Southern BBQ Pulled Pork Empanadas, Shepard's Pie Empanadas, Pizza Burger Empanadas & more

Southern BBQ Pulled Pork empanadas

Shepard's Pie empanadas

BBQ Pulled Chicken empanadas

Pizza Burger empanadas

BBQ Tri meat: pulled pork, chicken, beef

Gourmet Empanadas (cooked)

One of the luxuries of staying at an apartment for a vacation, is the option for home cooking while in a new city. After 5 nights of great restaurants in Santiago, Chile, last night was prime time for some homemade gourmet empanadas.

I've never quite understood how in the empanada eating culture, the options are always so limited. Perhaps it's due to the prevalence of the tasty filled treat in Argentina, where culinary variety is not something the natives find to be of importance. But in the culture of cooking empanadas at home, the empanada could be the greatest invention to "left overs".

Of course, in Argentina, one can scour the refrigerator section of their local supermercado and find rows and rows of "ready made" empanada crusts. In the US, etc, one can save some time with a "ready made" pie crust. Oddly, in Santiago, where the empanadas are a bit larger and just as popular, the only option last night was to make our own empanadas shells...which was well worth it. No need for short-cuts.

Southern BBQ Pulled Pork Empanada:

It's pretty basic: take the USA BBQ favorite of slow roasted or smoked pork shoulder, hand separate the meat, and combine with a tasty BBQ sauce. We topped the meat off with some sauteed and delicate onions.

BBQ Pulled Pork Empanada (before)

BBQ Pulled Pork Empanada (cooked)

Shepard's Pie Empanada:

The "carne" empanada is one of the more popular options around the world. Whether it's "sauve" or "picante", the real hit-or-miss factor can often be in the texture of the meat used. When the meat is in a paste form, it's usually a strikeout. If you're fortunate enough to get one with large hand cut chunks of beef, it can be good...depending on how long the meat has been sitting out. The most tasty beef empanadas I've had are usually the most simple: a light sautee of ground beef with some onion, hard boiled, egg, etc.

But as a child growing up eating Hachis Parmentier, a French Shepard’s Pie, and being a fan of both carne and various potato empnadas, it's certainly time for an empanada form of the classic pie that combines them both.

Shepard's Pie empanada (before)

This is one of those empanada types that allows for all sorts of flexibility. We opted for the simple approach: garlic mashed potatoes, with peppered sauteed beef & grilled diced onions, topped with a few sauteed onion strips. It's also a great way to work in vegetables like corn, carrots, peas, etc as another layer.

Shepard's Pie empanada (cooked)

Pizza Burger Empanada:

Like the late-night diner food, but in empanada form. Parents used to buying snacks for their kids, or high school and college kids with limited cooking skills would think of this as a gourmet "hot pocket".

We tried two versions. One was more of a burger form, with a mini beef patty, topped with mozzarella cheese and tomato sauce. The other version we mixed together sauteed beef, diced mozzarella cheese and tomato sauce.

BBQ Pulled Chicken Empanada:

Very similar to the pork version above. Pulled chicken meat, mixed with BBQ sauce and wrapped up. This is more similar to the classic "pollo" empanada, but with BBQ sauce as the sauce base.

Tri-Meat BBQ Empanada:

This one was made like a Neapolitan ice cream in presentation, but with meat: BBQ pork, BBQ Chicken, BBQ Beef, each one mixed in BBQ sauce and placed in a column, and topped with sauteed onions.

Since you can rarely find new and fun options for empanadas at restaurants, there's always the option to try something new at home on your own.

Feel free to share your empanada concoctions here, any photos, links, etc too, and I'll add them here!

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1st Annual Buenos Aires Chili Cookoff

For any expats or travelers in Buenos Aires missing the mythical taste sensation of "spicy", you are a few days away from appeasing your desire in the form of the 1st Annual BA Chili Cookoff. I'll have more info on the event as I'll be likely reviewing it. But if you're in Buenos Aires and looking for something fun to do, be sure to come. Proceeds will support the Buenos Aires Shankees Baseball Team.




1st Annual BA Chili Cookoff:

PLACE:
Genó Beer Bar, Guatemala 5499, Barrio Palermo, Buenos Aires


DATE/TIME:
Sunday, 3rd of July, 1pm. Volunteers need to be there about 11am. Cooks need to be in position about noon. Judges and the General Public come in about 1pm to kick everything off.

