Moe's Empanadas Mendocinas

This recipe has been a major work in progress for several years now.  While in Argentina, I had many opportunities to sample empanadas but I never got a recipe of any sort from anyone (a major fail on my part).  Once I returned back home I began to miss them and have worked hard to try and replicate what I ate on my mission in Mendoza.  While I am still perfecting them, I feel they are now good enough to share.

This filling recipe is large...I used half of it and made 3 dozen empanadas.  I froze the rest for another day.

Filling:
2 lbs ground beef
4 medium onions, chopped
1/2 cup butter*
3 1/2 Tbsp Paprika
2 1/2 Tbsp Chili Powder
2 Tbsp Oregano
1 Tbsp Cumin
Sugar to taste (about 1 Tbsp)
salt and pepper to taste (1 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp pepper)

Heat butter in large pan and saute onions until they are translucent (about 8 minutes).  Add meat and cook till done.  While cooking add spices.

Two important parts to making meat:
1. Don't dry it out (don't cook all the butter out of the mix), *if you don't want to use so much butter or if you do cook it out and it looks dry, add 1/2 cup of a chicken,beef, or vegetable broth and let it reduce a bit so it cooks and reduces a bit into the meat.
2. Refrigerate!  Don't use hot filling.  Let it cool for a while so the filling doesn't make the dough soggy when you put them together.

Dough:
(two batches of this dough made 3 dozen empanadas)
Mix:
2 1/4 cup flour
1 tsp salt
Add:
1 cube (1/2 cup) cold butter, cut in small cubes

Crumble the butter into the flour mix till all butter is smoothed out and mixed in (consistency of cornmeal)

In a separate bowl, whisk 1 egg and add 1/3 cup milk and 1 Tbsp white vinegar.

Make a well in the flour/butter  and pour in liquid.  Work into dough, Take ball of dough, flatten into a disc and wrap in seran wrap and let rest in fridge until ready to use.

Preparation:
 Boil 6 eggs (for 3 dozen)
1 can green olives
1 egg, beaten

Divide dough into two parts to make it easier to roll out.  On floured surface,  roll out and cut out desired size circles (tapas).

Place meat in the center with a piece of boiled egg and a few green olive slices. (Don't over fill)

Rub a bit of water on the edge before sealing up and press with a fork. (In Argentina they  do a very pretty twist around the edge...but I stink at it...so a fork pressed along the edge will do...sigh)

Whisk an egg.  Use a brush to coat each empanada with egg before sticking in oven at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes.

 Enjoy!

 

Ode to Butternut {Part Two}

Happy October!  Be excited, be very excited.  I introduced my love of Butternut squash with a killer dish but the second part of this tribute goes above and beyond the call of tasty dishes and is one of my all-time FAVORITES!  (And the best part is that you can use your leftovers from {Ode to Butternut--Part One})

This dish also showcases one of my other favorite ingredients: {The Shallot}  The shallot is like a garlic-onion superhero.  It has a strong and buttery flavor and shallots are "besties" with great fall foods like our friend the Butternut.  I just love 'em.

This dish has one of my favorite herbs--{Sage} and we'll talk about this more later, but sage is AWESOME!

In my exploration for great raviolis I came across this gem of a recipe from Food Network's fabulous chef, Emeril Lagasse (original recipe found here).

For my pasta dough I use a great recipe found at fromargentinawithlove.com.  Rebecca Caro has many great recipes from Argentine cuisine and some wonderful tutorials.

On we go:  The dough--

Dough Recipe
3 cups flour
2 eggs
1/2 Tbsp Olive Oil
1 tsp salt
10 Tbsp water

Create a flour well wide and deep enough for about 1 1/2 cups of fluid.  Sprinkle salt in it and crack two eggs into it.  Add oil and begin to blend together in well with a fork.  Slowly add 10 Tbsp of water while mixing and adding flour from the walls of the well.  When all the water is added put that fork down and get messy.  Work dough and knead (adding extra flour if needed) for around 10 minutes until elastic and smooth.  Wrap in Seran wrap and let it rest for an hour (ish)  When you have filling ready, divide in two and roll out as thin as you can get it.

I use a dough press for these raviolis, as shown below.  The back serves as a "cookie cutter" of sorts, then you flip it over lay your dough on it, add filling and wet one side before folding it over and pressing.  Its quick, slick and they look beautiful when your done.  Make sure to use flour through out the rolling, filling process.

