31 October 2012

Make Empanadas at Home!

Empanadas are ubiquitous in Buenos Aires. They are breakfast, lunch, merienda, dinner, and any meal or snack in between. They are perfectly hand-held, bite-sized, pockets of deliciousness that are cheap and easy, just the way I like it. They are baked or fried, doughy and crispy, and stuffed with meats, cheeses, and veggies, and Sandro and I indulge a couple times a week. At $4-5 pesos (~$1 USD) a pop, you can't really beat this perfect little food. So with a few simple ingredients and some patience, I made them at home. Here's how it went:



I got the cheap empanada wrappers from the grocery store, a handful of fresh mushrooms, some sharp cheese, and black beans. This is not a traditional empanada stuffing, but I thought I'd be creative! Typically empanadas will come stuffed with carne (beef), jamón y queso (ham and cheese), pollo (chicken), cebolla y queso (onion and cheese), atún (tuna), caprese (cheese, tomato, and oregano), or a few other combinations.
I started by sauteeing the mushrooms in olive oil with garlic, salt, and black pepper so that they were just browned. I lined my ingredients up into a conveyor line that would have made Henry Ford proud.



I took each empanada wrapper and topped it with a pinch of cheese and mushrooms. I decided to leave the beans out as they were too big and seemed excessive. I expected the wrappers to be difficult to work with but they were actually super easy! I used a take-out menu that showed drawings of the different styles as a guide to wrapping them up. Traditionally, each filling is wrapped in a specific style, so as to tell them apart when ready to eat. I only used one kind of filling, but experimented with the various styles for fun.



I would have preferred to bake the empanadas, but as is the norm here, our oven is old timey and I am too nervous to light it. So they went into a pan of vegetable oil over medium heat. I flipped them after a couple minutes, or until they were nice and crispy brown. When both sides looked good, I put the empanadas on a plate with a paper towel to soak up some of the excess oil and let them cool for a minute.





And so Sandro and I enjoyed our own delicious hand made empanadas right here at home. I made six for about $10 ARS ($2.10 USD). About the price for two if we would have bought them out!

2 comments:

  1. Mmmm...These look delish, can't wait to try to make some ourselves!

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  2. Do it! It's so much easier than I expected! You could even make a tiny one for Feta...

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