Tips for Asado Grilling Over Wood Embers

We got our company’s name from the gauchos, rough-and-tumble Argentinian cattlemen who cooked their meat on makeshift grills. And while we weren’t on hand for those long-ago Latin barbecue celebrations, we’d say it’s a safe bet the gauchos didn’t head out to Home Depot to buy charcoal. They cooked over wood.

They had the right idea. Wood smoke gives your food an amazing flavor, but it’s also something of a challenge, writes Oliver Schwaner-Albright in The New York Times.

“Grilling over a wood fire is as much a sport as an art — it’s more instinctive than cooking with a gas grill, more nuanced than cooking with charcoal, and more athletic than both.”

If you think this is something you’re ready to tackle, here are some rules to follow for your next Latin barbecue:

1. You can’t just use any wood

When cooking over wood, look for seasoned dried hardwoods, which burn hotter and last longer than softer woods such as pine. Look for woods like hickory, ash, beech or oak, or from fruit trees like cherry or almond. You can add more distinct flavors by using soaked wood chips or mesquite chunks.

2. Starting the fire

If you’ve ever gone camping, or you have a fireplace, this should come easy. Build a pile of kindling (wood chips, newspaper or some other sort of tinder), and then surround it with a teepee of small twigs. Add larger pieces of wood when the fire starts to burn.

3. Let the fire burn

Wood Embers Cooking Meat on Asado GrillStart the fire early, and make sure you have plenty of wood.  You’re not going to cook over an open flame here, which can leave you with steaks or chicken that taste like charcoal. Let the fire build and then burn down until the wood turns into embers.

Those embers are hotter than the fire. Once you have a nice bed of embers going, put down your grill grate and begin working. But be careful: you can still get the same kind of flare ups you’d see with a gas or charcoal grill, so keep an eye on your food to avoid charring.

And if you’re thinking about grilling some dessert, just add a few pieces of wood to the embers to restart your fire.

True Argentinian cooking requires you to go slow, over a lower, indirect heat. And go easy on the seasoning. Add some salt and pepper before you cook, and maybe put some fresh herbs on the coal to add flavor. Once the meat has rested, add chimichurri sauce, a staple of the Latin barbecue.

With that out of the way, you might be wondering, “What should we cook?”

Well, why not some steak? It’s what the gauchos would have had. Here’s what you’ll need:

10 to 12 ounces of free-range, grass fed beef for each guest
Coarse sea salt
Once you’ve got the fire going and the wood turned into embers, cook the steak gently, avoiding adding salt right away,

Put the steaks on the grill, let them brown on one side for three minutes, and then flip it, salting the brown side. Turn after three minutes and repeat.

Rotate the steaks every few minutes for a total of about 12 minutes of cooking, then let them rest for 15 minutes before carving.  If you carve too soon, the steaks will lose their juiciness.

If this type of cookout appeals to you, Gaucho Grills can help. We’ve modeled our grills after the traditional Argentine parrilla, allowing barbecue enthusiasts to raise and lower the grilling surface over burning wood for a variety of different dishes.

You may be miles away from Argentina, but with our help, you can take your cooking to new places.

Drink Pairings for Your Next Asado Meal

Regardless of whether you’ve ever visited Argentina, there’s a good chance you’re nevertheless aware of just how significant a role the consumption of meat plays in the country’s culinary culture. What you may not be familiar with, however, is the enormous popularity of a particularly Argentine style of barbecuing.

Known as an asado, it’s an hours-long outdoor cookout that isn’t entirely unlike an American barbecue experience. Still, there are several significant differences, not the least of which is the food and drink itself. At an asado meal, you can expect to enjoy high-quality cuts of meat ranging from sirloin and flank steaks to a succulent rack of ribs. Sausage, chicken, and even carefully prepared appetizers known as achuras may also make an appearance.

Another significant difference between the American-style barbecues you and I are used to and an asado cookout is the beverage of choice. Cans of beer and pitchers of sweet iced tea aren’t generally a part of an Argentine barbecue. Instead, you can expect to encounter red wine—and lots of it—in varying degrees of quality.

If you’d like to host a genuine asado meal of your own, keep reading to learn which wines you’ll want to pair with which meats.

Keeping It Simple

If you want to keep things simple, go with a few bottles of an Argentinian Malbec. “A hearty red grape of French origin,” according to Wine Enthusiast, Malbec “is now exceedingly popular in Argentina.” It’s also the wine you’re most likely to spot multiple bottles of at a typical asado cookout. This full-bodied and fruity wine often features notes of blackberry, oak, and spice.

