Empanada Night

Empanada Night!! They took forever with my two left hands, but were delicious. Some things are worth waiting for an 8:30 dinner time. Maybe this is why Argentina eats so late.

Empanadas de Carne
makes 12-16

Dough:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 stick unsalted butter
1 t salt
1/2 cup milk
1 egg

Put everything in the food processor and pulse until crumbles are formed. Ball the dough into a, well, ball, and put in fridge while you work on the other stuff.

Picadillo:
1 lb ground beef
1 onion, diced
1/2 cup roasted red peppers, chopped finely
6 seville olives, halved
2 t paprika
2 t dried oregano
1 t cumin
1 t red pepper flakes
salt and pepper

Brown the ground beef, drain fat. Saute onions until translucent, and add to beef. Stir in the rest of the ingredients. Set aside to let cool.

Putting them all together:
1 egg, white and yolk separated (white=glue, yolk=varnish)

Preheat oven to 400.

Roll out the ball of dough into a thin layer and then using a small bowl, or a cutout if you're dorky enough to own proper tools, cut circles of about 3-4 inches in diameter.

Spoon about 1 tablespoon of picadillo onto each dough round, making sure to top each with an olive half. Dip your finger into the egg white and run it around the circumfrence of the dough. Fold the dough over and press edges together to seal. Feel free to do something fancy with the edges and fork tines, I didn't bother. Brush the tops with the beaten egg yolk.

Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until tops are nicely golden brown. Empanadas are best piping hot, right out of the oven. Thanks to Miriam in CA and laylita.com for my empanada education.

Ok, now here's the salsa

This is very good for those times when you can't get your hands on any good tomatoes. Maybe I'm just not as familiar with tomatillos, but they seem more forgiving to supermarket conditions than tomatoes.

Avocado-Tomatillo Salsa

2 avocados

handful cilantro

4-5 tomatillos, papery skin peeled off

juice of 1 lime

2 serranos

pinch of cumin

touch of oilive oil

salt and pepper to taste

Throw everything into the blender or food processor! Taste and tweak as needed. Start with less chiles if you're not a spicy person. This salsa is great with seafood of all kinds, and not bad by itself with tortilla chips. It is a beautiful bright green, and unlike guacamole, it stays green for a few days in the fridge.

Valerie's Best Ever Salsa

My homemade salsa always comes out confused. This recipe is from my friend Valerie, and it is the Best Ever. And yes, she is a real Mexican.

1 tomato
1 white or yellow onion
16 oz tomato sauce
cilantro
garlic
2 jalepenos(more if you like spicy)
salt

Put everything in a blender and blend.


She is going to kill me for using this picture but I think it really highlights her amazing cheekbones.

Habichuelas

Authentic Spanish mother-in-law homestyle beans, though adapted to Arizona and it's lack of Caribbean grocery store ingredients. This recipe makes saucy beans, which is how I like them. After the overnight soaking, plan on these taking almost 3 hours to cook, and feeding a lot of people.

Habichuelas

First you have to make a sofrito.

Sofrito
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 onion, minced
4 oz tomato sauce
1/2 can tomato paste
1/2 green pepper, minced
1/2 red pepper, minced
handful finely chopped cilantro (or culantro if you can find it)
1/2 packet Sazon Goya con culantro y achiote

Throw in a blender or food processor, or crush in a mortar and pestle, then saute in olive oil for 8-10 minutes or until it resembles a sauce rather than a chunky salsa.

Now back to the beans.

1 lb pinto beans(or red kidney, or whatever you want)
1 chicken bouillon cube
1 ham hock
2 bay leaves
1 small bottle olives
1 small red potato, cubed
1/2 green pepper, cut in 1" squares
1/2 red pepper, cut in 1" squares
Sofrito
olive oil

Soak beans overnight in water in a large pot. Put same pot on stove and bring to rapid boil. Check every 20 minutes and add more boiling water as original water evaporates.
After 60 minutes of boiling has passed, add the boullion and ham hock, and keep boilin'. About 30 minutes later, add the sofrito, peppers, olives, and potatoes, lower to a simmer and cook until everything is tender. Serve over white rice.