Tag: Francis Mallmann

Francis doesn’t like salads that are busy and cramped on a plate. Instead, he leans towards the generosity of space. Learn how to make one of Francis’s favorite salads that he calls simple yet noble.

Francis teaches how to make this wonderful and quick meat dish with bacon, avocado, and crispy sweet potato chips.

The caviar of the grill. Sweetbreads are grilled low and slow until the texture becomes crunchy on the outside and tender within. To serve: Douse in lemon juice and sprinkle with salt.

Francis teaches techniques like the proper way to fillet a fish, using his favorite knife that he bought in 1978 in Paris. This simple recipe will be a total brunch crowd pleaser for your family and friends.

Learn how to butterfly fish and grill it over an open flame.

This cut is most similar to short ribs. Ask your butcher to cut it flanken style in one long, thin strip cut crosswise against the bone. Ribs are cooked slowly on low flame until they achieve a crispy outer layer and slight chewiness, but still tender insides.

Flank steak is an essential cut on any Argentine grill.

Grill a rack of ribs the Argentine way: crucified on an iron cross and slowly cooked over open flames.

Chorizos sausage are an essential part of the Argentine asado experience. They are best when charred directly over the flame, and can be cooked whole or butterflied. Don’t forget to douse them in chimichurri and salsa criolla.

“In Argentina, there’s a saying: “Quien sabe comer una empanada nunca ensucia el plato,”” which means, “”Those who know how to eat empanadas will never dirty the plate.”” Francis agrees and explains that if you are invited into someone’s home to eat empanadas, and if anything falls on your plate, you’re never invited again. “Not a drop of empanada should be lost because it’s so delicious,” he proclaims. The empanada, a pastry similar to a hand pie or turnover, is probably Argentina’s most emblematic snack. It’s a local tradition that is typically stuffed with meat or cheese fillings. Every region in Argentina is famous for its own version, and here, Francis teaches how to make two of his favorite recipes from Mendoza wine country: baked meat empanadas with onion, eggs, and olives; and fried cheese and onion empanadas. Not only is this family-friendly dish easy to make, but it’s also the perfect meal for the kids or to serve at a party. Plus, Francis teaches how to make llajua sauce, a spicy empanada dipping sauce popular in Northern Argentina and Bolivia.”

Francis doesn’t like salads that are busy and cramped on a plate. Instead, he leans towards the generosity of space. Learn how to make one of Francis’s favorite salads that he calls simple yet noble.

No Sunday Asado in Argentina would be complete without salsa criolla, the national sauce, alongside chimichurri, that is served at traditional Argentine barbecues across the country. Francis’s version calls for a fresh medley of chopped onions, colorful bell peppers, tomatoes, red onions, and spring onions drenched in acidic red wine vinegar.

Create Francis’s creamy and tangy vinaigrette, which tops any roasted veg or acts as the perfect base for potato salad.

Never make another potato salad the same way ever again. Francis puts his spin on the Argentine barbecue classic side with a tangy mustard vinaigrette. While you can always use a knife, follow Francis’s motto and use your hands. “Everything you can cut and break with your hands, the better,” he says.

Clarified butter is the secret weapon Francis uses to make his food crispy and luxurious. Ricki Motta, Francis’s sous chef, teaches how to make this golden glory. Since Francis’s food tends to require open flames, the lack of milk solids in the clarified butter enables it to have a high smoke point, an ideal match for this style of cooking. The result? Crunchier potatoes, a perfect char on seared meat, and vegetables dancing in butterfat with little worry of it burning too quickly. Plus, clarified butter can last fresh for months in the fridge.

It’s hard to find a dessert in Argentina that doesn’t contain dulce de leche. Francis’s sous chef, Ricki Motta, teaches how to make this classic favorite that will sweeten up your life.

Francis and his brother Carlos go on a nature walk to a beautiful waterfall. There, they decide to make an impromptu barbecue lunch with whatever Francis finds in his pockets. He quickly whips up one of his favorite no-fuss Gaucho-inspired camping meals: Skirt steak and burnt bread sandwich.

No pots or pans are needed for this recipe. Join Francis on a hike in the wild outdoors, on the edge of a beautiful waterfall where he improvises a simple meal with only sticks and fish. Francis teaches how to build a makeshift grill and cooks freshwater brook trout fish “a la vara”, crucified asador-style over an open flame.

A simple dessert that only calls for 3 ingredients: Pears, salt, and dulce de leche. Francis cooks the pears in the infiernillo, also known as the little hell, an oven he made inspired by the Incan people who made stone versions high in the desert on the eastern slope of the Andes mountain range. “When you cook a pear like this, all of the humidity of the pear stays inside so it’s very, very delicious,” Francis explains adding that the slight amount of salt that remains on the outside pear skin will bring added interest and complexity.

