 Happy Sunday! I hope this email finds you indeed enjoying a day of sun and rest. Today, I want to share with you a story that incorporates both memory and recipe, from Chilean writer and chef Isidora Díaz. I first met Isidora through mutual food-loving friends when she lived in Columbus, Ohio. I was very sad when she moved away to Copenhagen, as her cooking — her grilling, particularly — was legendary by then among our friends. If you've never read her personal story of grilling as a woman in Chile (a radical act, in Chile's male-dominated culture of grilling; a newspaper article about her was once headlined: "DARING YOUNG LADY WANTS TO STEAL THE GRILLS FROM MEN"), then may I recommend it now. Isidora more than stole the grill; she has made it her own, through her cookbook and widely-shared expertise.
This summer, she shared a recipe for the most enticing, messy, smoky handful of a sandwich: grilled spicy pork wedged into churrascas, a traditional Chilean charcoal-grilled bun made by countryside cooks. Isidora's story is about the return of the churrasca in Chile, with her own take on this beautifully rustic sandwich, piled high with smoky marinated pork, pebre (a fresh tomato salsa), and homemade garlic mayonnaise — plus, of course, homemade churrasca buns enriched with butter or pork lard. It's a Project Sandwich and if you, like me, are headed into a July vacation, what better way to pass some welcome free time? But enough from me — here's a taste of Isidora's story, and click through to read it all and Get. The. Sandwich.
…
About 10 years ago, my husband and I made a trip to Río Hurtado, a narrow valley in the north of Chile, right below the Andes. We went to visit Clemita, the woman who helped my in-laws raise their children, and who is still a dear friend. She was spending the summer on her family land, a lineage of semi-nomad goat keepers who annually walk the goats to the other side of the mountains looking for fresh pastures, then come back with loads of strongly flavored goat cheese. During our stay, we were fed the sweetest tomatoes I've ever tried, figs, prickly pears, fresh eggs, grilled young goats, and, of course, tons of cheese.
One morning, Clemita suggested we walk a few hours towards the Andes to see tricahue nests — a small, endemic, endangered parrot nobody would imagine lived in such a dry, remote place. We walked a few hours under the unforgiving midday sun, as she said, "This is way far than I remember." But we kept going, reapplying sunscreen and listening to goat stories, until we found the place. It was truly beautiful, but there was no sign of birds. Disappointed, we walked back along a thin stream, and just when our stomachs started to rumble we found the shadow of an old acacia tree. Clemita asked us to collect sticks and then she lit a fire. A small grill grate and a plastic bag filled with dough appeared out of nowhere.
With her hands, Clemita formed flat little buns and grilled them over the fire, while we shared hot, sweet tea from a thermos. The smoky, spicy flavor from the wood we gathered and the intense taste of those perfectly charred little flatbreads is seared in my memory. We were replenished and refreshed, because the tea made us sweat even more. We waited until the sun went down to walk back, laughing about our failed adventure. That was my first time eating churrascas.
Read the rest of the story and get Isidora's recipe for churrascas…
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Sunday, July 11, 2021
Grilled Chilean churrascas are THE Project Sandwich of the summer
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