For those who don’t know, an empananda is a Puerto Rican/Latin American fried dough stuffed with either meat or potatoes. Here’s a picture.
Today I bought some frozen empanada dough. In the frig are many kinds of fruit, including apples. Taco Bell’s dessert empanadas popped into my head. I also have bananas. I also have herries, pears, mushrooms, tomatoes, rice, peppers. . …
I’ve got a deep fryer and a heavy duty cast iron skillet-- empanadas are usually deep fried and not baked-- I’m thinking a dessert-y one would do better in a pan with butter.
I like shredded pork with diced green olives. Ground or stewed chicken with tomatos. I had codfish once, tasty!
A desert empanada is basically just a hand-pie. Toss apple slices or cherries with a little flour, a little sugar, a little cinnamon. Stuff into crust/empanada wrapper and seal really well. Bake 325 for 15 minutes or until brown.
Oh, but I can have regular old empanadas anytime I want. That’s the beauty of living amongst Hispanics.
Bananas sprinkled with cinnamon and maybe vanilla, or poblanos and cheddar or. . . something else that I can’t find at Millennium Chicken.*
*Millennium Chicken is a small South American restaurant by me where you can get ceviche, maduros y tostones, papas rellenas and bacalaitos along with empanadas. Why they named themselves Millennium Chicken is anybody’s guess.
That’s odd because the only empanada I knew growing (Mexican-American family in central Washington state) was a dessert. Apple and pineapple were common fillings, but the most common and tastiest was pumpkin. Is this a difference between Mexican and Puerto Rican cuisine?
Could be. The first un-savory one I had was the Taco Bell one. Usually it had meat in it. Ground beef being the most popular but chicken and pork were not scarce.
As one who is investigating this as thoroughly as humanly possible, almost every culture has some form of fried dough. It is the Spanish-speaking countries which call them empanadas which comes from the word empanar - to cover in bread.
Ironically, the Argentine can be either baked or fried (I haven’t written up my fried Argentine experience yet). But of all I tasted, the fried Argentine were the most substantial with different varieties; 90% savory. I am especially fond of one called Criola with beef, egg, and raisin as well as a Spinach-stuffed empanada.
Mom used to make them about once a month on a Sunday. I think she was really just cleaning out the fridge. She would make the dough from scratch and then we’d put *everything *in there. Mushrooms, olives (both black and green), beef, chicken, potatoes, tomatoes, and just about anything else in the fridge. Then we baked them.
It was a fun time for the entire family (even my fussy sister) to get together and make a family meal. We would usually make several dozen at once. All the kids would sneak one or two as soon as they came out of the oven and mom pretended not to notice us burning our tongues. Then we’d have dinner of however many we could eat. We froze the rest for school/work lunches or just snacks until the next grazing period.
Told The Boy to bring some liqueur or maybe vodka-- his decision. I’m gonna pit and chop the some cherries and cook it with a little sugar and the drink. Wrap that up and fry it in butter.
AND I’ll saute some white and baby portabella mushrooms with a little onion and garlic and a splash of Wostersheistershire sauce. Boil some diced potatoes to add. That’s gonna get fried in a little achiote oil.
