Food - Killing Hunger the Spanish Way

Mark Bittman

MATAMBRE is a contraction of the Spanish words for “kill” and “hunger” — it’s the hunger killer. It’s beef stuffed with vegetables, herbs, hard-cooked egg and seasonings, so you can understand how it got its name. It is often served as a kind of cold cut in Argentina, where it was created, but it can also be served hot.

This is not a typical Minimalist dish, because there’s some real work involved, and even a little bit of technique.
The first technique is butterflying. Matambre usually begins with flank steak, which is thin; here it is essentially sliced in half. Be sure you have a really sharp thin-bladed knife. A boning knife would be perfect, but you can do the job much better with a sharp paring knife than a dull boning knife.
The second technique is rolling and tying, which, frankly, I’ve never found easy. Doing it with matambre is encouraging, because although the thing is something of a mess when it’s put together (at least when I’m the cook), it is beautiful when cooked.
This is in most respects a traditional matambre, but I cannot abide hard-boiled egg in cooked meat dishes, so I’ve substituted olives. If you want to make something more authentic, get those olives out of there and use the egg, sliced. I have to admit, it’s pretty.