Castro - Latin grilling: recipes to share, from Argentine asado to Yucatecan barbecue and more

Copyright 2011 by Lourdes Castro
Photographs copyright 2011 by Tara Donne

All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of the
Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
www.crownpublishing.com
www.tenspeed.com

Ten Speed Press and the Ten Speed Press colophon are registered
trademarks of Random House, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Castro, Lourdes, 1971 Dec. 9
Latin grilling : recipes to share, from Argentine asado to Yucatecan
barbecue and more / Lourdes Castro.
p. cm.
Includes index.
Summary: Respected Latin chef and cooking teacher Lourdes Castro takes readers on a culinary tour of the Americas, firing up 90 recipes arranged into ten grilling fiestas that feature authentic Latin American flavors, all tailored for the home cook or backyard griller. Provided by publisher.
ISBN 978-1-60774-004-9 (pbk.)
1. BarbecuingLatin America. 2. Cooking, Latin American. 3. Cookbooks.
I. Title.
TX840.B3C45 2011
641.598dc22
2010048745

eISBN: 978-1-60774-067-4

Food styling by Lourdes Castro
Prop styling by Martha Bernabe

First Edition

v3.1

To Gerard and his appetite

Im a true Latin girl. I love to cook. I love to feed family and friends. And I love to spend hours lingering over a table with them while enjoying fabulous drinks and delicious food. My menus need to be diverse, the food abundant, and the flavors bright and vibrant. Oh, and one more thing: I want to feel as if Im a guest at my own party.

That last part is a bit tricky, but after many years of trial and error I have figured out a way to make lots of delicious food and not feel as if Im running a restaurant out of my house. More on that technique laterfirst lets talk about the food and the grill.

I love the taste of food that has been cooked with fire. The intense heat of the flames chars the food, deepening its flavor and enhancing its texture. Equally, I love how grilling draws a crowd and excites your guests. It must be the primal, communal aspect of cooking over flames that brings people together.

When I was growing up in Miami, I spent many weekends with my family grilling in our backyard. In line with our background, the foods and flavors were traditionally Cuban, while the grilling style and equipment varied according to the mood of the grill master. I recall seeing everything from large sophisticated gas grills to small charcoal kettle ones. However, it wasnt all so arbitrary. Certain holidays, like Christmas Eve, called for the specific and ceremonial method of cooking a whole pig low and slow with charcoal. And on school nights the gas grill was used for a quick flip of fresh fish over intense flames. Regardless of what was grilled or how it was made, the meal always seemed special.

As I got older and began traveling through Latin America, I saw firsthand how common cooking over fire, or grilling, was. I recall a visit to Argentina where I was lucky enough to be invited to a friends home in the outskirts of Buenos Aires for a true, day-long Argentine asado (cookout). Ive also experienced the freshest grilled fish prepared on a small charcoal kettle right on a beach in Ecuador, and had the best char-grilled pork tacos served out of a parked truck in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Each experience was different in its food and flavor, but the communal aspect was the same.

This brings me to an important note. Despite common threads, like grilling, all Latin food is not created equal. Latin America is a huge region made up of many countries, each with its own culinary history and characteristic flavors. Unfortunately, Latin fare tends to get muddled into one underwhelming cuisine. Just ask a Peruvian what he had for dinner and I guarantee you his answer will be very different than a Brazilians. Yes, similarities do exist, but its their differenceslike the prominent use of cumin in one country and the focus on fiery chiles in anotherthat make the cuisines and their flavors so enticing.

In order to bring focus to the diversity and uniqueness of the cuisines of Latin America, I have organized this book by region, creating menus that provide a taste of some of the most popular foods of several countries. At the start of each chapter, I will set you up with quick pointers on what makes up the spirit of each cuisine and acquaint you with some of its key ingredients. My hope is that this will help you make out the subtle differences between the foods of Chile and Argentina, as well as the marked differences between those of Mexico and Brazil.

This book not only offers both grilling tips and lessons on Latin flavors, it also instructs you on how to pull off a full menu, from drinks to dessert, and still find time to enjoy yourself. To guarantee that you will be a guest at your own party, Ive created a detailed Game Plan for each menu that outlines, step by step, what needs to be done in order to execute the menu successfully. You will see a chronological list of tasks as well as instructions on storage. Because, lets face it: most of us do not have a walk-in refrigerator where we can store trays of food!

One last thing: feel free to mix and match. Cook through the book, pick your favorites, and create your own menu. The only thing that matters is that the food is delicious and you are having a good time!

Cooking with fire requires instinct. Understanding how to adjust the grill temperature and figuring out the precise time to remove meat from the grill will determine whether a steak turns out beautifully charred and succulent or dried and burnt. Im not going to gloss over the fact that it takes trial and error to truly internalize many of the nuances involved with grilling. But ultimately, its not rocket science and once youre past the initial learning curve youll find that much of the process becomes second nature. To get you started (or give you a refresher) I here are my top ten tips to get you successfully cooking over live fire in no time. Now, lets get grilling!

All grills are not created equal. Each grill has its own nuanceshow hot it gets, the hot spots, its tendency to flare. For this reason, you should treat all grilling recipes simply as guides. Once youre comfortable with your grills capabilities, you will be able to better gauge cooking times and to use the lid to increase or decrease the intensity of the heat.

I always preheat my gas grill at least 15 minutes before I am ready to grill. I start by turning on the burners to their highest setting and allowing the grates to get very hot. Regardless of the temperature I will eventually cook my food at, this allows for an intense sear at the beginning of the grilling process. After the initial sear, I adjust my grill temperature as required.