As is the case with a decent Malbec, a Cabernet Sauvignon is another full-bodied wine that pairs well with an asado cookout where a wide variety of meats are on offer, because it does such a decent job of rinsing the palate between bites, or between differently flavored meats.

Impressing the Neighbors

Go to a traditional asado cookout pretty much anywhere in Argentina, and you’ll probably spot at least a couple bottles of reserva or gran reserva wines. These titles imply that the wine inside the bottle is of a particularly high quality. A reserva, for instance, has been aged for at least three years, while a gran reserva has been aged at least five. Offering these wines to your guests is a clever way to let them know that you know your way around a wine shop, and that you have the money to buy the good stuff.

A Time for White and Sparkling Wines

Those of you who aren’t big fans of red wine will be pleased to know that there is a place for a bottle of white at an asado cookout. Many asado hosts offer their guests cheese plates and sweetbreads before the main event comes off the grill. Sparkling white wines, such as a Chardonnay, generally accompany these courses.

In fact, sparkling wines, which haven’t historically seen much love in Argentina, are becoming much more popular during dessert time. So, if you happen to be serving any sort of traditional Argentine dessert as your asado cookout comes to a close (flan with dulce de leche, for instance, or perhaps a ricotta cake), feel free to accompany it with a bottle of bubbly.

The Bottom Line

Where the actual asado cookout and the wine you’ll be serving and drinking are concerned, however, you really don’t need to worry too much about which bottle to serve or the proper time to serve it. Frankly, that would be just a touch un-Argentinian.

Remember: A true Argentine cookout is an hours-long affair, and just as barbecues are here in the States, its true purpose is to encourage good friends and family to gather together over food and drink. It’s a style of gathering, you might say, that’s as old as time itself. So, try not to get too hung up on whether you can afford a half-dozen bottles of $120 Malbec.

If you come prepared with some solid, full-bodied red that you and your guests will genuinely enjoy—and, of course, enough meat to pack the grill (500 grams, or about 17.6 ounces of meat per person is considered standard)—you’ll have everything you need to experience an asado that any Argentine would be proud to attend.

Of course, no asado-style cookout is complete without an Argentinian-style grill. Visit Gaucho Grills today to find a grill that lets you cook steaks as if you’re at an authentic asado.

Tips for Cleaning Your Pink Himalayan Salt Block

Even if you know almost nothing at all about grilling or cooking, you’re probably still aware that the world of cuisine is a world of trends. Whether they’re short-lived fads or decades-long movements, there seems to always be something trendy on offer to engage and inspire the zealous gourmand.

One of the more popular cooking trends today involves grilling or otherwise preparing food with something known as a Himalayan salt block. Most Himalayan salt blocks are about two inches thick and roughly the length and width of a trade paperback book. And although they’re sometimes used for serving, these unusual grill salt blocks, as we like to call them, are more commonly used for cooking meats, fish, and vegetables. The blocks add a complex salt flavor to food, although juices and food debris tend to build up easily and stick stubbornly to the blocks when they’re used for cooking. Visit our blog for more tips on cooking with pink Himalayan salt blocks.

Because these blocks are literally made of salt, there are number of very important dos and don’ts to bear in mind where cleaning is concerned. The following tips will ensure that your grill salt block, which is surprisingly delicate, won’t become ruined because of cleaning.

Steer Clear of the Dishwasher

Because Himalayan salt blocks are indeed made of salt, even a quick cycle through a dishwasher will cause it to dissolve into nothingness. In fact, if you do run your salt block through the washer, don’t expect it to be there when the wash is complete!

First Things First

Before you even begin to clean your salt block, you’ll first want to let it cool to room temperature. This can take quite a long time, since salt blocks retain heat quite well. To remove any food bits or other material that might be stuck to the block, use a slightly wet sponge, a scouring pad, or even a kitchen towel. A spatula can sometimes work as well.

Once your salt block is clean, pat it dry with a clean cloth and store it somewhere equally dry. A cabinet or drawer than isn’t prone to attracting wetness or moisture is probably your best bet. Wait at least 24 hours after the block is dry before using it again.

Water Is Not the Grill Salt Block’s Friend

There’s a good reason why cleaning a Himalayan salt block can be such tricky business: The blocks can easily become heavily coated with the grime of cooking, and yet if you use too much water in your efforts to remove that grime, a decent portion of your block could easily dissolve. So, what’s the solution if a rag or sponge doesn’t work?

