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caesarsme · 3 years

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8 Greatest Bottega Veneta Luggage Of 2021

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the-coconut-asado · 5 years

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Masterclass in Mendoza

If you have been to Argentina as often as I have, you start taking certain things for granted: the beef will always be off-the-scale delicious, the economy will always be ‘post-Brexit apocalypse’ (this remains optimistically in inverted commas until 30 March), and my family will always be right. My cousin told me to add that.

On that last point, my family will never let me down – Auntie Grace recently gave the biscuit manufacturers Nabisco a dressing down over the phone for allegedly reducing the number of raisins in their Garibaldi biscuits. They are hurriedly checking their recipe as we speak. And despite having to chase down normally easy-to-find ingredients such as turmeric, ginger snaps or maple syrup in specialist ‘dietetico’ shops in Buenos Aires, the beef (and for that matter any other part of any animal that can be barbecued) remains uber-available and unlike any other in the world, even the steaks from Vanuatu (which are a pretty close second).

But when you visit Mendoza – the nation’s wine growing region to the West, on the Chilean border – you could be forgiven for thinking you have stepped into a bubble where economic hardship is a myth and the peso didn’t fall down a rabbit hole and twist its ankle. The buildings are baroque-like, imposing and apparently well maintained; dining out is sophisticated; there are few if any signs of the shanty towns that spread out from the suburbs to the centre of Buenos Aires or the simpler, rural existence of the poorer provinces of Salta or Jujuy.

This aura of affluence ripples out from the bodegas that circle the City. Vast acreages of Malbec, Petit Verdot and Torrontes vineyards, visible investment in marketing and infrastructure and, for each bodega, a showpiece restaurant nestling in the middle of the vineyards with an asado at least an acre long. My friends had told me about a stellar dining experience they had had in one of these restaurants on the Norton Estate a few years back. So when we visited just before Christmas, and headed for the Santa Julia Bodega much praised by my cousins (who are never wrong, see above), we eschewed the eye wateringly pricey themed tour of the winery and headed straight for the food.

And here is when we realised that the economic bubble we thought you had entered at the airport is an illusion, and the peso/ dollar ratio remains unashamedly in favour of the tourist. There were three set menus on offer: two of them were 7- course degustation menus which felt somewhat over- indulgent for lunch. The third, and cheapest option – for the equivalent of less than £20 per head – gave you a starter of fresh-from-the-oven empanadas with the lightest flaky pastry; a bife de ancho (rib eye) the size of my plate and so tender you could cut it with a butter knife, accompanied by a multi-coloured selection of asado-roast vegetables; and a light cherry mousse cake for dessert. All with Estate wines accompanying each course and coffee to follow. Seriously, how could they be making a profit on this?

When we got back to our enchanting guest house Casa Ella that evening, we were in for another treat – and another reminder that Argentina’s fractured economy extended to these leafy suburbs. We were going to have an asado masterclass from the Chef of one of the smaller bodegas – and we had to pay in US dollars.

Santiago our chef had the quiet charm of a troubadour, and effortlessly guided us through some cuts of meat unheard of outside Argentina. Matambre, for instance, a thin veneer of pork cut from above the loin, marinated in white wine, herbs and olive oil, then flash barbecued for 15 minutes and served with blackened peaches. I almost cried when I ate it, it tasted that good.

True, Santiago peppered his narrative with a couple of dodgy references to gender roles at an asado, but was smart enough to read the room and not dig himself a bigger hole than he had to. And we soon had fun pretending to make empanadas based on the Blue Peter principal of ‘here’s one I made earlier’, tucking in to course upon course of deliciousness, and putting the gender stereotype-casting down to ‘banter’.

We shared our masterclass with another couple who were staying at Casa Ella – from New York as it happens. One of the nice things about little guest houses like this is how easy it is to socialise with other travellers. The big table you sit around at breakfast would force even the most introvert (or British) to talk to others, and it’s amazing what tips you pick up.

Our NBF’s from Brooklyn told us about Anna’s, a charming French Bistro a couple of blocks from us which did great pasta. Anna’s also had an interesting take on Argentine asado classics like mollejas (pronounced ‘mujekas’). This is a cut of offal which defies definition (or at least there seems to be no English word for it). The nearest description is that it is some kind of gland, probably from around the neck area, but most would apply the generic ‘sweetbreads’ (a word usually applied to organs pretty far south of the neck, but anyhoo). Whatever it is, barbecued on a plancheta until crisp and served with slices of lemon, it is my perfect starter. Anna’s did something very un-French and marinated the mollejas in teriyaki ingredients before sauteeing bite sized chunks and serving on toast. The result was inspired and I took it back to the family. While they are ‘always right’ they are also always willing to learn something new – and the aromas of garlic and soy sauce won them over pretty damn quickly.

