Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street Television

- This week on Milk Street, we travel to Argentina to uncover the secrets of cooking thick-cut steaks.

We also bring back a chimichurri sauce like nothing you've ever had before.

Then we do an unusual recipe, a shaved carrot salad.

We finished with caramelized pork with orange and sage.

Stay tuned as we discover the very best of Argentina.

- Funding for this series was provided by the following.

- For 25 years, Consumer Cellular's goal has been to provide wireless service that helps people communicate and connect.

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- We've both been to Argentina.

I went many years before you did because I'm many years older.

- (chuckles) - And, of course, one of the things you go to Argentina for is steak.

So putting aside the quality of meat, etcetera, it was really the cooking method that was really unusual.

That was the big difference, right?

- Yeah, absolutely.

I mean, their steak was lovely, but I think really what set it apart was the way they prepared it.

What I learned first off, is meat is not a meal.

It is a culture.

And, you know, the social calendar is built around the asado, the barbecue, the backyard barbecue.

Meat and a case of wine, that is the weekend.

The first place I had steak was at Parrilla Tito, which also is called Tito's Secret Steak House, and it lives up to its name.

It's hidden kind of in a back alley of Buenos Aires.

You go in, and the first thing that you're met by is this parrilla, this huge wood-fired grill that is just deliciously assaulting you with heat and the aroma of grilling meat.

When I had my steak, it was phenomenal.

It was perfectly seared outside, perfectly tender and red and juicy on the inside.

It was also served with a chimichurri, which at the time, I didn't realize that chimichurri changes depending on where you are in Argentina.

- Mm.

- You know, we think of it as kind of the green cilantro sauce.

- Right.

- This was based on paprika and red pepper flakes and vinegar.

It's delicious.

I... it was served in a small cup for dunking the steak, and I drained the cup, it was delicious.

- When you came back, I remember you didn't talk about the steak, you talked about the chimichurri sauce.

- (laughing): The chimichurri was amazing, yes.

And I had the same experience no matter where I went in Buenos Aires, I got myself invited to an asado where the asador, Ricardo Crcova, he walks up to this truck-sized grill that has a grate that lowers and rises.

He builds a large wood fire, then he brings the grate down to kind of clean it, burn it off.

When the coals were ready, he rose the grate again... - Hm.

- ...and threw massive steaks onto this.

And I looked at him, and I said, "Well, how is that ever going to cook?

That's way above the coals."

He obviously knows what he's doing.

Two hours later, the steak is still there.

- What?

- Yes.

And when he felt that the steak had reached the correct internal temperature, That's when he lowered the grate... - Lowered it, yeah.

- And he seared it.

What I loved about it is that it gave the cook so much control.

- And you didn't mention this, but the case of wine, it gives you time for that case of wine.

- It does give you that case of wine.

- Because you said it's about drinking and barbecue.

- Absolutely.

- J.M., thank you, steak with chimichurri sauce.

And don't forget the chimichurri sauce, which is fiery red and orange and absolutely fabulous.

- Absolutely.

- Thanks.

- Thank you.

- You know, J.M.

just spoke about his trip to Argentina.

There were two things I learned from it: one is cook steaks over low heat.

- Yes.

I've heard a lot of people say that, I do it now, too, which is totally different than what we've done for 50 years.

And two, the chimichurri sauce was nothing like what we have here, it's just absolutely incredible.

Sounds like a good TV segment to me.

- (laughs) This is also a winning recipe.

There are only two conditions you need to consider, and the first is the thickness of the steak.

These, as you can see, are a good 1.5- to two-inches thick.

That's what you want, at least... - Ginormous.

- Ginormous.

And because they are so thick, you will probably have to go to a butcher to get them, which is fine.

And then they can cut it as thick as you specify, and it's all good.

We are going to be using the boneless strip steak today.

This would also work with a good old rib eye steak, with a bone or without a bone.

And this one particularly has a bone.

You just want to make sure they're a nice, thick cut.

And you also want to look for good marbling, because that's going to indicate the tenderness of the beef.

Believe it or not, these two steaks are going to serve at least four people, maybe even a little bit more depending on how you serve them.

And the other thing that we learned in Argentina is the seasoning.

I mean, salt and pepper is your norm for cooking steak, and I never cook a steak without it.

However, what we're going to do, we're going to add just a touch of sugar.

