Grilling in Santiago, Chile with Merkén & Los Gringos Amables

Recently I had the pleasure of visiting a longtime friend of mine.   He went on business to Santiago, Chile several years ago and liked it so much that he packed up his family and belongings in Dallas to become  Los Gringos Amables  (Friendly Americans) living just outside of Santiago .  The past several months he was strongly encouraging me to come for a visit as he wanted to show me the home they just bought and was renovating. 

I arrived during the harvest season.  Their house is surrounded with various fruit trees and his grilling area is shaded by a huge avocado tree while his outside dining area is shaded by an arbor of grape-laden vines.  Behind the house they have about an acre of land that they plowed and planted onions, tomatoes, and zucchini.  Turns out that they made a small error when they planted at the beginning of the season...because the planted all the seeds at once, the whole harvest ripened at the same time!  So during my visit, his wife Meg brought in a peck of tomatoes and cooked up a couple gallons of tomato sauce. 

Agriculture is a major part of the Chilean economy so it is no surprise that fruits and vegetables are prominent in their diet.   I found it interesting that although it is a Latin country with a rich farming community, Chilean cuisine is not very ambitious.  They shy away from cooking for complex flavor and spicy food is very rare.  The spice most commonly used is Merkén which is  similar to chipotle, but only half as hot as the jalapeño.

The first stop on our tour of Santiago was La Vega Central, one of several fresh produce markets in Santiago.  I wanted to find some Merkén while Dave was looking for fresh spinach to put on the grill that evening.  We easily found both while Megan found a watermelon with which to make Sandia Sour for our upcoming Chilean BBQ.

La Vega Central has been part of Santiago for over 100 years. It is primarily a wholesale market where the Chilean farms sell fresh fruits and vegetables to smaller vendors (who often truck the produce right back out of Santiago to another city) . Before dawn, the trucks arrive with their precious produce to be auctioned (at around 4 AM). Later, as the stocks decrease, some producers start selling in smaller quantities to casual consumers.

 We arrived back home in the early afternoon, giving us plenty of time to start cooking preparations.  My contribution was to be Habanero-Peach, Bourbon & Maple Pork Chops.  Despite being the best of friends, Dave and I are the classic opposites when it comes to grilling fuel philosophy.  I have always chided Dave about using gas and he never misses an opportunity to remind me how clean his hands are while I clean ash out of my charcoal set up.  Today, while I was secretly admiring the many cooking surfaces on his high-end Weber, he drags out an inexpensive charcoal grill he bought at a local discount market for me to use.  As I prepared the charcoal grill for the chops, Dave started working on the veggies.

Dave likes to ‘season’ the griddle insert of his grill before most every use by first cooking up some bacon and sliced onions.  Once those are cooked, he puts them aside and throws on about 2lbs of fresh spinach leaves that he has pulled the stems off of.  He drizzles the leaves with olive oil and lightly seasons them with KA-Ranch Cajun Cowboy Seasoning.  Turning often with a spatula, he gently cooks them until tender. 

In the meanwhile he slices the home grown tomatoes into halves. He brushes them with olive oil and seasons them with KA-Ranch Original Lockhart BBQ Rub before placing them on hot grate area of the grill.

By now the spinach is tender; he puts it into a bowl and sets it in a corner of the grill to keep warm while he starts on the zucchini he sliced up earlier.  He pours some olive oil on the griddle and arranges the slices on it before brushing them with more oil and seasoning with KA-Ranch Trail Dust Seasoning. 

As the feast was about to come to fruition, the table was set and his neighbor, Freddie, arrived with his family.  His wife, Marella, had made a fresh tomato and onion salad to go along with the meal.  We all had a wonderful evening and cleanup was easy as there were no leftovers!