Consider removing the food and cooking debris by giving your block a good scrub with a high-quality grilling tool. Salt block cleaning brushes, for instance, can be found at most retail and e-commerce stores where kitchen supplies are sold.

Water, of course, will dissolve the salt itself (more on that later), so make sure any sponges or pads you use for cleaning aren’t soaking wet–a damp rag should do the trick. Neither dish detergent nor soap are necessary when cleaning salt blocks. In fact, using more than a very, very small amount of detergent isn’t recommended. Those who insist on using detergent, however, should first mix it in a bowl of water before applying. It is worth bearing in mind that Himalayan salt blocks are antibacterial–salt itself is naturally antibacterial–which is the real reason you don’t need to use soap.

A Couple More Tips

If you keep your salt block out of the dishwasher and away from the streaming water in your kitchen sink, it’ll last for quite a long time. But just for good measure, here are a few other cleaning salt block cleaning tips that we think are worth remembering:

Your block is capable of naturally absorbing moisture from the air, and if that happens on a regular basis, its lifespan will be considerably shortened. To keep that from happening, store your block in an air-tight plastic bag (like a Ziploc bag). You can also purchase a salt block protective case, which will essentially serve the same purpose.
A salt block covered in carbonized cooking oil is a tough thing to clean. If you tend to use a lot of oils in your cooking, apply them directly onto your food instead of the surface of the salt block itself. Aside from making clean-up easier, you’ll find that less oil settles into the natural cracks of the salt block.

Uses for Leftover Beef After Your Asado Cookout

The cook out is winding down. Your asado grill is cooling, guests have moved onto drinks and desserts, and you’re thinking about leftovers.

Specifically, the leftover beef. Cooking beef on an asado grill can give you steaks like nothing else you’ve tasted, but that doesn’t mean your leftovers need to be a letdown.

Here are a few Argentine-tinged beef dishes that you can make with whatever beef is leftover from your next cookout.

Beef and Red Pepper Empanada

People have been eating empanadas for centuries. They’re a chameleon-like food, taking on different characteristics from country to country. Go to India and they’ll be filled with dried fruits or nuts. Visit Venezuela and you’ll find empanadas fried and made from corn flour.

Argentinian empanadas are typically filled with beef and vegetables, although other variations use chicken or fish.

For this recipe – by chef Fernando Larroude – we’ll go with beef and red pepper. You’ll end up with enough empanadas for a party.

Ingredients:

1 onion
2 red peppers
1 ¼ cup of beef stock
10 ½ ounces of sirloin steak
A small bunch of spring onions
12 green olives
2 hard-boiled eggs
Salt and pepper
Short crust pastry (This is made by mixing eight cups of flour, a cup of water and 10 ½ ounces of beef fat.)
Directions

Make the filling by finely chopping the onions and frying them in the beef fat. Add a little of the stock for extra flavor, taking care not to let the mixture get too liquid. Make sure the onions are soft, as the finished product will only bake for 10 minutes.
Slice the sirloin into finger-width ribbons, and add them to the onions. When the meat has cooked for a few minutes, add grated egg and a few roughly chopped olives.
At the last minute, add a handful of finely sliced spring onions for freshness, and end by putting in chopped red peppers. Season this mixture and allow it to cool before adding it to the pastry.
Roll the pastry as thin as possible on a cold, floured surface. Cut the pastry into small discs, and spoon a small amount of the cooled mixture onto each disc. Fold the pastry over, sealing the edges together.
Cook for about 10 minutes at 375 degrees, and serve immediately.

Argentine Beef Stew

That steak tasted amazing when it was fresh off your asado grill on a warm September night. But now it’s a cool, rainy day and you want something more seasonal. And what’s more comforting on a dreary rainy autumn day than some stew?

This version – courtesy of the food blog Naked Cuisine – might be a little different than the stew you grew up with, but it’s no less soothing.

Ingredients

1 tbs. of cooking oil
1 lb. of beef, in chunks
1 onion
¾ cup of red wine
1 cup of fresh diced tomato
1 cup of chopped dried apricots
1 diced red bell pepper
1 delicata squash or small pumpkin, cut into large chunks
3 medium sized potatoes, cut into large chunks
1 cup of tomato sauce
6 cups of beef stock
1 tsp of paprika
¼ tsp of cayenne pepper
½ tsp of sea salt
Fresh cracked pepper
Directions

Heat the oil in a large pot until hot. Add the beef, letting the chunks get brown on all sides.
Lower the heat and add the onions, peppers, apricots and tomatoes, cooking until soft. Add the wine and let everything simmer for a few minutes.
Add the tomato sauce, beef stock, cayenne pepper, potatoes and squash/pumpkin.
Simmer on a low heat for two hours and 30 minutes, add salt and pepper, and serve with fresh cilantro. This dish should serve six.
If the world of the asado grill is still a foreign country to you, let Gaucho Grills take you there. Our grills can let you cook steaks and other dishes as if you’re at a classic Argentinian parilla. Shop our website to find the grill model that’s right for you, and read our blog to uncover other recipes and cooking tips.