Grate your potato right on the cast iron surface, capturing the air to perfectly steam the inside while developing the crispiest, crunchiest exterior.

Francis brings us to one of his favorite places on the island, near a beautiful waterfall, to cook trout fillets sandwiched between two crispy potato cakes. Francis uses a freshwater brook trout, known for its vibrant pink color, but you can always substitute for different kinds of fish like flounder, snapper, and sole. Francis teaches techniques like the proper way to fillet a fish, using his favorite knife that he bought in 1978 in Paris. This simple recipe will be a total brunch crowd pleaser for your family and friends.

When there’s a brisk Patagonian chill that fills the air, there’s one comforting food Francis wants to eat: chupín de trucha, or Fisherman’s soup with trout. “Chupín is the most beautiful word for a soup of fish,” Francis explains. Chupín is also known as fish stew and is commonly found across the region near lagoons, rivers, and fishermen’s towns. The name chupín comes from the Spanish word chupar. It’s a word commonly used in the phrase, “Para chuparse los dedos,” which means “finger-licking good”. The true taste of the chupín comes from the bones and the head of the fish, plus a lot of love and care. Francis will teach the skills to make this incredible broth and how to truly build and layer complex flavors with simple ingredients. This is a dish proven to nourish the body and soul.

“Desserts in Argentina are important. We love very sweet things.” Francis teaches how to make one of his favorite desserts: Burnt citrus fruits with a sugary crust. Learn how to make this refreshing dish and add it to your dessert repertoire. It may seem simple, but it’s loaded with supremely fresh and complex flavors and textures.

Caramelize granny smith apples right on a cast iron surface, then smother in Francis’s pancake batter, to recreate this Argentine favorite.

An Argentine classic and Mallmann favorite, this dulce de leche stuffed pancake is the perfect dessert or weekend brunch staple. Use homemade dulce de leche, or the store bought variety – it’s up to you.

Make the best pancake batter using Francis’s simple recipe. Add dulce de leche, granny smith apples, or enjoy them plain – your weekend brunches will never be the same.

“Oh! It’s so beautiful! I love you trout!” – Francis Mallmann Francis invented the infiernillo or “little hell” oven about 20 years ago to cook fish outside. Today, he proclaims his love for Patagonian trout and its magical taste as he fires up his small inferno to teach you how to make freshly-caught salt-crusted trout. “Once we fish something or kill an animal to eat it, we must respect who he is. And try to get the best out of him,” Mallmann says. That’s why he doesn’t add anything else to this recipe other than olive oil and salt. “Even adding lemon would be sacrilege,” he proclaims.   If you don’t have access to an outdoor space to build the two-tiered fire oven, Francis teaches you how to make this fish encased in salt inside your kitchen, too. And just remember: “There’s nothing sadder than an overcooked fish. It makes me cry.” So, don’t overcook your fish and make Francis Mallmann shed tears of sadness.

“It’s tempting. It’s full of desire. And they’re both very sweet.” – Francis Mallmann. In Argentina, panqueques are generally thin crepes and served as dessert with dollops of dulce de leche. Francis teaches how to make two different panqueque desserts on the plancha that make him “very happy”: Dulce de Leche Pancakes and Granny Smith Apple Pancakes. While Francis serves this for dessert, you can mix things up and surprise your family with a deliciously sweet panqueque breakfast.

Learn how to make one of Argentina’s favorite comfort foods, the milanesa. Francis teaches his vegetarian spin on the humble classic by using the mighty eggplant. Francis teaches how to prepare the eggplant: He chars the whole eggplant directly in the fire, dips it in egg batter, covers it with seasonings and homemade breadcrumbs, and finally, pan-fries it with clarified butter on a hot griddle. The result? A delicious dish that is also a bestseller at Francis’s restaurants.

The egg is one of Francis’s favorite ingredients. Learn how to make oeuf brouillé, a rich and delicate French-style scrambled egg cooked in a bain-marie hot water bath.

Flattened tenderloin with capers, peppers, garlic, and black olives. You’ll learn how to respect the steaks’ placement on the grill and the importance of keeping it undisturbed with no “flipping and flopping.”

All you need is three carrots, a handful of thyme, a bit of cream, olive oil, and a cast iron pan to make Francis’s latest hit vegetarian recipe. You’ve never tasted carrots quite like these.

