Steak for One

The Gauchito sized Básico or grill insert is the perfect size for smaller families or intimate gatherings. We love loading up our larger grills with all sorts of delicacies but sometimes dinner calls for one perfectly grilled steak. A nice cut of steak, little pile of lump charcoal, a relaxing fire for 15 minutes, and your wood-fired steak dinner is all set.

Dinner - Gaucho Grande Insert

A quick dinner from our founder, Eduardo, on the original Gaucho Grande Insert. Steak, corn, ribs, sausage, with lump charcoal and apple wood doing the work.

Gaucho Grande - Long Island, NY

This great Gaucho Grande install out of Long island, NY takes center stage in a unique horse-shoe outdoor kitchen layout - We love it!

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Gaucho Insert - Texas

This Gaucho insert with Brasero comes all the way from Texas - Check out all that meat! 

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Uses for Leftover Beef After Your Asado Cookout

The cook out is winding down. Your asado grill is cooling, guests have moved onto drinks and desserts, and you’re thinking about leftovers.

Specifically, the leftover beef. Cooking beef on an asado grill can give you steaks like nothing else you’ve tasted, but that doesn’t mean your leftovers need to be a letdown.

Here are a few Argentine-tinged beef dishes that you can make with whatever beef is leftover from your next cookout.

Beef and Red Pepper Empanada

People have been eating empanadas for centuries. They’re a chameleon-like food, taking on different characteristics from country to country. Go to India and they’ll be filled with dried fruits or nuts. Visit Venezuela and you’ll find empanadas fried and made from corn flour.

Argentinian empanadas are typically filled with beef and vegetables, although other variations use chicken or fish.

For this recipe – by chef Fernando Larroude – we’ll go with beef and red pepper. You’ll end up with enough empanadas for a party.

Ingredients:

1 onion
2 red peppers
1 ¼ cup of beef stock
10 ½ ounces of sirloin steak
A small bunch of spring onions
12 green olives
2 hard-boiled eggs
Salt and pepper
Short crust pastry (This is made by mixing eight cups of flour, a cup of water and 10 ½ ounces of beef fat.)
Directions

Make the filling by finely chopping the onions and frying them in the beef fat. Add a little of the stock for extra flavor, taking care not to let the mixture get too liquid. Make sure the onions are soft, as the finished product will only bake for 10 minutes.
Slice the sirloin into finger-width ribbons, and add them to the onions. When the meat has cooked for a few minutes, add grated egg and a few roughly chopped olives.
At the last minute, add a handful of finely sliced spring onions for freshness, and end by putting in chopped red peppers. Season this mixture and allow it to cool before adding it to the pastry.
Roll the pastry as thin as possible on a cold, floured surface. Cut the pastry into small discs, and spoon a small amount of the cooled mixture onto each disc. Fold the pastry over, sealing the edges together.
Cook for about 10 minutes at 375 degrees, and serve immediately.

Argentine Beef Stew

That steak tasted amazing when it was fresh off your asado grill on a warm September night. But now it’s a cool, rainy day and you want something more seasonal. And what’s more comforting on a dreary rainy autumn day than some stew?

This version – courtesy of the food blog Naked Cuisine – might be a little different than the stew you grew up with, but it’s no less soothing.

Ingredients

1 tbs. of cooking oil
1 lb. of beef, in chunks
1 onion
¾ cup of red wine
1 cup of fresh diced tomato
1 cup of chopped dried apricots
1 diced red bell pepper
1 delicata squash or small pumpkin, cut into large chunks
3 medium sized potatoes, cut into large chunks
1 cup of tomato sauce
6 cups of beef stock
1 tsp of paprika
¼ tsp of cayenne pepper
½ tsp of sea salt
Fresh cracked pepper
Directions

Heat the oil in a large pot until hot. Add the beef, letting the chunks get brown on all sides.
Lower the heat and add the onions, peppers, apricots and tomatoes, cooking until soft. Add the wine and let everything simmer for a few minutes.
Add the tomato sauce, beef stock, cayenne pepper, potatoes and squash/pumpkin.
Simmer on a low heat for two hours and 30 minutes, add salt and pepper, and serve with fresh cilantro. This dish should serve six.
If the world of the asado grill is still a foreign country to you, let Gaucho Grills take you there. Our grills can let you cook steaks and other dishes as if you’re at a classic Argentinian parilla. Shop our website to find the grill model that’s right for you, and read our blog to uncover other recipes and cooking tips.

Meat Cutting Techniques & Tips

We’ve designed our Argentine grills to give you perfectly cooked cuts of meat. What you do with that meat after it leaves the grill is up to you. The way you cut a steak after it’s cooked plays as much of a role in your meal as the grilling process.

When you’ve taken the time to grill a nice piece of beef on your parrilla, you want to make sure that you take the proper steps to serve it correctly. Here are a meat cutting techniques and tips that will allow you to get the most out of your next meal.

1. Let it rest

We can’t stress this enough. When you slice a steak too early, you’re letting the juices inside escape, leading to a dry, flavorless cut.

Once your meat has cooked to your liking on the grates of your Argentine Grill, place it to the side and let it rest for three to five minutes. This lets the juices relax the meat. Resting times depend on the size of what you’ve just cooked. Larger pieces of meat – roasts for example – will need longer resting times.

2. Cut against the grain

When talking about meat, “the grain” refers to the alignment of muscle fibers. It’s easier to identify in tougher cuts like flank steak than in leaner varieties of steak, such as tenderloin.

By slicing the meat against the grain, we cut through those fibers, increasing the tenderness of the cut and making it easier to chew. When we slice with the grain – in the direction as the fibers – we’re left with a chewier piece of meat.

3. Use a cutting board

Using a cutting board makes slicing meat easier and safer. There’s less chance of the meat – or your knife – slipping, and you’re less likely to damage your countertop. Feel free to trim off fat and surface muscle to enhance flavor, but don’t away so much that you’re giving yourself less meat.

4. What if we’re serving chicken?

To slice a chicken breast, place it on a cutting board, skin side up. Start at one end, and pull the skin away from the meat. Use a boning knife to cut meat away from one side of the breastbone, cutting as close to the bone as you can.

Cut the meat away from the rib bones using a sawing motion, pressing the flat side of the knife against the bones. Gently pull the meat from the bones as you cut.

Chicken sounds pretty good right now, so we’ll end – as we often do – with a recipe, for Argentine Grilled Chicken.

Ingredients

½ cup of parsley
¼ cup of red wine vinegar
2 tbsp. of olive oil
1 tsp. of soy sauce
½ tsp. of Worcestershire sauce
2 peeled garlic cloves
¼ tsp. of fresh ground pepper
1 tsp. of dried oregano
1 bay leaf
A dash of red pepper flakes
12 boneless chicken thighs
Directions

Use a blender to pulse marinade ingredients until they’ve been pureed.
Marinate the chicken in a plastic bag for at least four hours.
Pre-heat the grill over medium-high heat. Remove chicken from bag.
Grill until the chicken reaches your desired doneness, for about 5 to 7 minutes on each side.
If you don’t have a grill – or are unhappy with the one you have – Gaucho Grills can help. Visit our website to find the right Argentine grills for your next cookout. Our grills will do their job. It’s up to you to find the right way to cut what you’ve cooked.