Argentinian Chimichurri

Chimichurri is a sauce used for grilled meats that originated from Argentina, but is also used in Uruguay, Southern Brazil, Bolivia, and in countries as far north as Nicaragua, Ecuador, Colombia and Mexico.

The Argentine gourmet Miguel Brascó claims that the word chimichurri originated when the British were captured after the British invasions of the Río de la Plata. The prisoners asked for condiment for their food mixing English, aboriginal and Spanish words. According to this story, che-mi-curry stands for “che mi salsa” (give me condiment) or “give me curry”. The word then corrupted to chimichurri.

Another theory for the name of the sauce comes from the Basque settlers that arrived in Argentina as early as the 19th century. According to this theory, the name of the sauce comes from the Basque term tximitxurri, loosely translated as “a mixture of several things in no particular order”.
Chimichurri is made from finely chopped parsley, minced garlic, olive oil, oregano, and white or red vinegar. Additional flavorings such as cilantro, paprika, cumin, thyme, lemon, and bay leaf may be included. In its red version, tomato and red bell pepper may also be added. It can also be used as a marinade for grilled meat. Chimichurri is available bottled or dehydrated for preparation by mixing with oil and water.

I was able to obtain an authentic chimichurri recipe from an Argentinean chef, but it was in Spanish so I had to translate it as best I can. Just FYI, anything far from this recipe would not be a chimichurri sauce and Argentineans do not eat spicy foods, so no red pepper flakes…otherwise you would have yourself a salsa verde. I would know, my girlfriend is Argentinean and her family owned a restaurant for many years.

What is Poutine?

Poutine is a dish consisting of French fries topped with fresh cheese curds, covered with brown gravy or sauce and sometimes additional ingredients.

Poutine is a diner staple which originated in Quebec and can now be found across Canada. It is sold by national fast food chains (such as New York Fries, and Harvey’s), in small “greasy spoon” type diners (commonly known as “cantines” or “casse-croûtes” in Quebec) and pubs, as well as by roadside chip wagons. International chains like McDonald’s, A&W, KFC and Burger King also sell mass-produced poutine in Canada.

The dish originated in rural Quebec, Canada, in the late 1950s. Several Québécois communities claim to be the birthplace of poutine, including Drummondville (by Jean-Paul Roy in 1964), Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, and Victoriaville. One often-cited tale is that of Fernand Lachance, from Warwick, Quebec, which claims that poutine was invented in 1957. Lachance is said to have exclaimed ça va faire une maudite poutine (“it will make a damn mess”), hence the name. The sauce was allegedly added later, to keep the fries warm longer.

History of Mirepoix

Though the cooking technique is probably older, the term mirepoix dates from the eighteenth century and derives, as do many other appellations in French cuisine, from the aristocratic employer of the cook credited with establishing and stabilizing it. In this case, Charles-Pierre-Gaston François de Lévis, duc de Lévis-Mirepoix (1699–1757), French field marshal and ambassador and a member of the noble family of Lévis, lords of Mirepoix in Languedoc since the eleventh century. According to Pierre Larousse (quoted in the Oxford Companion to Food), the unfortunate Duke of Mirepoix was “an incompetent and mediocre individual. . . who owed his vast fortune to the affection Louis XV felt toward his wife and who had but one claim to fame: he gave his name to a sauce made of all kinds of meat and a variety of seasonings”:

But what exactly, in the eighteenth century, constituted a dish à la Mirepoix? The answer is hard to supply since it is not until the nineteenth century that the term is encountered regularly in French culinary texts. Beauvilliers, for instance, in 1814, gives a short recipe for a Sauce à la Mirepoix which is a buttery, wine-laced stock garnished with an aromatic mixture of carrots, onions, and a bouquet garni. Carême, in the 1830s, gives a similar recipe, calling it simply Mire-poix; and, by the mid-nineteenth century, Gouffé refers to a Mirepoix as “a term in use for such a long time that I do not hesitate to use it here”. His mirepoix is listed among essences and, indeed, is a meaty concoction (laced with two bottles of Madeira!), which, like all other essences, was used to enrich many a classic sauce. By the end of the nineteenth century, the mirepoix had taken on its modern meaning and Favre in his Dictionnaire universel de cuisine (c. 1895, reprinted 1978) uses the term to describe a mixture of ham, carrots, onions, and herbs used as an aromatic condiment when making sauces or braising meat.

