Empanadas

Empanadas. So it’s a big thing in our country empanadas, because most provinces of the north of our country have their own recipe. Salta, they’re very good, they’re very good the ones of Salta. Mendoza is the one we’re going to have that has onions and it has egg and it has olives. In Salta, there’s a saying that if you’re invited to a house and you eat empanadas and there’s a drop that falls on the plate, you’re not invited again. So not a drop should be lost because it’s so delicious. We are doing two different empanadas. We’re doing cheese empanadas and we’re doing meat empanadas. Here I have lard that I’m going to put to melt for the dough that I’m going to do for the empanadas. If you want to do with a real empanada has to be lard. You know, maybe you can use an oil, but it won’t be the same. You know, the taste, the consistency of the dough. It will change. So here I have the flour. I get some salt, so I make a little well where I’m going to start adding the the fat and then the water to make the dough. OK. So the lard is ready. Then I put it here, I add a bit of water, hot water. It has to be quite a hard, dough, not very, very soft. It depends a bit on the flour and the quality of the lard. That’s why I am adding slowly. It’s very important that the dough rests at least one night in the fridge. It’s much easier next day to roll it. You do it immediately, it’s very elastic. You see, like now. OK, so this we’re going to let rest now, it’s a bit like when you play with clay, you see that I’m not making too much pressure. If you use the exact ingredients you will get it. So now we’re going to do the onions for the cheese empanadas. Where are you, my love? The onions are apart and they cook evenly in strings. Here you go, all the onions. I’m cooking in butter. The onions for the cheese empanadas. So I have the melting butter. I’m going to cook them there until they’re soft and nice. So now I’m going to start to cut some cheese. So this is like a cheese that we call Lincoln. It’s quite aged. It’s probably three years old, so it’s dry but very, very concentrated. It’s very delicious. And then this is like a Parmigiano. That as well, it’s very, very local, Parmigiano. I have some more cheese that is already cut, so we use it. Now I’m going to. Add the onions here. This is oregano. Very good oregano, friend of mine Cecilia does this with Nino. She does it for me every year. You add salt, I won’t talk salt because this cheese is very aged, so it has quite a concentrated taste already now allowed a bit of a heat chili flakes quite a bit. So people wake up when they eat it. Thank you. And now we’re going to let it cool down when we build up empanadas tomorrow, it will be completely cold. You can’t do an empanada with a hot filling because of the lard, because the moment you put something hot, the lard collapses and you can’t close it. That’s why you need the filling cold and the rested dough. So this is ready. Now, let’s get the butter for the meat empanadas. A little bit of butter. And now I’m going to cut my onions for the meat empanadas. I’m going to use these white ones. Well, empanadas is a turnover, it’s a pastry that envelops meat or cheese. It’s a typical opening of an asado, an outside lunch or dinner. It’s like a starter. It’s a bit like in Italy that a minestrone changes from town to town. You know, they all think it’s the best. Now I’m going to clean my filet. Trying to take the cord out. This is the best meat for it, the filet, because it’s very tender, it’s very juicy. So I took all of the big pieces of fat. Yeah, you can use them for like doing some lentils or something like that. We won’t throw that away. You should use it. You know, you should use it. Why should we throw something away that you can eat? We have to start adapting our life to have a better planet. Very important. So I took the fat off all the all the things that are not so tasty and nice, and I’m going to cut it like in little steaks and then cut it in squares for the empanadas. So you can see I’m cutting it in little pieces. So, the ratio is onions to meat here for the filling a lot more onions and meat. And generally, in the farms, they make everything with lard, meaning that they don’t use butter, but it’s quite heavy to eat. It’s delicious, but it’s quite heavy. OK. Now we’re going to sort of poach this for a moment, in the caldero here. If you do it raw and you get all the juices of the meat inside the empanada and you don’t want that because it will fall apart. So with this, you sort of coagulate all the blood and it stays inside. So now I’m going to cut the spring onions. So spring onions go raw inside the mix. You don’t cook them. They will slightly cook in the oven afterwards. But the idea is that they don’t cook completely. Perfect. Now they go here. Salt, oregano, chili flakes, cumin and some pimenton. Pimenton is chilis, but its powdered. It’s from Spain. The one I most like is the one from Murcia. And now I pick up the