Empanadas

Wheat pastry half-moons crimped by hand, filled with a slow-cooked mixture of minced beef, hard-boiled egg, green olive and sweet onion seasoned with cumin, paprika and chilli: baked golden or fried crackling crisp. Empanadas are Argentina's defining street food and the entire Spanish-speaking world's portable meal, from Galicia to Chile.

Origin: Argentina & South America

From the journey of Wheat.

Empanadas derive from the Galician and Andalusian tradition of the Spanish empanada (from "empanar"; to bread, or encase in bread). Spanish colonists brought the technique to South America in the 16th century, where each country adapted the filling to local ingredients. Argentina's empanadas vary by province: Salta uses potato and chilli; Tucumán adds tripe; Mendoza uses fresh grape must. The marking of each empanada's crimp (repulgue) identifies the filling: each pattern means something. At Argentine independence celebrations, empanadas were sold at every corner. Today they are the food of football matches, road trips and family Sunday gatherings. Chile calls the same construction an empanada de pino, and the word pino comes from Quechua pirru rather than from anything to do with pine. A Chilean pino carries as much onion as beef by weight, cooked slowly until it collapses, with a black olive, a slice of hard-boiled egg, and a few raisins, and it is baked rather than fried and made considerably larger than the Argentine version. The same filling goes under the corn topping of a pastel de choclo. Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, and Bolivia each defend their own crimp and their own filling, and the family is genuinely shared rather than anybody's exclusive property.

Ingredients

500 g plain flour
120 g lard or butter
1 tsp salt
180 ml warm water
1 Egg
500 g minced beef
2 large onions, finely diced
4 Spring onions, sliced
2 Hard-boiled eggs, chopped
80 g green olives, sliced
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp sweet paprika
0.5 tsp chilli flakes
generously Salt and black pepper
for egg wash Egg yolk + milk

Method

Make pastry: rub lard into flour and salt until sandy. Add egg and warm water, knead briefly until smooth. Wrap and refrigerate 1 hour.
For the filling: cook onions in oil until soft and golden. Add beef, brown well, breaking up lumps. Season with cumin, paprika, chilli, salt and pepper. Cook until dry.
Cool completely. Mix in spring onions, chopped egg and olives. The filling must be cold before filling the pastry.
Roll pastry to 3mm. Cut circles 12–14cm diameter. Place 2 tbsp filling on one half, leaving a border.
Fold over and crimp the edge firmly; press with a fork or fold in the traditional Argentine rope pattern (repulgue).
Brush with egg wash. Bake at 200°C/400°F for 20–22 minutes until golden. Or fry in oil at 175°C for 3–4 minutes.

The Gastrographer

Name: Empanadas
Yield: 4
Cuisine: Argentina & South America
Ingredients: 500 g plain flour; 120 g lard or butter; 1 tsp salt; 180 ml warm water; 1 Egg; 500 g minced beef; 2 large onions, finely diced; 4 Spring onions, sliced; 2 Hard-boiled eggs, chopped; 80 g green olives, sliced; 2 tsp ground cumin; 2 tsp sweet paprika; 0.5 tsp chilli flakes; generously Salt and black pepper; for egg wash Egg yolk + milk

Mapping Culinary History

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Journey Point Map Key

Ingredient originTrade or transit route

Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control