Doesn't make the steak sweet by any means, but what it does is it brings out the caramel meatiness of them.

And we're going to do something that the Argentinians did, and that is use grated nutmeg.

Would you like to grate the nutmeg while I talk about it?

- Wasn't it already grated?

- Well, no, we need twice that much.

- Oh.

- And now, the reason we're not using pre-ground nutmeg, it's important to note, because if you can see, when you have grated nutmeg, the texture is different.

- Is that enough?

- That looks good.

You can stop.

- Whew.

- (chuckling): Now we're going to add this to our salt and pepper.

What it does is the nutmeg actually brings out the smoky meatiness of this.

It also becomes part of the crust when you sear it, so that, that nutmeg gets really toasty and dark.

It's quite phenomenal.

So we're going to reserve two teaspoons of this and that will be used after the steaks have cooked.

So we'll set those aside there.

Thank you.

And all the rest of this is going on these two steaks, It looks like a lot, but once again, we want to get a nice dark crust on them.

So I'm just going to leave that for a second while we rub these in.

You know, I don't know about you, when I first started cooking steaks, that was the biggest adjustment period for me, was learning how much to salt them, because they always took... - A lot.

- Yes, they always took more than you think they should.

Now we're going to transfer them to a wire rack over a sheet pan.

And these were going to go into the refrigerator for at least an hour.

You could leave them overnight if you want to cook them the next day.

The rack is there so that the air can circulate completely around the steaks, so they don't get wet on the bottom.

After these are in the refrigerator for a little while, we are going to cook them in a very low oven-- 250 degrees.

- Hmm.

- And they stay in there for 45 to 55 minutes when they're this size.

- Because, like, a normal steak could be like 20 minutes or so.

- Right.

We're used to just cooking steaks, put them in the pan as hot as you can get it, slapdash and cook them, and done.

However, we found that with this method, you could control the degree of doneness to the nth degree, and that the steak cooks evenly all the way through.

You don't get that grayness on the top and bottom, and then the pink in the middle.

It's pink all the way through.

- Well, in a hot skillet, you're heating up the outside, and then through conduction, it's getting to the inside.

But the outside's over-- way overcooked by the time the inside comes up to temperature.

- Exactly.

- Right.

- And this is actually called the reverse sear method, reverse because we're starting low and slow, and then at the very end, we're going to give it a really fast sear over high heat to develop the crust and to give you that nice charry edge that you want.

So, into the fridge we go.

All right, Chris.

So while our steaks are in the oven at 250 degrees, for those 45 minutes that we're not doing anything, we're going to do something... - Well, speak for yourself.

- (laughs) - I'm standing here.

- Right.

We're going to make the chimichurri.

To me, it's not like any chimichurri I've ever known.

Which is the green version, right, with the cilantro and the oil.

This one is completely red.

I have a shameful admission to make.

- Look out, here we go.

- I've been in Argentina and ate steak, and I neglected to try this because I was told it was too spicy.

And so I... - What?

- I know, I know, but I'm making up for lost time because I'm putting this on everything now.

- You're right.

That was horribly shameful.

- (laughing): I know, I know.

This is a neutral oil, like a grapeseed or canola on low heat.

The things that are going into it are the sweet paprika, and that's a quarter cup.

We also have dried oregano, and you definitely want to use dried here, not fresh, because fresh can get bitter.

And... - Now, I've been... you know, while you've been talking, I've been looking at this, slightly unnerved.

- Yes.

This is a quarter cup of red chili flakes.

Now you can adjust it.

This is the one area that is the most adjustable in this chimichurri.

- Like a couple teaspoons?

- (laughs) - Something?

Something smaller?

- I make it with two tablespoons, and I can just about handle that.

We're going to add this to the oil, and then we're going to let that oil cook, and just until it comes to a simmer.

Now, the traditional method in Argentina is just to mix all these ingredients together without the heat.

But we found that by blooming these spices in the oil, it really elevates their flavor.

So we want this to just come up to a simmer.

So we're just going to turn this off and stir in the grated garlic.

We wait until the end of cooking to stir in the garlic so the flavor stays really pronounced and bright.

- Well, it clearly needs some additional strong flavor, Bianca.

- (laughs) - I mean, you only got a quarter cup of red pepper flakes in there.

Of course you need raw garlic.