Meat Cutting Techniques & Tips

We’ve designed our Argentine grills to give you perfectly cooked cuts of meat. What you do with that meat after it leaves the grill is up to you. The way you cut a steak after it’s cooked plays as much of a role in your meal as the grilling process.

When you’ve taken the time to grill a nice piece of beef on your parrilla, you want to make sure that you take the proper steps to serve it correctly. Here are a meat cutting techniques and tips that will allow you to get the most out of your next meal.

1. Let it rest

We can’t stress this enough. When you slice a steak too early, you’re letting the juices inside escape, leading to a dry, flavorless cut.

Once your meat has cooked to your liking on the grates of your Argentine Grill, place it to the side and let it rest for three to five minutes. This lets the juices relax the meat. Resting times depend on the size of what you’ve just cooked. Larger pieces of meat – roasts for example – will need longer resting times.

2. Cut against the grain

When talking about meat, “the grain” refers to the alignment of muscle fibers. It’s easier to identify in tougher cuts like flank steak than in leaner varieties of steak, such as tenderloin.

By slicing the meat against the grain, we cut through those fibers, increasing the tenderness of the cut and making it easier to chew. When we slice with the grain – in the direction as the fibers – we’re left with a chewier piece of meat.

3. Use a cutting board

Using a cutting board makes slicing meat easier and safer. There’s less chance of the meat – or your knife – slipping, and you’re less likely to damage your countertop. Feel free to trim off fat and surface muscle to enhance flavor, but don’t away so much that you’re giving yourself less meat.

4. What if we’re serving chicken?

To slice a chicken breast, place it on a cutting board, skin side up. Start at one end, and pull the skin away from the meat. Use a boning knife to cut meat away from one side of the breastbone, cutting as close to the bone as you can.

Cut the meat away from the rib bones using a sawing motion, pressing the flat side of the knife against the bones. Gently pull the meat from the bones as you cut.

Chicken sounds pretty good right now, so we’ll end – as we often do – with a recipe, for Argentine Grilled Chicken.

Ingredients

½ cup of parsley
¼ cup of red wine vinegar
2 tbsp. of olive oil
1 tsp. of soy sauce
½ tsp. of Worcestershire sauce
2 peeled garlic cloves
¼ tsp. of fresh ground pepper
1 tsp. of dried oregano
1 bay leaf
A dash of red pepper flakes
12 boneless chicken thighs
Directions

Use a blender to pulse marinade ingredients until they’ve been pureed.
Marinate the chicken in a plastic bag for at least four hours.
Pre-heat the grill over medium-high heat. Remove chicken from bag.
Grill until the chicken reaches your desired doneness, for about 5 to 7 minutes on each side.
If you don’t have a grill – or are unhappy with the one you have – Gaucho Grills can help. Visit our website to find the right Argentine grills for your next cookout. Our grills will do their job. It’s up to you to find the right way to cut what you’ve cooked.

Argentine Grilling Marinades: Chicken, Steak & Seafood

In our last blog post, we talked about the mystery of where chimichurri got its name, as well as some of the misconceptions about this sauce.

(For example, it’s not “Argentinian ketchup.”)

There seems to be some debate online about whether chimichurri should only be used as a condiment, or can also function as an Argentine grilling marinade.

“While some recipes for chimichurri use it as a sauce, using it as a marinade opens up new flavors and tenderizes less tender cuts of meat,” writes Kathie Smith of The Blade. “In order to tenderize, a marinade must contain acidic ingredients such as lemon juice, yogurt, wine, or vinegar, or a natural tenderizing enzyme found in fresh papaya, ginger, pineapple, and figs, according to the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association.”

So today we’re going to talk about marinades, by offering two different recipes for a marinade you can make the next time you’re ready to grill.