meat. Now, we start mixing the pimenton is sweet and the chili flakes are not. So, it’s still slightly spicy. OK, so we have our two fillings for the empanadas ready. Here we have the meat. And here we have the cheese. And now we’re going to let them cool down first on their own and then sort of fridge them for a day until tomorrow. And then tomorrow we have the dough that has rested. We can roll it and make empanadas. So, what we’re going to do till then? Ah! we drink wine. [Francis Laughs] So, we’re going to finish empanadas. I’m going to start preparing a bit my table here. And as I start this, I’m going to present Edid. Hi Edid. How are you? Hi, how are you? Thank you for helping me. Our empanadas are going to turn out delicious, what do you say? Very delicious. We will see. We will see. I’m going to cut a piece of dough. And we are going to roll it out a little with the rolling pin first. In order to help the machine. Edid works with me here in the island. She’s been here for a couple of years, is a very brave lady because she lives here year round, which is not easy in the middle of the winter with two meters of snow. Her son Martin works with me here too. In Corrientes, how do you make empanadas? Like this with meat? Yes, meat. Also I really like the tortas fritas that you all [people from Corrientes] make. They are delicious, right? Yes Martín does them well, Martín turned out to be a very good cook. Where did he learn so much? He likes it. He likes it, right? [He learned] from his grandparents. Ok, we are going to start and pass it through. Ah, this is a machine to make pasta. It’s called patalina. It means beautiful pasta. You are going to grab it from me there. I’m making it thinner. I started in eight and I think I will stop at five. So, it doesn’t have to be very thin. We’ll see how five works. It’s still a bit fat, One more pass. It is pretty, right? The dough, I went to size five, but it’s about like that. You see, that’s that’s what we want. That’s how we thick it has to be. You want to get it as flat as a tie. But you see that the winter ones are a little bit thicker because it’s cold and we want to protect our neck Now we’re going to prepare the dough to to make empanada. Just with the spoon. This, I’m going to work a bit because the cheese has got very cold. It’s snowing outside, so it doesn’t have any edges and doesn’t break the dough. We’re preparing the filling. So I’m going to put it here like that. Let’s see how is the size there? Yes, we are going to make them a little longer like this, ok? It’s a handful of filling has to be generous. Going to put a couple of olives. We have eggs. We boil it for six minutes. And this is what we like of the egg that it’s a bit raw. We are okay with the olives, right? Yes And I’m going to break a tooth there with those olives I think. We fold it very slowly, without any rush. Like this until the end. And first we are going to paint a little, huh. Just want you to wet a bit the edges. OK. Well, now we are going to seal them. Now we cut them. So, the idea is that when you fold, you make a turn on the dough and you press it, so it stays like that. See? And the ones of cheese, am gonna press them with a fork, so, there’s a difference. And we know which is which. Ah, these are kind of like long skirts. Some people close them in their hands, some in the table. These are the Mendoza ones that are bigger. And the ones in Salta and Tucumán, they’re round, completely round and smaller. Are you all good? Yes You are beating me. Ok. Since there are two techniques for cooking, we thought we do the cheese ones fried and these in the oven. But you can choose these are done fried too. Some provinces, they fry them, but in my heart, I like them in the oven. The hotter, the better. There it is. As hot as hot can be. So, in a wood oven you would do them in two minutes here, maybe five because they would dry, If you cook them for a very long time. This is sunflower oil. Can you take a look to see how the ladies are doing? Ahh not ready, not ready, not ready. They aren’t ready yet. Those in the back are in a rush. Let’s turn them, what do you think? Can you? Can I help you? Yes, yes, I can, I can. That’s how they have to look where those bubbles here. They are almost ready. So, now we’re going to make the llajua sauce. So what I do is I’m going to shred the tomato. Thank you. I get some oregano in there. Quite a bit of chili flakes Some delicious sea salt. Some olive oil and some vinegar. So for two tomatoes I’m gonna shred two garlic heads. Now you can take out the empanadas. Huh. Beautiful. So I’m going to cut a sort of a piece of it so you can see it. There it is. And then I put a good spoonful of the sauce. Thank you so much for helping me, Edid. I catch you in the middle of a bite. Very nice that you have helped me. You have a good hand for the repulgue. Thank you. The egg is here. Look at that. Look at this. So today we did empanadas, meat empanadas and cheese