Doña Ana Lucía’s Prithvi Empanadas
I have never been able to make empanadas quite so perfect as my mother’s, even with all those long monsoon afternoons helping her make batches on batches of them. However, I perfected a recipe of my own as a college apprentice that serves me in good stead now as a professor myself. I like to gather a small group of people interested in Latin culture together in my kitchen to make a whole batch together, with enough for everyone to take home.
My favorite filling involves some of the best of three separate worlds, with a nice tail of slig and golden Buddha-potato from Prithvi, lagoon-olives and sea vegetables from Parvati, and spices and velociraptor eggs from my native Sati. However, I have adapted it to what I believe the original Serrano recipe was on Earth, with Earth ingredients only.
Ingredients:
Pastry
- 1L all-purpose flour (if you can’t find quatrotriticle)
- 10mL baking powder
- 5mL salt
- 250mL olive oil
- 250mL warm milk (cow will do, goat is better)
- 100mL cornmeal, or enough to cover baking sheet(s)
- 1 egg (to brush with)
Filling
- 500g beef, ground or chopped to approximately 11mm (the size of one of Doña Ana Lucía’s iron slugs)
- 1 onion, chopped
- 250g cubed potatoes, boiled
- 3 hardboiled eggs, rough chopped (duck eggs for more of a Devi flavor, chicken eggs for more of an Earth flavor)
- 200g red and green peppers, chopped
- 1 can of olives, chopped
- 1 bulb garlic, minced
- dash cumin
- dash paprika
- dash achiote powder
- sprigs parsley
Instructions
Mix together flour, salt, and baking powder, then mix in oil and milk until dough forms a ball. Knead on cornmeal, then let stand 30 minutes. Open can of olives, drain, transfer olives to rice bowl. Boil potatoes.
Fry the beef with the garlic and onions in a little olive oil until onions translucent, then add potatoes, cumin, chili, achiote, red and green peppers, and enough potato water to cover. Cook, covered, until the meat is tender. Take off heat and add parsley, olives, and chopped hard-boiled eggs.
Roll out dough with pin until 5mm thick, then cut out circles with wide-mouth olives can. If too large, cut into working pieces first. Preheat your oven for 180*C. Take each circle, ladle a generous helping of filling in the middle, fold over and fold it repulgue-style with your fingers. Brush with the egg to help seal and set a shiny finish, then lay on a cornmeal-lined baking sheet. Repeat until you run out of either filling, dough, or baking sheets.
Bake at 180*C for 15 minutes or so, or until the scent drives your blood to unspeakable things. Enjoy with crisp dry rice lager or sips of good rum.
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