Milanesa Sandwich!

Since I gave a recipe for milanesa earlier this month, I thought I would show you a real finished product.

This was my great lunch today. I bought a milanesa sandwich and I made a salad with watercress and tomato. Conforming to the Argentine style, I've abandoned all salad dressings (quite good for my waistline, too) in exchange for olive oil and balsamic vinegar and a dash of black pepper and salt. I hope you're hungry, because it was quite tasty.

When I don't make my own lunch, I often will get a milanesa sandwich at the local panadería called Santa Elena (Lafinur 3245). After repeated visits, everyone there knows me as "The America student" or el estudiante americano. Often panadería which sell lunch are called confiterías here, and this place isn't an exception.

Quite a good lunch...usually the sandwiches are about $A6.50, so it doesn't break the bank. However, I try and cook for myself most lunches and only splurge on occasion. I want to make my pennies count this semester!

I also have been making sauteed vegetables quite a bit. today I had some sauteed eggplant with garlic, Tabasco, and balsamic vinegar.

Making Milanesa

Mattias, son of María, taught me how to make milanesa this weekend. I thought it might be cool to add a few Argentine recipes to my blog. You could bring Argentina into your home with this traditional Argentine dish. Milanesa is served in almost every cafetería and restaurant in Argentina and there are many variants on this dish that you'll see in every restaurant or confitería (cafeteria to buy lunch) in the city.

Recipe - La receta
Marinade:
3 eggs
2 Tbsp. Red Vinegar
1/2 tsp. garlic powder or minced garlic
Pinch of Salt
1 1/2 tsp. parsley or oregano
1/4 tsp. celery salt
Black pepper to taste

Order a chuck roast or sirloin roast (deboned) to be sliced thin. You want the slices between 1/4 and 1/8 of an inch. If you can't get the beef sliced that thin, you can also pound a 1/2 slice into thin slices appropriate for milanesa by putting the beef in between wax paper or seran wrap and beating the meat with a meat hammer. This is a perfect activity to do on a day when you're stressed :-D

It is very important that the meat is very thin so that it flash fries very quickly. This is the important part of a milanesa!

Matias is trimming the fat off of the milanesa. He runs his knife through any flat veins to cut them so the milanesa will stay flat when fried.

Put the meat in the marinade mixture and mix it thoroughly. Refrigerate covered for 1-4 hours before proceeding to the next step.

Matias is mixing the meat with the marinade.

Put plain bread crumbs in a pan and using a fork take one milanesa at a time and coat it with the breadcrumbs.

Matias is breading the Milanesas with bread crumbs. He's careful not to touch the wet milanesa with his dry hands...that way you don't have to get quite as messy.

You can either Freeze the milanesas at this point or fry them until they're golden brown (usually 3-4 mins per side). If you decide to freeze them, I would suggest putting wax paper between them.

Some other ideas:

• It is very popular to serve this on a sandwhich with lettuce and tomatoe.
• Milanesas can be eaten as is. To be truly Argentine, drizzle lemon juice, chimi-churri, mayo, or ketchup.
• Milanesa Napolatina includes a slice of tomato and cheese over the milanesa just after it's fried, sometimes they'll also add a slice of ham or a hard boiled egg, too.
• It is also common to see Milanesa de Pollo (chicken milanesa) or Milanesa de berenjena (eggplant). For chicken they pound chicken breasts thin and repeat the same process and for Eggplant the key is to slice them very thin before marinating.
  

Hope to try to make this wonderful Argentine Meal! Buen Provecho! Chau!

Trip to Bariloche - Part 2

We departed early following breakfast. Plans had changed due to weather since it was supposed to rain—making it a perfect day to hike (sarcasm). We got to the mountain, as it drizzled, and started climbing. It was a steep climb for about the first 800 feet, but it got easier because the terrain changed from rocks to dirt and vegetation. The only problem was that it continued to rain for longer periods.

See the nasty rain clouds. They're awful.

