Photo of the Day -- Churripan

Churripan with lots of spicey chimi-churri and a side of French Fries. How yummy.

Chorripan is a staple of "street food" in Buenos Aires. I bought this on a trip in June to La Plata at a street restaurant outside of the cathedral.

Chorripan describes the chorizo, or sausage, serged in a baguette roll. The Argentines usually put Chimi-churri, a great spice combination, on the sausage roll, too. Many times they serve it with French Fries, like it was in this photo. You often can order it at street venders or at parilla's (Argentine steak houses).

Many people have this idea that all South America eats spicy food, likely from many countries in Central and Northern South America that do have spicy cuisine. In Argentine, spicy doesn't exist. The porteños especially hate spicy food. My mother yells "¡Lo Pica! ¡Pica! ¡Pica!" any time I use Black pepper to season food. Their sausages aren't any exception. They are seasoned, but definitely not spicy--something that my family's Pennsylvania Dutch non-spicy palate could even handle.

Rachel Ray Ad

Rachel Ray and Dunkin' Donuts created an ad where Ray is wearing a scarf that is traditionally worn by Arabs. These scarfs are called kaffiyehs. The company has stopped the ad in result of right wing bloggers and commentators saying that the scarf represents characteristics that terrorists harbor. Since when does a scarf--or any other clothing--mean anyone is a terrorist?

It is ridiculous that an ad was removed over this scarf. First off--my friends and family will vouch--I really dislike Rachel Ray's show; in fact if its on the TV I switch it off immediately. I dislike her over-animated and giddy style. Even though I dislike her show, I think there's a niche for her on Food TV and now on daytime television.

I think it is insane that any article of clothing insight's terrorism, or is representative of terrorism when the clothing is usually worn by a collective culture. I mean that would be like saying all blonds are horrible people--that statement makes no sense. Furthermore, I find it ironic that the kaffiyehs scarves are fashionable. They should be since they're beautifully made and have pretty designs on them.

For the Associated Press article: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/arts/AP-Dunkin-Donuts-Ad-Pulled.html?scp=1&sq=dunkin+donuts&st=nyt

If Ray is a terrorist, then most of my friends are too. All of them seem to have multiple scarves, since its part of popular fashion right now in the US, Europe, and, believe it or not, South America.

Furthermore, I think this demonstrates our misunderstanding of Arab culture more than anything. Part of the reason why they're the fashion now is that the handiwork of these scarves is amazing. In America, we are a nation built by the complex mix of people from all walks of life and all parts of the world. We're supposed to harbor this respect to all of the cultures and integrate them into our unique mixed American identity. We are a country that was born out of varied identities, why would a scarf be a threat now?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfMLqHCsEf8&feature=related
This is an excerpt fromt The View talking about it.

I like one of the points that was made on the view about the Holocaust. In Denmark the president during WWII wore a yellow star. Therefore everyone else in the country did, too, which made it impossible for the Nazi's to know who was Jewish and who wasn't. (I don't know the validity of this claim, I want to do some checking). However the point remains, we all should buy these scarves and wear them.

Fellow bloggers, blog about this. Ask people to also encourage wearing the scarves as a sign of cultural unity.

Learning how to make Empanadas

This is María, my host mother, teaching me how to correctly fold up these Argentine delicacies.

This recipe is changed depending on the tastes of the family. Essentially this is the basic outline that is adjusted to taste:

Empanadas de Carne

• Ground beef
• Onions, diced
• Hard Boiled Eggs, chopped
• Raisins, white raisins are the more traditional (los pasos)
• 1/2 tsp. sweet paprika (pimenton dulce)
• 1/2 tsp. cumin (comino)
• Salt to taste.
• * I would add black pepper to adjust it a bit more to the American palate. Argentines usually use exclusively white pepper and they don't like spicy food. I often times add pepper so that it tastes seasoned to me. It's not 100% Argentine, but I know I have purchased them before at different places with pepper in the meat mixture.
• **Pizza spice (espica pizza) This is something she only adds sometimes. I think if I were substituting I would whip out a mix of oregano, basil, and seasoned salt.

Chop onion and egg finely. Begin by sweating the onions with a bit of butter or oil. Add beef and brown with salt (and pepper). After its browned, add chopped egg and raisins. Also add the spices and let heat for 10 mins for the flavors to permeate. Taste and adjust seasoning to taste.

Since this is a recipe many people cook here, the seasonings are always adjusted to taste. I suggest that you experiment with this to find a spice mixture that's appealing to you.

Let mixture cool until its warm and fill in empanada shells. I don't have a recipe for them now, but I will be getting one of them soon :-D

Here is a close up of the folding process. You'll see how important it is to pinch the dough to seal the empanada following up with creasing the empanada with this scalloped edge.

You can substitute chicken breast for the ground beef. If you do this I suggest cooking the chicken breast in a little water and with chopped peppers (red or green). Remove the peppers and allow chicken breasts to cool. Shred the chicken breasts with a fork, and follow the same recipe for the traditional "carne" empanadas.

These empanadas I made all by myself. María prefers to cook them twice. This is the first stage.

I hope this won't be the last empanada post. I hope to dig up some more recipes and fill you in on my experiments along the way, too.

Food Costs Surge

I read saw this NYTimes article originally on one of the blogs I follow, What to Eat.

The article discusses surging US food costs. I have a unique perspective on this since I was raised on a farm. Since my FFA days in high school, I think it's interesting to follow the market prices in conjunction to the consumer prices.

Right now corn and soybeans are more lucrative for farmers to sell. There is argument in the industry if its due to speculation for corn/soybean ethanol usage, or if it's an actual demand. Either way retail milk prices have also increased but not to the degree that expenses have risen for farmers. Farmers--like my parents--have to pay more to purchase their grain and to fuel their enterprise, but are not being fairly compensated for the added expense.

I know that the middle industries all repeatedly say that they have increased costs, too, but why aren't they paying the farmers more? This is yet another example why verticalization in the agricultural industry has been bad.

I know have another culture to compare this to. In the US, by and large, we're not used to living in economic conditions with constant inflation. In Argentina, however, it seems like inflation is a social institution. There was an article in the Clarín the other day that talked about vegetable inflation. According to the article and anecdotal evidence from my host mother, retail potato prices have nearly tripled since I arrived a month ago. I have yet to figure out how the farmer is compensated here, though. A part of me could tolerate the US food costs rising, if I knew it was being redirected to all parties within the system.

It seems that the Argentines beef industry is highly subsidized here, which keeps beef prices low. The farmers and advocacy organizations are not happy with it because it limits their international trading opportunities, for some reason. The farmer advocacy group here wants them to lift the subsidies so that they can export beef again, but the consumer groups are very opposed to it since it would cause beef prices to soar.

I find this situation to be very interesting and conclude that we must take some action into our own hands. We all have the power to support our local farmers. We can buy food direct from farmers-or nearly direct--at local farmer's markets, road side stands, or small businesses. We can buy local and reduce the ecological footprint we have on the earth by eliminating the extensive shipping that our fruits and vegetables usually have. I always prefer eating fruit, vegetables, and meat from local orchards, farms, and butchers. When you eat this way, the food is picked when it's ripe, the food is more nutritious since it had more time to ripen properly, and the money goes directly--or almost directly--to the farmer and/or local businessmen.

Chau!