Matambres

 

Traditional Matambres

Megan from MM Livestock first introduced me to her take on Matambres. These were great. She did hers with round steak; we preferred using the skirt and flank steak we got from our local Mexican market. So, we got to thinking about Argentine cooking. I have spent the last 2 months researching Argentinean and Gaucho cooking. Fascinating. Lots of interesting styles of cooking and sites most of which I can’t understand the what they say.

One thing I learned about the Matambre is that there is a traditional style and then from there it is more a free style, anything you can dream and we sure did. This is where the fun starts. Our friends Matt and Carrie loved watching us put it all together. By the way Matambre translates to “hunger killer” and these guys lived up to their name.

We thought we would do 4 of these bad boys: one traditional, then one that was along the same line of thought. We stuffed it with carrots, asparagus, onions, hard boiled eggs and spinach. These are just the basic building blocks for our Matambre festival. Next, we went “Free Style”, one stuffed with our smoked jalapeno and bacon poppers. Then, followed with one stuffed with peanut butter and bacon. The personal favorite of the four of us.

I got the idea of the peanut butter and bacon Matambre from Aaron Black of Meat, INC. at http://meatinc.blogspot.com/. He told me he makes this and people go nuts (pun intended). He’s right; there were no leftovers because that was some good eatin…

Prep Time: a big recipe with a lot a variations and 2.5 hours prep time
Cook Time: 1 hour @ 350
Grill: Royall 3000 Wood Pellet Grill/Smoker
Pellets: Hickory

Some of our Ingredients

I am not going to give measurements with this ingredient list because we did so many and you may not want to do so much at a time. Our goal here is to give you the idea of where you can take this recipe, run with it.

Ingredients: Matambres

Flap meat, skirt steak, flank steak. Any of these will be fine.
Hard boiled eggs, 4 to 6 per Matambre
Jalapenos, smoked and sliced
Spinach
Asparagus
Carrots, julienned
Bacon, partially cooked
Sweet onion, sliced
Sweet peppers, sliced
Cilantro, rough chopped
Cheese, Queso Oaxaca (Patti’s favorite Mexican cheese)
Cheese, pepper jack

Ingredients: Marinade

½ cup red wine vinegar
½ cup olive oil
3 cups red wine, we used an Argentine wine called Malbec (Thanks, Carrie)
¼ cup crushed garlic
2 Tbsp. smoked Paprika
2 Tbsp. Cilantro, rough chopped
2 Tbsp. dried chopped onion
1 Tbsp. Oregano
3 Bay leaves
Salt and pepper to taste

Ingredients: Broth for braising

4 cups of water
2 cups red wine
¼ cup onion soup mix
2 Tbsp. dry crushed garlic
2 Tbsp. dry chopped onion
1 Tbsp. beef base

Marinade in a covered glass dish 3 hours or overnight

Directions: Marinade

Mix all the ingredients and place in a dish or zip lock bag. Add meat making sure it is all covered and refrigerate for 3 hours or overnight. Every so often roll the meat to be sure it all gets coated.

Roll meat up with the stuffing and tie with butchers cord

Directions: Meat

I rolled my meat out on a cookie sheet and then layered it with the stuffing we wanted. We did 4 different ones, look at the video and you can see the stuffing for each and how to roll and tie them.

Place your completed Matambre in an oven safe baking dish and cover half way with your broth. Then, onto the grill at 350 degrees 1 to 1 ½ hours. The longer it cooks the more tender it will be. Roll them over after 30 minutes and continue cooking.

The meat will be done at 140 degrees, but I am not sure about the veggies. I think anywhere from 160 to 190 may be the best for a tender Matambre.

On the Royall Wood Pellet Grill/Smoker

Cooking Directions: Royall Wood Pellet Grill/Smoker

Open the lid and set the dial to “350”. After about five minutes you can shut the lid. Give it about 10 minutes to heat up. Patti has lined the drip pan with foil for me, it makes for easier clean up.

Place your pan directly onto the grill and just let it hang out get happy for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes roll your Matambres over in the broth and cook for another 30 minutes or so.

When the meat reaches an internal temp around 160 – 190 pull it off, cover it and let it rest for 10 minutes before serving.

Note: I get a lot of questions about the kind of pellets you can use with a recipe. Keep in mind that a recipe is just an outline. Some you need follow closely like when you are making bread, but most you can do anything you can dream, our favorite way to cook. Feel free to mix and match the pellets until you find a combination you really like. Also you are only smoking at temps less than 250 degrees, anything higher is cooking and there will not be much if any smoke so it does not matter what kind of pellet you are using.

Traditional Matambre

Traditional Matambre

Smoked Jalapeno & Bacon Matambre

Peanut Butter & Bacon Matambre

This one was everyone’s favorite

Cooking In the Oven:

We have been getting requests for recipe conversions for the oven. I tell folks all the time that cooking on a Royall wood pellet grill is just as easy as cooking in your oven. Just about anyone can do it and do it well. Think about it. You set your control knob to the temp you want, put your meat in and leave it for a set time.

It is the same thing, time and temperature is what it is all about. The Royall is just like your oven except it uses wood pellets and has wheels.

If you want to smoke in your oven they sell oven smokers for that. I, myself, would not spend the money on one of those when you can make your own out of foil.

Foil smoke packets. (Two handfuls wet chips and one dry, fold foil into a packet, poke holes in it with a fork and you’re good to go.) Just set it in the oven. You might want to make sure you turn on your vent fan or your house will fill up with smoke. You will give your alarms a good work out.

About our Recipes

We do our recipes on our patio where we have a lineup of grills, including Royall Wood Pellet Grill/Smoker, Traeger, Char Griller side box smoker, Charmglow, Char-Broil, The Big Easy, Brinkman and Weber. I call it our “Wall of Grill”. Our grilling styles are healthy and low fat and will fit pellet heads, gas, natural wood and even charcoal purists. Almost any of our recipes can be done on any kind of good BBQ.

The important thing to keep in mind is TIME & TEMPERATURE. You can even do some of them in the oven or crock pot, but, then you lose all the flavors you get from cooking outdoors. But sometimes it does rain.

Let’s Eat

Remember that a recipe is simply an outline; it is not written in stone. Don’t be afraid to make changes to suit your taste.
Take it and run with it….

Live Your Passion,

Ken & Patti

http://datenightdoins.com
http://blog.datenightdoins.com

Our Beef, Sausage and Bacon Provided By:

MM Livestock Co.

Grass Fed Beef and Lamb

Pastured Pork & Poultry

Megan McDowell 951 805 7341

builttoslide@msn.com     http://www.mmlivestockco.com

                                                                                                            

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