I’ve always had a challenging time making empanadas.  So far, I’ve made them a total of three times.  The dough I make from scratch is always thick because I have a problem rolling it out properly.  One time, I tried to make a dessert empanada.  I had a different kind of problem with the dough.  Instead of too thick, it was too sticky.  Ugh!  My empanadas tasted good but not very good-looking.  Since I always seemed to have a challenging time making the empanada shell, I stopped making them, even though I love to eat them. 

When Rebecca of From Argentina with Love announced a food  blogging event called Empanadas of the Month, which she was hosting, I decided to rise to the challenge again.   In this monthly event, Rebecca provides a new empanada recipe for us to make.  The first recipe is for a classic Mendoza-style empanada.  Rebecca’s husband and friend, Carina, are from Mendoza, Argentina.

According to Rebecca, Mendoza-style empanadas are baked, instead of fried.  They are filled with seasoned ground beef, green olives and a slice of egg.  Then the empanada is sealed with a special technique called ‘repulgue’, where the edges of the empanada are folded and pressed repeatedly until they create a decorative pattern. 

Rebecca provided a video with her friend Carina narrating, in Spanish, how to seal the empanadas using the repulgue technique. 

"¡Perfecto!"  (Perfect!),  "¡Muy bien!"  (Very good!),  "¡Eso!" (That’s it!), Carina would encourage as Rebecca performed a perfect repulgue style technique on the empanadas.  At the end, Carina and the video guy applauded Rebecca for her excellent work. 

I would have loved my own cheering empanado-making team with me.  With that in mind, I tried to recreate what I saw on the video.  I even imagined that Carina encouraged me. "Perfecto, Paz!"  "¡Muy bien, Paz!"  "¡Eso, Paz!"  "Applause!"

*sigh*  It didn’t quite work out well.   You should have seen me trying to do the repulgue technique.  It was quite hilarious, actually.   I think the technique I performed was something that could only be called the ‘Paz Pathetic’ technique.   I think I’ll have to go to Carina’s kitchen for a personal lesson.  In the meantime, I did the best I could.

So, here are my humble empanadas Mendocinas.  They didn’t turn out bad at all. 

Oh!  By the way, I used the ready made, store-bought dough for the empanadas.  Interesting note:  Rebecca calls them ‘tapas’ but when I went to the store asking for ‘tapas’, everyone gave me a strange look and one store employee flat out told me he didn’t know what I was talking about before turning his back on me.  After searching on my own, I found the dough, which was called ‘discos’ (para empanadas)/disks (for empanadas).  Ahhh!  Interesting!  I suppose they have different names for the dough in different places.

The dough tasted fine but I like the idea of making my own, which I think would tasted much better.  So, I’ll start practicing how to make it again, one of these days. 

All in all, I’m happy about my Mendoza-style empanadas.  I’m ready for my applause.

Thanks Rebecca.  This was fun. 

Paz

Ed. Note:  Rebecca has posted a roundup of the works of those who participated.  You can find delicious-looking empanadas here.

Receta por Empanadas Medocinas de la familia Oliva-Quiroz

Mendocino Empanadas from the Oliva-Quiroz family

From Argentina with Love

For the filling:

2 lbs. ground beef

1 cup shortening or lard (you can add less or omit this if necessary)

2 lbs. onion

3 Tablespoons smoked paprika

4 teaspoons cumin

green olives, pitted and cut into slices, as many as is necessary

3 hard-boiled eggs, cut into rounds

salt and pepper to taste

crushed red pepper, to taste

For the construction: A glass of water 1 egg, beaten flour for the pan The meat can be made a day in advance. Put the onions, sliced finely in rounds, in a frying pan and salt them. Add the ground beef and cook, then add salt and pepper to taste. Next add the lard and mix well, so that it’s incorporated-the lard, the meat and the onion together. when it’s all cooked, add the crushed red pepper (to taste) and the cumin and mix well. When the mix is ready, let cook and add the paprika and stir well.

The assembly: Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Put the tapas on a flat surface, lightly floured. With a tablespoon, put a little of the meat filling in the center of the dough round. Add a slice of the olive and a piece of the hard boiled egg.

Then moisten the edge on the top half of the round with a little water on your finger. Fold the bottom half of the dough up until the edges meet and seal with your fingers by pressing down. The empanada should have a half-moon shape.

Use the palms of the hands to pack the filling firmly in the center. Next, fold the edges with the Repulgue: using your fingertip, fold one corner of the empanada over, pressing down firmly. Go to the edge again and repeat, pressing firmly each time. Go around the edge of the empanada and you’ll get a spiral pattern.

Beat an egg in a shallow dish and paint the top of each sealed empanada so that when they bake, they have a shiny, golden shell. Spread flour lightly over several cookie sheets, and place the finished empanadas on top. Put the empanadas in to bake for 12 to 15 minutes-they should be sizzling and very golden brown on top. Take out and eat very carefully while hot!