According to the 1938 Larousse Gastronomique, a mirepoix may be prepared “au gras” (with meat) or “au maigre” (lean). Mirepoix au maigre is sometimes called a brunoise (though strictly speaking this term more accurately merely designates the technique of cutting into small dice with a knife). A mirepoix au gras contains diced ham or pork belly as an additional ingredient. Similar combinations, both in and out of the French culinary repertoire, may include leeks, parsnips, garlic, tomatoes, shallots, mushrooms, bell peppers, chilies, and ginger, according to the requirements of the regional cuisine or the instructions of the particular chef or recipe. The analagous soffritto (frequently containing parsley) is the basis for many traditional dishes in classic Italian cuisine, and the sofrito serves a similar purpose in Spanish cuisines. In Cajun cuisine, a mirepoix or (jocularly so-called) “holy trinity” is a combination of onions, celery and bell peppers.

Traditionally, the ratio for mirepoix is 2:1:1 of onions, celery, and carrots. The ratio for bones to mirepoix for stock is 10:1. Note that these ratios are for the weight of the ingredients, not the volume. When making a white stock, or fond blanc, parsnips are used instead of carrots to maintain the pale color.

History of Knishes

“Immigrants who arrived from Russia sometime around 1900 brought knishes to America. Knish (pronounced kin-ish) is a Yiddish word that was derived from the Russian knysh means “kind of bun.” It is described in the Oxford Dictionary of Foreign Words and Phrases as “a baked or fried dumpling made of flaky dough with filling.” The first knish bakery was founded in New York in 1910.”

A knish consists of a filling covered with dough that is either baked, grilled, or deep fried. Knishes can be purchased from street vendors in urban areas with a large Jewish population, sometimes at a hot dog stand.

In the most traditional versions, the filling is made entirely of mashed potato, ground meat, sauerkraut, onions, kasha (buckwheat groats) or cheese. More modern varieties of fillings feature sweet potatoes, black beans, fruit, broccoli, tofu or spinach.

Many cultures have variations on baked, grilled, or fried dough-covered snacks similar to the knish: the Cornish pasty, the Scottish Bridie, the Jamaican patty, the Spanish and Latin American empanada, the Portuguese rissole, the Italian calzone, the South Asian samosa, the Russian pirozhki, and the Middle Eastern fatayer.

Knishes may be round, rectangular or square. They may be entirely covered in dough or some of the filling may peek out of the top. Sizes range from those that can be eaten in a single bite hors d’oeuvre to sandwich-sized.

Review my Recipe section for an upscale version of a traditional knish

WHAT IS ASPIC?

Aspic is a dish in which ingredients are set into a gelatin made from a meat stock or consommé. Similar dishes, made with commercial gelatin mixes instead of stock or consommé, are usually called gelatin salads.

When cooled, stock made from meat congeals because of the natural gelatin found in the meat. The stock can be clarified with egg whites, and then filled and flavored just before the aspic sets. Almost any type of food can be set into aspics. Most common are meat pieces, fruits, or vegetables. Aspics are usually served on cold plates so that the gel will not melt before being eaten. A meat jelly that includes cream is called a chaud-froid.

Nearly any type of meat can be used to make the gelatin: pork, beef, veal, chicken, turkey, or fish. Gelatin is also found in cartilage. The aspic may need additional gelatin in order to set properly. Veal stock provides a great deal of gelatin; in making stock, veal is often included with other meat for that reason. Fish consommés usually have too little natural gelatin, so the fish stock may be double-cooked or supplemented. Since fish gelatin melts at a lower temperature than gelatins of other meats, fish aspic is more delicate and melts more readily in the mouth.
Historically, meat jellies were made before fruit and vegetable jellies. By the Middle Ages at the latest, cooks had discovered that a thickened meat broth could be made into a jelly. A detailed recipe for aspic is found in Le Viandier, written in around 1375.

Aspic is rather an ingredient than a dish. Aspic, made from clarified stock and gelatin, is used for many things; it can be used as a binder to hold other ingredients together in terrines, or sealers in such foods as pate en croute.
Today, aspic is often used to glaze show pieces in food competitions to make the food glisten, making it more appealing to the eye, but its original use was to prolong the shelf life of food. Since the aspic was used to glaze the entire item, it cut off the oxygen supply to the food, preventing bacteria within from multiplying.

In Poland (known as “galareta”), in Ukraine (known as “studinets”), Latvia (similarly known as “galerts”), in Russia (known as “kholodets”), in Serbia (known as “pihtije”), and in Romania (known as “piftie” or “rǎcituri”) aspic often takes the form of pork jelly, and it is popular around the Christmas and Easter Holidays. In Asia, among the Newars of Kathmandu Valley, Nepal, buffalo meat jelly is a major component of the winter festivity gourmet. It is eaten in combination with fish aspic, which is made from dried fish and buffalo meat stock, soured, and contains a heavy mix of spices and condiments.

