Opinion – Marcão’s Recipes: Chivito, a raw sandwich, is the Uruguayan cousin of the Brazilian x-tudo

Uruguay, our friendly little neighbor to the south, won the 1930 World Cup. Later, Maracanazo put our mouths down, when we lost the 1950 final in Rio de Janeiro.

From then on, he was never champion again, but he almost always made solid campaigns in the worlds. This year, in Qatar, Celeste takes the group that also has Portugal, Ghana and South Korea.

As for Uruguayan food, well, it is very similar to food in Argentina — a country on the other side of the Rio de la Plata, which is much more extensive and populous.

Uruguayans and Argentines are both lovers of barbecue, wine, dulce de leche, Italian pasta.

But only Uruguay has the chivito. This is the name of a sandwich that, according to tradition, was invented in 1940 in a restaurant in Punta del Este.

Chivito is a barbecue on bread that also includes cheese, ham, bacon, egg and salad. A relative of the very Brazilian x-tudo, but with a steak instead of a hamburger.

As for the steak, it doesn’t have to be filet mignon, but it better be. In a sandwich of this size, it is important that the meat is very tender, easy to tear with the teeth, or the dirt when eating tends to be unmanageable.

Probably because of this propensity for disaster, chivito is often served on a plate, to be eaten with a knife and fork, with or without bread. They usually accompany French fries and/or Russian salad.

The recipe is extremely malleable, and the ingredients can be added or removed to the customer’s taste. The egg can be boiled or fried. It is common to add olives, pickles or peppers.

I put in roasted red peppers, which were soft and mild in flavor. And the picture is like this, with the sandwich open, so that the sandwich ingredients appear. When it was time to eat, I got everything together and the mess required several napkins.

chivito

Yield: 1 serving

Difficulty: easy

INGREDIENTS

1 filet mignon (or other very tender meat)

1 crushed garlic clove

1 small red pepper

1 hamburger bun

2 slices of bacon

1 slice of ham

1 slice of mozzarella

1 egg

Vegetable oil

1 slice of tomato

1 lettuce leaf

Mayonnaise, salt and pepper to taste

PREPARATION

1. Season the steak with garlic, salt and pepper. Reserve.
2. Roast the bell pepper until the skin is dark. Place it, while still hot, in a sealed plastic bag. The steam will loosen the skin in 10 or 20 minutes. Remove skin, stalk and seeds. Cut the pulp into strips.
3. Cut the bread in half and grease both slices with mayonnaise.
4. In a griddle or skillet, grill the bacon until crispy. Reserve.
5. Grill the steak on the same griddle or skillet. Place over bread. Grill the ham, with the mozzarella on top, until the cheese melts. Place on top of steak.
6. Fry an egg (add oil if the bacon fat is not enough).
7. Finish assembling the sandwich with the egg, bacon, peppers, tomato and lettuce.