- All right, so we're just going to let that cool to room temperature.

All right, we're ready for the last step of the chimichurri, which is to incorporate the cooled spiced oil mixture with the vinegar.

Now, traditionally, you would use a regular cider vinegar.

But like in Argentina, we found the balsamic vinegar had that deep smoky notes and the caramelization, so we prefer that.

If you would add a half a teaspoon of salt and whisk that in, we just want to get the salt starting dissolving and get it going.

- Also, I'm hoping that the sweetness of the balsamic slightly compensates for that, you know... - (laughs) - ...Truckload of red pepper flakes.

- Drizzle this in... - So we're doing a little emulsion here?

- Exactly.

- Is that what's going on?

- It's not going to emulsify completely, but we want to give it a good fighting chance.

- You could smell that out on the street, I think.

- (laughs) - So you can see, this makes a good bit.

Remember how big those steaks were and how many people this is going to feed?

Well, if you're lucky enough to have leftover, you can keep this in your fridge.

It goes on any meat, even some fish, the meatier fishes.

It is even good on eggs.

We have given these the time they needed in the oven, 45 to 55 minutes.

We wanted them to reach 110 degrees.

We're aiming for medium rare as our final degree of doneness.

So we're taking them out at 110 here because they're going to continue to cook while we sear.

We're going to add a little oil to this very hot cast iron skillet.

- We should mention that if, if you were cooking thinner steaks, which is not what this recipes about... - Right.

- ...you'd probably cook it about 95 internal.

Because when you sear them off, the inside's going to come up to a higher temperature faster, because it's thinner.

- Exactly.

- So, 110 degrees for a thick steak.

- The oil is shimmery, starting to smoke a little bit, and you can feel the heat when you put your hand there.

So that is when it's time to do this.

Oh, beautiful.

(sizzling) So we're going to give those three minutes, and then we will flip them over.

Okay, so three minutes, we will flip these over.

Ha.

- Mm.

- So three more minutes on the other side, and then we'll take them off and let them rest for ten.

Just like every steak.

You need to let it rest a little bit before you slice it.

So we forced ourselves to wait for ten minutes.

That allows, as you know, the muscles in the meat to relax, and it lets the juices settle back down inside rather than running all out.

- But it does the opposite.

I don't get relaxed waiting to eat.

- (laughs) - My muscles tense.

- So slice against the grain slightly.

This is a very thick cut of meat.

Okay.

- (sighs) - You can actually feel the crust when you're cutting through it.

Look how beautiful that texture is.

And you see how it's pink all the way through, top to bottom?

- Mm-hmm.

Now, remember, we reserved a little bit of that spice mixture?

That's for sprinkling over right before you slather it with this hot, spicy chimichurri.

And you can see how much that one steak makes.

All right, so let's put a little bit on your plate.

There we go.

- So a little of this, too?

- Mm-hmm.

- Okay.

So the seasoning mixture you used at the beginning.

- Yep, just that bright punch of saltiness, too.

- Okay.

- And then this you can drizzle over when you plate it... - (laughs) - Along the edge.

- I'm going to be an adult.

- There you go.

- Ooh.

So, do it just right along the edge, then you can sort of dip as you go.

- Now I have some of the sauce on it.

- Baby steps.

- Mm.

I'm just waiting.

I'm counting to ten, because I know when I get to eight, it's going to be... Well, I don't know.

- You know what's amazing?

You would think that a quarter cup, it's not so bad.

- No.

- I think it's the sweet paprika... - Oh.

- ...that has a buffer and tempers it a little.

- I actually like the sauce.

I mean, it's hot, but it's not... As people know, I'm not a big spicy food person.

- Right.

- This is excellent.

Mmm.

So if you're going to cook a thick steak, put it in a low oven, 250, until it's about 110 internal, and then finish it off in a cast iron skillet or grill and serve it with chimichurri sauce.

- You know, very few recipes here at Milk Street that completely take us by surprise because it's something we've never seen before, and that's the recipe we're doing now: caramelized pork with orange and sage.

Now, this was not our idea.

This comes from Francis Mallmann.

He's a well-known Argentinean chef and cook, and he does a lot of cooking over a live fire, that's his thing.

We're not doing this over coals.

We're doing this in a broiler, and also in a skillet.

So here's the basic notion: you take sugar-- he uses brown sugar, he uses a confit of orange, and then he also uses some fresh thyme.