WHAT IS CURRY?

Curry (IPA: /ˈkʌri/) is a generic description used throughout European culture to describe a general variety of side dishes, best known in South Asian cuisines, especially Indian cuisine. The word curry is an anglicized version of the Tamil word kari, which is usually understood to mean “gravy” or “sauce” rather than “spices”. In most South Indian cuisines, a curry is considered a side-dish, which can be eaten along with a main dish like rice or bread.

In Pakistan and North India, where dishes are classified as sukhi (dry) and tari (with liquid), the word curry is often confounded with the similar-sounding Hindi-Urdu word tari (from the Persian-derived tar meaning wet) and has no implications for the presence or absence of spice, or whether the dish is Indian or not (e.g. any stew, spicy or not, would be considered a curry dish, simply because it is wet). In Urdu, an official language of Pakistan , curry is usually referred to as saalan. The equivalent word for a spiced dish in Hindi-Urdu is masaledar (i.e. with masala).

Curry’s popularity in recent decades has spread outward from the Indian subcontinent to figure prominently in international cuisine. Consequently, each culture has adopted spices in its indigenous cooking to suit its own unique tastes and cultural sensibilities. Curry can therefore be called a pan-Asian or global phenomenon with immense popularity in Thai, British, and Japanese cuisines.

COOKING WELL AS A MEANS OF NECESSITY

I heard about this contest held by Anthony Bourdain, a personal hero of mine, to write an essay about what it means to cook “well”. In my opinion, cooking well means understanding the grass roots of any cuisine you love to cook. Great chefs don’t just start cooking great food. Most know what their mother, grand mothers and great grandmothers cook. One of the reasons I always post a history of different cuisines on this blog is so that cooks understand and relate to the different cuisines they cook. You can vote for my essay by using the following link:

http://bourdainmediumraw.com/essays/view/1270

Here is the essay:

A mother preparing dinner for her five children… no father on sight, no brothers, sisters or parents. She works 12 hours a day to make ends meet and another eight hours preparing breakfast, lunch and dinner and tending to the needs of her children. You walk into her house and smell the fragrant stews consisting of inexpensive meats and aromatic vegetables slowly cooking in a hand-me-down, dilapidated pot missing a single handle. Young eyes focused on their mother, she is barely sweating, as they eagerly await for tonight’s dinner. Despite the poor conditions of their small two-bedroom apartment in a poor neighborhood, after dinner the children run off and play outside excited about coming back for seconds of the unnamed stew their mother lovingly prepared for them. Although the scenario is not uncommon for this household, the mother is always able to create different dinners for her children, using different mixtures of beef, chicken, pork and spices to keep her children smiling and from asking “this again?.”

Twenty years later, one of the same five children, a respected, successful business man, sits down in a four-star restaurant and enjoys a meal prepared by a CIA-graduated chef with 15 years of experience in top French restaurants from around the globe. A kitchen stocked with the finest stock pots, sauce pans and kitchen equipment that money can buy. The Chef is assisted by classically trained souse chefs cooking with only the finest local ingredients. The plates are works of art as they are escorted out to the patrons by tuxedo clad waiters. When dinner is over, the Chef approaches the table with a fake smile to ask the patron, “How was your dinner?.” The patron smiles back to reply “It was well done.” The Chef walks away with a look on his face that screams, “Of course it was, I am the Mozart of the culinary industry.” The scenario is not uncommon for this or many other restaurants. The menu is consistently being “innovated,” using different mixtures of beef, chicken, pork and spices to keep the patrons smiling and from asking “this again?”

After the next couple of days, the patron has long forgotten about the dinner he had at the four-star restaurant. Shortly afterward, his mother calls and asks him to come to dinner that she has spent hours preparing. Of course, there is no hesitation in accepting the offer. After twenty years, he remembers… he remembers the smells from the old apartment, the sight of his mother smilingly over the pot worthy of remebering and the different variations of stews his mother created, while tending to the same stock pot. Most of all, he remembers that “cooking well” derives from the means of necessity, not immortality.

THE ORIGIN OF CEVICHE

Ceviche (also spelled as cebiche or seviche) is citrus-marinated seafood. Its true birthplace is unknown; some believe the dish to have originated in Polynesia, while others claim that it was developed by the Spanish (who introduced it into Latin America along with citrus fruits such as the lime, lemon or bitter orange). Still others claim it originated along the coasts of Peru and Southern Ecuador before the arrival of the Spanish. If such is the case, another acidic fruit—such as Banana passion fruit—must have been used to prepare the dish, as citrus fruits were introduced into the Americas by the Spanish. Many other countries in Latin America have adopted it, with variations. Both fish and shellfish can be used in the preparation of ceviche.

