Cocco’s Asado de Tira al Carbón

This is my favourite dish. Like much of Argentine cuisine, the concept is simple: quality beef – in this case short ribs - and fire. It’s from an age of hungry gauchos with their facón (knife), cows roaming the Pampas and little else. This cut from the meatier part of the cow's ribs is not the leanest meat but it’s dripping with flavor, and from a young age I was always told of the necessity of a good glass of wine to aid digestion. Other required tools: a sharp knife and clean fingers so that the bones from the tira can be picked up and properly savoured. From all life's many pleasures nothing really compares to carving a slowly cooked tira plucked straight from an asado, before the satisfyingly savage delight of sucking on the bones (chupando los huesitos) like a true gaucho. If possible a tira is best enjoyed with good friends, a medicinal bottle of wine and all the time in the world.