Argies in Dutchland: doing what we know best

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And what is that Argies do best, you may ask? Play football, dance the tango, run a country efficiently? (Allow me a little sarcasm here!) Well no, I was rather talking about having a good time with friends around food - good food and a lot of it, to be more exact.

I am sure that in many cultures and many countries people enjoy getting together, having a good time and eating good food. Inviting people over and treating guests to a home-cooked meal is not a habit exclusively practiced by us, Argies. While abroad, I have been to the homes of many people od different nationalities where I have been made to feel at home, served excellent food and been treated like royalty.

However, if you are an expat, I am sure you will agree with me that one sometimes yearns for the company of people who are just like you, who enjoy the same things, share your background, speak the same language in the same way and, most of all, miss the same things from back home, especially food. This is why with my Argentinean expat friends Mónica and Elena, we get together a couple of times a year to enjoy a true Argie feast which normally involves a lot of cooking, a lot of eating and a lot of talking and relaxing, too.

The Argie "team": Elena, Mónica and myself.

From the moment we mention a possible date for the meet-up, we start making suggestions of dishes from back home which we would like to see on the menu of the day. Because Argentina is mainly a country of immigrants, our favourite dishes normally include not only traditional dishes which originated in colonial times or with a more native Latin American flavour, like the locro Mónica made the last time or the carbonada criolla that Elena made for our first Argies in Holland party; but also dishes that were brought over from Europe by our grandparents or parents, dishes that we regularly cook at home on weekends for the family or friends -like Monica's delicious canelones or the ravioles I made when I hosted the meeting in my house last year.

Since many of the regulars here on this blog are interested in food, I thought it was a good idea to share some of the recipes of the Argentinean classics that we have cooked so far for our parties. Mónica and Elena have both kindly agreed to provide the recipes and if you have any questions about the dishes or Argentinean food in general, we will be very happy to answer them.

A word of warning though: our dishes normally include meat, so those of you who are vegetarians can skip the main dishes or try to adapt them to your taste (like the locro) or wait for the recipes of our desserts and pastry.

For our first "Argies in Dutchland" party the menu included:

Elena's Carbonada Criolla

(beef stew with pumpkin, veggies and fruit)

Mónica's Cazuela de Pollo

(chicken casserole)

Aledys' Budín de Pan al Caramelo

(bread pudding with caramel sauce)

Elena's Alfajores de Maicena

( dulce de leche sandwich shortbread biscuits)

Mónica's torta rápida de chocolate

(fast chocolate cake)

In the next blog post Elena will share with us her recipes for the carbonada criolla - a hearty country dish with an interesting background -  and the alfajores de maicena, the delicious sandwich biscuits filled with the ever-present dulce de leche... Now go and work up some appetite for the next blog entry!