He puts those things together: herbal, citrus, and sweet as a topping for pork tenderloin.

It's really, really interesting, and it's actually amazing tasting.

So we're going to adapt that recipe right now for Milk Street.

We're starting with sugar.

This is turbinado sugar.

It's going to maintain its crunch on top of the pork, which is really important.

So we have some orange zest to put in as well.

Sage, fresh sage, it's been chopped, and a little bit of cayenne pepper.

And we're going to mix this up, because this is going to go on top of the pork after we cook it on one side.

And now we're going to start cooking the pork tenderloin.

We're going to use a couple tablespoons of oil.

This is olive oil, you could use any kind of neutral oil if you want.

And when this gets up to just before it smokes, starts to shimmer in the pan, we'll take the tenderloin.

This is two pounds of tenderloin, silver skin removed.

We cut into six pieces, lightly pounded each piece till it's about an inch thick, just so it cooks evenly.

So that's almost there.

We'll just salt and pepper.

(sizzling) So the way we cook this is a little unusual.

We're cooking it one side for three minutes.

So that's good.

We'll just take a quick look here.

Nice and brown on the bottom.

They're releasing from the pan nicely.

So we'll take them out and flip them.

All right, now I'm going to press the turbinado sugar mixture on top, so you'll notice that's a lot of topping.

But when this gets broiled, it's going to turn really crispy and crackly, which is exactly what you want.

So I want to run that under the broiler, five, six, seven minutes, until you get that really nice crackly caramelized crust.

- So the pork came out when it was 135 internal.

We used an instant-read thermometer.

It'll come up to about 140 when it's done, and the top is really crunchy.

But we'll get to that in a minute.

So we want to finish off a sauce.

We have the hot skillet, and we're going to add half a cup of orange juice.

We're going to increase the heat.

We're going to cook it down just two or three minutes till it's nice and syrupy, and I have one additional tablespoon of the fresh sage, goes in.

And we're going to just cook that down.

By the way, it's a good tip-- if you have a very hot skillet, it came out of an oven or it's been on top of the stove, always wrap the handle with a kitchen towel or oven mitt.

Just so everyone in the kitchen who comes through knows that it's hot.

Okay, this is almost ready.

You can see, you draw through.

So now we're going to add cider vinegar, two tablespoons.

You want to sauce it just before serving because that crunchy, caramelized topping, you want to keep that crunch to it.

And if it sits too long, it'll get soft.

So let me just cut into this and show you.

First of all, you can hear it crack.

So you can see the top is really crunchy and crisp, and then the pork is just perfectly cooked underneath.

So at the outset of this recipe, I said it was unusual.

You have a crispy sweet top.

You have a nice, moist bottom with the pork, and then you have sage, you have fresh herbs.

You have orange juice, of course, which is sweet, as well as the sugar, and then cider vinegar to balance it out.

So sweet, sour, crunchy, soft, all in one recipe.

So one of the other things you had that was really surprising was a shaved carrot salad.

- Yes.

- So where did you have this and why is this an Argentinian dish?

- So it's not Argentinian, for one thing, but it is a reminder of Spain's lingering influence in Argentina.

So I was at a tapas bar in Mercado San Telmo.

I sat down at the bar, got myself a glass of sweet vermouth, and looked at all these amazing dishes that were set out on the tapas bar.

Well, the one that attracted me most was actually the shaved carrot salad.

- Hm.

- When I spoke with the chef, I was really fascinated by how simple a dish it was.

It is literally paper-thin shavings of carrots, but he starts by making a warm dressing.

Just olive oil, lemon, a little bit of sugar, star anise, which I thought was very interesting.

And once that's heated up in a skillet, he tosses in these shavings of carrot and barely cooks them.

- Mm.

- And all he's really doing is warming it up, just tenderizing ever so slightly, and then throws it on a platter and sprinkles poppy seeds on it.

It sounds very simple.

It sounds maybe too simple, but it was so delicious.

It brought out the sweetness of the carrots and the texture was fantastic.

- So you went to Argentina and came back with three surprises-- how they cook steak... - Mm-hmm.

- ...a chimichurri that was not green.

- Yeah.

- It was fiery red.

And also a dish you didn't expect, which was one of your favorites... - Yep.

- ...a shaved carrot salad.

