What are some good South American food Recipes are there? I need it for a geography project on Wednesday.?!
Answers: Any site links would be great, thanks ?
These Latin American pastries, filled with seafood, meat, cheese, vegetables or fruit are wildly popular. Thought to have originated in Spain, where the Empanada Festival is part of Galician culture, the name comes from empanar, or to coat with bread. Variations of this form of portable meals are found in Cornish pasties, Italian calzone, or turnovers.
Though empanadas are most associated with Chile and Argentina, many South American countries have their own versions. All recipes use a flour shell, some more bread-like than others, and the fillings vary by chef or locale.
To begin with, the pastry shell is flour, egg, oil, lard or shortening, and a liquid, either water, broth or milk. Some recipes call for yeast or wheat germ or salt. All dough is kneaded, rolled out to size, filled as desired, then baked.
Some recipes call for browning the tops under a broiler, then baking, to approximate the look of an old brick oven. Some cooks prefer to fry their empanadas, and this is especially tasty with bite-sized cheese empanadas, or empanaditas. Many cooks, not wishing to make the dough by hand, use prepared pie crusts, or puff pastry for their empanadas. While tasty, they're not the real thing.
Once cooked, cooled, and securely wrapped, empanadas can be frozen, although in my house there are never enough left over to freeze. These two Empanada recipes are ones I grew up with.
Empanadas can be cocktail or appetizer sized, filled with cheese. They can be plate sized, filled with a meat and vegetable mix for a main dish, or smaller, filled with fruit for dessert.
Empanadas de Carne
Ingredients
12 - 15 lb empanada shells
1 tbsp. olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2-3 garlic cloves, chopped
1 lb ground beef
1 tbsp oregano
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp cumin
1/2 cup green olives, chopped
1/2 cup raisins (optional)
1 hard-boiled egg, chopped
salt and white pepper to taste
walter
sugar
butter
Instructions
Defrost the empanada shells.
Heat the oil and sautee the onion until golden. Add the garlic and sautee for a couple of minutes. Add the ground beef and brown. Drain off the fat. Add the spices and cook until the meat is done. Add the olives, raisin and egg, mix well.
Scoop the meat mixture (about a tablespoon worth) onto the shell. Fold the shell, forming a semi-circle. Close the empanada by passing a fork though its open edge, merging both sides of the shell.
Brush the tops of the empanadas with a bit of water or milk. Sprinkle with sugar. Bake in oven at 400 F. until golden
Or make the dough
Pastry
2 8-ounce packages cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup butter, softened
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
http://gosouthamerica.about.com/gi/dynam...
http://gosouthamerica.about.com/cs/south...
http://www.mrbreakfast.com/recipe1.asp
http://search.foodnetwork.com/food/recip...
http://www.foodtv.ca/Search/SearchResult...
http://search.myrecipes.com/search.html?...