Los Potreros
The History of the Kitchen

We have been welcoming guests to Los Potreros (The Enclosures) since the 1940s and our kitchen provides everyone who stays here with an insight into the delights of Argentine cuisine. Visitors discover the art of making and savouring traditional mate tea, the secrets to getting the best flavours from Argentina’s famous beef, and the family recipes behind the sumptuous cakes that are baking continuously in the original wood-burning oven. The kitchen is, without a doubt, the heart and soul of the estancia.The pleasures of Argentine food are also extended to the outdoors, with guests enjoying their meals under the shade of the verandah or a nearby tree. Their friendly chatter over the dining table is accompanied by the lively chirping of monk parakeets in the branches above.

The History of the Kitchen
Misc.
Los Potreros
Summer in the Kitchen - Part 1
Summer in the Kitchen - Part 1
LosPotsKitchen
Los Potreros
Our Sustainable Kitchen

Every chef across the world, pays close attention to what goes into their food but here at Los Potreros we are also concerned about what our food is doing to the environment. Our chefs have always had a “no waste mentality” and now more than every they are minimizing what they throw out and developing a menu to ensure they can continue to cut down what little waste we still have, throughout the last few months we have begun to test out new ideas with great success.

Our Sustainable Kitchen
LosPotsKitchen
Los Potreros
Chimichurri

Chimichurri is traditionally made of finely-chopped parsley, garlic, oregano, oil and white vinegar. Though there are regional variations, it is also a recipe which is usually kept as a closely guarded secret. Chimichurri is not a marinade as argentines tend to use salt as the only seasoning on a piece of beef but it is used as a condiment at any asado.

Chimichurri
LosPotsKitchen
Los Potreros
A Los Potreros Asado
A Los Potreros Asado

Tea Time

The History of Dulce de Leche

Eaten with almost everything in Argentina, dulce de leche is spread on toast, used to fill facturas, decorate flans, or just eaten straight from the jar. 

As the local legend tells it, the birth of dulce de leche can be put down to a culinary accident that occurred in 1829. 

With the hope of ending a period of civil war in Argentina, the leaders of opposing political and military forces, Juan Manuel de Rosas and Juan Lavalle, decided to call a truce. Rosas invited Lavalle to sign the Cañuelas Pact at his headquarters on a large ranch called La Caledonia. Lavalle arrived at the ranch tired from the journey, and he decided to rest a bit before meeting with Rosas. He decided to take his siesta in the tent where Rosas normally slept.

Meanwhile, one of Rosas’ servants was busy preparing the ‘lechada’ - hot milk with sugar - that was drunk as an accompaniment to mate during that period. When the servant went to take some mate to Rosas, she found Lavalle in Rosas’ tent and panicked. Unaware of the planned meeting between the two leaders, she alerted the troops to the presence of the “enemy,” leaving the lechada unattended on the stove in the chaos. When she finally returned, she discovered that the contents of the pot had turned into a thick, gooey spread—what we know today as dulce de leche.

 

Alfajores Marplatenses

Not a cake, or a biscuit, it is more of a sandwich cookie, a traditional argentine sweet and the perfect base for dulce de leche. With Arabian origins they were brought to Argentina by the Spanish, and have slowly evolved overtime and like most food in Argentina, they have been reinvented across the country and changing in many provinces. Alfajores Marplatenses are from the Buenos Aires coast and are the standard assumption of Alfajores.  An alfajor can combine chocolate, dulce de leche, meringue, coconut, icing sugar, jam and even mousse. 

 

340g Self raising flour 

160g cornflour

60g cocoa powder 

150g butter

2 eggs

Splash of milk

50g honey

1tsp vanilla extract 

A jar of dulce de leche

 

Cream sugar, butter and vanilla extract.  

Add egg and mix well using a fork.

Then add the milk.

Add dry ingredients in 2 stages, if necessary add a little more flour until becomes like pastry. 

Chill the mixture for a minimum half an hour. 

Roll out and cut into circles. 

Cook in an oven of 180ºC/355°F for 10 minutes or until the biscuits are firm but soft when pressed.

Once baked cooked leave to cool and then sandwich two biscuits together with dulce de leche. To finish can be finished dipped in a chocolate ganache or sprinkled with icing sugar. 

052_Dining_TCunniffe.jpg