Marga's Foodblog

Other than asado, empanadas are probaby Argentina's most traditional food. They are also one of its most popular. They are widely available at restaurants, cafes, bakeries, pizzerias and, of course, empanada shops. I've always held that empanadas are the perfect food. They are portable, you can eat them anywhere (often with little mess), some are good hot or cold, eat one and it's a snack, eat a few and you have a whole meal. Mike seems to have adopted this philosophy as he pretty much had an empanada or two (or three or four) every day we were in Argentina. Of course, he swore that mine are better than anything he tried, but he's a smart man.

As far as I can tell there are three basic types of empanadas: fritas, al horno and souffle. Baked empanadas are most common and most popular, they are lower in fat, easier to make (deep friers are still a novelty in Argentina) and they can be eaten at room temperature or reheated without loss in quality. Fried empanadas are considered more traditional, and when we've had them we've remarked at how good they are. Still, I don't think they are probably worth the extra calories. Souffle empanadas are a variant of fried empanadas, according to my quick research on the web they are made by taking the empanadas out of a cold refrigerator and quickly introducing them into very hot oil. The results are fluffier empanada with a drier dough. We only had them the last two days we were in Argentina, at an empanada place in La Plata called El Ladrillo (where my parents used to buy them decades ago) and they were amazingly good. Yep, even better than mine.

As for fillings, the standard ones are beef, chicken, ham and cheese and humita (corn). Also popular are Roquefort cheese (they must mix it with another cheese, I'd like to find out which), Napolitanas (with tomato, ham and cheese), onion and spinach. In some places we tried empanadas árabes, which had a different shape and a spicier beef filling - they were yummy. And at El Ladrillo I ordered an empanada called "Americana" which ended up being my favorite, its filling consisted of cheese, pancetta and plums.

This trip we spent sometime in the north west of the country so we had the opportunity of trying empanadas from Salta and Tucumán. These empanadas are famed in the rest of Argentina for being particularly different and delicious, but we didn't think so. The empanada salteñas might be a little bit smaller than their southern cousins and have potato as well as beef in their filling. They are spiced quite similarly, however, and the potato adds little to the overall effect. The empanadas tucumanas use chopped rather than ground beef, and this may lead to a tastier, juicier empanada if cooked by the right people. We had them at the hole-in-the-wall empanada place in front of the central plaza and found them disgusting. The meat was tough, extremely fatty and pretty much impossible to eat.

Despite eating empanadas pretty much every day while in Argentina, Mike still wants more - so I'll be making some for a potluck on Sunday and a movie night on Tuesday. I have a bunch of pulled pork I made last night in the fridge - maybe I should try pulled pork empanadas, what do you think?