Asado

I've always thought of the asado as an Argentinian thing. The cowboy barbecue on the Pampas with huge hunks of beef grilling late in the evening. Turns out it's a Chilean thing too!

Antonio (you might remember him as the groom at the wedding last week) is a Maestro of the Asado. He loves to barbecue and during the three days we were visiting with him in Temuco we ended up having 4 asados!

The centerpiece of the asado is a large hunk of beef that is roasted slowly over charcoal (real chunks of wood that have been turned into charcoal - not the briquets that we are more familiar with in the U.S.). But, from my experience, it's more of a long social evening event than just a meal (the one afternoon asado that we enjoyed had a centerpiece of chicken breasts marinated in a onion, garlic, lettuce and beer paste and it also was a long affair).

(As a sidenote, while our newly married Maestro of the Asado was grilling this delicious chicken asado he realized that his wedding ring was missing. It apparently was a loose fit and might have fallen off during the digging of charcoal out of the huge bag or when he was laying the charcoal in the barbecue. A massive search (see photo) was undertaken and all of the flaming charcoal chunks were removed and searched through along with the entire patio area and the huge bag of charcoal. The happy result was that the ring was found in the middle of the bag of charcoal and the asado could continue to a happy conclusion...)

First the table is covered with various items like potato chips and dips, olives, shoestring potatoes, hearts of palm, smashed avocado, crackers and other items to nibble on. The beer and pitchers of pisco sour are brought out and everyone enjoys an hour of conversation while Antonio covers each side of the meat with salt (to the point that it looks like a snowstorm has hit) and then roasts the meat with occasional turns.

Antonio will also put a bunch of little 2 inch long chorizos on the grill. These are spicy sausages that are served in anticipation of the main course. When the chorizos are grilled to perfection a bunch of bread buns are brought out and each chorizo is put into a bun and distributed to the guests.

More pisco sours and beer and conversation follows. At some point Antonio cuts off a piece of the beef the size of a hockey puck and finishes grilling it so that he can cut it on the cutting board into small individual pieces. With them all still on the cutting board he walks through the drooling masses distributing samples of what's to come. Definitely no taste of hockey puck here! This happens twice as he follows the first cutting board sampler with another about 15 minutes later.

Eventually our Maestro cuts the big hunk of beef into two inch slices and turns them on the grill for a final searing and they are done.

Meanwhile the kitchen has been active getting the side dishes ready. There will definitely be a tomato and onion salad, a green salad, probably some kind of salad with corn, and a bowl of bread. A bottle of Chilean wine or maybe just carbonated water will be on the table for the main course. Then everyone sits down to eat with a toast or two to the chef and the host.

After dinner (probably around midnight) the bottles of whiskey, rum, gin, etc. are brought out. Everyone lights up a cigarette and there's more conversation until the wee hours of the morning. While passing on the cigarettes I did try some of the Cuban rum (with a silent toast to Che) and it was very good.

To give you an idea about how serious they are about their asados down here, this is a photo of the fogon at the apartment house of Consuelo's mother (Consuelo you might remember as the bride at the wedding). A fogon is a building built just for these asados with a huge grill and room for 20 or maybe a few more people. Here's what the inside of the fogon looks like: