fire & tango

I love my job.

Not only because I love what I do or that I get to see my dad a bunch, BUT I get to meet some really cool people. Most recently, Stephen Butt, the owner of HEB Central Market. The best part about meeting him? He invited my dad and I to their Passport Argentina event at the store.

The "Passport" event had been going on since May 12, but this particular event was the big shi-bang. It featured Francis Mallmann, Argentine chef who specializes in cooking with "seven fires". What? Huh?! I thought there was only one kind of fire?! Yea, so did I. The seven fires consist of 7 different ways to USE fire.

1. Chapa: Flat piece of cast iron set over a fire, like a griddle
2. Parrilla: Cast-iron grate that set directly over the hot coals, like a grill
3. Caldero: Cast-iron kettle that can be set right over a fire, like a Dutch oven, think soups, stews and frying
4. Horno de barro: Wood burning clay oven, reaches really high temperatures, you’ve probably seen one in Italian pizzerias
5. Rescoldo: A cooking method where the food is buried in hot white ash and left for a while to cook, great for whole vegetables
6. Asador: Slow cooking large whole animals, fastening them to an iron cross and setting them near a fire
7. Infiernillo: He called this the “little hell”, there’s a fire on top and bottom

I really liked this guy. He's laidback, humble and happy. He cooks simply and loves what he does. One point I really liked was his discussion on the fine line between food being perfectly burnt and badly burnt. He said a little burnt is okay. Personally, I love food that's got a little char to it- makes the contrast in textures & flavors spectacular!
Naturally this event wouldn't be complete without a 3-course tasting menu of delicious food prepared using the "seven fires" and fabulous wine from a glass that never seemed to be empty. (I can blame my headache this morning on that..)

The first course featured a sea salt encrusted salmon, infiernillo/little hell method, with vegetables rescoldo including butternut squash, sweet potatoes, onion, beets, and pumpkin accompanied by a white wine. I like salmon, but wow, if salmon was always prepared like this, I would LOVE salmon. It was served with a garlicky aioli, but it was so good by itself I just ate it plain. Perfectly salted and meltingly tender. The vegetables were moist, perfectly cooked and so simple.

The second course was my favorite- lamb with a salad of arugula, potatoes and toasted almonds with a tasty sauce made from the lamb drippings. I practically licked my plate clean on this one. It was paired with a pinot noir. Expect to see some sort of attempted version of this dish in the future. I bought his cookbook, hopefully that recipe is in there!

The third - morcilla, sweetbreads, chorizo and beef.... I have a feeling this one was third for a reason. For those of you who don't know, morcilla is blood sausage and sweetbreads are the thymus gland of young beef, pork, veal & lamb. I was glad that I'd already consumed a couple glasses of wine by the time I tried this. The blood sausage actually had a nice flavor, but the texture kind of gagged me. Next the sweetbreads... my dad tried them and advised me against it, so, sorry, but I can't give you an accurate description. But the beef and chorizo were delicious. To finish the night they had several couples dance the tango. What a seductive dance… I should probably learn it.
It was an incredible night of delicious food, wine, and a great learning experience (both culturally & culinarily-not a real word). Hopefully the week's success will make the Passport Event an annual occurance at Central Market. To really top my night off, I met Paula Lambert, the owner of the Mozzarella Company and a very cool lady.

So, yea. I love my job.