Salteña de Carne
This is a recipe that my father brought back from working in South America. Reinforcing stereotypes, I like to make these or other more involved fare so we don’t eat barbecued hamburgers and brats every night at the shop. It involves a few active steps over seven or eight hours. I start off in the morning and they are ready for dinner. It's a little work, but easier than traveling to Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, or Paraguay where you can buy them from street vendors.
The recipe makes 14 small 6 inch by 3 inch salteñas. We are usually hungry after a day’s work, I don’t think I’ve ever not doubled or tripled this recipe.
Similar to empanadas, salteñas differ in that they are cooked upright so the meat and vegetables stew inside the sealed pastry making them much juicier. They can also be made with pork or chicken, or even ground beef. I imagine they could be made without meat– but my Indian relatives assure me that ‘vegetarian’ is an old Choctaw word meaning ‘bad hunter’.
FILLING
2 medium potatoes
4 cups of beef stock (or chicken stock if using chicken or pork)
2 tablespoons canola oil
1 pound beef chuck or round (or chicken or pork), cut into ½-inch cubes
1 large onion, diced
1 medium red bell pepper, diced
2 tablespoons aji panca powder (you can use turmeric as a substitute)
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 teaspoon dried oregano
Salt, to taste
Freshly ground pepper, to taste
1/2 cup frozen peas
1 (1/4-ounce) package unflavored gelatin
1/2 cup water
14 pitted green olives, chopped
1/4 cup raisins
2 large boiled eggs, sliced
DOUGH
4 cups flour
5 tablespoons lard or vegetable shortening
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 tablespoon achiote (annatto can be used as a substitute)
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup water
1 large egg
MAKING THE FILLING
It takes about a half hour of effort, 30-40 minutes of waiting, then several hours to cool.
- Peel the potatoes and dice them into 1/2-inch cubes.
- In a saucepan, bring the stock to a boil. Add the potatoes and cook until tender when pierced with a fork. Drain the potatoes, reserving the cooking broth, and set both aside.
- In a large, heavy skillet, heat the canola oil; add the beef and sauté until browned on all sides. Remove the beef from the skillet and set aside. Remove all but 2 tablespoons of the fat remaining in the skillet.
- Add the onion, bell pepper, and aji panca paste to the skillet and sauté until the onion has softened, about 3 to 4 minutes.
- Add the cumin, paprika, and oregano and then sauté for several minutes.
- Add the beef back to the skillet and cook while stirring for 2 to 3 minutes.
- Add the reserved broth (from cooking the potatoes) to the skillet. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
- Simmer the beef and vegetables over low heat until the beef is tender (about 30 to 40 minutes). Add a bit more broth if needed.
- Season again with salt and pepper to taste. Stir in the cooked potatoes and peas and cook until heated through.
- Dissolve the gelatin in the water. Add to the beef mixture and stir well.
- Remove from the heat and transfer the filling to a casserole dish. Refrigerate until cooled completely.
Make the dough about 75 minutes before you want to eat. It is 10 minutes of effort, half an hour of waiting, then 20–25 minutes in the oven.
- Place the flour in a large bowl.
- In a small saucepan, combine the butter, lard, and achiote. Heat over medium heat until hot.
- Add the hot fat mixture to the flour and stir with a wooden spoon. Use your fingers to distribute the fat evenly through the flour until it is crumbly.
- In the same small saucepan, stir the sugar and salt into the water and heat until the sugar is dissolved, and the mixture is hot. Stir this into the flour mixture, along with the egg.
- Knead the mixture until it forms a smooth dough, adding 1 to 2 tablespoons of water if the dough seems dry. Set the dough aside for 30 minutes to an hour.
- Divide the dough into golf ball sized portions. Press each ball into a flat round and let rest for 5 minutes.
- With a rolling pin, roll each round of dough into a larger oval shape that is about 6 inches in diameter and about 1/8 inch thick.
- Preheat the oven to 375 F.
- Place 2 tablespoons of the chilled filling in the middle of each dough round and add an olive. Fold the dough in half over the filling and pinch and twist the edges together to seal the dough all the way around and create a braided look.
- Place the salteñas on a baking sheet with the braid up– this is very important– and bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until golden brown.
- Let rest until cool enough to handle. Serve and enjoy.
