olive oil on
the inside as well as a knob of butter.
All three components (meat, potatoes and butternut) were then placed in an ove
n roasting dish with about 2cm of water. The whol
e dish was then covered with aluminium tin foil and sealed tightly so as to create a sort of convection oven on the inside. I allowed the meat and veggies to cook inside the foil for about 50 to 60 minutes, after which I removed the aluminium and allowed the contents to crisp up in the oven for a further 10 to 15 minutes.
Optional: removed the meat and veggies and arrange on a serving dish. To the remaining liquid in the roasting pan, add some flour or corn starch (Maizena) to make a thick gravy to accompany the meat.
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Trifle

I should right at the start of this post clear something up: I very rarely eat dessert and therefore, by default, I very rarely prepare desserts. But this particular dessert is very dear to me as it reminds me of my childhood, and especially of Christmas.
You will need vanilla sponge cake (bought sponge cake is perfect for the task at hand) and this has to be cut up into small cubes (I suggest small so that you can reassemble them tightly in the bowl in which you will be preparing the dessert). Next, a can of peaches, pecan nuts, custard, some sweet alcoholic drink (optional) (Baileys, Amarula) or brandy/cognac.
Place the cubed sponge cake in the bottom of the bowl and slightly up the sides. Roughly cut some of the peaches so that it covers the first layer of sponge cake. Add drops of your alcoholic beverage of choice (or simply omit this step) and use some of the syrup from the peaches to moisten the cake. Now break up a hand full of nuts over the peaches and finally cover with custard.
Repeat this process until you reach the top of your bowl, always ending with a layer of sponge cake, that must be moistened with syrup. To complete the trifle, beat a pot of cream until stiff and cover the top of the bowl with it. Add fresh cherries around the edges and finally, just for decorative purposes, finely grate some dark chocolate over the trifle.
Refrigerate for at least half a day before serving, so that all the ingredients have time to settle down (and the cake can adsorb the moisture around it).
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Burgers

I'm proud to say that my kids rarely, if ever, eat burgers. And when they do, then it is usually made by me. With good, quality, fat-free minced meat and all the herbs and spices needed to make the eating of this "fast food" a memorable experience. Oh, and a healthy one too.
So today I'm going to share my burger recipe with you as well as the way I chose to cook it.
First of all, buy good, lean, minced meat (easy enough to spot as it is almost totally red or uniform in colour - the pale/white specks in the mince is fat or other bits and pieces). I used 500g of mince which made a dozen burgers.
Place the mince in a bowl, add one small onion, finely diced, salt to taste, pepper, an egg, some ketchup and a dash of BBQ sauce. Finely chop a fist full of cilantro / coriander and add to the mixture. Lastly, take a few slices of bread and break it up as small as you can and add it to the mixture so that you get a drier mixture.
Break up into twelve (or whatever number you desire) equal pieces, shape into balls and then flatten out to about 2cm thick.
And the last secret that I did (today - I don't always do this) was to cook the burgers on the parrilla (barbecue/braai). In that way there is no fat involved.
The burgers were then served with any (all) of the following: lettuce, tomato, cilantro, basil.
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Cottage pie

One of my all time favourite dishes when I was growing up is cottage pie and I was pleasantly surprised to find that here, in Argentina, pastel de papa is equally well made and well-liked, albeit with a slight difference.
This dish is basically a stir-fried mixture of onions, garlic, tomato and mince, topped off with mashed potatoes. The Argentine variety has mashed potatoes on the base as well.. So let's get started:
Cut a large onion into small cubes and pan fry in butter, accompanied by crushed garlic, until the onions are soft and translucent. At this stage you may consider adding any or all of the following, according to your taste: bay leaves (2), oregano (dried or fresh), rosemary (crushed). Once the onions are ready, add two medium-sized tomatoes that have been cubed also as well as a little sugar (to combat the acidic taste of the tomatoes). Cook until the tomatoes are soft. Now add in your mince (about 500g) and mix well and continue to cook until the mince is done. If you like, add veggies at this stage: cooked peas, or corn or grated carrots. The choices are yours. Cook a little while longer until everything is integrated and pour into a flat, oven-proof dish. bake in the oven for about ten minutes (while you prepare your mashed potatoes.
Boil your potatoes until soft and drain the water off. Add a big knob of butter and a teaspoon of baking powder (to make the mash nice and fluffy) and mash the potatoes. Slowly add milk, while continuing to mash, until you get the consistency you desire. Now top the baked mince/onion mix with the mashed potatoes, return to the oven for a further ten minutes (or until the mash starts to brown.
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Pizza a la parrilla

Last night I was invited to eat pizza at a friend's house and what a gastronomic experience it was. Hernan, the master pizza maker, cooks these amazing creations over the coals, on the parrilla (barbecue / braai). First he makes the pizza bases with water and flour (pre-bought pizza flour), allows them to rise close to the fire so that within 15 to 20 minutes the dough had risen. Then, one by one, he flattens them out into a pizza baking tray and allows them to cook, but just barely. Once all the bases are cooked, he covers them with his homemade pizza sauce (fresh tomatoes, onions, garlic, herbs and salt) and returns them to the parrilla to cook. Once all the bases are at this stage, everyone is called to the dinner table as the pizzas are about
to roll out. And then it's a non-stop eating fest. Mozzarella and cheese, ham, bacon, blue cheese, rocket, you name it, Hernan combines these ingredients perfectly. And the pizzas just keep coming.
The trick, of course, to getting the
top of the pizza to cook (over coals where the heat is only coming from the bottom) is to cover the pizza with the pizza baking pan, thereby creating a convection oven. Yum! Thanks Hernan for helping me share this post.

Dhal

This is a typically Indian recipe (don't get scared - it's still within the realms of the Simple Foodies concept) and is also widely prepared in Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Its basic ingredient is an orange lentil (called dal or dhal) and here in Argentina, in the Barrio Chino, it is strangely called "lentejas Turcas"(Turkish lentils). The other ingredients include cilantro / coriander / dhania, dried coriander, tumeric and cumin (all available at good supermarkets / Barrio Chino (Argentina) and just about all over elsewhere. The last ingredient is your recently-made garlic and ginger paste.
Soak two cups of dhal lentils in cold water for about 30 minutes. Rinse twice (the water will be milky) and then boil in water until you get a thick soup consistency.
Meanwhile, dice one large onion and fry in about two tablespoons of oil, accompanied by garlic and ginger paste. Add a teaspoon of coriander, a teaspoon of cumin and a teaspoon of tumeric as well as a half to one teaspoon of chili powder to taste. Salt according to your need. Once this has cooked through for a few minutes, add about 200g of finely chopped tomatoes and cook with the onion and spices until the tomatoes are soft and falling apart.
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Add the spicy mixture to the cooked lentils as well as a fist full of cilantro / coriander / dhania that has been chopped finely.
The food is served on a bed of (Basmati) rice (Barrio Chino) and garnished with cilantro / coriander / dhania.