El Sanjuanino ★ 4.3
Recoleta empanada institution since 1976. Order a dozen mixed (salteña, tucumana, cuyana) and take them away to the cemetery park for a working-lunch budget.
Try: Empanadas salteñas and tucumanas
History
Locro predates Argentina; Quechua-Aymara cultures cooked maize-based stews across the Andes for centuries. Spanish colonisation added pork and beef. The Buenos Aires version is eaten on national-feast days (25 May Revolution, 9 July Independence, 17 August San Martin) and at the Sunday Mataderos fair in winter.
Make it at home
Ingredients
- 500g white hominy corn (mote), soaked overnight
- 300g white beans, soaked overnight
- 500g beef shin or osso buco, cubed
- 400g pork belly, cubed
- 2 chorizo sausages, sliced
- 1 piece bacon (panceta), 200g, cubed
- 500g pumpkin or butternut squash, cubed
- 1 large onion, chopped
- 2 leeks, sliced
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tablespoon ground cumin
- 1 tablespoon sweet paprika
- 3 litres water or stock
- Salt and pepper
- For the quiquirimichi: 4 spring onions, sliced; 2 tablespoons sweet paprika; 100ml olive oil; chili flakes
Method
- Drain the soaked hominy and beans. Place in a large pot with 3 litres water and bring to a boil. Simmer 1 hour.
- Meanwhile, in a separate pan brown the beef, pork belly, panceta and chorizo in batches. Add to the hominy pot.
- In the same pan cook the onion, leeks and garlic until soft. Stir in cumin and paprika. Tip into the pot.
- Add pumpkin. Simmer gently 2-3 hours, stirring occasionally, until the stew is creamy and the meat melts.
- Adjust salt and pepper. The locro should be thick enough that a spoon stands in it.
- Make the quiquirimichi: heat olive oil, take off heat, stir in paprika, chili and spring onions. Spoon over each bowl at the table.
Tip from the editors. Locro improves the next day. Cook a big pot, eat half, eat the rest 24 hours later thicker and deeper.
Where to eat locro
Locro in Buenos Aires
La Cocina ★ 4.2
Pueyrredon empanada counter famous for tucumana-style and the picante (spicy minced beef and potato). Winter Tuesdays and Thursdays bring locro at the bar.
Try: Tucumana empanadas
El Hornero Tucumano ★ 4.0
Balvanera empanada counter doing the Tucuman canon at lunch-budget prices. Stand-up service, half-dozen empanadas plus a humita at working-lunch cost.
Try: Tucumana empanadas, humitas
Feria de Mataderos ★ 4.4
Sunday folk-and-food fair on the historic livestock-yard plazas. Provincial empanadas, locro pots, whole-lamb al asador and gaucho displays; Apr-Dec season.
More cities are in research. Want locro covered somewhere specific? Tell us where you want to eat.