Winners will be announced at 4pm or when there is no more chili, whichever comes first.

PRICES:
5 peso Chili (175 cc)
5 peso Cornbread from El Tejano
5 peso Tortillas de Pancho Villa
5 peso Cookies and Goodies from Sugar & Spice
5 peso Draft Beer de Quilmes and Buenos Aires largest selection of Imported Beers from GENÓ Beer Bar

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BBQ Wild Boar Ribs (Ribs de Jabali)

I love wild boar. I love BBQ ribs. So let's have them both.

Rather than having to hunt down Jabali meat, luckily BBQ Wild Boar Ribs are an option at Oro & Cándido  in Palermo. In general with boar, the quality all depends on where it comes from. Feral Swine can be very good when hunted naturally and can be equal when farm raised. And of course, there is poorer quality when the jabali feeds on less natural foods in human population rich places.

With the Ribs de Jabali option at Oro & Cándido, you do run into a familiar problem with the menus in Buenos Aires. The actual menu listing is "ribs de jabali". But the use of the English word "ribs" can at times be a problem. "Ribs" on any English menu in North America would likely mean exactly what you are used to: either standard, long ribs or baby back ribs. But at times in Buenos Aires, you'll see the word "rib" used, but the cut is actually not what you'd expect. At Oro & Cándido, the "Ribs de Jabali" aren't a rack of ribs. They are instead costillas de jabali, more like a rack of lamb in the cut of meat.

So the primary letdown is that when ordering "Ribs de Jabali", you aren't actually getting ribs that you're expect.

Once you get past that, you can try to appreciate it. The meat however, is less than great. In smothering with BBQ sauce, you can dress up this pig a bit.

I've had better jabali at a number of places. Not great, not bad at Oro & Cándido. But I'm not sure I would recommend at this particular restaurant.  

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BBQ Gnocchi & Pulled Pork

This recipe will likely be what I'm ultimately remembered for. Any other accomplishment will likely be shadowed by the pairing of American BBQ with the tasty gnocchi ;). Give it a try and let me know if you like it!

BBQ Gnocchi with Pulled Pork

BBQ Gnocchi as a side dish with maque choux and BBQ chicken

Two months ago, I wrote about a dish I enjoy, BBQ Spaghetti. Many in the south know about it, mostly in the Memphis and northern Mississippi region. But it hasn't really picked up as much in the rest of the country. In fact, I can't recall seeing it on a regular menu at a BBQ joint outside that region, only as a special on occasion.

Whether I'm cooking BBQ on my own, or visiting a BBQ joint, I always prefer some sort of potato side dish. At home, that always means roasted garlic red mashed potatoes, along with a vegetable as the second side (grilled zucchini). At times, it might be a bean dish of some sort as the second side.

But my interest in BBQ Spaghetti got me to think of perhaps an even better pairing...



By swapping spaghetti for gnocchi, I could have my cake and eat it too: a potato pasta!




So here are two different ways to enjoy this tasty dish:


Pulled Pork & BBQ Gnocchi:

BBQ Gnocchi with Pulled Pork

Here's I used sweet and tender rib meat, but traditional pork shoulder used for pulled pork will work just as well.

1) Prepare the pork as you see fit, either rib meat or pork shoulder. If you have the many hours to smoke the meat correctly, go for it.
Shortcut: If you're using left-over pork, that will work fine too.



2) Make the gnocchi.

Gnocchi is an easy pasta to make on your own.
- Just take 1 pound of potatoes and boil until soft.
- in a separate pot, boil enough water to eventually cook the gnocchi
- Once the potatoes are complete, peel and set aside.
- Mash the potatoes
- in a mixing bowl or on a pasta board, combine the potatoes with 1/2 cup of flour.
- Add a pinch of salt, pinch of onion powder, pinch of garlic powder, small pinch of cayenne
- add about half an egg to the mix/pasta well
- knead until you have a dough ball
- cut pieces and form into the desired shapes, roughly 1/2 inch to an inch in size
- set aside

Shortcut: if you don't feel like making the gnocchi from scratch, you can always just buy pre-made gnocchi.

Alternative: sweet potato gnocchi is a perfect alternative...perhaps even the preferred choice.


