Let us now salute a few pinnacles of human achievement -- the great pyramids of Egypt, the internal combustible engine, space travel, the Skip Intro feature on Netflix programs.
And meat pies.
Specifically, the small, hand-held meat pies covered in pastry and shaped like half moons that can be served as an appetizer or a main course. They're portable, fairly easy to fix and boundlessly receptive to most any filling that tickles your fancy. Brown some ground beef, season it as you like, roll it in a flattened dollop of dough and fry it up.
Trade the ground beef for pork, chicken or lamb and experiment with the seasonings. Make a batch on Sunday afternoon and you've got lunch or supper for the rest of the week.
Avoiding fried food? Bake 'em.
Not into the whole meat thing? Stuff your pies with a gooey cheese like Monterey Jack and vegetables, though we're not dealing with such iterations today.
What we really want to get to here are empanadas, the Latin limb of the great meat pie family tree. Empanadas, the story goes, originally came from the Galicia region of Spain and neighboring Portugal. A cookbook from 1520 cites empanadas filled with seafood and it is believed that Spanish colonists introduced them to Latin America.
There's an illuminating chapter on empanadas in Gran Cocina Latina, Maricele E. Presilla's doorstop of a cookbook from 2012.
We were introduced to Puerto Rican empanadas on a recent trip to Orlando, Fla. Our hosts picked us up at the airport and drove posthaste to a small Puerto Rican restaurant in nearby Clermont called Sarita's Cuchifrito where we ate plantains, beans and rice and fried chunks of pork and chicken. Our appetizers, which could have been a meal, were hearty beef empanadas dipped in tangy Mayo-Ketchup Sauce.
We returned to Arkansas eager to make our own empanadas. The first attempt at a beef-filled version went OK, but lacked a crucial ingredient.
Many of the recipes we found online called for sofrito, the flavor-packed sauce that shows up in a lot of Puerto Rican dishes. We improvised and chopped up peppers, onions, tomato, garlic and cilantro then added them to the browned beef. Not bad, but it could have been better.
For our second empanada-making session, which included pies stuffed with Puerto Rican Picadillo and a batch filled with chicken, we picked up a jar of sofrito at a Hispanic market.
That, as poet Robert Frost wrote, "made all the difference." The fillings were much more savory and pleasing in a way our initial batch wasn't.
No worries, though, if you can't find sofrito. It's not hard to whip up a close-enough version.
We made our own dough, which takes a bit more time. Store-bought doughs are a big convenience, especially the pre-made, round "discos" found in the Hispanic sections of some markets.
We fried our beef-filled bunch and baked the chicken empanadas. We prefer the flakiness of the fried crusts to the thicker, bready, baked pies, but it's a close call. Adding olives gave each of the fillings a welcome saltiness.
Baked or fried, each version should be served with a simple Mayo-Ketchup Sauce, which is perfect for dipping these hand-held pockets of robust flavor. And keep the long game in mind when making empanadas. The following recipes make about 10 pies, which are perfect leftovers for lunch or snacks. Or freeze the extras and heat them up later for a quick meal. They're much better than pulling a box of Hot Pockets out of the freezer.
Empanada Dough
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons butter, cut into small pieces
1 teaspoon white vinegar
3/4 to 1 cup ice-cold water
In a large bowl, whisk together flour and salt. Using a pastry cutter or a fork, cut the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles chunky sand.
Make a well in the center of the flour and add vinegar and 3/4 cup of the water. Stir with a fork until a shaggy dough forms. Add remaining water a tablespoon at a time if all the flour has not been moistened.
Turn out onto a clean surface and gently knead into a smooth dough. Use immediately or cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for up to 2 days.
Makes enough for 10 (5-inch) empanadas.
Recipe adapted from kitchengidget.com
Sofrito
1 large green bell pepper
1 red bell pepper
1 onion
1 (14 1/2-ounce) can diced tomatoes
3 cloves of garlic, peeled
1 bunch cilantro
Remove stems and seeds from bell peppers. Cut into quarters.
Peel onion and cut into quarters.
Place all the ingredients in a food processor or blender and pulse until finely chopped.
Store in airtight container in refrigerator if using within a few weeks.
Or freeze in ice cube trays to use later. Once frozen, store sofrito cubes in an airtight freezer bag and use as needed. No need to thaw before cooking.
Makes about 4 cups.
Mayo-Ketchup Sauce
3 tablespoons mayonnaise
2 tablespoons ketchup
Garlic powder, to taste
Combine all ingredients in a bowl and stir until mixed.
This picadillo also makes a delicious burrito filling.
Puerto Rican Picadillo Empanadas
1 pound ground beef
3 tablespoons sofrito, prepared or homemade (see recipe)
1/2 cup canned tomato sauce
2 tablespoons chopped green olives
1 teaspoon adobo seasoning
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
Salt and pepper to taste
1 medium potato, peeled and cubed
1 batch Empanada Dough (see recipe)
Oil, for frying
Mayo-Ketchup Sauce (see recipe)
In a large frying pan, brown ground beef over medium heat. Drain. Add sofrito and saute for a few minutes.
Stir in tomato sauce, olives, adobo and garlic powder. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Add potatoes, reduce heat to low. Cover and simmer until potatoes are cooked through, about 25 minutes.
Divide dough into 10 pieces and shape into small rounds. Roll each portion into a 5-inch circle about 1/8-inch thick. Place a 2- to 3- tablespoon mound of filling slightly off center on dough round. Fold dough over filling to create half-moon (like a fried pie) and pinch closed. Use a fork to crimp and seal the edges.
In a deep pot, heat several inches of oil to 375 degrees. Fry empanadas, two at a time, until golden brown, turning once. Drain on paper towels. Serve with Mayo-Ketchup Sauce for dipping.
Makes about 10 empanadas.
Adapted from kitchengidget.com
Chicken Empanadas
4 boneless, skinless chicken thighs
1 1/2 teaspoons adobo seasoning
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 tablespoon butter
3 tablespoons sofrito, prepared or homemade (see recipe)
2 tablespoons green olives, chopped
1 egg
1 tablespoon water
1 batch Empanada Dough
Mayo-Ketchup Sauce
Pat chicken dry, coat with adobo, oregano and pepper.
Melt butter in skillet over medium high heat and brown chicken, about four minutes each side. Remove chicken from skillet and cut into chunks. Pulse chicken in blender until roughly chopped. Return chicken to skillet, coat with sofrito, add olives and stir until combined. Cover and simmer about 15 minutes.
Combine egg and water in small bowl.
Heat oven to 375 degrees.
Divide dough into 10 pieces and shape into small rounds. Roll each portion into a 5-inch circle about 1/8-inch thick. Mound 2 to 3 tablespoons of the chicken mixture lightly off center on each dough round. Fold dough over filling to create half-moon (like a fried pie) and pinch closed. Use a fork to crimp and seal the edges. Arrange pastries on a baking sheet. Brush top with egg wash. Bake on center rack of oven for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown. Serve with Mayo-Ketchup Sauce for dipping.
Makes about 10 empanadas.
Food on 04/25/2018