• Capital: Montevideo
• Population: about 3.5 million
• Area: 176 215 km²
• Currency: Uruguayan Peso

For my Uruguayan recipe, I made Chivitos. Chivitos is a sandwich with steak in it and a lot of delicious sides including eggs, roasted red peppers and chimichurri. For the buns I made portuguese rolls which were easy to make and delicious but you can use store bought sandwich rolls. Recipes for Chivitos and the buns follow!

Chivitos

Ingredients: (These make 4 sandwiches)

• Two 5 ounces rib eye steaks cut in 1/2 inch thick
• 4 slices bacon
• 1 onion
• 4 slices queso fresco
• 1 tomato
• 1 red bell pepper
• 4 pieces lettuce
• 2 eggs
• Mayonnaise
• Chimichurri (see Argentina’s post for recipe)
• 4 Portuguese sandwich rolls (recipe follows)

Directions:

The first step is to roast the red pepper. To do so, preheat the oven to 400F. Put it on a cooking sheet with parchment paper and set it in the oven for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, flip the pepper and bake for an additional 20 minutes.

After the red pepper has been in the oven, set it on a flat surface and cover it with a bowl or a lid. This will allow the steam to loosen the skin. Once the pepper is cool enough to touch, cut it in half, remove the stem and seeds and peel the skin of with your fingers.

While you roast the red pepper, boil the 2 eggs to get hardboiled eggs.

Next, prepare all the ingredients. Cut the steaks in half crosswise in order to obtain four 1/4 inch steaks. Slice the onions and the tomato. Cut the cheese to obtain 4 slices. Peel the eggs and cut them in slices. Season the meat with salt and pepper. Cut the buns open.

In a hot cast iron, cook the bacon until crispy, remove from the pan and set aside. In the same pan, cook the onion slices until brown, remove them and set aside.

In the same pan again, cook the steak 2 minutes on one side, flip it and cook it for 1 minute on the other side.

Put some mayo on both sides of the buns. add the meat, one slice of cheese, crispy bacon, onions, 1 slice of bell pepper, 1 piece of lettuce, 1 slice of tomato, 1/2 an egg sliced and drizzle over chimichurri. Close with the top bun and eat!!

Portuguese roll

Ingredients:

• 5 cups flour
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• 1 package active dry yeast
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 1 teaspoon vegetable shortening
• 2 cups warm water

Directions:

First, in a large bowl, put the sugar, 1/2 cup of warm water and the yeast. Let that sit for 5 minutes to allow the yeast to activate.

Add 1 cup of flour to the yeast mixture, combine well and let rest covered for 1 hour.

After 1 hour, in the bowl, add 4 cups of flour, 1 1/2 cup warm water, salt, butter and vegetable shortening. Knead all these ingredients together until you obtain a smooth dough. Once the dough is smooth, place back in the bowl and let rest covered again for 1 hour.

After 1 hour, cut the dough in 10 equal portions and roll them in smooth balls. Flour the balls and place them on a baking tray lined with parchment paper, cover them with a cloth and let them rise for 45 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 475F.

Bake in the oven for 15 minutes or until golden brown. Once done, let the rolls cool down for a few minutes before eating if eating right away.

Buen provecho!