From Patagonia to Paris, Francis will transport you to Café de Flore, a famous café where the great intellectuals would gather and one of his favorite places in France. There, they serve glorious oeufs à la coque, soft-boiled eggs, a sophisticated yet simple breakfast that Mallmann regularly makes at home for his children. Not only does Francis teach the basics of boiling eggs, he also speaks about important life lessons like personal reinvention and how it’s never too late to start again.

Francis puts his own spin on this scrambler-hash hybrid that resembles an omelette, but stays true to its original ingredients: eggs, ham, and fried shoestring potatoes.

Francis shares this favorite tortilla recipe, using potato, onion, and eggs to make this Spanish omelette.

Learn how to make the traditional Argentinean herbaceous sauce that goes alongside any steak, or other grilled meats.

Watch and learn from the master of meat the core principles of live-fire cooking, using the cast iron surface to develop a perfectly caramelized exterior.

Don’t throw out your potato scraps, make a meal out of it! Zero waste is always the way to go.

Looking for the perfect brunch potato? Here it is. Eat it plain or even top it with sour cream and smoked salmon.

For the dreamiest potatoes with creamy insides and very crispy outsides, follow Francis’s easy recipe.

On the hunt for a stunning side dish? Place this cake-like potato dish on the table to totally wow guests.

A tribute to the Andes Mountains. This hearty Andean potato dish can be cooked on medium-low heat on a cast iron pan.

Practice your knife skills to thinly slice the potatoes, or use a mandolin. It’s incredibly easy to make and will turn simple potatoes into a showstopper.

Francis cooks a lot of potatoes, but this might be his most famous. Learn how to thinly slice the potatoes and carefully cook them in butter. The result? A crisp potato with golden edges and tender insides that catches the eye.

Smashed potatoes are the perfect crispy side dish. Serve alongside steak, fish, or chicken.

Francis shows you his broken style scrambled eggs, which you do right in the pan with a fork.

Francis shows you how to make the classic style of scrambled eggs, complete with some crispy panceta on top.

When it comes to fried eggs, he likes to serve them elegantly in butter and fry them until crispy. The crispy fried eggs are then served with angelic avocado and devilish sriracha to give the dish some balance and contrast.

In quintessential Mallmann fashion, serve the milanesa alongside a simple, fresh, and untidy with a “Picasso”-style lettuce and tomato salad.

Join Francis as he teaches all the secrets of how to make his version of the humble bodegón (Argentine cantina) classic including which cut of beef is best to use, the techniques of how to pound it, how to make homemade breadcrumbs, and the steps to pan sear it in clarified butter.

Learn how to perfectly choose, cut, and cook fresh vegetables on the plancha. Feel free to swap any veggies for your personal favorites or whatever you have in the fridge.

Whip up a wonderfully versatile mustard vinaigrette that you’ll want to put on everything.

No empanada is complete without llajua sauce, a spicy empanada dipping sauce popular in Northern Argentina and Bolivia. It’s simple to make and incredibly flavorful, bringing an added punch to the empanadas.

Venture across Argentina and you’ll find meat empanadas everywhere. Make Francis’s favorite recipe — it’s easy, delicious, and bursting with juicy flavor.

A classic filling for empanadas in Argentina, stuff the dough with a sweet and savory cheese and onion mixture. After it cooks, it will be oozing with delicious cheese.

Learn to make a wonderfully versatile vinaigrette dressing that you’ll want to put on everything.

A great vegetarian side that will have everyone wanting more. Learn about the rescoldo method of cooking, burning vegetables in ashes.

Join Francis in his quincho, the outdoor kitchen, as he teaches two of his seven live-fire signature cooking techniques: hanging and slowly roasting pineapple and cabbage over hot embers. Don’t have a vertical grill? No problem. He’ll teach how to cook it in the oven, too.

Whether you’re hanging the chickens over the open-fire like Francis, or roasting it in your own home oven, you’ll learn how to make this festive and comforting dish that is ideal for the holidays or any special occasion.

Prepare an easy brine to ensure the juiciest chicken, which you ladle over as the bird roasts.

“Asado on Sundays is more like a ceremony than a meal. Asado is a religion in our country.” – @Francismallmann.  It’s Sunday on the island and Francis and his team are preparing for a barbecue feast: Chorizos, steaks, ribs, sweetbreads, salads, and free-flowing red Argentine wine abound the table.  In this short documentary, Francis takes you into his Patagonian world to see the true meaning of this sacred ritual that defines Argentine culture. Francis shows you how to grill, make all the barbecue sides and sauces, and most of course, the importance of being in good company.

A wonderful riff on roasted potatoes, just be sure not to rinse potatoes because the starch is what will give them texture and color.