- Unexpected but delicious.

- You know, hitting the road always pays off.

Thanks, J.M.

- Thank you.

- So, this carrot salad was inspired by a trip to Argentina, and it is vibrant, it's beautiful, and the texture is really interesting, because we actually shave the carrot, which gives you these really silky strands.

So you could serve this as a side to grilled meats or roasted pork.

It's really versatile and looks just gorgeous on the plate.

So to get started, you want to make sure you have sizable carrots.

You don't want to use those really skinny ones that come in the bunches at the grocery store, and that's because you're going to be peeling it into these long, beautiful ribbons.

So you can use a Y-style peeler like this, or you could also use a mandolin, just be very careful.

But as soon as you get to the thick, kind of woody core, you just want to set it aside.

We're only using that outer sweeter layers of the carrot.

All right, now I'm going to add three quarters of a teaspoon of kosher salt, and then we're actually going to cook these carrots.

So, we found that doing it in the microwave was actually the easiest and quickest way, and you're only going to cook it for about three to five minutes.

You're looking for them to get really silky and a little bit softened, and when they're hot, they'll absorb that dressing really well.

So I'm going to cover it with a plate and just pop it in the microwave for a couple minutes, So the carrots are out of the microwave.

And they're still tender crisp.

We're not looking for them to be fully, fully cooked.

So you want to make sure that you take the plate off the top so they don't continue to cook while we make the dressing.

I have some poppy seeds here that I just toasted.

Now, it's really important that you use your nose here, because the poppy seeds are dark and it's kind of hard to tell when they're toasting, and you don't want to burn them.

So as soon as they get fragrant, you're going to want to take them off heat.

It's only going to take maybe two minutes, and then I'm going to put them in this bowl.

So now we're going to make that warm dressing.

(burner clicking) And to the olive oil we're going to add a couple cloves of garlic that are peeled and smashed open.

And a couple of these little anise pods.

Now I'm actually starting it in cold oil, because as the temperature comes up, all that flavor from the garlic and the anise is going to blend in with the oil and really infuse the whole dressing.

And also you're going to notice some golden brown edges on the side of the garlic.

All right, so we have some nice browning on the garlic.

So we're going to add the lemon juice and the sugar.

(bubbling) I'm just whisking in the sugar to make sure it fully dissolves.

Now, we're going to let this go on low for about three minutes until it's slightly reduced.

All right, I'm going to remove those garlic cloves and the star anise.

And what's so nice about this is you don't get any big chunks of garlic, but you just have that really mellow, garlicky flavor through the whole dressing.

Now I'm going to pour this over the still-warm carrots, and it's going to soak up all that dressing.

I will say you might end up with a little bit of carrot juice at the bottom of the bowl from when you microwaved it.

That's totally fine.

Just leave it in there and it will mix right in with the dressing.

You want to give it a good toss.

It smells so good-- lemony, garlicky.

And now I'm just going to let this sit for about 15 minutes, and that'll give it plenty of time to marinate in that dressing and get really flavorful.

It smells great, and these ribbons of carrot look delicious.

So I'm going to finish the salad by just adding those toasted poppy seeds... and some fresh parsley leaves.

And it's a really nice contrast, because you have the sweet carrots, the nutty poppy seeds, and then that fresh, grassy parsley.

From Argentina, we have a beautiful shaved carrot salad with parsley and poppy seeds.

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- Ladies and gentlemen, we'd like to be the first to welcome you to Tel Aviv... - Welcome to Oaxaca's airport.

- Welcome to Beirut.

(man speaking Hebrew) - (speaking world language) - Bonjour, je m'appelle Chris.

- We call it supa kanja.

It's the word for gumbo.

- Christopher, you have to make the authentic, original cotoletta alla Bolognese for me.

- So this is the Eduardo Garca blender.

- This is the no electricity.

- Next is dessert.

- That is really good.

I notice when you cook sometimes, you add a little bit of something, and then you just put the whole bowl in.

- I like to be generous with my food.

Generosity is important in cooking.

- That's true.

- Can start building bridges, and food is definitely a perfect common ground.

- This is a generational thing.

It's, it's something that you inherit.

- Yeah, that was great.

(woman speaking Mandarin) - What was this for?

What did she say?

- You get one more chance.

- Salute.

- How is it?

He's speechless.

- I'm speechless.

That's so good.