Next to Anna’s was a proper little French patisserie, Brillat Savarin, which served eclairs filled with lemon, dulce de leche or chocolate creme pat.

Couldn’t choose so bought one of each and ate them slightly shamefully in our room later that afternoon. By evening, the thought of food was wrong but somehow still so right, so we tricked ourselves into submission by agreeing not to have meat in our meal. We found a little cafe that did the regional speciality humitas: not the drier corn mix that features in the Tamales up north in Salta, but a runnier consistency, spiced with smoked paprika, that could stretch into a soup, or in this instance, be used to stuff a zapallito (the tiny green pumpkins native to Argentina).

Corn is that magical vegetable that combines sweetness with an unexpected depth of flavour, and in this case the delicious humitas stuffing outshone the slightly overdone zapallito it was served in.

Steak, mollejas, patisserie and humitas - our tour of Mendoza’s cuisine was complete.

Back in Buenos Aires for Christmas, and my cousin Cata was confidently breaking two men at a time by just getting them to move the dining table. It’s a heavy dining table and whatever position the guys put it in, it wasn’t good enough for her protractor-like vision. Thus, she kept barking orders at them, moving them around like text boxes in a powerpoint. ‘We are nothing’ her husband Pancho whispered to Adam, calculatedly out of earshot.

Just be always right, Pancho - like everything we tasted in Mendoza. And let’s face it, Cata wasn’t wrong about the table.

So here are the recipes inspired by our visit: follow my lead on the steak and you won’t go wrong. The Sweet Potato stuffed with Humitas is my riff on the zapallito dish we tried, and my Pecan, Coconut and Chocolate tart wouldn't look out of place in Brillat Savarin.

How to cook the perfect steak

Santiago the Chef was good, but my cousin’s husband - the aforementioned Pancho - is the true Maestro of the Asado.

In the absence of him, I bought a plancheta that we could use on our domestic hob back in the UK and developed my own fail safe method of cooking steak to perfection. Serves 2

Ingredients:

2 x rib eye or T-Bone Steaks

Kosher salt

1 tbsp olive oil

How to make:

Heat the plancheta - or a very large frying pan, and when it is starting to smoke, add the oil. Salt your steaks before cooking them, then lay them in the pan and turn the heat down slightly. Keep your nerve and cook those steaks until you see moisture seeping on the top (3-4 mins), then turn the steaks over, turn the heat down to medium, and cook until that you see tiny droplets of blood surfacing (a further 3-4 mins).

Turn the heat off, transfer the steaks to serving plates and leave for 10 minutes to rest, and while they are resting, sear some broccoli spears and garlic in the remaining oil and beef juices. Or even cook them while the steak is finishing off.

This assumes you like your steaks medium rare/ medium. I hope you don’t like them any other way.

Humita-stuffed Sweet Potatoes

Like I said, I found the zapallito shell a bit overcooked when I had a version of this dish in Mendoza. Added to which, this time of year the only squash you can get in the supermarkets is butternut, which isn’t suitable for this. Instead, I experimented with a small baked sweet potato. It’s a heavenly combination with the humita filling. Serves 4.

Ingredients:

4 ears of corn

2 tbsp. Butter

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 onion, chopped finely

½ cup single cream

½ cup whole milk

1 tsp. Crushed chilli flakes

1 tsp brown sugar

Kosher salt

1-2 tsp. Smoked paprika

4 x small sweet potatoes

Feta cheese and fresh coriander to serve

How to make:

Heat the oven to 190 C/ Gas 6. Rub the skins of the sweet potatoes with a little olive oil. Standing each ear of corn vertically, cut the corn away from the stem directly in a bowl to catch all the juices.

Pop the sweet potatoes on a baking sheet and pop into the oven. Set the timer for 45 mins. Melt the butter and olive oil in a medium saucepan. Add the onion and saute until the mixture thickens.

Stir in the cream and milk, season with salt and cook until slightly thickened. Add the smoked paprika and brown sugar and continue simmering for about 5-7 minutes until thick. Then cover, turn off the heat and set aside.

