Salteña

Bolivia's mid-morning pastry: a baked shell of turmeric-yellow dough holding a stew set with gelatine so it melts to soup in the oven

Origin: La Paz, Sucre & Bolivia

From the journey of Wheat.

A salteña is an engineering problem solved with gelatine. The filling is a proper stew, wet enough to be a soup, and it is chilled overnight until it sets to a firm block; it is then spooned cold into the pastry, sealed, and baked, and during the bake it melts back into liquid inside a shell that has by then set hard. Bite it wrong and it runs down your wrist, which is why Bolivians eat them standing, held upright, with the first bite taken off the top corner. The dough is distinct from any other empanada pastry in South America. It is enriched with lard and sugar, coloured deep yellow with turmeric or achiote, and it bakes to a crisp, slightly sweet, biscuity shell rather than a flaky one. The braid along the seam, the repulgue, is not decoration: it is the structural weld that holds a bag of hot soup together, and salteñerías are judged partly on it. The name is generally traced to Juana Manuela Gorriti, a writer from Salta in Argentina who lived in exile in Bolivia in the early nineteenth century and is said to have sold them to support her family, so that customers asked for the pastries of la salteña, the woman from Salta. Gorriti was a real and considerable figure and the association is old, but the specific claim that she invented them is not documented and is best treated as tradition rather than fact. They are eaten between about nine and noon and effectively vanish from sale by early afternoon, which is a fixed rhythm in Bolivian cities rather than a matter of supply. A salteña at four in the afternoon marks you out.

Ingredients

Filling

600 g beef skirt or chuck, in 1cm dice
2 onions, finely chopped
3 potatoes, peeled and cut into 1cm dice
150 g peas
3 tbsp ají amarillo paste or 2 tbsp mild chilli powder
1 tbsp ground cumin
2 tsp dried oregano
600 ml beef stock
3 tbsp lard or oil
12 g powdered gelatine
2 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar

To assemble

3 hard-boiled eggs, sliced
24 green olives, halved and stoned
60 g raisins

Pastry

600 g plain flour
150 g lard, softened
60 g caster sugar
2 tsp ground turmeric
1.5 tsp salt
200 ml warm water
2 egg yolks

To finish

1 egg beaten with 1 tbsp milk, to glaze

Method

Make the filling a day ahead. Soften the onions in the lard for ten minutes, then add the ají paste, cumin, and oregano and fry for two minutes.
Add the beef and turn it in the paste, then pour in the stock, add the salt and sugar, and simmer for forty minutes until tender.
Add the diced potato and the peas and cook for a further ten minutes, until the potato is just done and the pot is distinctly soupy.
It must look far too wet. That soup is what the finished salteña contains, and a thick filling gives a dry pastry.
Sprinkle the gelatine over 4 tbsp of cold water, leave it to swell for five minutes, then stir it into the hot stew until dissolved.
Pour into a shallow tray, cool, and refrigerate overnight until set firm enough to cut into cubes.
For the pastry, rub the lard into the flour with the sugar, turmeric, and salt, then work in the yolks and warm water to a smooth, firm dough. Rest it for thirty minutes.
Divide into twelve, roll each into a 15cm round, and put a heaped spoonful of the cold set filling slightly off centre.
Top each with a slice of egg, two olive halves, and a few raisins.
Wet the rim, fold over, press out the air, and braid the seam by folding small overlapping pleats along the edge. The seam must be airtight or the filling escapes.
Sit them seam upright on a lined tray, glaze, and chill for twenty minutes so the pastry is cold going into the oven.
Bake at 220°C for twenty to twenty-five minutes until deep gold and blistered. Rest for five minutes, and eat them standing up, holding them vertically.

Notes

The gelatine is the whole technique and is not a modern shortcut; without it there is no soup inside. Chill the filling until genuinely firm, since warm filling makes the seam wet and the pastry leaks. Braid the seam properly and put it uppermost on the tray. A hot oven sets the shell before the filling melts, which is the order things must happen in. Ají amarillo paste is sold by Latin American grocers and gives the correct fruity, mild heat; a mild chilli powder with a pinch of paprika is the nearest substitute. Eat them within the hour of baking.

The Gastrographer

Name: Salteña
Prep time: 1 h
Cook time: 25 min
Total time: 2 h
Yield: 12
Cuisine: Sucre & Bolivia
Ingredients: 600 g beef skirt or chuck, in 1cm dice; 2 onions, finely chopped; 3 potatoes, peeled and cut into 1cm dice; 150 g peas; 3 tbsp ají amarillo paste or 2 tbsp mild chilli powder; 1 tbsp ground cumin; 2 tsp dried oregano; 600 ml beef stock; 3 tbsp lard or oil; 12 g powdered gelatine; 2 tsp salt; 1 tsp sugar; 3 hard-boiled eggs, sliced; 24 green olives, halved and stoned; 60 g raisins; 600 g plain flour; 150 g lard, softened; 60 g caster sugar; 2 tsp ground turmeric; 1.5 tsp salt; 200 ml warm water; 2 egg yolks; 1 egg beaten with 1 tbsp milk, to glaze

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Journey Point Map Key

Ingredient originTrade or transit route

Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control