Things to do with Argentine Beef

Back in the good ol' days of grass-fed, La Carne Argentina was so good that it was a sin to do anything but roast it over hardwood coals, salt it, and eat it.

Now that 80% of Argentine Beef comes from feedlots, what little flavor that remains could use a little help!

Since we yanquis have been giving feedlot beef a helping hand for about 60 years, it´s time to dust-off some time-honored recipes and put them to guilt-free use here in Buenos Aires.

Here´s something I´ve been working on this winter: 

beef barley soup

One of the magical things you can easily add to your cooking in Argentina is the flavor of the omni-present hardwood coals glowing away in every neighborhood parilla and sacred back-yard Sunday asados.

So next time you find yourself someplace where beef is being broiled, grab some asado de tira or vacio to go.

Tell them you want it "bien, bien asado."  You´re looking for the asador to really dry-out the meat, drip-off the fat, and get as much of that smokiness as possible.

If you´re not ready to cook, throw it in the freezer ...the smokiness will be just fine for a few days.

When you wake up one morning in the mood to cook, grab a good-sized pot and whip-up a mirepoix of that holy trinity of carrots, celery, and onions in equal amounts.  Whack them into pieces small enough to help them release their flavors.  Throw them in the pot with a pinch of salt and as much garlic as you like.  Fill the pot to the brim with water (you want a lot of broth.)  Proportions: about 1/3 vegetable matter, 2/3 water.  Bring to a boil then simmer for a little more than an hour.

When a taste of the veggies reveals that they have surrendered all or most of their flavors, strain your vegetable stock and discard them.

Now grab your well-roasted beef and trim-off the excess fat.  Feedlot beef is crazy stupid fatty ...you´ll need a little of that but get rid of any big, easily trimmed fat and you should be fine.  You can skim the congealed fat off the top of the soup later when it´s cooled if there is still too much.  However, that skimmed fat will contain a lot of the other flavors.  So it´s better to reduce the beef fat before you put it in the pot.  Use as much beef as you like and dice it fine or coarse...it will eventually disolve to a great degree.

Now that you have a pot of steaming stock and roasted beef... start thinking about what herbs you would like.  I´ve found that a judicious amount of thyme is great for this soup.  Rosemary is a nice touch as well.  I´d stay away from oregano for this soup but a touch of basil works.  Season it well as you will be diluting it a little later.

This soup cries out for black pepper.  Use a little more than you might normally.  I don´t know about you but I´ve found regular supermarket black pepper in Buenos Aires to be way better than in the US.  Black pepper and the charcoal flavor are perfect together and, as the fat renders, their harshness really mellows.

Mushrooms or mushroom powder really works well with this but are optional and I´d suggest that you not over-do it.  Next time out, I think I´ll braise some mushrooms in butter and red wine and throw them into the pot.  My next batch will definitely have a good splash of plonk!

Most likely, your pot will now be quite a bit less full after discarding the original veggies.  Fill it back up to the brim with water and let the whole shebang simmer for about an hour and a half.  Check on it every ½ hour or so and adjust your seasonings.

During this simmer, I suggest you add one of my secret Argentine ingredients:  Safra® extracto de carne.  It´s really strong and quite salty  ...so for your 3 liter pot, I´d start out with a ½ teaspoon then come back later and taste.  I really love this stuff but I respect it!  Use a spoon sterilized in the simmering broth and it will keep in your fridge forever.

After an hour and a half of simmering, you should be presented with a very brothy soup, redolent of all your seasonings and rich with the flavor of charred beef and black pepper, and mellowed with some beef fat.  You may well decide to eat it as-is!  A crunchy bâton from L'epi might do the trick.

For me, however, this soup is the perfect foil for pearled barley.  Keep in mind that the barley will expand to about 4x its uncooked size ...and take a lot of the broth with it.  For this reason, keep your concoction as brothy as possible and well seasoned in case you need to dilute it once the barley swells.  For a 3 liter pot, I´d only add two tablespoons of barley ...unless you are looking for a porridge rather than a soup.  Barley will need about an hour of good simmering.  When it´s tender, it´s done.  It will swell more and be more tender the next day.

Give it a try and let me know if this wonderfully hearty soup chases away the winter chill.

¡provecho!
Mike