• Empanadas
  Empanadas are made in most cultures with diverse names...In Chile they are special, big and tasty. Calzones are made by Italians, inside a square sheet of dough. Ours may be fried made with corn dough, or with wheat, baked. Yesterday I made a batch of empanadas, here are some tricks:
• Dough, may be bread or pie pastry or commercial, frozen flake pastry. thinned with roller pin and cut in round shapes, any size. Mine are 10 to 20 cm in diameter.
• Filling. Anything is great inside an empanada, make filling saucy but not runny.
• Favourite emapanada fullings are:
• Cooked chicken breast mixed with sweet peas, white sauce and capers;
• ground meat in a good tomato sauce with finely chopped potato and slices of hard boiled egg
• Chopped sausage, ham or cooked pork or veggie ground meat mixed with rice and finely chopped vegetables (zucchini, leeks, carrots, sweet peas, sweet potato) and with stir fried tomato and onion
• Cooked rice cooked fish in white or bechamel sauce with chopped rosemary or dill.
• Place a spoonful of filling on each dough circle, wet the dough outside the filling, fold half of it over and seal with fingers of with fork. You may decorate the seam.
• Have a beaten egg at hand to ¨paint¨ the top outside of each empanada for a golden color when baked.
• Bake on cookie sheets for 25 minutes at 350 until golden
• Serve hot with a great salad.
• Left over empanadas may be refrigerated (2 or 3 days) and warmed to serve.

Empanadas with Emilia

She is 14, learning... well almost everything!
She came to cook with "abuelos" *grandparents...
So we made 12 meat EMPANADAS.

The dough:
6 cups flour (we used half whole wheat and half white)
1 cup cold water with one cube of ice
2 eggs
2 egg whites
1 tablespoon vinegar
1/4 lb cold butter
1 teaspoon salt

For glazing the empanadas:
1 beaten egg to be used after they are filled, sealed and placed on a baking dish.

The filling:
1 1/2 lb ground beef
5 cloves of garlic chopped fine
2 yellow or white onions, chopped fine
1 pepper, red or greed, chopped fine
5 potatoes, peeled and cut in cubes
1 cup of cilantro (or parsley if you prefer) chopped fine
2 cups chopped tomatoes (can or fresh)
salt and pepper, chili powder or jalapeño, optional
1/4 cup oil
optional 1 or 2 pitted olives for each empanada

Making the meat filling:
Saute the garlic, onions, chilis, peppers with the oil
add potaotes cook 10 minutes
add ground meat, season, stir in the tomatoes
Add 1/2 cup water, continue mixing until potatoes and meat are cooked.
Set aside for filling the empanadas. Remove grease with a spoon or a paper towel.

Making the dough:
In a bowl beat vinegar, eggs and egg whites, salt and cold water.
cut the butter with two knifes or a pastry cutter until the butter looks like greated cheese
Make a hole in the middle of the flour and pour the liquid ingredients in. Mix with a fork and turn on a floured surface, knead until it is incorporated and smooth. Don't over knead, it warms up the dough.
Place un a plastic bag and refrigerate 1 hour.

Cut the dough in 4 and with a rolling pin stretch it until it is very thin.
Cut circles about 15 cm.

Fill each circle with 2 tbspoons of filling, add 1 or 2 olives
wet the edges, bend over the filling half of the dough and with a fork seal the edges.
The shape should be like half a circle. It improves after making 2 or 3.
Place the empanadas on a baking dish and paint the dough with beaten egg.

Cook in oven at 350 for 35 - 40 minutes, until golden, depending on size.
Serve warm with a good salad!
Bon Apetit... Salud!!!

Tamales, made in Canada

TAMALES adapted for Canada

Ingredients for 10 or 12 tamales, according to size:

12 squares (30 x 30 cm) of banana leaves

(sold frozen in Latin American or Asian food stores, I found from Thailand!)
If leaf is broken, add another piece on top to mend it. these should be washed and pat dried.
String to tie each tamal, they end up like a package (see photo below)

For the dough:

corn flour (I use yellow, some cooks use white) Tortilla flour as Maseca gives a strong ash taste, I do not use it. I prefer "pan" cornflour from Venezuela or "Areparina"; do NOT use corn starch, must be corn flour. 1 kilo for 10 - 12 tamales
meat or chicken stock, 2 or 2 1/2 cups per kilo of flour
1/2 squash, spaghetti squash, 2 cups pealed. seeded and pureed in the blender with more chicken stock, about 2 cups per kilo
salt to taste

