Gather your friends — it’s time to make empanadas!
Some foods are made for a crowd. To consume them, yes, but also to make them. Empanadas are one of those foods. Popular in South America, these filled pastries join a long list of such handheld pastries that are a part of many cultures: Think pasties, calzones, turnovers, Hot Pockets — you get the picture. Empanadas likely originated in Portugal, but are believed to have been influenced by India’s samosas, so they’ve circled the globe.
A flaky crust traditionally made with lard, but now more likely butter, shelters a filling often made with ground beef, olives, hard-boiled eggs and sometimes raisins. But empanadas are open to all sorts of options, from vegetarian combos to dessert fruits.
Whatever you fill them with, consider the joys of making them with friends or family members — because there’s some work to do.
There’s the dough to make, the filling to mix, then rolling, dolloping, crimping and glazing. Now, there’s nothing wrong with you spending a Zen-like afternoon alone methodically
moving through the steps.
But when you gather a group, talents emerge. Someone in the bunch has a knack for rolling dough into perfect circles. Another’s taste buds are essential to a perfectly seasoned filling.
Someone can parcel out the rightsize dollops, while others take on the crimping duties, getting better and more consistent with each empanada. Task the most fastidious person with brushing each packet with the egg glaze, getting into all the crevices for a perfectly burnished pastry.
You can choose to chat amiably, or crank up the tunes. With a good crew, you can turn out dozens of empanadas in a few hours, which is great because they freeze well, in both entree-size pockets or smaller snack-size bites.
We’ve chosen a vegetable-cheese filling, mostly because it’s delicious, but also because its creamy nature makes a filling that’s a little easier to handle than the more crumbly groundmeat versions. For traditionalists, recipes for beefy picadillo abound on the internet.
But as we’re being urged to eat more colorful vegetables, we like this combo of sweet potato, sweet corn and red peppers, bound with cream and feta cheeses and given a little heat with jalapeno. A cool cilantro cream sauce complements the flavors. For those who crave a little more gusto, a feisty chimichurri sauce would fill the bill.
So gather your friends for an empanada afternoon. It’s how communities have cooked for centuries. Come together.