Dinner with Santa Maria’s new Latin American Kitchen range
Last night I attended the Santa Maria Latin American Kitchen dinner hosted by Food Blogger Rosana McPhee (Hot & Chilli) and The London Foodie, Luiz Hara in North London. The evening was a showcase of Santa Maria’s new range of sauces, rice, seasonings, tortillas, toppings and sides. Everything in the new range has been designed to work together, so you can heat it up or down according to your own particular tastes.
We were greeted with Pisco cocktails and the traditional Cuba Libre paired with Colombian Crunchy Chicken Bites Seasoning with the Santa Maria Caribbean Pineapple & Chilli Sticky Sauce. Very tasty and so easy to make at home.
Dinner was a cornucopia of South American inspired dishes paired with South American wines. On offer were the Chandon rose sparkling wine from Argentina, the Vinalba Torrontes and a hearty Argentine red.
Brazilian Xinxim de Galinha, a curry of chicken and prawns served on Coconut black pepper soft tortillas was one of my favourites of the starters. The Xinxim sauce is peanut based which is always a winner in my book.
Between the starter and main we had a delicately spiced sorbet spiked with Santa Maria jalapenos, it had just the right amount of heat, not overpowering but leaving your palate refreshed.
For the mains, the Argentinian Picanha of beef made with the Santa Maria Argentinian Barbacoa Beef Steak rub was mouthwateringly delicious.
The servers kept offering more plates of the steak and we all shouted, “Keep’em coming!” I am definitely going to buy that rub because it was soooo good.
The Santa Maria Arroz y Frijoles accompanied the beef and were perfectly cooked, served with spring green onions and avocado.
The salad served alongside the beef was a Salad of Heritage tomatoes with palm hearts dressed with a yuzu-pon dressing and Santa Maria green & red jalapenos.
For dessert we had Bombocado, a coconut and egg custart cake with Santa Maria Chipotle Cooking Paste. I loved the crunchy dark chocolate nibs in the ice cream and the chipotle was subtly integrated into the ice cream.
We were provided with the recipes afterwards and the Latin American Kitchen range really takes the guesswork out of the cooking. It’s all quite straightfoward with no need to go out and buy fancy ingredients that you won’t be using again in the near future. The new range is now available in stores nationwide.
