The World Table

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South American · Starter

Empanadas Salteñas

  • Advanced
  • 2 h
  • roughly 3 of 4 for cost

rich · briny · gently hot · herb-fresh Leads with richness that coats and comforts, a briny, maritime salinity, lifted green at the very end.

Ingredients

  • Dough: 400g flour, 100g lard or butter, 1 tsp salt, ~180ml warm water
  • 400g beef, hand-chopped small (never minced, says Salta)
  • 2 onions, spring onion tops, cumin, paprika, chili
  • 2 boiled eggs, chopped; green olives
  • Egg wash if baking; oil if frying

The skills inside

Empanada foldingResting dough: the pause that does the work

Allergen screen

Found: gluten · dairy · egg

Screened for: gluten, dairy, egg, nuts, peanuts, fish, shellfish, molluscs, soy, sesame, celery, mustard, lupin, alcohol. Not screened: sulphites.

Screened by keyword from the ingredient list, not reviewed by a person; check every label for what the list cannot show.

Method

  1. Supple dough; rest 30 min. 30 min
  2. Cook onions soft; add beef briefly: juicy, underdone slightly; cool COLD (the fat sets and stays inside).
  3. Fill rounds with meat, egg and an olive; seal with the repulgue braid-fold.
  4. Bake 220°C 15 min or fry until blistered. 15 min

How to tell it is going right

This dish has no standard of its own yet. It is judged on the technique it exercises: checked at the pan, while there is still something to be done about it.

Resting dough: the pause that does the work 71 recipes

  • It actually rested, covered, for the time stated, not cut short because the rest of the schedule was tight.
  • It rolls and shapes without fighting: it stays where it is put, and it does not spring back or shrink on the bench between passes.
  • The surface is smooth and supple rather than dry, cracked, or skinned over.
  • It is at the temperature the next step needs: cold where the fat must stay solid, cool and relaxed where it must be rolled thin.
  • Baked, it holds the dimensions it was shaped to rather than shrinking back from the edges of the tin or the rim of the dish.

Where it goes wrong The rest was skipped or shortened, so the gluten was still tight: the dough fought the pin and sprang back thick and uneven, then shrank down the sides of the tin in the oven.

At the Table

The Pour
Cabernet Sauvignon or Malbec
Also Right
Tempranillo (Rioja Reserva)
From the Taps
Amber ale
Zero-Proof
Sparkling water, make room

Tannin binds to seared protein and fat: each bite softens the wine, each sip resets the palate: the steakhouse equation.

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Film school

This dish, cooked on camera Search films of Empanadas Salteñas Technique: Empanada foldingThe skill inside this recipeTechnique: Pie crust & blind bakingThe skill inside this recipe The cuisine, deeper Technique films from the South American kitchen