Country Profile
Population 44 million
Area 2.8m sq km (1.1m sq miles)
Major language Spanish
Major religion Catholicism
Life expectancy 73 years (men), 80 years (women)
Currency Peso
A Brief Overview
Argentina is a country located on the continent of South America. It shares the southern half of South America with it’s neighbor Chile. Argentina is the 8th largest country in the world, and the second largest country in South America. The country was founded by Spanish colonization in the early 16th century. The people of Argentina fought for and won their Independence from Spain in the years 1810-1818. Following the war for independence was an extended period of civil war that lasted until 1861. After the end of the civil war the country began to experience massive European immigration from Spain and Italy. As a result of this immigration, most of today’s Argentine people can trace their origins to Europe. [1]
A Few Fun Facts
1. Officials in current Argentine soccer star Lionel Messi’s hometown of Rosario have banned parents from naming their children “Messi” because they said it would lead to too much mass confusion. [2]
2. In 1977, Argentina sent a pregnant woman to Antarctica in order to claim a portion of the continent. Her baby boy, named Emilio Palma, became the first human to be born in Antarctica. Argentina also held the first wedding on Antarctica, and both Chile and Argentina have issued passport stamps there.[3]
3. Argentine Spanish is referred to as lunfardo, which is a type of slang which emerged in Buenos Aires around 1900. It is more similar to Italian than Mexican Spanish and may have originated as a form of criminal slang.[4]
Argentinian Empanadas
The Dish of the Week
The Ingredients [5]
11/2lbsGround beef
3 packs of Empanada Dough (Goya brand)
3 TBSP Oil
2 Onions, chopped
2 Red bell pepper, chopped
1/2 cups Raisins
1/2 cut pitted Green olives, preferably Spanish olives
3 TBSP Cumin
1/4 TSP Cayenne pepper
1 TBSP Oregano
2 TBSP Paprika
Salt& pepper to taste
1 1/2 Cups Chicken broth
2 TSPSugar
*Olives and Raisins not pictured (sorry)
Instructions
Before we begin, I’d like to note that this recipe makes 36 empanadas.
Heat the oil in a pan on high, and brown the ground beef. Once cooked, remove with a slotted spoon and leave as much fat as possible in the pan. Turn the heat to medium and cook the onions and peppers until tender and not brown. Add your cumin, cayenne, oregano, and paprika, and cook until fragrant. Add the chicken broth, beef and any excess fat from the beef back into the pan. Turn to a simmer and and cook for about 15-20 min or until most of the liquid is evaporated. Season with salt and pepper. Stir in the raisins, and place mixture into a bowl and cover and chill. The Recipe we used said to chill for 3 hours, but we just placed ours in the freezer for about 45 min and that worked just fine! Preheat your oven to 375.To make the empanadas, your dough needs to be at room temperature. Place the dough on a work surface, and fill with about 2 TBSP of filling. After you add the filling place one olive that had been cut in half on top of the filling. Then you need to brush one side of the dough on the edge with water to help seal the empanada. Once the empanada dough is closed, use a fork to seal the edges shut.Place your empanadas on a parchment lined baking sheet. Put them in the oven for about 25-35 min*turning the tray halfway through.Although the Recipe says to cook them for 25 min ours were done about halfway through, so it took roughly 12.5 min. to cook.
The raisins and olives might seem odd, but as we were searching for a recipe, it seemed that everyone said that the empanadas wouldn’t be authentically from Argentina unless they had raisins and an olive in them. Some also said that some even add a hard boiled egg as well.
Jeremiah’s rating 5 out of 10
“It wasn’t bad, but this recipe in particular seemed kind of bland to me. Although we stuffed the empanada as much as we could with the meat, the crust (shell) of the empanada was the overwhelming thing that I could taste. If I could change up the recipe I’d put in more red peppers, olives and more seasoning on the meat. Dipping sauce also may have made it taste better. ”
“It wasn’t bad, but this recipe in particular seemed kind of bland to me. Although we stuffed the empanada as much as we could with the meat, the crust (shell) of the empanada was the overwhelming thing that I could taste. If I could change up the recipe I’d put in more red peppers, olives and more seasoning on the meat. Dipping sauce also may have made it taste better. ”
Stacie’s rating 7.5 out of 10
“This was my favorite recipe so far. Probably because it was so close to flavors I’m used to, but it was a little lacking in flavor even though I followed the recipe exactly. The empanada had similar flavor to a taco. They were also a little dry, so a dipping sauce would have been nice. ”
“This was my favorite recipe so far. Probably because it was so close to flavors I’m used to, but it was a little lacking in flavor even though I followed the recipe exactly. The empanada had similar flavor to a taco. They were also a little dry, so a dipping sauce would have been nice. ”
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