Chimichurri

Mmmmm ... chimichurri ...

For those of you familiar with the Grove's old menu ... you might remember the chimichurri steak + potatoes that was a popular dish. Chimichurri is an Argentinian sauce/salsa/marinade/dressing/condiment essentially made from olive oil ... red wine vinegar ... italian parsely, dried oregano, onion, garlic, paprika, bay leaf, salt, pepper, chili flakes and other ingredients. There's as many recipes for it as there are people making it and there's variations that resemble it in spirit more than actual indgredients. It's essentially a herb and oil and vinegar and spice goop that's on every asado/parilla table in Argentina and it's so freaking good.

The flavor varies of course, with the different preparations ... and it's always nice to taste new recipes and figure out your favorites. When done well, it creates this wonderfully pleasing and complex sophisticated flavor that's all its own and creates a new kind of taste, distinct from the elements that went into it ... such that you won't easily be able to say what's in it ... because the blend has it's own unique taste.

Some have more fresh herbs and vegetables than others. Some have more dried herbs. Some have more oil or more vinegar and different balances of salt and sour and herbal and spicy. Some will seem like fresh veggies in a salsa and others will seem like an oily herb smear or pickle. Some will be chunky and some will be blended smooth.

Some places it's a table condiment ... some only serve it with grilled meats. But it's almost always served with grilled steaks and meats and sausages. And like I say, when it's done well, it's this amazing complex heady interesting stuff that you can pile a lot or a little on your food and it transforms even the most basic or uninteresting food into this sophisticated pungent herbal experience. It's amazing on steak and sausages and burgers and hot dogs and basically just about anything. And you can make a batch and throw it in the fridge probably indefinitely and the longer it marinates, the better it gets.

Lunch today was a nice thin grass fed beef burger w/ ham and cheese and a fried egg and lettuce and tomato and mayo and oozles of salty spicy chimichurri from this little neighborhood outdoor BBQ w/ plastic tables and big beers. To! Die! For! Highly recommended!

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