For the filling
"guizo" sautee 4 large tomatoes, garlic and chopped onions with your own spices (chili powder, pepper, thyme)
meat, 1 tablespoon chopped meat per tamal
chicken 1 tablespoon chopped chicken per tamal o (or 1 boned chicken thigh for 3 tamales)
pork ribs, cut small, 1 for each tamal
bacon, cut, cooked or fried and dried or de-greased (2-4 bits per tamal)
Spanish Chorizo, 1 thin slice per tamal
Other vegetables: chopped carrots, celery, onions, drained chickpeas, 1 tablespoon of fresh coriander and parsley)
other tasty garnishes: 3 pitted olives and 3 capers per tamal, vinegar removed
optional (I do not include these but some cooks do) a slice of cooked potato 1/4 hard boiled egg in each tamal.

TAMALES May be prepared in two stages: cooking meats and broth and making them next day

First wash, cut, condiment or marinate meats of your choice.

If you have leftovers after making the tamales, they are become a great pasta sauce.

Stirfry with 2 tablespoons finely chopped garlic, coarse chopped onions, carrots, celery and peppers (green, yellow, red, mild and one chili pepper all chopped). Add water to make 1 litre of broth, cook for 15 minutes, cool, degrease. May be prepared 1 day ahead.

Making the dough and Filling the Tamales
In a large bowl mix 1 kilogram of corn flour with 2 cups of pureed or processed in the blender (liquefied) of spaghetti squash or "calabaza", or any squash of you choice cooked with skin and seeds removed; mix and add warm broth slowly until it reaches the consistency of pancake or cake mix, thick, not runny, not hard. Add salt to taste if needed.

Filling the Tamales
Place the washed banana leaf square on a plate, drop 1/4 cup dough or "masa" in the center.
Add meats and vegetables, capers and olives, cover with 1/4 cup dough.
Wrap or fold the left and right sides on top, turn over and fold again the top and bottom sides making a square. Tie with string ( hemp or cooking string, not plastic)
Once all tamales are tied and ready, place in large pot with a mesh or some leaves at the bottom so the bottom ones don't over cook or stick. An aluminum pie plate with punched holes works well.
Cover with hot water, bring to a boil, simmer for 1 1/2 hours, drain and serve.
May be refrigerated for 2 or 3 days and reheated.

PAELLA
A good paella needs love, time, patience, a large pan or "Paellera" to cook rice along with any combination of vegetables and meat, seafood or chicken, as you prefer. Each cook has it's own creation.
I will give you the basic recipe, for a seafood paella we made last Saturday with Lysanne and Alejo, and both families together.
Once you have tried it, you may be as creative as you wish... Bon Apetit!!!
Basics. paella may be served with a good bodied red wine. We like Torres, a great Spanish wine.
For 8 servings:
4 cups rice. *I like brown, Ricardo likes long grain, my son likes parboiled rice... they all work.
8 cups seafood or chicken broth, or canned consomme.
1/ teaspoon of saffron *hidrate in 1/4 cup water or broth, set aside.
Salt, pepper
1/4 cup cooking oil
1 large Spanish onion, finely cut
2 Tablespoons (Tbs) finely chopped parsley, and a bunch of fresh parsley for garnish, at the end
2 cups of chopped Vegetables: carrots, green beans, broccoli, snow peas, petit pois,  your choice.
2 cups chopped, seeded, peeled tomatoes or 1 kg can of chopped tomatoes
1 red sweet pepper, cut in strips or 1/2 cup of peeled cut red peppers in brine *without the liquid
1 yellow or 1 green pepper, cut in strips
1 cup sweet peas
Add any combination of the following:
For Meat Paella:
8 chicken skinned breast pieces
8 skinned chicken thighs
8 pork ribs, cut in small pieces
1 lb lean beef or pork, cut in squares
For mixed meats Paella:
Your choice of meats, 2 cups of diced meat (pork, veal, chicken, beef)
100 g sliced Spanish chorizo, Italian sausage (mild or hot, up to your taste)
100 g sliced chopped pancheta or bacon, fried and dried
For Seafood Paella:
1/2 lb skinned, of red snapper, yellow grouper or any fish you like*check for no bones,
1 lb. mixed frozen seafood
1 lb. of any of the following: calamari rings, or clean fresh calamari cut in pieces;
1 lb medium size shrimp
16 large shrimp to garnish on top
Other possible additions:
lobster tails, large shrimp. Add them at #6.
Or 100 g. chorizo, thinly sliced
Preparation
1. Start with the oil in the paellera and add garlic and onions until golden color, not brown, burned
2. Heat broth, add the saffron, set aside. Keep hot.
3. Add carrots, tomatoes, mix, add the rice. Mix and boil 2 or 3 minutes and when boiling add the hot broth. Mix.
4. Add meats or chicken if you have chosen this type of paella.
5. Let boil without stirring for 10 minutes.
6. If the paella has seafood, now add it along with the medium size shrimp, salt and pepper, taste.
(save the large shrimp with strips of red pepper for last, before covering the paella)
7. Add the rest of the vegetables. Mix softly, stirring evenly.
8. Let it boil down until no water is on the surface in mediun heat. Stir once, mixing everything, then add the garnish on top: large shrimp and pepper strips decorating the top of the paella. Add chopped parsley. Then cover with aluminum foil, and / or lid.
9. Lower heat to medium-low, checking that it continues boiling softly but will not burn.
10. Let it cook hands off, for 15 minutes. Watch the steam. No steam, it is starting to burn!
When the paella is ready, all the rice is evenly cooked.
Un cover, let stand 5 minutes and serve.
Leftover paella is even better the following day! Salud.

