By Eduardo Stanley
If you plan to have a BBQ, or a good piece of meat, like a tasteful New York steak, you can get the most of it with a good salsa you can use both to marinate or just to spread it over your cooked steak or BBQ.
We are talking about chimichurri, the well-flavored salsa from Argentina, where it is used at any event involving meat. Chimichurri salsa is an uncooked salsa in which the dominant elements are garlic and parsley.
It also goes perfectly with choripan, the Argentinean hot dog (see below).
The recipe is almost universal.
Chimichurri Recipe
Ingredients:
1/4 cup coarsely chopped parsley
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
4 large garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons oregano leaves
2 teaspoons crushed red pepper
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
Option: You can add a little bit of thym
How to make it:
Chop the parsley, garlic, oregano and thyme (if added), and mix them in a regular-sized bowl with the crushed pepper. Then incorporate the red wine vinegar and olive oil, and mix all the elements. Salt and pepper to taste.
Use it at room temperature.
Choripan
Chori (chorizo) + pan (bread). It is made with Italian mild sausage into a piece of french bread, like a regular sandwich or hot dog. The ideal bread is baguette style, or you can use a ciabatta dinner roll. The special flavor comes from the chimichurri you add to it. This is a popular sandwich around soccer stadiums, however, lately food trucks and tourism have helped the choripan become somehow “gourmet” by adding such items as mustard and minced onions and a variety of sausages such as chicken, vegan and more.
The Perfect Pairing
A good steak with chimichurri is more enjoyable with a good glass of Malbec wine. Be sure your Malbec is from Argentina, not from France or Chile—a producer of good white wines. Curiously, Malbec is originally from France but adapted better to the altitude of the western mountains of Argentina; at 3,000 feet, Malbec grapes develop their special taste from the warm days and chilly nights. Today, you can find a good variety of Malbecs in local supermarkets.
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Eduardo Stanley is the editor of the Community Alliance newspaper.
