I have been hankering for empanadas lately so I decided to make my own. Again, the latest edition of Saveur had an article called lunch at your leisure and empanadas was one of the food items. Tuesday I prepped the dough so it would have time to chill. Then I realized it was cleaning day and I hate greasing up the kitchen just after it has been cleaned. So I blew off a run date (I did have the excuse of snowy, icy weather...) so I quickly drove to market for red peppers. Yes, that was all that I was missing from my Fridge. Ugh. I usually have red peppers so - whatever. I drove to market.
It was amazing how fast I chopped everything up and fried it in the iron skillet - getting grease everywhere. Luckily I did not chop any fingers into the mix. The dough looked great and the filling tasted okay. It did not taste as yummy as the Puerto Rican, or Colombian or Spanish empanadas I have eaten so I am not sure what is missing as I did not have a chance to compare the other version's recipes. I will look into it when I do get to make the Argentine version. I was going to make them Tuesday night and I already forget what happened but it is now Friday and I must them. The dough is on the counter - actually it is in a cabinet - warming up because it got hard in the Fridge. If I left it on the counter, my cats would have devoured it as they did the raisin cinnamon swirl bread the other day.
Hopefully I can quickly make some Argentine empanadas like a Rachel Ray show then roll out on the pub cruisers for a First Friday Redux. The real First Friday in December was a bust because it poured cats and dogs and it sounds like no one when out because Lancaster City is "re-doing" First Friday celebrations and shopping tonight.
