MoFo #2

Back in...I don't even know when. Some time. Not now, my brother got back form Chile and decided to make us all Empanadas like his host family had made him. He even made me some vegan ones. They were delicious. I semi recreated them a couple times.

Fact about BQEF for the Day: Many of the students live far away so they stay in a temporary residence called the Internado. Here's a quote from Bolivian Quaker Education Fund:

The Quaker village of Pallcapampa is committed to educating its boys and girls, but the 90-minute walk to high school, and two hours back, has been a serious obstacle. So an internado (supervised student residence) was established near the public secondary school in Sorata in February 2006, with 13 students staying in a safe and supportive environment during the school week.

In March 2007, the Internado moved to a larger, healthier building, a move made possible by very substantial gifts from Irish Friends.

This zine has a recipe for Saltenas and only when I was three quarters of the way through did I realize that it in fact was pretty much the same thing only better. Potatoes and seitan and green and white onions and spices and sriracha instead of a quarter cup of cayenne powder. I'm still pretty sure that has to be a typo. (I mean, mix a quarter cup of cayenne powder with water and then boil in the margarine? Does that really make it edible? Really? Someone, please enlighten me!)

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Anyways. The Saltenas (there's a curly thingy over the n that you see in some spanish words?) have a couple components-the filling and the dough.

The original recipe for the dough reads as such:
(excuse the non-vegan ingredients. The awesomer vegan version comes next!)
3 Cups Flour
1/3 Cup Margarine
2 small eggs
1 TBSP sugar
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup lukewarm water

Vegan Version:
3 cups flour
1/3 cup Earth Balance or other vegan margarine
4 tsp ground flax seed mixed in luke warm water maybe a 1/3 of a cup? maybe a quarter? something like that.
1 T sugar
1 t salt
1/3 cup luke warm water

Filling, nonvegan
1/4 cup margarine
1/4 cup ground cayenne pepper
1 tsp each cumin pepper oregano
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup cubed white onion
1/2 cup cubed green onion
3/4 lb cooked lean meat-chicken or ground turkey
1 small potato peeled, cooked, cubed
1/4 cup cooked green peas
2 T each sugar & parsley
1/2 tsp vinegar
1 tsp unflavored gelatin dissolved in 3/4 cup water

Filling Vegan(changed ingredients only:
1/4 cup earth balance (or other vegan margarine)
White Seitan from Viva Vegan
OMITTED: Gelatin

ADDED: Tofu soaked in water & black salt then pan fried

Basically it comes down to this: Melt the eb and boil the cayenne in that (I added sriracha after making the rest of the filling) then add the other spices. Add the onions followed by the potatoes, green peas sugar and parsely (I used cilantro). Add the vinegar. Ignore the step about boiling the meat in the gelatin mixed into water. Psh. Pan fry the seitan! (I used store bought because I didn't have time to make the Steamed White Seitan from Viva Vegan) Then add into the rest of the ingredients once they're all...mushy and mixed together. Well sort of mushy. Filling like, y'know?

For the dough: Melt the EB and pour into the flour mix it up and then add the rest of the ingredients. Knead. Let sit for several minutes and then knead a little more before dividing into 12 equal pieces. Roll flat.

PUT TOGETHER: Place a piece of panfried tofu (to replace the suggested hard boiled egg slice) then top with filling. Pinch sides together at the top. Repeat until all dough used up. You'll probably have a little filling left over.

Bake at 500 degrees Fahrenheit for 10-15 minutes until lightly golden on the tips and the bottom. Eat. (Devour).