Butternut Squash Ravioli Filling

Saute for 1 minute:

2 Tbsp butter

6 Tbsp minced shallots

Add 2 cup squash puree (***use your leftovers from Part One)
stir 2 or 3 minutes till dried a little

Add salt and pepper to taste and add 4-6 Tbsp cream

Stir 2 or 3 minutes and remove from heat

Add 6 Tbsp Parmesan and pinch of nutmeg

Add large scoop of Ricotta Cheese (around 3/4 to 1 cup)

Make into ravioli pasta and boil in salt water 2 or 3 minutes

Sauce:

8 Tbsp butter

Add 12 leaves sage

Cook butter in saucepan on stove over medium high heat until butter starts to brown.   Add sage leaves and serve over raviolis.  Garnish with freshly grated Parmesan cheese.

Ode to Butternut {Part One}

 Its officially fall in Southwest Oregon. The weather was sunny with a crisp cool breeze today and Little Miss and I decided to have an adventure while the boys were off at Preschool. We headed out on a country road past fields of llamas and grazing cattle and found ourselves at the most breathtaking place--The Wildrose Vineyard.













We quickly made friends with the owner, Carlos, who was kind enough to show us around and let me take some pictures. We had fun tasting the grapes and breathing in the sweet morning air. Just being in that vineyard transported me back to Argentina. I spent over a year walking daily through similar vineyards in the Mendoza region as a missionary five, maybe it was six...it was several years ago. Tasting the grapes took me back to a place and a people that I love and miss every day. Its crazy how food invokes memories. That is one reason I love cooking food from Argentina. So on with my story.

Last Sunday I arrived at church and found a box full of produce with the sign "TAKE ME" attached.  This is actually quite a common thing but I was overjoyed to see a rare treasure and could not resist snatching it.
Bless you dear soul out there who gave up a beautiful Butternut Squash.

One cold day in Argentina I went to lunch at the home of a young mother from our church. She was busy with her sweet daughters and had turned cooking responsibilities over to her brother who was visiting and happened to be a chef. He made one of the the most delightful meals I've ever had and whats more...it involved squash. I must note here that I fell in love with the Butternut in Argentina. They use it in soups and in the crock-pot with roast and its delicious. This wonderful man boiled the squash and then mashed it like potatoes. He added powdered milk, salt and pepper and the powerhouse spice {NUTMEG}. Nutmeg and Butternut are friends, good friends. Then he made a Milanesa de Pollo (aka chicken fried chicken) and the culinary genious put the two together to make the most beautiful fusion of flavor. After returning home my sister-in-law helped me improve the dish further by roasting the squash and I usually do that now instead of the mash but either are good. So here you go, try it and love it.

 Moe's Butternut Squash and Milanesa de Pollo

{Squash} 

1 medium sized Butternut (cut off rind, gut and cube)
1-2 tsp minced garlic
1-2 Tbsp Olive Oil
salt & pepper
nutmeg
grated Parmesan cheese
{Chicken}
1 to 1 1/2 lbs Chicken Breast Tenderloins
1 1/2 cup bread crumbs (or cracker crumbs)
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp lemon zest
salt and pepper
2-3 eggs beaten (may add a little milk)

Place cubed squash in a casserole dish and sprinkle garlic, oil and spices on top (just a dash of nutmeg can really do the trick). Place tin foil over and roast at high heat in oven (400 degrees or so) until tender. When finished grate some fresh Parmesan on top and let melt before serving (I've used Romano before too).

Mix bread crumbs (cracker crumbs are tasty too--I use Ritz) with oregano, salt and pepper, and lemon zest. Pound your chicken strips (I put wax paper over them so they don't splatter). Dip in egg and then coat well with crumbs. Fry in oil till cooked through and golden brown. Serve with lemons {lemon and chicken are good friends} to squeeze on the meat. Take a piece of chicken and a piece of butternut together on your fork, the flavor together is what really makes this AMAZING. Happy Fall!

P.S. For a small family like ours (2 adults, 3 kiddos) and with children who still think they hate squash no matter what...the poor things, we will have left overs and that is exciting because the leftovers are the key ingredient in another dynamite dish that I will share with you in my next post...Be excited!

Raviolis Caseros (Homemade) !!!

