Rosario, Off the Beaten Path

I've already mentioned some of my favorite vegetarian restaurants in Rosario, but there are plenty of other great places in town. Julia was our first American friend to visit so we wanted to show her some authenticity. There are a lot of fancy parillas for impressing guests, but we decided to go to one of our favorite eating spots - el vomito. Ok, so it isn't really called that but it was lovingly given its name because the food is so delicious and plentiful that you eat until you're ready to rupture. It's real name is Comedor Balcarce (on the corner of Balcarce y Brown) and it's cheap.

This restaurant is among the bodegons of Rosario, remnants of the old city. Places where soda comes in vintage bottles and sifones, and the waiters memorize your order.


I suppose that there is a nostalgia for the past in all cities; reminders of a forgotten era scattered about here and there. This restaurant serves the kind of dishes that have been typical 'comfort food' forever here. Guille likes to get huge milanesas or supremas for about 16 pesos. Here's one covered in cheese:

It was also a great place for our guests to sample unusual dishes like cow tongue and intestine. They actually liked the tongue, pictured below, but weren't impressed with the latter. I love the potato tortilla and the homemade pastas.


Another restaurant with the spirit of 'old Rosario' is Santa Maria pizzaria, which deserves its own post (I'll get to work on that research ;)

After dinner, we took them to Davis, a trendy restaurant located at the base of the MACRO (contemporary art) museum. It's right on the river and is a great place for drinking on summer nights. I occasionally (every time) order coffee flan, which comes with a shot of coffee liquor.


And we didn't let them escape our fair city without gelato from Yomo. Yes, it's a chain but their flavors are so well perfected that I prefer it over boutique ice cream shops. I recommend tiramisu, lemon pie and dulce de leche granizado.


If we would have had more time with our guests, we would have taken them to Caracolas, on La Florida (a strip of beach), for fizzy lemonade and fries at merienda time. And to other hidden gems around town like this little cafe where we had breakfast this morning (Maipu y Urquiza).

I'm still delighted by the tiny cookies that often come with coffee here. Free and sweet makes me smile (even before I've reached the bottom of my cafe con leche).

And we could have stopped by El Cairo for chopps (beer on tap) and pizza or a lunchtime salad - the space is huge and filled with artsy motifs (Santa Fe y Sarmiento).


Or we could have had a meal on the shaded patio at VIP, which is just steps from the flag monument and across the street from the river.



So thanks for visiting Rosario, and come back soon!

Fabulous Fideos

Corkscrew Pasta with Cremini Mushroom Sauce

This made a very hearty pasta, with a flavor as rich as french onion soup. The sauce is based on the one that tops this polenta, but is thinned out with extra liquid. (Always cook with wine that you would drink!)

• 200 g. corkscrew pasta
• 200 g. cremini mushrooms, cleaned and sliced
• 1 small onion, thinly sliced
• 1 clove garlic, sliced
• 2 T. EVOO (and/or a butter/oil combo)
  
• 1 T. fresh rosemary, roughly chopped
• 1/2 c. white wine + more for drinking while cooking
  
• 1 c. vegetable stock
• 1/4 t. cornstarch, dissolved in 2 T. hot water
• S & P to taste
  
• Shredded parmesan cheese to top

Saute onion and garlic in oil over med heat until translucent (it helps to have a Guille tossing these for you like a pro).


Add mushrooms and rosemary and stir to coat. Reduce heat to low and saute for about 10 minutes - allow the mushrooms to brown and onions to slightly caramelize (see photo below, don't burn your camera) before adding wine, 1/2 c. stock, and cornstarch solution.


Simmer for 5-10 minutes, adding more stock as necessary for desired consistency and S&P to taste. Don't allow the liquid to cook out as in the polenta recipe. Combine with cooked pasta and top with cheese.


Variations on Pasta Primavera


Pasta Primavera is one of my favorite dishes and can be made with any assortment of veggies, but I always prefer that it include zucchini and fettucine. Typically, my recipe goes something like this:

• Saute 1 medium sliced onion and 1 clove garlic in EVOO for a few minutes
• Choose 3 or 4 veggies:
  
• carrots
• peppers
• zucchini
• yellow squash
• asparagus
• broccoli
• peas
• tomatoes
• Add the thickest vegetables (sliced thin) first to allow for more cooking time, simmer in water and/or veg stock (about 1-2 cups, adding more as necessary) for about 15 minutes
• Add al dente pasta and simmer together for a couple of minutes while the noodles finish cooking and the sauciness thickens
• Top with a TON of parm cheese

I also made a spiral noodle version with shredded carrots and zucchini and added cherry tomatoes when it was close to done. The veggies and cheese got into all the cracks and were delish!

