Do Cook for me Argentina

Pardon the homage to Evita, but we had the great opportunity to wish Brian Hopkin farewell as he departs for Mendoza, Argentina where he'll serve a mission for the Mormon church for two years.

The timing happened to coincide well with the completion of our new kitchen, so I volunteered to cook an Argentine meal as much to celebrate Brian's departure as to put our kitchen through its paces.

Why would I cook Argentine food, you ask? Because I, too, served a mission there, one year in Buenos Aires and one year in southern Mendoza province (a region called San Rafael). Here's a sample of what we ate, at least what we could take pictures of before we ate it all.



Starting in the upper left corner and moving clockwise: we have chorizos imported from Argentina and cooked on the grill; we have President Hopkin trying Mate (CBSe brand, wish a dash of mint); the last of the gnocchi (ñoqui in Spanish) we made from scratch; ensalada rusa (very pink because I mixed it up early in the morning and the beet coloring took over the whole mix); a wonderful guiso with sweet potato, squash, potato, carrot, veal, and a single peach in a tomato-onion-beef broth base; empanadas with ground beef, onions, diced hard boiled egg, and chopped up green olives (the masa was made with real lard to be authentic, but I didn't tell everyone that :); and of course grilled steak, attended by an olive-oil chimichurri (which I confess I bought rather than made because I've never liked the chimichurri I make). In the middle is Brian and his mom enjoying the meal.

It was fun to make some of these foods, it has been a while. We also ate some dulce de leche on small croissaints for dessert. The food was better than I remembered it from my mission two decades ago. And probably better than what Brian will actually eat most days (I leveled with him about that). Any Argentinos out there, feel free to comment on your favorite food memories from alla.