3) Make your gnocchi sauce:

This will be a combination of ingredients to make along with your BBQ sauce choice. I'll pass on providing a BBQ sauce recipe and just assume most people trying this at home will be using a bottled sauce. No judgement will be passed if you opt to do that ;).

- Dice 1 cup of onion, 1 cup of red bell pepper, 1 cup of green pepper
- mince 4-5 garlic cloves to give you about a tablespoon of garlic. You can also opt to roast the 5 cloves of garlic and add them later in the process.
- in a sauce pan, heat up 1 tablespoon of oil and sauté the garlic and onion.
- add the peppers to the sauce pan
- add a teaspoon of salt, and ground black pepper to taste
- reduce the heat and cover so that the onions start to caramelize and the peppers soften.


4) Finishing the Sauce:
Whether you've prepared your own BBQ sauce or using a bottled sauce, follow the same steps.
- remove the diced and sautéed mixture from heat
- add about a cup of BBQ sauce for starters
- mix all ingredients in the pan, cover, and let sit.


5) Cooking the Gnocchi:
At this time, you'll want to add the gnocchi to the boiling water. Cook for about a minute and place in an ice bath.


6) Putting it all together:
- In the empty pot you used to boil the gnochi, you can now add the completed sauce from the sauce pan.
- Now add the meat and the gnocchi and gently mix as to not damage the gnocchi, but to be sure to complete cover each one with sauce.
- If the gnocchi and BBQ pork mixture is too lightly covered in BBQ sauce, you can always add more BBQ sauce from your own recipe or bottle you're using.



Plate, eat, and enjoy.



BBQ Chicken with BBQ Gnocchi and Marque Choux

In addition to the recipe above where the primary meal is the BBQ Gnocchi, you can also enjoy it as a side dish. Just follow the same steps above to prepare the gnocchi and the sauce. Then just add it as a side dish to whatever BBQ meal you have in mind. Below is an example with a BBQ chicken breast along with maque choux as a side dish.

The 3 item combination might have been even better with collard greens, green beans or grilled zuchinni to add a little green to the dish.

And prepared on it's own, it's a vegetarian BBQ option too.

BBQ gnocchi as a side dish with BBQ chicken and marque choux

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BBQ Baby Back Ribs from Kansas

There aren't too many options for fall-off-the-bone BBQ ribs in Buenos Aires. For all the great meat dishes in the country, so much of the meat options require strict grilling. The idea of slow smoking meat for 6 hours seems alien to many chefs, almost sacreligious. 

I can't count the number of times I sought out places for BBQ ribs (pechito de cerdo) and even found locations that announce them as "BBQ". But most of the time, they aren't. 

Take La Carranzita in Palermo for example. They just take a rack of ribs, throw them on the grill, and put some kind of sauce on them. You can imagine how tough they area: chewy in the middle, burnt on the outside, and just too much work to even get any meat of of them. Even worse is when these same restaurants refuse to use a real barbacoa sauce and instead tries to make their own. And that's what they do at La Carranzita...they  seem to just take a bottle of ketchup, add some sugar and call is "BBQ sauce". 

Luckily, when a rib lover need a BBQ fix and doesn't want to put in an entire day to smoke them, there is Kansas in Palermo. 

I figured it was finally time to take some photogs of their ribs.

The ribs they offer are only baby back, which to me are like the Southwest Airlines of BBQ ribs. But they fall off the bone and don't taste like they've been pre-boiled to be tender. They have a nice smoky flavor and the sauce is excellent as well. Sides are french fries and coleslaw, but I swapped them out for candied batatas and grilled zucchini. 

Overall, they probably aren't much better than baby back ribs you'd get at an American Chili's. But for BA, it's the best of the best. 

The menu has a ton of other great options and specials. When I went this past Sunday, they had grilled swordfish on the menu...and that's a fish I rarely find here. 

They also have a killer dessert menu. Below you'll find their New York style cheesecake, in a frutilla sauce and topped with white chocolate shavings. Good stuff. 

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Memphis Minnie's BBQ Joint in San Francisco

Virgil's BBQ in New York was a nice change from typical Argentinian parilla's. But I went to Virgil's my first day in the United States...and I'm here for 3 weeks. So I had to try some new places this trip.