Three Kings Day (also known as Día de los Reyes, The Epiphany, The Adoration of the Magi, and The Manifestation of God) is celebrated on January 6 (12 days after Christmas).This holiday is observed in Mexico, Puerto Rico, the greater Caribbean, Latin America and throughout the United States. It commemorates the Bible story of the Three Kings (Melchior, Caspar and Balthazar) who followed the Star of Bethlehem to bring gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh (see a photo of a friend’s three kings version here) to the Baby Jesus. After my first failed attempt to make Empanaditas de Gayaba and Pineapple Mini Pies, I decided that this holiday would be a good excuse to try making the dessert empanadas again. Earlier, I’d put the delicate dough, that wouldn’t work under my hands, back in the fridge. A few days later, after making the meat empanadas, Empanadas Chilenas, I pulled dessert dough out to give it one more try. At first, the dough was nice and firm, but within a few minutes it turned super soft and glue-like, again. I was only able to form three (three!) guava empanadas before giving up and throwing the rest of the dough in the garbage can. I put my three poor-looking Empanaditas de Gayaba in the oven and waited (I didn’t even have a chance to make the pineapple version!). When they were ready and I’d pulled them out, I found that they’d lost their shape. What a disaster. The guava had exploded out of the center and the shells had opened up, turning into a blob. I shook my head and placed them on the stove top to cool. A few minutes later, I tasted one of my disappointing-looking empanaditas. To my surprise, despite its look, it tasted delicious! What a surprise! The dough was sweet, creamy, flaky, and the combination of the dough with the guava filling tasted very good. I finished the three empanaditas by myself.

Mishapened, unsuccessful but tasty Empanaditas de Gayaba and Pineapple Mini pies

For Three Kings day, instead of the Empanaditas de Gayaba dough, I decided to use the dough recipe from the Empanadas Chilenas to make the dessert empanadas. I had no problem with the dough. I put the guava and pineapple fillings in the shell and baked them.

Gayaba (Guava) filling – Goya brand found at local supermarket

They came out fine (perhaps still a little thick) but not bad. However, the dough tasted different. I found that for a dessert empanada, I prefer the dough from the recipe which gave me trouble in shaping it. Perhaps it was the extra ingredients like the cream cheese and sour cream that made the difference in taste. So, while my dough from the Empanadas Chilenas turned out well, in the future, I’ll only use it for meat empanadas. I’ll go back to the Empanaditas de Gayaba recipe once more to try to make a successful dessert empanada. I think the effort will be worth it. For a nicer photo of a successful Guava Empanada and its recipe, go to Melissa CookingDiva’s blog here. If any of you try it, let me know. I’d love to read about your success story. Paz

Ed. Note: According to Angelika and Cindy, this holiday is also celebrated in Austria and France. In France, Cindy writes that they make a galette de rois and she wondered what others make. According to the Wikikpedia encyclopedia, “In Mexico, it is traditional for children to leave their shoes out on the evening of January 6, sometimes filling them with hay for the camels, so that the Kings will be generous with their gifts. In Puerto Rico, it is also a tradition for children to fill a box with grass or hay and put it underneath their bed, for the same reasons. This is analogous to children leaving mince pies or cookies and milk out for Santa Claus. In some parts of northern Mexico the shoes are left under the Christmas tree with a letter to the Three Kings. In the afternoon or evening of the same day the ritual of the Rosca de Reyes is shared with family and friends. The Rosca is a type of sweet-bread made with orange blossom, water, and butter; decorated with candied fruit. Baked inside is a small doll representing the baby Jesus. The person who finds the doll in his piece of rosca must throw a party on February 2nd, Calendaria Day, offering tamales and atole (a hot sweet drink thickened with corn flour) to the guests.” Look here for more info.

When I start a cooking adventure, I never know what to expect. Sometimes the road is straight and smooth. Other times, there are bumps, twists, turns, and forks in the road, so that I don’t know which path to take.I had that type of experience when I decided to make the dessert empanadas that I saw on Cooking Diva. The recipes involved empanadas with choice fillings of either guava or pineapple. I’d never tasted that before. I love guava and was anxious to make them for the holiday season. I bought the ingredients and followed the instructions. I made the dough and refrigerated it. When I pulled the dough from the fridge, it became soft again. So soft that I couldn’t roll it, couldn’t do anything. The dough became stickier and sticker, clinging to my hands and fingers and the rolling pin. I put a little more flour on it and the board, hoping that would solve the problem. It didn’t help. After contacting Melissa Cooking Diva about my problem, she told me that this particular dough is delicate and some of her students can’t work it out because their body temperature is too high, causing them to have hot hands. Perhaps that could have been my problem, too. I’d never heard of that before and found it very interesting. Funny in my case, because usually when people shake my hands, especially in the winter time, I’m told that I have cold hands (to which I reply cold hands, warm heart). I put the dough back in the fridge (I didn’t want to throw it away) and Melissa sent me another recipe — one for traditional empanada dough. It could be used for both dessert and meat empanadas. At this point, I’d reached the fork in the road and had to decide which road to take, the left or the right — the meat or the dessert empanada? I decided to make the meat. This time, with the second recipe, I didn’t have a problem with the dough. I made the shell and put the meat filling inside. The meat filling was easy to make and involved potatoes, tomatoes, raisins, green olives, dried oregano, salt, ground black pepperand dried thyme. I didn’t have any raisins or green olives. So, I left them out. My empanadas didn’t taste bad at all except that they came out kind of thick. Next time I’ll make sure to roll the dough even thinner. I plan on perfecting my empanada-making skills. By the way, part of the ingredients for the dough called for vegetable shortening in addition to butter. I omitted the vegetable shortening. I’m not sure what difference it made. Perhaps if you read this, Melissa or anyone else who knows can tell me. Here’s the recipe for Empanadas Chilenas. What happened to the guava empanadas, pineapple mini pies, and the delicate dough that I put back into the fridge? I plan on making them and using the dough very soon. Wish me luck! Paz

The chilled dough Preparing the dough Preparing the beef filling Going into the oven

Ed. Note: The initial recipe calls for using whole wheat flour in addtion to all purpose flour. Melissa CookingDiva says: “You can try to make the dough just using all purpose flour. It is not common to find empanadas made with whole wheat flour, and the flavor changes completetly.” Thanks for all your help, Melissa!