Check the potatoes by inserting a skewer into them. They should be meltingly soft. If not, put them back into the over for a further 5-10 minutes. When they are ready, remove them from the oven, cut each potato in half then rough up the potato pulp a little.

Re-heat the humita, then spoon a one or two tblspns onto each half of sweet potato. Garnish with crumbled feta cheese and chopped fresh coriander and serve immediately (pictured here with some roast chicken, but equally delicious on their own).

Pecan, Coconut and Chocolate Tart

Argentines have a notoriously sweet tooth, but nuts, while super fresh and readily available, are very pricey so not bought in huge volumes. So I have taken advantage of our abundance (and slightly less expensive) pecans and created this version of a tart I was inspired by from the wonderful Melissa Clarke. Despite the golden syrup, honey, sugar and chocolate ingredients it is not oversweet. Serves 6-8.

Ingredients:

For the cocoa shortbread base:

250g unsalted butter, at room temperature

60g icing sugar

1 large egg yolk

1 tsp. Vanilla extract

150g plain flour

20g unsweetened cocoa powder

Pinch salk

For the filling:

180g butter

⅓ cup honey

⅓ cup golden syrup

2 eggs

Pinch of salt

100g dark brown sugar

50g coconut flakes

200g pecan nuts

4 tbsp double cream

3 tbsp bourbon or brandy

How to make

Cream together the butter and icing sugar in a bowl. Beat in the yolk until combined, then the vanilla. Sift together the flour, cocoa powder and salk. Beat these dry ingredients into the egg, sugar and butter mix until combined (don’t overwork it).

Scrape the dough into a ball and flatten into a disc. Cover with cling film and refrigerate for an hour.

After an hour, roll the dough out to fit an 11 inch (25 cm) round tart tin. Chill again for 30 minutes and heat the oven to 160C. After 30 minutes, line the tart base with baking parchment and baking beans or other pie weights. Bake for 15 minutes, then remove the beans and baking parchment and return the tart crust to the oven for a further 5-10 minutes. Cool.

To make the filling. Melt the butter in a saucepan. In a bowl, combine the melted butter, honey, golden syrup, double cream, brown sugar, eggs bourbon or brandy and salt.

Add the coconut flakes and pecans and stir again, then pour the filling into the tart crust.

Bake for 40-45 minutes until the top is golden brown and the filling is set. Cool before serving, then serve with either vanilla ice cream or thickened double cream.

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mma199me · 4 years

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Good morning, Gentlemen!

Change is an inevitable part of life, this is apt in relation to everything. I am a lover of the traditional fulani delicacy “dawo” popularly know as fura da nono. This is a combination of fermented milk and grounded millet usually prepared by a maiden. Many stories and jokes about this divine food drink have been told long before I came to this world. Most of this stories are about the potency of the drink, its ability to satisfy hunger and calm nerves. It is also reputed to induce sleep instantly especially in combination with cool shade. My grand mother Hajiya Iyaji of blessed memory made the best fura in the world. I never knew when the moon was sighted or daybreak a day before “sallah”. Jajiberi is what the day before eid el fitr is called in Hausaland, we would usually leave Kaduna on that day for the long drive to Misau in Bauchi State. It is less than 500km to Misau but then cars and roads were not as fast and efficient as they are today. It was a whole days trip and we would usually arrive Misau late in the afternoon or early evening. Straight to Her room I went, we would usually have a bath and say our prayers while she performed her magic with a bowl and spoon carved out of some plant, the bowl is called “kwarya" and the spoon “ludayi”. I do not recall her having a fridge or even Misau having constant electricity but her dawo was always cool and soothing. I still recalled Hajja’s voice, soft streaky and sharp as she asked us questions a times, told stories as she worked her magic with the ludayi. Hajja’s fura was as smooth as silk with lumps of fura almost as if it was in mathematical pattern. I never recall if I ever finished my share of the drink, the next thing I her is her soft voice saying “tashi kayi Sallah” wake up and say your prayers. I was already morning. My reply was almost always be “Hajja an ga wata ne?” Has the moon been sighted? inquiring if today is Sallah? May her sweet soul continue to rest in perfect peace. Whenever I taste aura till this day, she comes to mind. Change…today fura is made with a blender by men, using a mixture of natural and powdered milk aimed at deceiving the taste buds into believing it is the real deal.

