Wednesday, August 3, 2011

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!

Saturday, July 30, 2011

Seafood from Aqui Esta Coco in Santiago, Chile




Despite being only the second night in Santiago, there's an  excellent chance this will be the best meal had.

I had heard good things about Aqui Esta Coco and it's convenient location in Providencia, just a few blocks from my apartment, made it a "must visit". 

The menu is quite impressive. A comfortable 3 pages with seafood all but 4 of the options. Regardless of what type of seafood you like, you'll find it on the menu. And upon being served, everything seemed excellent in both quality and presentation. 

As for the meal itself. A tasty appetizer, two entrees, two desserts, a good bottle of cabernet, 2 glasses of a sauvignon blanc I paired with the entrees. Total cost with tip was 76.000, about $166US.

Patagonian scallops in a coconut saffron sauce with sautéed spinach at Aqui de Coco in Samtiago, Chile

Corvina (sea bass) with pulpo (octopus), squid and mussels with potatoes from Aqui de Coco in Santiago, Chile

One of the tastiest dishes I've had to date: grilled swordfish with the skin removed, served on top of butter Patagonian potato mash mixed with corn, peas, carrots, in a black butter sauce.

Corvina with capers in a butter sauce with quinoa roma

Chestnut Crème brûlée

Heaven: creamy coconut flan with whipped cream, candied Chilean hazelnuts and a sugary candied glass of pleasure from Aqui Esta Coco in Santiago, Chile.

Chocolatey bomb: rich chocolate cake with liquor icing, with chocolate helado and toasted candied macadamia nuts.






Update: August 6, 2011

With only two nights left for me in Santiago, and 1 for the person accompanying me on this Santiago trip, we opted to pass on exploring another seafood restaurant in favor of something we knew an liked. So it was back to Aqui Esta Coco for a final meal.

This time I had the Corvina in a butter and caper sauce with quinoa roma (photo below) and she had the seafood risotto. Afterwards, we shared a chestnut Crème brûlée.


Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Hot Pastrami & Potato Knish from Carnegie Deli

Hot Pastrami with Potato Knish from Carnegie Deli

"It's a tourist trap", "It's too touristy". This is what I heard for years from New Yorkers, even when I had to walk past Carnegie Deli on my way to work every day. But just months after moving away, the hot pastrami and the potato knish from Carnegie were something I missed the most.

Upon moving to Los Angeles, I had some solace knowing that it wouldn't be like trying to find a Jewish deli in the middle of Idaho. It was LA, with plenty of traditional deli options.

So I've goto Kanter's. The pastrami wasn't flavorful enough for me and the knish seemed more like a microwaved potato hot pocket. I'd go to Langers, another legend, and it was a similar result. Eventually, I found it easiest to just drive to Las Vegas, and go the Carnegie Deli at the Mirage.

If you're in New York, you'll have a ton of options. Just in the midtown area near 53rd and 7th Ave, you'll find a number of delis. And their is also Katz's which is a homerun. And you can goto a small unknown deli and have an excellent meal.

But for the most basic of basics, a hot pastrami sandwich and a potato knish with gravy, Carnegie is hard to beat.






Being outside of the US for the past 6 months, and turkey being a hard thing to regularly come by in Buenos Aires, I had a craving for a turkey sandwich as well.

So one of my first food stops this trip was to the Stage Deli, which has one of the better hot open face turkey sandwiches around. When I told the Brazilian waiter I was visiting from Buenos Aires and hadn't had turkey in some time, he even brought me a side of cranberry.

Hot Open Faced Turkey with mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce

You'd think that would be enough to appease my turkey fixin'. But no. A week later in San Francisco, I has almost the same meal...

 






Pastrami Photo credit to Ken Dern

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

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

Saturday, June 11, 2011

Chicago Food Photos

I don't have many food photos to share from this quick Chicago trip. It was supposed to be a two night visit to catch (2) Yankees @ Cubs games. But due to poor weather in New York and a cancelled flight, the trip ended up being just a single night.

So just the basics...

Cheese & sausage deep dish pizza from Giordano's at their
223 W. JACKSON BLVD, Chicago location
Deep Dish Pizza is fairly self-explanatory: It's more of a pie in it's form: crust on the bottom and sides and stuffed with meat and cheese combinations, then topped with tomatoes. Each pie takes about 30-45 minutes to cook, so plan accordingly.


Perhaps my favorite meal of the trip. An Italian Beef from Al's Beef from the original location. Got hot and sweet peppers, double dipped, and served unwrapped


The Italian Beef sandwich is similar to the popular French Dip...thinly sliced pieces of roast beef on a hard roll and dipped in au jous. But for the Italian beef, it includes sweet and hot peppers giving it a more powerful flavor. It's messy food to each but well worth it.

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