Upon a recommendation, I went to Memphis Minnie's BBQ joint on Haight St. Couldn't ask for a better meal. I ordered the St. Louis Ribs and Memphis meat combo. So the ribs were smoked with dry rub and bare for whatever sauce I wanted. The meat was slow cooked/smoked pork shoulder that was juicy and had the perfect texture. Their side dish options are solid, with big chunks of sweet potato and smoked beans as my choices...and the included cornbread.

The photo does not do the quality of the meal any justice.

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Memphis BBQ Ribs from Virgil's

I've been to well over 100 BBQ joints in the United States over the years. In the past, I'd hop in the car and go on month long road trips with my pre-cell phone, paper directory of BBQ locations. Once I had a cell phone and 7 years later and iPhone, it made it that much easier to go on BBQ exploration.

So it's at times embarrassing when I tell people I meet in places like Memphis and Arkansas, that my favorite Memphis style rib, or any BBQ, is in fact in New York City. Even worse, is that it is in Time's Square. In my defense, Virgil's has been a landmark and was in Time's Square back before the drugs and prostitutes were replaced by Disney plays and corporate chains.

I often go out of my way to get to Virgil's. Sometimes it's just a random trip from California to New York to go there. Other times, it's planning a 2 day stop in New York before heading to Europe. Or last week, I opted to fly to New York first from my home in Buenos Aires, before heading to California for 2 weeks. When it comes to Virgil's, it's worth it.


There are a number of items on the menu that you won't regret getting.

But the gauge of a good BBQ joint is in the ribs. You can dress up pulled pork with different sauces, but a good rib will prove itself without the need for sauce.

Through my many excursions there, I was told by the staff to try their chicken wings. They marinate them for 3-4 days, are smoked, and the staff prides themselves that it' all about the flavor, not just splashing a ton of hot sauce on them. I knew I didn't have any room in my stomach for a full rack of ribs, mashed potatoes, grilled vegetables and cornbread AND the wings, so I didn't order them. But the staff still brought me a plate free of charge just so I would try them. Can't beat that service.

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BBQ Spaghetti

When most people think of American BBQ, it's usually just pulled pork, pork and beef ribs, brisket and perhaps chicken that come to memory. But as BBQ fans know, each region of the country has it's own style of preparation as well as sauces.

And in the Memphis region, BBQ has no limits.

Known primarily for it's preparation style for ribs (slow cooked, smoked, with a dry rub instead of sauce). But it's also the home to some unique takes on BBQ. In Memphis and northwest Mississippi, you will often see "BBQ Spaghetti" on the menu...something you will rarely see in other areas of the country.

There are a number of ways to prepare the dish. For my own version, I keep the sauce light, so the flavor of the spices comes out better.


Here's a basic recipe to use as a starting point:



This is a dish that for me best utilizes any left over BBQ pork from earlier in the day, or a day before.

* Prepare a small amount of your own spice mixture that you prefer with your BBQ. For me, this is my own dry rub I use to prepare ribs. No need to share secrets here...each person has their own method.

* Cook/heat the pork in your BBQ or an oven, preserving any juices that are retained. you can also do a quick reheat in a pan on the stove.

* Cook the spaghetti with the amount of salt you prefer during boiling (best if you make your own pasta rather than store bought)

* In a sauce pan, cook some diced onion in a light amount of cooking oil. For each pound of spaghetti you are cooking, you should have 1/2 cup of onion. So if cooking a 1 lb box of spaghetti, you'll want 1/2 cup of onion. Green and/or Red Bell Peppers are an optional ingredient you can include).

* When the onions start to caramelize, add sugar to taste (1/2 in size of the amount of onion you're using).

* Add your own pre-prepared BBQ sauce and any liquid smoke you want added.

* Strain the spaghetti and rinse off the startch

* Place the spaghetti in a mixing bowl

* For my own take, I then add the dry rub to the spaghetti, so that each piece of pasta has a nice dusting of the dry rub flavor

* Next add the sauce you prepared from the stove and mix with the spaghetti

* Strain and of the cooked pork juice in the mixing bowl and stir again

* Either serve and top with the cooked pork or add the pork in the mixing bowl, stir, and serve.



It's that easy. Enjoy!

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Home Cooking: Louisiana Style BBQ

My first rib smoking session here in BA: 6 hour slow smoked ribs, meat fallin' off the bone with my homemade BBQ sauce. Sides are roasted garlic mashed potatoes & maque choux

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