So I've been missing Argentina a lot lately...seems like whenever I get thinking about it I start making lots of Argentine meals in our home.  Lately its been Raviolis Caseros and I am so in love!!!  The recipe for the Raviolis came from one of my new favorite websites: fromargentinawithlove.  This woman is amazing, I love her recipes (and she just gave birth to a gorgeous little girl, theres a picture on her website).  Anyway, her recipe for the dough and for the filling are amazing.  In the pictures below I used a different filling recipe--Butternut Squash Raviolis in Buttered Sage Sauce (from Food Network's Emeril Lagasse)--really yummy too if you want a change from the standard cheese filling.  Here are the recipes:

Recipe with full instruction for Raviolis Caseros

Butternut Squash Raviolis with a Sage Brown Butter Sauce

For Sauce on Top:

There is a great recipe on FromArgentinaWithLove included at the bottom of the Ravioli Recipe

(I use that recipe on pizzas and gnocchis), but I have my own creation from my time in Argentina that I like on the raviolis:

Moe's Marinara

1 tbsp olive oil

2-3 tbsp garlic

(saute til starting to brown)

Add:

1 can diced tomatoes

1 can tomato sauce

A bunch of basil

A bunch of Italian Seasoning

Salt to taste (1 tsp ish)

Sugar to taste (3 soupspoons ish)

Lemon Juice (1/8 cup ish)

1-2 Sweet Italian Sausage (I cook up and freeze so I can just throw it in)

Canned Mushrooms (opt)

Olives (opt)

Just a note about making your own raviolis.  It appears hard and time consuming...the truth is: it will be unless you plan it right.  If you make your sauce, you filling, your dough, the raviolis and try and do it all right before dinner, it will NOT work.  Plan ahead, make them in bulk so that the work you put in rewards you more than once.  I make things like this when my husband has to study late.  I hate being alone at night so its relaxing to me to turn on a movie and make a big batch of pasta to freeze.  Also, start early so you can let the dough rest and let the pasta dry for awhile after its all been assembled.  Making the dough on the counter is relaxing and fun (and my husband was so impressed by it :), the dough is soft and relaxing to work with, the end result is heaven on a platter, so if you enjoy that sort of thing you will love it, and the ravioli rolling pin makes all the difference, its so fast!

Gnocchi Sauce (and an improvement on the Gnocchi itself)

I found the COOLEST website: http://fromargentinawithlove.typepad.com/from_argentina_with_love/
If you want a recipe from Argentina she has it and she is super nice!  I was so excited when I found her website I almost cried.  She married a guy from the Mendoza area (where I served my mission) and they travel there every year to visit his family.  If you want a recipe that is authentic from the Mendoza area she will most likely have it.

She had this sauce posted on her site for gnocchi sauce and it was so good:

Gnocchi Sauce

6 tsp minced garlic (6 garlic cloves)

5 Tbsp olive oil

Put oil in skillet on medium heat.  Saute garlic till golden brown.  (don’t burn)

Add 2 regular cans diced tomatoes

Juice from half a lemon

¾ tsp salt

2 tsp sugar

A big handful of dried basil

Raise to medium high, cover and simmer for 30 minutesa

I've also perfected my gnocchi's by changing an Olive Garden recipe that I have used in the past, so this is my adapted version that makes them perfect--my hubby was so impressed!

Gnocchis

4 packed cups of mashed potatoes

1 ½ cup flour

2 eggs

½ tsp salt

Mix in mixer to form soft dough

Use extra flour when rolling out

Argentine Locro (A Soup with Everything in it)

This is a special occasion meal, they make this to celebrate their May Revolution Day in Argentina (25 de Mayo)  it is super filling and loaded with calories.  My kids liked it.  The Quiquirrimichi sauce adds great flavor and kick, and they put a white cheese over top. 



Saute the below ingredients until onions are translucent and meat is cooked
11 oz Italian sausage or chorizo (cut into ~1 in pieces)
11 oz stew meat--beef
11 oz smoked bacon (cut into tiny pieces)
1 white onion diced
2 cloves garlic (diced)

ADD to meat:

2 cups white corn (I used frozen, but fresh is best)
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp paprika
2 bay leaves
1/2 tsp black ground pepper
dash of salt

stir over medium heat for 5-10 minutes then pour into a crock pot with:

2 cups boiling water and 1 cube vegetable bullion
1 large can hominy (with juice)
1 cup cubed butternut squash
1 cup cubed sweet potato
1 cup cubed baking potato
2 Roma tomatoes in wedges
2 cans Navy Beans

Let cook in crock pot for 3-5 hours on high, during the last hour mash the soup to desired thickness.

Serve with cheese (I used mozzarella) and quiquirimichi sauce (put on a little or a lot depending on how much heat you want)

QUIQUIRIMICHI SAUCE:

Saute:
3T olive oil
1 red bell peppers (finely diced)
1 medium white onion (finely diced)
1 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp red chili flakes (or to taste)
a pinch of chili powder
salt and pepper to taste