empanadas. Empanadas. Empanadas. So it’s a big thing in our country empanadas, because most provinces of the north of our country have their own recipe. Salta, they’re very good, they’re very good the ones of Salta. Mendoza is the one we’re going to have that has onions and it has egg and it has olives. In Salta, there’s a saying that if you’re invited to a house and you eat empanadas and there’s a drop that falls on the plate, you’re not invited again. So not a drop should be lost because it’s so delicious. We are doing two different empanadas. We’re doing cheese empanadas and we’re doing meat empanadas. Here I have lard that I’m going to put to melt for the dough that I’m going to do for the empanadas. If you want to do with a real empanada has to be lard. You know, maybe you can use an oil, but it won’t be the same. You know, the taste, the consistency of the dough. It will change. So here I have the flour. I get some salt, so I make a little well where I’m going to start adding the the fat and then the water to make the dough. OK. So the lard is ready. Then I put it here, I add a bit of water, hot water. It has to be quite a hard, dough, not very, very soft. It depends a bit on the flour and the quality of the lard. That’s why I am adding slowly. It’s very important that the dough rests at least one night in the fridge. It’s much easier next day to roll it. You do it immediately, it’s very elastic. You see, like now. OK, so this we’re going to let rest now, it’s a bit like when you play with clay, you see that I’m not making too much pressure. If you use the exact ingredients you will get it. So now we’re going to do the onions for the cheese empanadas. Where are you, my love? The onions are apart and they cook evenly in strings. Here you go, all the onions. I’m cooking in butter. The onions for the cheese empanadas. So I have the melting butter. I’m going to cook them there until they’re soft and nice. So now I’m going to start to cut some cheese. So this is like a cheese that we call Lincoln. It’s quite aged. It’s probably three years old, so it’s dry but very, very concentrated. It’s very delicious. And then this is like a Parmigiano. That as well, it’s very, very local, Parmigiano. I have some more cheese that is already cut, so we use it. Now I’m going to. Add the onions here. This is oregano. Very good oregano, friend of mine Cecilia does this with Nino. She does it for me every year. You add salt, I won’t talk salt because this cheese is very aged, so it has quite a concentrated taste already now allowed a bit of a heat chili flakes quite a bit. So people wake up when they eat it. Thank you. And now we’re going to let it cool down when we build up empanadas tomorrow, it will be completely cold. You can’t do an empanada with a hot filling because of the lard, because the moment you put something hot, the lard collapses and you can’t close it. That’s why you need the filling cold and the rested dough. So this is ready. Now, let’s get the butter for the meat empanadas. A little bit of butter. And now I’m going to cut my onions for the meat empanadas. I’m going to use these white ones. Well, empanadas is a turnover, it’s a pastry that envelops meat or cheese. It’s a typical opening of an asado, an outside lunch or dinner. It’s like a starter. It’s a bit like in Italy that a minestrone changes from town to town. You know, they all think it’s the best. Now I’m going to clean my filet. Trying to take the cord out. This is the best meat for it, the filet, because it’s very tender, it’s very juicy. So I took all of the big pieces of fat. Yeah, you can use them for like doing some lentils or something like that. We won’t throw that away. You should use it. You know, you should use it. Why should we throw something away that you can eat? We have to start adapting our life to have a better planet. Very important. So I took the fat off all the all the things that are not so tasty and nice, and I’m going to cut it like in little steaks and then cut it in squares for the empanadas. So you can see I’m cutting it in little pieces. So, the ratio is onions to meat here for the filling a lot more onions and meat. And generally, in the farms, they make everything with lard, meaning that they don’t use butter, but it’s quite heavy to eat. It’s delicious, but it’s quite heavy. OK. Now we’re going to sort of poach this for a moment, in the caldero here. If you do it raw and you get all the juices of the meat inside the empanada and you don’t want that because it will fall apart. So with this, you sort of coagulate all the blood and it stays inside. So now I’m going to cut the spring onions. So spring onions go raw inside the mix. You don’t cook them. They will slightly cook in the oven afterwards. But the idea is that they don’t cook completely. Perfect. Now they go here. Salt, oregano, chili flakes, cumin and some pimenton. Pimenton is chilis, but its powdered. It’s from Spain. The one I most like is the one from Murcia. And now I pick up the