The fact that every former Spanish colony has its own version of ceviche gives credibility to the idea that this dish was introduced by the Spanish. It is well known that every ship from Spain was well stocked with citrus fruits in order to prevent scurvy on the long voyages from Spain to America. During these long voyages it may have become popular to “cook” fresh fish using citric juices, as it was a quick and easy way to prepare food.

Those who argue for a Polynesian origin believe that the Spanish encountered the dish during their voyages in the Polynesian islands. Afterwards, the dish quickly caught on among Spanish sailors; and gradually the dish spread throughout the Spanish colonial empire, eventually developing into the different varieties encountered today.
Those who argue for a Peruvian or Ecuadorian origin claim that the Andean natives used Banana passion fruit before the arrival of the Spanish to prepare ceviche. When the Spanish introduced citric fruits, the natives apparently preferred the taste and began to use limes and lemon to prepare their fish.

Every Latin American country has given ceviche its own touch of individuality by adding its own particular garnishes. In Panama, ceviche is served with little pastry shells called “canastitas.” In Peru, it is served with slices of cold sweet potatoes or corn-on-the-cob. In Ecuador, it is accompanied by corn nuts, or fried green plantains or thinly sliced plantains (plantain chips) called “chifles”. It is also served in a large crystal bowl with the guests helping themselves by spearing it with toothpicks.

A Brief History of “Fish and Chips”

In the United Kingdom, fish and chips became a cheap food popular among the working classes with the rapid development of trawl fishing in the North Sea in the second half of the nineteenth century. In 1860, the first fish and chip shop was opened in London by Jewish proprietor Joseph Malin who married together “fish fried in the Jewish fashion” with chips.

Deep-fried “chips” (slices or pieces of potato) as a dish, may have first appeared in Britain in about the same period: the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) notes its earliest usage of “chips” in the mention of Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities (published in 1859): “Husky chips of potatoes, fried with some reluctant drops of oil”. (Note that Belgian tradition, as recorded in a manuscript of 1781, dates the frying of potatoes carved into the shape of fish back at least as far as 1680.)

The modern fish-and-chip shop (“chippy” or “chipper” in modern British slang) originated in the United Kingdom, although outlets selling fried food occurred commonly throughout Europe. According to one story, fried-potato shops spreading south from Scotland merged with fried-fish shops spreading from southern England. Early fish-and-chip shops had only very basic facilities. Usually these consisted principally of a large cauldron of cooking-fat, heated by a coal fire. Insanitary by modern standards, such establishments also emitted a smell associated with frying, which led to the authorities classifying fish-and-chip supply as an “offensive trade”, a stigma retained until the interwar period. The industry overcame this reputation during World War II due to fish and chips remaining as one of the few foods in the United Kingdom not subject to rationing.

In the United Kingdom and Ireland, the Fish Labeling Regulations 2003 enact directive 2065/2001/EC, which generally means that “fish” must be sold with the particular species named; so “cod and chips” not “fish and chips”. The Food Standards Agency guidance excludes caterers from this; but several local Trading Standards authorities and others do say it cannot be sold merely as “fish and chips”.

Visit the Recipe section of my blog to learn a upscale version of this marvelous fried dish!

HISTORY AND TYPES OF SUSHI

The traditional form of sushi is fermented fish and rice, preserved with salt in a process that has been traced to Southeast Asia, where it remains popular today. The term sushi comes from an archaic grammatical form no longer used in other contexts; literally, “sushi” means “it’s sour”, a reflection of its historic fermented roots.

The science behind the fermentation of fish packed in rice is that the vinegar produced from fermenting rice breaks the fish down into amino acids. This results in one of the five basic tastes, called umami in Japanese. The oldest form of sushi in Japan, Narezushi still very closely resembles this process. In Japan, Narezushi evolved into Oshizushi and ultimately Edomae nigirizushi, which is what the world today, knows as “sushi.”