Argentine Grilling Marinade Recipes

First up, here’s an Argentine grilling marinade for seafood or chicken dishes that comes from The Food Network program Melting Pot:

Ingredients

½ tsp of saffon threads
1 tbs. of lemon juice
½ cup of extra virgin olive oil
½ cup of white wine vinegar
1 Spanish onion, diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
¼ cup of Italian parsley, chopped fine
1 tsp of freshy thyme
Salt and pepper
Directions

Steep the saffron in lemon juice for five minutes, then combine all the other ingredients, and keep covered. It should yield about 1 and ½ cups.

Our second marinade is for steaks. More to the point, churrasco cut steak, otherwise known as skirt steak. These cuts are typically marinated to add flavor and tenderness. Here’s what you’ll need:

Ingredients

3 heads of garlic (30-40 cloves)
2 tsp of salt
1 tsp of black peppercorn
1 cup of orange juice
¼ cup of fresh lime juice
¼ cup of fresh lemon juice
1 cup of minced onion
2 tsp of oregano
1 cup of Spanish olive oil
Directions

Mash the garlic, peppercorns and salt into a paste, then stir in the fruit juices, oregano and onion. Let this mixture rest at room temperature for at least 30 minutes. Whisk the garlic/juice mixture with olive oil until it’s well blended.

Place your meat in a large pan or bowl, and add enough marinade to coat it. Cover the bowl/pan and refrigerate it. The meat should stay in the refrigerator for at least 5 hours, but should ideally marinate overnight before grilling.

To get the true Argentinian grilling experience, you need an Argentine-style grill. Gaucho Grills can help. Our grills are modeled after traditional South American designs, creating a dining experience that will impress your guests as much as the meal you’re serving.

And if you don’t have time to put together a marinade, remember that we sell our own Argentinian sauces. Visit our website today to learn more about our grills and accessories. Enjoy!

The Origins of Chimichurri in Argentine Cuisine

Some mysteries may never be solved.

Who built Stonehenge?

Is there a real Loch Ness Monster?

What happened to Amelia Earhart?

Let’s add another one to the list: where did the term “chimichurri” come from?  The origin of this Argentine grilling staple’s name is as murky as the sauce itself.

Writing in the San Francisco Chronicle a few years ago, Joyce Goldstein tried to solve the riddle of how chimichurri got its name:

According to one account, “chimichurri” is a corruption of English names such as “Jimmy Curry” or “Jimmy McCurry,” who was either an Irish or Englishman who signed up to fight for Argentine independence, or an meat wholesaler, depending on who you ask.
Another explanation comes from the Argentine gourmet Miguel Brasco, who postulates that the term came from British soldiers who were captured during the failed Rio de la Plata invasions in the early 1800s. These soldiers mixed English, Spanish and aboriginal words when asking for condiments.
Other stories give credit to Basque settlers who came to Argentina in the 19th In this telling, the settlers referred to the sauce as “tximitxurri,” which – loosely translated – means “a mixture of several things in no particular order.”
“There are as many variations of chimichurri sauce as there are stories of where the sauce came from,” author and chef Elizabeth Karmel wrote in a 2011 Associated Press piece.

“My favorite story credits English-speaking colonists for speaking in ‘Spanglish’ and asking for sauce with their meals, which they called curry. Instead of saying ‘Che mi salsa,’ they would say ‘Che mi curry.’ And supposedly that somehow got changed around to chimichurri.”

Chimichurri in Argentine Grilling

While we can’t prove how chimichurri got its name, we can poke holes in some of the myths surrounding this sauce, with the help of Asado Argentina, a website devoted to Argentine grilling.

Chimichurri doesn’t need to be a fresh, bright green. It comes in different colors, and some fans like it to have an aged appearance for a more mellow flavor. For example, our Che Amigo Chimichurri Sauce is a lovely orange color.
Chimichurri isn’t Argentina’s answer to ketchup. (Ketchup is the Argentinian version of ketchup.) It’s not served with every meal, and you won’t see it poured over French fries or hot dogs. Nor is it a South American pesto. They may look similar, but they contain different ingredients and have different uses.
Some people argue that Chimichurri should serve as a condiment, not a marinade. In the Argentine grilling world, it is typically served with steaks, sausages and organ meat.
Chimichurri isn’t made simply by mixing cilantro, limes and spices in a blender.
If you’re interested in delving into the world of Argentine grilling, Gaucho Grills can help. Our grills can let you grill steaks and other meats as if you’re at a traditional Argentinian parilla.

And fear not: we sell chimichurri to help add some extra flavor to your meal, even if you don’t really know how the sauce you’re serving got its name.