meat. Now, we start mixing the pimenton is sweet and the chili flakes are not. So, it’s still slightly spicy. OK, so we have our two fillings for the empanadas ready. Here we have the meat. And here we have the cheese. And now we’re going to let them cool down first on their own and then sort of fridge them for a day until tomorrow. And then tomorrow we have the dough that has rested. We can roll it and make empanadas. So, what we’re going to do till then? Ah! we drink wine. [Francis Laughs] So, we’re going to finish empanadas. I’m going to start preparing a bit my table here. And as I start this, I’m going to present Edid. Hi Edid. How are you? Hi, how are you? Thank you for helping me. Our empanadas are going to turn out delicious, what do you say? Very delicious. We will see. We will see. I’m going to cut a piece of dough. And we are going to roll it out a little with the rolling pin first. In order to help the machine. Edid works with me here in the island. She’s been here for a couple of years, is a very brave lady because she lives here year round, which is not easy in the middle of the winter with two meters of snow. Her son Martin works with me here too. In Corrientes, how do you make empanadas? Like this with meat? Yes, meat. Also I really like the tortas fritas that you all [people from Corrientes] make. They are delicious, right? Yes Martín does them well, Martín turned out to be a very good cook. Where did he learn so much? He likes it. He likes it, right? [He learned] from his grandparents. Ok, we are going to start and pass it through. Ah, this is a machine to make pasta. It’s called patalina. It means beautiful pasta. You are going to grab it from me there. I’m making it thinner. I started in eight and I think I will stop at five. So, it doesn’t have to be very thin. We’ll see how five works. It’s still a bit fat, One more pass. It is pretty, right? The dough, I went to size five, but it’s about like that. You see, that’s that’s what we want. That’s how we thick it has to be. You want to get it as flat as a tie. But you see that the winter ones are a little bit thicker because it’s cold and we want to protect our neck Now we’re going to prepare the dough to to make empanada. Just with the spoon. This, I’m going to work a bit because the cheese has got very cold. It’s snowing outside, so it doesn’t have any edges and doesn’t break the dough. We’re preparing the filling. So I’m going to put it here like that. Let’s see how is the size there? Yes, we are going to make them a little longer like this, ok? It’s a handful of filling has to be generous. Going to put a couple of olives. We have eggs. We boil it for six minutes. And this is what we like of the egg that it’s a bit raw. We are okay with the olives, right? Yes And I’m going to break a tooth there with those olives I think. We fold it very slowly, without any rush. Like this until the end. And first we are going to paint a little, huh. Just want you to wet a bit the edges. OK. Well, now we are going to seal them. Now we cut them. So, the idea is that when you fold, you make a turn on the dough and you press it, so it stays like that. See? And the ones of cheese, am gonna press them with a fork, so, there’s a difference. And we know which is which. Ah, these are kind of like long skirts. Some people close them in their hands, some in the table. These are the Mendoza ones that are bigger. And the ones in Salta and Tucumán, they’re round, completely round and smaller. Are you all good? Yes You are beating me. Ok. Since there are two techniques for cooking, we thought we do the cheese ones fried and these in the oven. But you can choose these are done fried too. Some provinces, they fry them, but in my heart, I like them in the oven. The hotter, the better. There it is. As hot as hot can be. So, in a wood oven you would do them in two minutes here, maybe five because they would dry, If you cook them for a very long time. This is sunflower oil. Can you take a look to see how the ladies are doing? Ahh not ready, not ready, not ready. They aren’t ready yet. Those in the back are in a rush. Let’s turn them, what do you think? Can you? Can I help you? Yes, yes, I can, I can. That’s how they have to look where those bubbles here. They are almost ready. So, now we’re going to make the llajua sauce. So what I do is I’m going to shred the tomato. Thank you. I get some oregano in there. Quite a bit of chili flakes Some delicious sea salt. Some olive oil and some vinegar. So for two tomatoes I’m gonna shred two garlic heads. Now you can take out the empanadas. Huh. Beautiful. So I’m going to cut a sort of a piece of it so you can see it. There it is. And then I put a good spoonful of the sauce. Thank you so much for helping me, Edid. I catch you in the middle of a bite. Very nice that you have helped me. You have a good hand for the repulgue. Thank you. The egg is here. Look at that. Look at this. So today we did empanadas, meat empanadas and cheese empanadas. Empanadas.