We got to the first vantage point and it was only misting, therefore I was able to take a few photos. Then we started up the next bit, as it progressively begins to rain more. Keep in mind I wasn’t equipped for this trip since I didn’t have a jacket appropriate for hiking nor hiking shoes—just sneakers and a t-shirt. Also keep in mind that with every 500 feet the temperature reduces half a degree or so, therefore I was starting to get quite wet and cold. Also I was very worried that the rain would ruin my camera. The camera bag I bought is supposed to be waterproof, but I still was concerned. Luckily the guide told me that I should put my camera in his waterproof hiking backpack—what a godsend.

The guide was really nice. I told him of my interest in plants, therefore he was pointing out to me some species that weren’t indigenous to Patagonia. I also found out that Argentina doesn’t have many government enabled programs to preserve forest land. This struck me as kind of strange when it seems to be a huge priority to preserve/maintain green spaces in the cities. I’ll go back to my new catch phrase, “Es Argentina / It’s Argentina.”

At the second vantage point the view really wasn’t that good because of all the rain clouds. The rain would come and go for the next two hours as we ascended up to the third and fourth vantage points. Eventually the group came to easier trail, while it also started to pour cold rain. Of course it put everyone in a certain foul mood at this point. This part of the trail didn’t have tree cover; all of the rain was coming down directly on us.

At the second vantage point the view really wasn’t that good because of all the rain clouds. The rain would come and go for the next two hours as we ascended up to the third and fourth vantage points. Eventually the group came to easier trail, while it also started to pour cold rain. Of course it put everyone in a certain foul mood at this point. This part of the trail didn’t have tree cover; all of the rain was coming down directly on us.

We got to the top of the mountain eventually where we were supposed to eat our lunch. At the top was this large pink house/shelter. All of the COPA students when in there, but the lunches kind of stunk. We had these pretty awful (now soggy) milanesa sandwiches and some little thin sandwiches—very popular in Argentina—that tasted awful. We were there for an hour and a half as it continued to pour outside the building. The guides confirmed with the weather report that it was going to continue to rain. Just at the point that most of us were warming up, they decided to take us down—only this time it was raining harder and it was freezing.

Our ascent was about 4.5 hours. Luckily going down the mountain went faster—we made the trek in less than 2 hours. In my humble opinion, it was because we all wanted to get out of the rain.

This picture is when the sun was coming out at the last vantage point.
The sun was shining to brightly that it hurt your eyes to look at it.

When we finally got down to the first vantage point, the rain decided to cease—praise God! However we were still very wet. The last part was the hardest to come down since it was also the steepest part—it was miserable. It’s good that I have been maintaining a state of fitness because several people on the trek suffered exhaustion. I was very good until I twisted my ankle, thusly jerked my knee. I still have lingering problems with steps sometimes. I think I twisted something.

The guides were worried that the buses wouldn’t be there when we got to the base of the mountain since the hike took about 5 hours instead of the intended 8 hours. We got to the base of the mountain and stood under a roof at a Pancho (hot dog) stand at the base of the mountain and luckily someone had called for the buses to return early. We were all wet, hungry, and miserable. It was good the buses were there—it avoided a coup d’état.

Apparently rain isn’t very typical for this part of the year in Bariloche. Usually it only rains 1 or 2 days per month during the dry season. Obviously we got the short end of that stick.

All in all the day of hiking kind of stunk, but I’m glad that I went on the trek. It was a good experience. There’s nothing like returning to the hotel soaked, leaving your mucky sneakers at the door, and ringing your soaked underwear out in the hotel shower, to wake yourself up to the reality of nature.

When we were cleaned up—and dry—we went into town to eat. The group split up into groups and went to different restaurants.

My group went to a great Swiss restaurant that had local trout. They also had lamb, fondue, and beef. Sadly it was a tough decision for lamb or trout. I decided on the trout with roasted almonds because it sounded good and the waiter assured me it was very tasty—“Es muy rico”. We ate in table and shared a bottle of wine. The deserts were amazing, too. I had a chocolate mint mousse that was amazing. It was a good meal and a lot of fun. After hiking for as long as we did, I believe anything would have tasted good, however.