A Date with Gloria

Gloria is pictured here with a Matambre de Cerdo roast

This morning I had a date with Gloria, the Master of Meat… more specifically the Master of Pig, Lamb, and Guts.

Yesterday she agreed to prepare me a matambre de cerdo roast, of her own speciality stuffed with panceta and prunes, so today I went to visit her.  She was right in the middle of putting it all together for me, which was great because I got a couple of pictures during the process.

Now, I should explain that “matambre de cerdo” is nothing like the other matambre, which is made from beef and is essentially shoe leather.  Matambre de cerdo is a pork flank steak, which can be prepared over a parilla or cooked in the oven as I am preparing to do tomorrow.  Matambre de cerdo is not nearly as commonly found, and not available in every butcher or grocery store in Argentina which is a real shame because this is some of the most flavorful and delicious meat I have ever eaten.

Here she is stuffing it and tying it together

When Gloria told me how she prepares it I told her I would love to try it, and her eyes lit up.  A few days before I had passed her shop and spotted her “solomillo de cerdo”, which is pork tenderloin, and she spent a good 10 minutes telling me how to prepare it with sweet potatoes, green onions, and white wine.  Needless to say I followed her directions to the tee, and it turned out delicious.

This is the panceta which goes right inside

One thing I love about Gloria is that she is passionate about meat, and you can really tell that this woman has been doing this for a many years.

Here you can see her menu, which includes a number of items straight out of the Travel Channel show “No Reservations” with Anthony Bourdain… such as liver, kidneys, intestines, sweet breads,tripe, toungue, brains, heart, pigs feet, and blood sausage.

All kinds of good stuff!

Now, I’d never been the biggest fan of organs, until recently when a friend of mine took me to a a great parilla and we shared a “tabla de anchuras”.  A tabla de anchuras consists of chorizo (sausage), morcilla (blood sausage), chinchulines (intestines), rinones (kidneys), and mollejas (sweet breads).  I had wanted to try these things for the adventure of it more than anything and I have to say that with the exception of the kidneys, I really loved every bite.  These savory organs are rich and delicious, especially the morcilla, chinchulines and my personal favorite mollejas.

That being said, when I was asking Gloria about her morcilla, she asked me if I had ever tried it with green onions, and when I said no, she promptly cut me a piece to try right off of a raw morcilla sausage.  And with her unwashed hands that had just been preparing pork no less!  I was terrified but didn’t have the courage to say no, and actually it was delicious though I had visions of a trip to the emergency room.