April 19, 2025 Lunch Mercadito in Lujan Dinner - Homemade Asado
We woke up at 8:30 and I finished my blog. Then at 11:00 Billy and Elaine and we drove to the square that we had not been to yet. We stopped in a meat market that Billy did not like and then the girls bought a sweet Potato, three onions, two tomatoes, three patty pan squashes, a bell pepper, and a pimiento at a fruit and vegetable shop next to the meat shop.
Then we drove to the meat market beside Brod where we bought 2 lb. of rib eye and four chorizos. We walked next door to Brod and bought two foccacia, two chocolate pastries, and a brownie.
Billy and Elaine left us to walk and we drove back to the house and put the meat in the refrigerator and decided to visit a winery. We drove to Weinart, but it was closed, so we drove to Alta Vista that was a huge property. I tasted two sparkling roses, one of Malbec and the other of 50% Malbec and 50% Pinot noir that were not made with the champanoise method that quickly lost their bubbles but not their flavor. My opinion is the more Chardonnay and Pinot Noir the better when it comes to sparkling wine.
Suzette tasted the three Malbec flight. There was one that was 50% from Lujan grapes and 50% Uco Valley grapes, one that was 80% Uco Valley grapes and 20% Lujan grapes and a third that was a single vineyard Malbec from Uco Valley that was raised in a heavy limestone terroir that tasted a little chalky.
Sitting on the patio tasting good wine while looking at the vineyard and behind it the Andes was pretty wonderful.
We bought a bottle of the 80%/20% Malbec and a bottle of olive oil.
It was 2:30 and Suzette had not eaten, so she asked the employee where to get a good reasonably priced meal and we were directed to El Mercadito.
When we sat down at Mercadito and looked at the menu, we each knew what we wanted immediately. Suzette ordered a hamburger with French fries. I ordered sweet and sour sweetbreads on fried kale.
Suzette drank a vermouth and I drank a glass of Malbec.
My sweetbreads were tough. They had not been prepared sufficiently. But the sweet and sour sauce of soy and sugar was good and the flash fried kale was fabulous.
Suzette’s hamburger was thick and juicy. She ate it without the bun with catsup and Mayo and resisted eating most of the fries.
We then drove home and napped from 3:20 to 4:20.
When we awakened Billy was starting the fire. He used a lot of small kindling and one match in the best Boy Scout tradition taught to us by Jack Boyd.
I helped slice the sweet potato, red bell pepper, patty pan squashes and onions we bought this morning and then made the criollo sauce.
Criollo Sauce
I finely diced one white onion, two tomatoes, 1/2 of a pimiento pepper, and then made the white portion of a scallion. Then Suzette and I added two T. of balsamic vinegar and 4 T. of Alta Vista olive oil and stirred to mix the sauce.
We then covered the sauce and let it develop its flavors for an hour while we sat and watched the fire burn into hot coals and drank wine.
I drank Puna rose and the others drank the Feraz blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, merlot, Malbec, and one other grape that Alex gave us and then we opened the Alta Vista 80/20 Malbec and drank Malbec before and during dinner. The Malbec was pleasant alone and with food.
Elaine and I sprinkled both sides of the three ojo de bife steaks with the salt seasoning we bought this morning and let them sit for about twenty minutes.
When the coals began to develop Elaine and Suzette placed the olive oil tossed vegetables on the grate over the bed of coals Billy and Elaine raked from the fire.
In about twenty minutes the vegetables were grilled. Suzette and Elaine wrapped them in aluminum foil and placed the packages of vegetables on the cooler end of the grate without coals to stay warm.
Then Billy started cooking the three steaks and four chorizos and put the aluminum wrapped foccacia on the grate at the edge of the coals next to the steaks and chorizos.
Billy had studied several articles regarding asado cooking, such as the one attached. He asked Suzette to set her telephone alarm to ring every 60 seconds and every time it range he flipped the steaks six times so that they cooked evenly to medium rare. The color was a uniform pink.
Suzette observed that what the steaks lacked was the char that they develop from a strong initial searing that she likes.
Billy also flipped the chorizos every two or three minutes to cook them on all sides.
After Billy removed the steaks I sliced them into 3/4 inch thick slices. They were uniformly reddish pink; amazing.
We then filled our plates with the vegetables and steak and each of us took a chorizo except Elaine and poured more Malbec sliced and put the foccacia on the table and had a wonderful meal, enhanced by the addition of criollo sauce to each bite.
Billy and I ate more steak and chorizo and the girls ate more vegetables to our liking.
I felt that we had adapted our choice of ingredients to the asado style of cooking and gotten much closer to that tradition than I ever imagined we would thanks to the traditional asado grill at the Villa and Billy’s research into the asado cooking method.
I especially liked the grilled sweet potato and squash slices that were charred on the outside but sweet and tender on the inside.
After dinner wrapped the uneaten veggies and steak in aluminum foil and cleared the table and returned to the kitchen for dessert.
Elaine divided the brownie into four pieces and I cut each of the two truffles in half. No one ate the truffles because except for their hard chocolate dipped coating there was no chocolate in them. The center was an exceedingly sweet Dulce de Leche of darkened caramel that appears to be a chocolate substitute in Argentina with a few maraschino cherries on a chocolate cake round base. I ate the rejects and my half and passed on the brownie with a cup of Earl Grey tea spiked with a drizzle of grappa of Malbec I bought at Yacochuya Winery in Cafayute. I find that the tea with sugar covers up the grappa’s harshness and allows the Malbec to express its flavor potential. Elaine joined me with a sip of grappa.
By 8:30 we were done and went to bed to read and blog and fall asleep.
I was amazed by how successful we were in adapting the asado style of cooking over wood coals to our preferred ingredients. None of us believed the fresh off the hoof beef we were eating compared to the tenderness of the aged choice or prime beef we typically eat in the US, but the asado style of rapidly turning the meat over a bed of coals seems to lock in the juices and flavor better than our usual US one flip grilling method over a blazing propane grill that is burning the meat while it is cooking it.
The decision appears to be whether to burn to a char or slowly cook to the final temperature without charring.
With vegetables and chorizo the decision is easy. With steaks it is a little more difficult.
We loved Lujan de Cuyo with its forested streets and large villas and multitude of fine shops, restaurants, and wineries that exude elegance. I could live comfortably in Lujan de Cuyo.
Tomorrow we drive to the Uco Valley.
Bon Appetit
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