By Karen Hursh Graber, writing from Mexico
Over 500 years ago, the Spanish Conquest began leaving a culinary imprint that is still evident in Latin American cooking. Modern chefs, while following time-honored recipes, create variations adapted to current food trends and availability of regional ingredients.
In Mexico and South America, this means that a basic dish such as the empanada will be prepared in ways that reflect the tastes and foodstuffs of individual countries, including Chile, Argentina, Peru and Ecuador, among others.
A Festival of Fillings
The empanada is a flour and fat-based dough, stuffed with sweet or savory ingredients, and baked or fried. The endless choice of fillings, plus the two distinctly different cooking methods, make empanadas some of the most versatile restaurant offerings possible.
The name empanada on a menu immediately indicates a dish of Spanish or Latin American origin, but once opened via fork or bite, it can reveal distinctive and inventive local interpretations.
Brought to the Americas from Galicia at the end of the Spanish colonial era, empanadas had been part of the Spanish diet since the 13th century Moorish invasion, with their name being derived from the verb empanar, meaning to wrap or coat in bread. It is believed that empanadas, as well as Italian calzones, are adaptations of the Arabic meat filled pies called samosas.
However, today’s empanadas are filled with a wide array of ingredients other than meat. In many places, the repulgue, or fold that holds the filling in the pastry, is a means of identifying what is inside. Depending on the region or eating establishment, different folds (including crimped and braided edges) signal meat, cheese, seafood, vegetables, and sweets.
In Mexico, the empanada dough also varies regionally, from the corn dough filled with local fish in Tabasco, to the plantain dough of Veracruz stuffed with olive and raisin-laced picadillo. Also in Veracruz, a puff pastry dough is used to make empanadas called volovanes (an adaptation of the French vol-au-vent) filled with pineapple, tuna, or ham and cheese.
In Chiapas, empanadas called chiapacorceñas are filled with spiced pork, and in Central Mexico, a squash and mushroom filling is popular. At Solo Empanadas in Mexico City, specialties include empanadas italianas made with tomato, basil and mozzarella cheese, and empanadas humitas filled with a traditional Mexican corn filling. Sweet empanadas here include apple and pineapple versions.
At Escarapela Condesa, also in the Federal District, empanada fillings include spinach with white sauce, and at Delicias, the empanadas are Mexican renditions of the Cornish pasties brought to the country by Welsh miners. These are filled with red mole, green mole, tinga, and poblano chiles with cream. A dessert version is filled with arroz con leche.
In Chile, where the empanada is considered a national institution, they are found in venues from restaurants to supermarkets, ready for breakfast, lunch, snacks, and parties where cocktail size versions are served.
At Empanadas Zunino in Santiago, in operation since 1930, the specialty is the pino, which features a juicy beef and onion filling. At Empanadas Paula A, also in Santiago, pino empanadas can be ordered with or without merquén, a Chilean seasoning made from a dried, smoked chile and coriander. In addition to the usual meat and cheese fillings, the restaurant also offers shrimp, oyster, clam and mixed seafood empanadas.
And in Chile’s port city of Valparaiso, Delicias Express offers over 80 different empanadas, including those made with goat cheese or gouda, alone or in combination with mushrooms, shrimp, razor clams, chives, tuna, tomato, corn, spinach, chorizo, salami, olives or chicken. The classic Latin American combination of cheese and quince is also featured, as are salmon and capers, hearts of palm, arugula, and asparagus.
In Argentina, with its strong tradition of Italian-influenced fare, El Sanjuanino in Buenos Aires serves an empanada caprese filled with the ingredients of an Italian caprese salad. The restaurant also offers creamed corn empanadas, as well as those filled with roquefort.
Roquefort is also in a filling at Buenos Aires’ Cumen-Cumen Empanadas Caseras, in combination with celery and walnuts. Additionally, this establishment prepares empanadas made with mozzarella and pancetta or chorizo with ají chile. And La Morada restaurant, also in the Argentine capital city, serves empanadas pascualinas, of Uruguayan origin, with a filling of spinach, cheese, and ham paté.
Regional varieties of Argentine empanadas are the salteña, named for Salta province and filled with beef, eggs and bell peppers; the tripe empanadas of Tucuman province; and the picadillo and egg version in Mendoza. Rabbit is also a customary filling in the countryside, and for a sweet treat, empanadas are filled with dulce de leche milk caramel.
In Peru, empanadas (besides containing meat and cheese combinations, as well as the Andean crop quinoa) are often filled with traditional dishes adapted to use as dough fillings. Lomo saltado, a beef sirloin and peppers stir fry, is a common filling, as are ají de gallina, a chicken stew with yellow ají chiles, and anticuchos, a street snack of beef hearts.
These are included in empanadas on the menu at Empanadas Paulistas in Lima. The restaurant gives diners a choice of various house made salsas, such as an herb and chile combination, a guacamole, or a mayonnaise and rocoto chile blend, to accompany the empanadas.
In Ecuador, where empanadas are often a street snack, the distinctive empanadas de viento, or “air empanadas,” are fried cheese empanadas, light, crispy, and most often topped with a sprinkling of sugar. And Empanadas La Fiera, in Cuenca, offers a twist on the dough itself, with vegetable purees incorporated into the masa. Carrots, beets, different colored bell peppers and herbs tint the dough to bright hues that indicate the filling inside.
Adding Empanadas to Your Menu
Chefs seeking new ideas for their restaurants’ menus can find inspiration from the astounding number of possibilities empanadas provide. Whether to bake or fry is the first decision—after that, the sky is the limit to what a chef can create!
Here are some tips:
The Fillings: Sticking with tried and true meat and cheese varieties is a simple option. Or follow the lead of Mexican and Peruvian chefs by filling empanadas with favorite main dish items such as Mexican mole and tinga, or Peruvian lomo saltado or ají de gallina. If you customers enjoy those main dishes, they should like them as empanadas, too.
And any taco filling, from carnitas to rajas con crema, can be adapted for use in empanadas. Offer salsas to accompany different varieties, such as carne asada empanadas served with chimichurri, or chorizo empanadas with guacamole.
The Preparation: When adapting these dishes as empanada fillings, remember to chop more finely than usual. The steak, pepper and onion strips that have been prepped for fajitas need to be cut smaller for empanadas. Guisados and other stews need to be cooked down a bit, so that they are not too runny as a filling. The same goes for desserts, such as arroz con leche, that are doing double duty in empanadas.
Try using different folds to indicate fillings: Differentiate meat from vegetarian, cut an initial into the top of the pastry, as is done with pie crust, or experiment with vegetable purees or coloring to indicate differences in filling.
Storage: Lay out the empanadas on a sheet pan, not touching each other, so that they do not freeze together. Once frozen, they can be stored in freezer bags. Unbaked empanadas can be put into the oven straight from the freezer. Previously baked ones should be reheated in a low oven. Fully cooked empanadas should reach an internal temperature of 165°F for optimal food safety.
Baked empanadas can be frozen for up to three months, tightly sealed. It is preferable to freeze them unbaked, since fully baked ones lose some of their tender, flaky quality. Any size, from large discs to smaller appetizer or hors d’oeuvre empanadas, can be frozen and reheated, and almost any filling is possible. The fried versions are better when freshly fried, but can be stored in the freezer, well drained of frying fat.
Using what is on hand, along with a dose of creativity, is the key to turning empanadas into popular and profitable menu items.
Karen Hursh Graber is a regular contributor to el Restaurante magazine.