The Trading floor at The Stock Exchange House located on the 8th floor has also changed. It used to be a big open hall, with striped light green padded walls. A matching carpet and brown tables arranged in a U Shape, an elevated platform had about three tables neatly placed on a straight line. It had a very unique smell, a combination of wood, artificial air and something else that I cannot make out. It reminds me or a principal’s office, very proper. Trading normally started at about 10am. Gentlemen of the city as the Dealing Clerks were referred to would begin to arrive about an hour earlier. I had always believed that the real trades were concluded then. Groups of men and a few women hurled us in groups chit chatting often breaking up to exchange pleasantries as groups caught glances of each other. What was unique was the fact that they referred to each other with funny names like Dynamic, Fidelity, Solid Rock, Clearview, Majestic and sometimes acronyms like CSL or IBTC. The tradition was that clerks were called by Dealing firm names. The regimentation, respect and hierarchy on the trading floor still exists today but less pronounced, so also the courtesy.

The Dealers would gradually find their way to their seats as trading time approached, this is usually signalled by the arrival of junior staff members of The Stock Exchange to place a fresh pile of A4 sheets on the middle table on the platform. This is where the Call over Chairman would be sitting to preside over the days trading. Flanked to his right would be a member of staff from the Quotations department, further on one from the Surveillance department. A representative of Securities and Exchange Commission was also located on the far side of Call over Chairman. On the left side were members of Research and Information Technology Department usually in twos. Everyone on these tables stood out from the rest as they were the only ones not in the traditional wine coloured jackets still worn today by dealing clerks. On the hour, the call over chairman would have been seated, after a few whispers to his left and right to confirm that everyone is ready to begin, he would in a very unique voice say “Good Morning Gentlemen”.

Then it begins, in an anti clockwise manner usually in some hieratical manner the Dealing Clerks begin to answer. Anchoria, Good morning Mr. Chairman, Majestic Good morning Mr. Chairman, Dominion Good morning Mr. Chairman and on and on. He acknowledges by repeating the Dealing firm’s name in a murmur followed by a muffled “morning”. On both his sides pens are racing to keep up recording what firms are on the floor to trade today. At the end of it all a few whispers to reconcile the information and confirm numbers present, that successfully done he goes on to ask for announcements. Usually financial reports are presented from the high table then any announcements from the floor which the Doyen would bear responsibility of sharing. Mostly introduction of new dealing clerks, obituaries and the sort. All after the Chairman would say to his right “lets call the board”. Any interest in Federal Government Development Stocks….Bonds…..Debentures,” then a long pause as if to catch her breath then “Equity”. This reminds me of a race, on your marks, get set, ready……Go! Second Teir! Adswitch…from the other side Adswitch 5000 Bid, 5000 Bid Chairman repeats again from the other side… 5000 Bid 50kobo. 1000 Offer Mr. Chairman he repeats again. Rivtrust Deliver 1000 to Molten Trust, both Dealers in synchronised manner say Thank You Mr. Chairman, any more offers? silence. The next stock is called and it goes on till the blue chips when a hundred adults being to shout at the top of their voices offering and bidding on behalf of their clients.

How do you make sense of this madness, you listen carefully then write what you hear and you watch to see where the dealing clerks drop off the Bargain Slips. Pink and yellow to match bids and offers approved by the Call over Chairman. Relief comes after the final company in most cases bid and offer prices of unit trusts has been called and the last trade affirmed, when you hear the words you have been longing for…..”Good afternoon Gentlemen!” This signifies the end of trading, where the phrase “my word is my bond” comes into action. The Call Over Chairman walks out like a galant knight after a battle, the brokers are busy scribbling on paper their trades of the day and calculating their commissions while you begin the pain staking job of picking pink and yellow pieces of paper from the floor to match the transactions while you reconcile from three lists if all is correct. You call over again and again just to be sure that it is correct.

The Doyen is having coffee with the Director-General while discussing the day’s trades, members of staff of The Exchange are busing feeding these transactions into the computer. Long after the dealers are back to their offices with their commissions earned you finally produce the day’s transactions, ensure that copies are despatched to the clearing house, the banks and the press. You were part of making tomorrows news today. Believing that the Dealing members will keep their word as their bond to ensure that the shares sold are deposited at the clearing house and the money paid into the bank.

Change is inevitable, today the same floor is crowded with over 200 computers and (wo)men. In a flash they would do what it takes hours to achieve, with a few strokes of the keys. The trades are done the gong is hit and the market is closed. Instantly the world that has been following realtime at a few seconds delay will have the final figures of the days transactions.

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