So, my little self thought "Self, you should do that" So I am going to. I'm stealing my mom's memory jar and will start pulling out little slips. But until that time I am stealing memories from her blog. (As you are welcome to steal them from mine if you would like to participate. Which I recommend because it will be awesome! Come to think of it, I recommend certain family members, grandparents, aunts, sisters, MOTHER, who do not have a blog to get a blog just for the sole purpose of memory Mondays. Think of what it can do for your posterity: MOTHER and GRANDMOTHER!!)
By the way, I am perfectly aware that today isn't Monday. Just overlook that fact as I am sure "Memory Monday" will frequently not be on a Monday..but you can't call it memory Friday...you just can't. Its not cool.
So, without further ado, today's "Memory Monday"
DESCRIBE ONE OF YOUR SPOUSE'S FAVORITE RECIPES (or friend, significant other, etc.) SHARE THE RECIPE
Brandon served his mission in Argentina, and fortunately, he LOVED the food (most of it) He is often retelling stories of eating alligator or armadillo, you know, fun things like that. However, what he talks about the most is empanadas! (Well, empanadas and milenasa. The milenasa recipe is on the piggy blog so look there)
So, together Brandon and I searched and searched for the perfect empanada recipe. We tried out several different fillings and doughs and finally came up with the perfect empanadas. At least, perfect for us. I even went over to some family friends who are Argentine and made authentic Argentine empanadas with them. While our empanadas are not entirely authentic, they are entirely and authentically us. What I love about this recipe is it was a labor of love. We worked together to perfect it and we work together to make it EVERYTIME we make it. (We don't usually cook together, so this is special)
Brandon's job is always to make the dough. I always make the filling. And we always eat way more than necessary...
Empanadas
Dough:
4 cups unbleached flour
4 tablespoons vegetable shortening
½ tablespoon salt
Combine flour and vegetable shortening (just like making a pie dough) Dissolve salt in a cup with warm water. Add enough water and salt mix to flour and shortening to make a dough. Roll out thin (1/8”-1/4” – we like to use a pasta roller) cut into circles about 4 – 4 ½” in diameter place 1 tablespoon of filling inside (recipe follows). Press and crimp the edges together. Bake in a 450 degree oven or pan fry. (we prefer them fried) A mix of oil and lard works the best for this, as it the lard helps the oil fry hotter.
Filling: Be sure to make this the night before. But, Brandon says if you have a sudden urge for empanadas you don’t have to make it the day before. The overall empanada is just more juicy and flavorful if you do.
1 bunch green onions diced
2 onion diced
1 green pepper diced
½ lb ground beef
Cumin
1 can diced tomatoes (put through the food processor so the chunks are smaller. The tomatoes aren't authentic, I just like them.)
Salt & pepper
Paprika
¼ cup green olives finely chopped (optional)
Garlic powder
Sauté onions and green pepper, add beef, salt, pepper, paprika, and cumin (only add a little right now, no more than ½ tsp of each) and cook thoroughly. Then add the tomatoes. It doesn’t really take the whole can of tomatoes, you just want to add enough for flavor and color, being sure to cook it long enough that the majority of the liquid cooks out. Transfer to a bowl, cover, and place in refrigerator over night. Right before assembling the empanadas add some garlic powder (not much) and green olives. Taste, adding additional spice to your taste. Some people like to add golden raisins or hard boiled egg slices to their meat mixture (we don't). We ALWAYS add chunks of pepper jack cheese (we are SO cheese people).
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