My Funny Valentine

I finally get to spend this silly holiday with Guille. We've spent one other Feb 14 together, thanks to a snowstorm that kept him in New York an extra week, but we pre-celebrated so the actual day was uneventful. I realize that it's a day soaked in over-consumption but I thought that a little homemade surprise wouldn't hurt to set the mood for this weekend.

Guille isn't as big of a fan of chocolate as I am (I actually need chocolately goodness to survive) so I made one of his favorite recipes with a cheesy romantic twist. Yep, I used a tall, heart-shaped cookie cutter to make Scones de mi Corazon. (JAJAJAJA) And I sprinkled raw sugar on the top before baking.


I'm absolutely delighted that my dear friend Julia and her boyfriend are visiting Argentina this week! (Bienvenidos!!) And they're making the trek out to Rosario too! I'm totally excited that we're traveling with them back to Buenos Aires and spending the weekend in the city. I'll be sure to tell you where we take them out to eat here, and what places we find in BA. Your recommendations are warmly welcome!

Guille and I are staying at Moana, a B&B in San Telmo (shamelessly romantic part of town) so that's our present to each other. The scones will undoubtedly be gone by then. So, yay! Fun filled mini-break with friends instead of crazy stuffed animals for Valentines!

Another Weekend in Funes

To update you on one of my first posts, the grapes have matured and we found something else to cook a la parilla.


Guille came across a great idea for cooking veggies on the grill - put them in a juice box. Ok, it seems a little silly but it creates a great little oven with its foil lining. So, wash out your juice box, throw in any combo of veggies with a little evoo and seasonings, and cook on the parilla for about 30 minutes.


This dish has sliced carrots, whole grape tomatoes, and cubed onions, garlic, red peppers, potatoes, and eggplant. We've also had delicious success with other versions including butternut squash, sweet potato, and zucchini. The flavors melt together wonderfully. A touch of oregano, paprika, black pepper and salt are in our typical flavor regime. Fresh rosemary and thyme punctuate an herbed version nicely. Today we added dried portobellos (that we first soaked in red wine) to potatoes, red peppers, zucchini, garlic, and onion. We ended up with veggies in a rich mushroom sauce - yum! Be certain to toss all of veggies so that they are lightly covered with oil - this prevents them from sticking and burning inside the box.


Last week, it was time for the grape harvest. Luckily, Guille's younger (and nimble!) cousin was in town to climb up into the grape vines and cut them down. Thus, we began the wine-making process, which consisted of us cleaning and squishing the grapes. We then put them in a big bottle, added sugar and covered with fabric. Today we strained it and couldn't help but sample it:



Maybe we'll give it a few more weeks? Te amo Guille.

Tofu Pesto for a Rainy Day

I started working again so I'm getting back into the swing of things this week. Luckily, it's a part-time Virtual Assistant job that I found on oDesk. So far, I'm really enjoying it because during my alone hours I can get a little work done (thus feeling accomplished and financially viable), whip up some sort of homemade dish (satisfying my need to 'homemake'), and stay in my pajamas as long as I want. It also cuts down on the amount of free time that I have to secretly indulge in my worst habit - reading wedding blogs. ugh. Why do I torture myself so?

It's also nice because I can turn off work whenever I need/want to. And I can still make dollars (though far fewer). So yay for a job that I feel comfortable with! And on to the food...

We had a crazy summer storm here the other day - it hailed! (I know you can't really tell from this shaky pic, but those are hail stones next to my rosemary.)

And this lightning was non-stop.

(de Rosario 3)

Watching the storm was like gawking at a train wreck, we just couldn't look away. And so instead of cooking, we grabbed a bottle of beer, peanuts and sandwich makings, along with this tofu peso, and starred out the window. The recipe that I used as a guide calls for a pound of tofu, but I had about 300 grams so the measurements below reflect my adjustments. Nothing needs to be exact, though; it's an easy-going dish.


Almond Basil Pesto

• 1/2 c. - 3/4 c. fresh basil (that's all I had)
  
• 1/4 c. almonds, roughly chopped
• 1 large garlic clove, briefly sauted (I prefer the cooked flavor to raw garlic, but it's up to you)
  
• 3 T. Parmesan (or Reggianito) cheese, grated
• Dash of S & P
  
• 2 - 3 T. EVOO (I hope Rachel Ray didn't trademark this)
  

Put everything but the EVOO into a food processor or blender and process until finely chopped. Stream in EVOO while continuing to process until combined.

Tofu Pesto

• 1 small onion, chopped
  
• 1 T EVOO
• 300 g. tofu, patted dry
• 1 small tomato, chopped
  
• S & P to taste

Saute onion in oil on med-low heat until translucent (about 5 minutes), crumble in tofu and add tomato, continue to cook, stirring often, for another 5 minutes or until tofu is browned to your preference. Fold in pesto and cook 2 minutes. I let it rest for about 2 hours at room temperature before digging in.

