El Charabon Cattle Drive, Uruguay

This morning the rain subsided at the estancia where we are riding, El Charabon, so we headed out for a cattle drive. I rode a wonderful, smooth Criollo out to the far fields, where we five of us, including Jorge, me, Paola and El Charabon’s gauchos would gather cattle to move them to another pasture. Jorge let me borrow his wool poncho, which is what the gauchos typically wear when it’s cooler here in Uruguay. At first, I didn’t want to wear it, as it didn’t seem totally fashionable, but once I had it on, I was very glad. As the rain poured down on us once again, I knew that I would sleep well on the flight back to the USA this evening, after riding horses and herding cattle in the rain.

I did have fun though, as we headed up the cattle and moved them on out. They were a pretty easy bunch, but that’s probably because their gaucho has trained them so well. We had more pastries back at the house before leaving.

Check out our new station finder, which will help you search for Equitrekking episodes on your local PBS station, on Equitrekking.com's website.

El Charabon’s Stormy Night, Uruguay

We had quite a night last night at El Charabon, the ranch where we have come to work cattle with the gauchos in Uruguay. We had an amazing candle lit dinner. The lighting was romantic, but also necessary, as this storm that we are having, which has caused them to close the schools here in Uruguay, caused a power outage here at the ranch. Good thing those big grills are heated by good old-fashioned fires.

El Charabon is a working ranch that raises cattle and Hampshire Down sheep. After eating and learning more about life in Uruguay from Jorge and Graciela, the owners, we went to bed. The power had come back on briefly, long enough for us to finish downloading our HD footage.

Luckily, I had just gotten into bed when the lights went out again and I was in utter darkness. I live outside of Washington, DC in an urban area, so it never really gets totally dark. Here in the countryside of Uruguay, it does, meaning that you can look up at a million stars, but also that when the lights go out in your room and the moon and stars are obscured by stars, it gets so dark that all you see are the colors that your eyes seem to flash when you can’t see a darn thing. I’m looking forward to the sun rising tomorrow!

Torta Frita Recipe from Uruguay

Estancia El Charabon is a lovely working ranch in Rocha owned by husband and wife couple Jorge and Graciela Zuasnabar. Graciela is an artist, whose work populates the walls inside the estancia, giving it a unique, eclectic feel.

We arrived in the rain to find Graciela, who gave us a tour and then presented us with a medley of decadent pastries and teas. We had one amazing pastry called Torta Frita, which I was told by several people in Uruguay is typically made on rainy days. It’s like a light funnel cake sprinkled with powdered sugar or a big airy donut. Greg, our cinematographer, and I each had three!

Alicia from La Salamora has been so kind as to email us the recipe so that we can make this decadent pastry at home in the USA. Here it is for all you Torta Frita fans like me.

Ingredients
2 tbsp. butter or margarine
1 tbsp. vegetable shortening (or beef lard)
3/4 cup of milk or water
2 cups flour
1 tbsp. salt
1 tbsp. baking powder (Royal is suggested)

Approx. 2 cups shortening (or beef lard) for frying.


Preparation
Melt the 2 tbsp. butter or margarine and 1 tbsp. of shortening together in a pan or in the microwave. Heat the milk (or water) until hot, but not boiling. Combine the melted fat with the milk (or water).
In a bowl, combine the flour, salt and baking powder. Mix well. Make a hole in the mound and pour the liquid in the middle. Gradually incorporate the flour mixture. Once mixed thoroughly, turn the dough out onto a flat, clean surface and knead well. Separate into 12 equally sized balls. Roll out each ball into a circle 1/2 cm thick. With your finger, poke a hole in the middle of each circle. In a large frying pan, melt 1-2 cups of shortening or lard over medium high heat. Fry each circle to a golden color in the melted shortening or lard. You might need to lower the temperature to medium while fying the batch. Transfer tortas to a plate with paper towels or paper bags to remove excess oil. Eat while still warm with dulce de leche spread or mermelada. Enjoy with coffee, tea, or better yet, yerba mate.