We also made the salsa during this time by grating a fresh tomato into a bowl, adding a little lemon juice and some salt - so simple and yet so delicious!
Next comes the trickier part, making the actual empanada. You take a circle of dough in your hand and put a little bit of water on half of the outside of the circle. Next, you add in the filling (not too much or too little), then comes the folding and closing. This involves folding the dough in half over the filling and pressing it closed on the outside circle. Then by pinching and twisting the dough, it forms the shape of what empanadas look like! There are supposed to be 13 folds in an empanada, which for a beginner like me, did not quite go as planned.
The next step is to put it in boiling oil for about three minutes until it is crispy. Finally, it is time to eat them - wrap a napkin around them and open your legs so the juice does not drip on you! Yummy and easy!
Each part of the country has a different take on empanadas. There are the smallest ones, salteñas; the Riojana, one made with potatoes, olives, hard-boiled eggs, raisins, and greens; Jujeña, made with llama meat and native fauna of the region. This is a food most Argentinians know how to cook, whether fried or oven baked. It takes very few ingredients, one of them being red meat which is what Argentina is known for. It is a staple at every local restaurant and household.