This would make a delicious version of bruschetta. We started eating it on top of crackers until we stopped ourselves and made it more dinner-like by crafting open face sandwiches. It was delish served along with beer and peanuts but you could definitely fancy this up.

It's the (Peach) Pits

RIP Oatmeal Peach Plum Muffiny Goodness

This one was a heartbreaker. I woke up this morning craving a big buttermilk muffin, but blueberries seem to have disappeared so I decided to try peaches and plums. Searching around the Internet, I only found recipes for dense muffins, many with traditional peach crumble topping. But I wasn't in the mood for crumble, just fluffy, fruity goodness. So I swapped out one cup of blueberries in a previous recipe, for one cup of cubed peaches and plums. 1 peach, 1 plum, and 1 red plum - to be exact.


I wasn't sure how they would turn out so I decided to experiment further. I made 3 with the exact same recipe and 3 with some oatmeal swapped in. I think I would toss another peach or plum into the original recipe, but they didn't disappoint.


They were perfectly moist and the fruit distributed equally (I was worried since peaches are heavier than blueberries).


If the oatmeal muffins had come out (literally) I would post the recipe, but they were a delicious disaster. While I did butter my muffin pan, I suppose the problem was that I didn't use enough liquid. I swapped out 1/2 c. flour for 1/2 c. oats (soaked in 1/4 c. buttermilk for 15 minutes). While the results were still fluffy (and a little heartier, as hoped) the muffin wouldn't let go of the pan! And so, they weren't muffins afterall. But I did enjoy a tasty bowl of muffin crumbs.


The tops were like oatmeal cookies and the combination of oats and fruit was breakfast heaven. I think I will try it again, perhaps using applesauce (as suggested by Katie about a previous post) or more buttermilk. I'm afraid of using more butter or oil, as I don't want them to turn out rubbery, but I welcome any comments you've got!

For a more successful use of peaches try...Peach Pie

• All butter pie crusts
  
• 4 c. peaches, peeled and sliced
  
• 1 c. sugar
• 2 1/2 T. cornstarch
• 1/8 t. salt
• 1/2 c. water
• 1/8 t. cinnamon
• 2 T. butter, sliced
  

This recipe calls for a 9" pie plate but I had a smaller dish and used only one crust, rolled out thinner. It tasted great but didn't look so pretty! Next time, I'll make the whole thing. Mix sugar, cornstarch, salt and water and fold in the peaches. Pour into pie crust, sprinkle with cinnamon and dot with butter. Cover with top crust and bake at 220C (425F) for 10 minutes, reduce heat to 180C (350F) and bake 35 minutes.

Stuff that Sticks

I can't believe it's been a whole week since my last post! But it's been so freakin' hot here that I haven't been whipping up much. A lot of pasta salads and cheese sandwiches--nothing spectacular. But the heat has got me thinking about global warming and all of that scary environmental stuff. So, speaking of stuff, I urge you to check out The Story of Stuff to learn more about how and why we create so much waste. It gives an overview of the economic and social reasons for our unending consumption.


It seems that Argentina doesn't have as much stuff to deal with, perhaps a positive side effect of not exactly being a first world country. In many ways, Argentina is green by default. Lacking the economic prosperity that the US has enjoyed since the end of WWII, Argentines have remained somewhat frugal. This is changing, of course, with all of the crap coming in from China--gag me.

But it's nice to see that things are re-used out of necessity. For instance, we return our beer bottles to get a peso back. And you'll often get a glass bottle of soda in a restaurant--don't try to take the bottle, they will chase you.


When it comes to food, we use everything until it grows mold. And usually we just scrape it off and use the rest. I eat food here that I would have frowned upon and quickly tossed away at home. But it makes me happy to use ugly food. For one thing, I know that my produced hasn't been shined with wax to make it look pretty. I hate waxy apples.


I use veggies that have gone soft for cooking -- tomatoes for making tomato sauce, carrots for stocks or soup, bananas for banana bread. Guille's mom plans all of her meals so that nothing goes bad. I haven't gone that far yet--I cook according to cravings, convenience, and curiosity--but it's a very economical way of eating.


For aging tomatoes - cut out the nasty bits, drop in a pot of boiling water for 1-2 minutes, drain and they will be easy to peel (but don't burn yourself), mash with a fork and you've got a great base for homemade tomato sauce. You can even freeze it for later.



The thing is, since Argentina didn't progress in the same consumer ways that the US did, eating fresh, organic produce is much more cost efficient here. I've been reading tips on how to save money during this economic crisis and one tip (from a US website) was to eat less fresh produce, buying canned and frozen to save money. How sad is that?! How is it possible that food that requires processing and packaging is cheaper?! Doesn't it make more sense to only pay for the growing and picking of the fruit, rather than an intensive preservation process and international shipping?

crazy. Argentina wins this match.