Culinary Adventures with Chef Luiz
Empanada lore
For many years, I have been coming to Argentina. But the first time was in 1981 for a job interview, which turned out positively…I got the job. Like all visitors to Buenos Aires—the capital of Argentina—I found the food to be great and usually affordable.
BEEF was the most sought after food. Argentine beef is famous worldwide for its quality. Cooked over wood charcoal, not briquettes or industrial charcoal, the aroma is wonderful, and the taste even better. You can order either a special cut or a PARRILLADA, which has portions of different cuts of meats, including veal sweetbreads and lamb tripe, served on a specially designed hotplate with live coals to keep the meat hot.
The Argentine beef is good for many reasons. The type of cattle—British breeds, such as Shorthorn and Angus, and almost all European beef breeds—are raised here. The pastures are very good and grass feeding is the norm, so the meat could easily be sold as “organic.”
Italian food is also very good—good pastas and gnocchi—many restaurants serve a combination of pastas and meat, and this has become the “model” for Argentine restaurants around the world. Another culinary specialty in Argentina is the empanada, which is also a symbol of their cuisine.
This is the "traditional" shape of beef empanadas,
for other fillings, there are different shapes that vary
by whomever makes them.Empanadas are common in almost all Spanish speaking countries. They were originally fried, but today most are baked, giving them a better shelf life. This way empanadas can be made in larger quantities and heated as needed, while the fried versions had to be eaten fast or they became soggy.
In Latin America, there are quite a few variations of empanadas:
Central America— wheat flour dough always stuffed with ground beef and seasonings and fried.
Colombia—the dough is made with corn and stuffed with ground beef, seasonings and mashed potatoes, then fried.
Chile—rectangular-shaped, stuffed with beef, eggs, olives and seasonings, then baked and most of the time seasoned with the local chili (aji rojo). These are more of a meal than a snack.
Spanish Caribbean, Dominican Republic, Cuba, Puerto Rico—also called pastelitos, sometimes made with puff pastry, but mostly with fried wheat dough. They are stuffed only with ground beef and the least elaborate of the empanada variations.
Argentina is the country that put empanadas on a high culinary note. The Argentines developed a way of closing the dough (repulque) that is unique to the country and makes the empanadas look more refined than the common method of using a fork to close the dough. In the repulque style, after filling and closing the flaps of the empanada, it is held with one hand, and using 2 fingers of the other, the dough edge is twisted and pressed, forming small “ears,” one after the other, giving a lace-like finish to the edge.
Baked empanadas are given an egg wash before
they are put in the oven.Beyond the traditional fried beef empanada, there are many local versions of empanadas today:
Mendocina’s, Saltena—most famous, Platense—these are named after different towns, each with its own type of beef filling, barbecued and knife chopped, ground beef, onions, sweet paprika pepper (pimento), chopped eggs, raisins, etc. Every region has its local flavor, many recipes call for the use of bouillon cubes, which the food industry advertised for many years as an enhancement to traditional empanada recipes. (Local consumers adopted use of bouillon into their empanadas, and I was part of that work.)
While beef is a traditional favorite other fillings are gaining in popularity like chicken, ham and cheese, and many others. But the most exquisite is the humitas, a sweet corn filling. Some shops, also offer fish, octopus and calamari varieties.
In Argentina, empanadas can be served as a snack, supper or lunch, with a side salad, as a first course or made very small to serve as an appetizer for parties. For many families, dinner can be soup or salad and empanadas. They are easy to make and very good; it is common to hear women at work, refer to their dinner last night at home, as the easy dinner—everybody loves empanadas.
Take a look at the attached pictures of fried traditional homemade empanadas, and the more modern semi-industrialized method used by Argentine restaurants and fast food places that are expanding throughout Latin America and even in the U.S.
If you’re in the U.S. and you want to try some empanadas, many supermarkets and Latin markets sell frozen empanadas. For recipes, I recommend looking on the Internet, there are hundreds to choose from.
Until next time,
CHEF LUIZ
