URUGUAY: THE FOOD

What an exhausting last couple of weeks. I turned 41 years old and then celebrated my 16th anniversary, and then spent a nail-biting week waiting on election results, which ended in a sigh of relief. I hope that it’ll be the peaceful transition that we have known in the past. But I fear it'll be marked with continued misinformation and accusations, just like when this administration started. And although Biden wasn’t my first choice, I feel somewhat hopeful that the millions of immigrants, people of color, non-Christians, those with disabilities, and those who just love each other can have the chance to live their lives. Isn’t that what we were supposed to be anyway?

This is one epic sandwich. Truly amazing.

But today, I’m celebrating with some food from Uruguay. The main meal I made today is a sandwich. But not just any sandwich: a Chivito. To start off, I cooked some bacon slices in a skillet and set them off to the side to drain when they were done. Then I took some beef cuts that were thin-sliced for carne asada and cooked it in some of the bacon fat until it was all browned and set it off to the side to drain. After I cooked the meat, I made a few fried eggs as well and set those off to the side. Now, comes time to put the sandwiches together. I used ciabatta buns and split them, laying them side-by-side while preheating my broiler. I spread the inside of the top bun with a little ketchup-mayo combination and laid the lettuce on the other bun. Then on the lettuce, I placed a couple slices of bacon, a couple slices of beef, a slice of deli ham, a slice of tomato, and a slice of mozzarella cheese. Leaving the sandwiches uncovered on a baking sheet, I placed them into the broiler just long enough to melt the cheese. Once I pulled these out of the broiler, I placed one of the fried eggs over the cheese and put the top on the bun and ate it. I was going to serve these with some thick cut (steak-cut) fries, but I actually kind of forgot to do that until we sat down, and I wasn’t going to wait another 20-25 minutes. These were really, truly amazing: a three-animal sandwich, and practically all the food groups. This sandwich gets an A+ from us.

Eh, not sure what happened here. Sorry.

However, the first thing I’m making is Bizcochos Uruguayos. These pastries come in a variety of shapes and even fillings. So, I just picked a style and went with it. I found a recipe that was in Spanish, so I had to translate it to English, which I had my doubts about once I started writing it out, so I knew this was going to be an adventure (I also cut the amounts in half from the original recipe). In a bowl, I added in 4c of flour and 1 Tbsp of salt and stirred. In a separate small bowl, I mixed together the packet of yeast with 1 tsp of sugar and a little bit of water (about an ounce out of 250mL of water). I tried to stir it to dissolve (it was still clumpy for some reason) and set to the side. In a small skillet, I melted about ¾ c of some coconut oil (in lieu of using beef fat). Then I made a well in the flour and added in the yeast mixture and the melted coconut oil and stirred. After that I added the rest of the 250mL and stirred again until it started to come together to form a smooth dough before letting it rest for about 45 minutes. Now, there are several ways to make these, but I made croissant-style pastries. To do this, I rolled out the dough and cut out long triangles. I decided to spread a little dulce de leche on the triangles, then rolled them up starting on the base of the triangle. I spread them out on a lined baking sheet (with parchment paper) and sprinkled with a bit of salt on top (I wish I had coarse sea salt). I put it in an oven set to 355ºF and thought I was just going to bake it until it was golden on top. But that didn’t happen. It just wasn’t turning golden. After about 20 minutes, I upped the temperature to 400ºF (probably not the best decision). Five or ten minutes later, it then started to brown, but by then, they were at the level of a biscotti and the caramel inside was practically burnt. So, this was an epic fail. That, and they were bland. I might be able to salvage them as biscotti; I’ll try dipping them in my coffee in the morning and see what happens.

Such a tasty way to get some veggies in. I mean, they're covered in mayo and sour cream, but still.

To go with these, I made two salads. The first one I made was Ensalada Rusa, or a Uruguayan Potato Salad (which is why I didn’t feel bad about not making French fries). I feel like I’ve made this before, but I looked through my list and couldn’t find it. But maybe I came across it in Brazilian cooking before. Who knows, but it’s tasty. I cooked down some cubed potatoes and carrots in some boiling water until they were tender but not too tender. Then I drained them and rinsed them in cold water to cool them a bit before adding them to a bowl. I added in a cup of peas, a bit of sour cream and mayo (I use the fake stuff), a little salt and pepper, and some fresh chopped parsley. After mixing it up until it was all combined, I put it in the refrigerator until it was all cooled. This is a really good version of potato salad, and was pretty quick to make. The peas and carrots give it more of a hearty flavor to it. I will definitely keep this in mind for summer picnics and cookouts (if we ever do those again).

I was very surprised at this, actually. I didn't think I would like it as much as I did.

The other salad I made was Uruguayan Bean Salad. I used a can of Great Northern beans that I drained and rinsed (you can also use butter beans or fava beans, but I couldn’t find them where I was). I emptied it into a bowl along with some halved cherry tomatoes, a little bit of chopped yellow onion, and chopped parsley. In a small bowl, I whisked together a little olive oil, white wine vinegar (since I didn’t have red wine vinegar), oregano, cayenne pepper, black pepper, and salt. I poured this on top of the beans and vegetables and stirred everything together until it was well coated. I let this set out at room temperature for about an hour until we ate. I was kind of skeptical about this, but it was light and flavorful, and I really enjoyed the little kick from the cayenne. This is another recipe that I’ll keep around for when I have to bring a dish to some function (assuming we’ll do those again at some point in time).

Outside of my accidental croissant-shaped biscotti, this was a great meal!

I learned a lot about Uruguay over the past couple of weeks, which happened to also coordinate with delving into parts of South American history that I was just hearing for the first time, like Operation Condor. I just watched a Brazilian film called Legalidade about events leading up to the dictatorship, and Uruguay was mentioned often as a means for an escape from the state of Rio Grande do Sul. Doing this blog has slowly linked parts of history and geography together to give me a better understanding of the world and my place in it. I originally started this as a way to teach my kids about the world, but I think it became more of a personal journey.

Up next: Uzbekistan