SANCOCHO
This is our typical exquisite soup, something like a "pot au feu"
It is made with the vegetables available locally.
This is an adapted version for Canadian cooks that enjoy and wish to try Latinamerican food. It may be made with meats or fish.
And it is exquisite.

Ingredients for 6:
6 pieces of chicken (legs and thighs or 1.5 whole chickens)
Optional: 6 pieces of pork loin, italian sausage or hot sausage, chorizo, or tender beef meat
1 buch of cilantro or fresh coriander, divided in two
2 or 3 yellow medium size or Spanish onions,
2 very green, hard plantains
6 medium size whole potatoes (yellow and/or red)
6 pieces of squash (any kind you like)
3 corn in the cob cut in pieces
3 carrots medium size fresh
1 "yuca" or mandioca root
1 sweet red pepper and 1 green pepper
optional, any of the following: 1 mild hot light yellow pepper
1 red chilly pepper, or 1 jalapeño pepper

Preparation:
Stir fry chopped onions and garlic. Set aside
In a large pot place 3 to 4 litres of cold water, 1/2 bunch of chopped cilantro and meats. Add salt, pepper, onions and garlic.

When boiling, add:
the 2 plantains, peeled, cut in bite size pieces. (to peal plantain: cut ends, make a superficial slice lengthwise, peel using a wooden spoon, not your fingers or knife)
the 6 whole potatoes with skins
the squash, peeled, cut in bite size pieces
the 3 carrots, peeled, cut in half
the "yuca" or mandioca, peeled, cut in pieces
the peppers, washed, cut in pieces, no seeds
Boil slowly until potatoes are tender, watch that the yuca does not dissolve.
Stir softly. Add salt and chilli pepper to taste.

Serve the broth in a soup bowl, garnish with chopped cilantro;
meats and vegetables on a large dish.
in 3 side platters place finely choped cilantro, jalapeño peppers and slices of avocado.

AJIACO
This is our typical potato soup, adapted to Canadian vegetables.
Single dish, we prepare it for Sunday Lunch or special occasions.
6 - 8 servings.
Broth (Soup base) 3/4 cup per person if already prepared
In a large pot make a broth with:
1/2 bunch of cilantro, chopped,
4 carrots, peeled cut small,
3 corn in the cob, cut in 4 pieces each
1 medium size chicken or 4 breasts cut in pieces
1 cup water per serving
salt, pepper.

Soup ingredients and preparation:
6 medium white potatoes, 6 red skin potatoes and 6 baking potatoes or yellow ones
peeled and chopped.Set aside in cold water. Rinse. Add to the broth.
Since here there is no "papa criolla" I add 1 cup of peeled and chopped butter-nut squash, you may use any squash you like, to give the soup color and thick texture.
When the chicken is tender, take it out from the broth, remove skins and bones, cut in medium size pieces.
Remove any grease floating on the broth.
Add salt to taste.
Add all the chopped ingredients. Boil slowly for 30 to 60 minutes.
When almost done, add 1 cup of chopped spinach; this replaces the "guascas" we use.
If you like the ajiaco thicker (we do) you may either place in the blender 3 to 5 peeled , chopped cooked potatoes or 1/2 to 1 cup of ready mashed potato flakes.
Stir, boil slightly and serve.
If any is left over, it is even better the following day.
Serve in soup bowls.
Decorate the table with beautiful ceramic dishes with:
chopped avocado mixed with finely chopped cilantro (coriander leaves)
or sliced ripe avocado
10% cream
capers (with no vinegar)

Bon apetit!