Contemporary Japanese sushi has little resemblance to the traditional lacto-fermented rice dish. Originally, when the fermented fish was taken out of the rice, only the fish was consumed and the fermented rice was discarded. The strong-tasting and -smelling funazushi, a kind of narezushi made near Lake Biwa in Japan, resembles the traditional fermented dish. Beginning in the Muromachi period (AD 1336–1573) of Japan, vinegar was added to the mixture for better taste and preservation. The vinegar accentuated the rice’s sourness, and was known to increase its life span, allowing the fermentation process to be shortened and eventually abandoned. In the following centuries, sushi in Osaka evolved into oshi-zushi. The seafood and rice were pressed using wooden (usually bamboo) molds. By the mid 18th century, this form of sushi had reached Edo (contemporary Tokyo).

The contemporary version, internationally known as “sushi,” was created by Hanaya Yohei (1799–1858) at the end of Edo period in Edo. The sushi invented by Hanaya was an early form of fast food that was not fermented (therefore prepared quickly) and could be eaten with one’s hands roadside or in a theatre. Originally, this sushi was known as Edomae zushi, because it used freshly caught fish in the Edo-mae (Edo Bay or Tokyo Bay). Though the fish used in modern sushi no longer usually comes from Tokyo Bay, it is still formally known as Edomae nigirizushi.

TYPES OF SUSHI
The common ingredient across all the different kinds of sushi is sushi rice. The variety in sushi arises from the different fillings and toppings, condiments, and the way these ingredients are put together. The same ingredients may be assembled in a traditional or a contemporary way, creating a very different final result. In spelling sushi its first letter s is replaced with z when a prefix is attached, as in nigirizushi, due to consonant mutation called rendaku in Japanese.

Nigirizushi (lit. hand-formed sushi) consists of an oblong mound of sushi rice that is pressed between the palms of the hands, usually with a bit of wasabi, and a topping draped over it. Toppings are typically fish such as salmon, tuna or other seafood. Certain toppings are typically bound to the rice with a thin strip of nori, most commonly octopus (tako), freshwater eel (unagi), sea eel (anago), squid (ika), and sweet egg (tamago). When ordered separately, nigiri is generally served in pairs. A sushi set may contain only one piece of each topping.

Makizushi (lit. rolled sushi) or makimono (lit. variety of rolls) is cylindrical piece, formed with the help of a bamboo mat, called a makisu. Makizushi is generally wrapped in nori, but can occasionally be found wrapped in a thin omelette, soy paper, cucumber, or parsley. Makizushi is usually cut into six or eight pieces, which constitutes a single roll order. Below are some common types of makizushi, but many other kinds exist.

Inarizushi (stuffed sushi) is a pouch of fried tofu filled with usually just sushi rice. It is named after the Shinto god Inari, who is believed to have a fondness for fried tofu. The pouch is normally fashioned as deep-fried tofu (abura age). Regional variations include pouches made of a thin omelette , fukusa-zushi or (chakin-zushi). It should not be confused with inari maki, which is a roll filled with flavored fried tofu. A very large version, sweeter than normal and often containing bits of carrot, is popular in Hawaii, where it is called “cone sushi.”

Sukeroku (name of a man in Edo period) is the combination set of inarizushi and makizushi, which is served as a single-portion takeout style sushi-pack. In a famous Kabuki play Sukeroku, a good-looking man Sukeroku is the lover of an Oiran courtesan named Agemaki (lit. fry for age and roll for maki). Age and maki which form her name correspond to fried tofu namely inari and makimono, respectively. One rumour of sukeroku-zushi is that takeout style packs of inarizushi and makizushi had served at performances of Sukeroku kabuki in Edo period. Sukeroku is a cheap sushi-pack and often vegetarian.

Chirashizushi ( lit. scattered sushi) is a bowl of sushi rice with other ingredients mixed in (also refers to barazushi). It is commonly eaten in Japan because it is filling, fast and easy to make. Chirashizushi most often varies regionally because it is eaten annually as a part of the Doll Festival, celebrated only during March in Japan. The ingredients are often chef’s choice. Edomae chirashizushi (Edo-style scattered sushi) is an uncooked ingredient that is arranged artfully on top of the sushi rice in a bowl.

Gomokuzushi (Kansai-style sushi) are cooked or uncooked ingredients mixed in the body of rice in a bowl.

Narezushi (lit. matured sushi) is a traditional form of fermented sushi. Skinned and gutted fish are stuffed with salt, placed in a wooden barrel, doused with salt again, and then weighed down with a heavy tsukemonoishi (pickling stone). As days pass, water seeps out and is removed. After six months this funazushi can be eaten, remaining edible for another six months or more.

The increasing popularity of sushi in North America as well as around the world has resulted in variations of sushi typically found in the West but rarely if at all in Japan. Such creations to suit the Western palate were initially fueled by the invention of the California roll. A wide variety of popular rolls has evolved since.