Learning at any price.

Hopefully it was worthwhile, chopping my finger like I did. How did I hurt it, you may ask. Well, I did something today that I’ve wanted to do for quite some time. I learned how to make empanadas from scratch (individual hand—held pot pies). And even better, I learned how to make empanadas salteñas, which is a particular variety from the province of Salta, by far known as the best empanadas to be found in Argentina. I just happen to have a maid from Salta, so she taught me!

What I really wanted to learn even more than the filling (cuz I could have gotten a recipe) was how to make the tapitas from scratch. I have never worked well with dough, and felt that it would be a complete disaster to even attempt this. But it seems pretty easy to do. Now the trick will be attempting to do it myself! Pati made it look so easy, which I know is not true, but at least it didn’t look impossible. Check back in a week and see how it goes!!

Ingredients: 1 kg flour, about 1/3 cup of melted beef grease, warm water and salt. Mixed together until it no longer sticks to the hands. See how easy it seems? We’ll see how it goes!

Every once in a while she told me “you know what else this dough is used for?” So now I have a list of other things I can make, if I ever master the dough!!

Anyway, while I was cutting up the green onions, I got a little too close to my finger and - pow! instant blood. Let me tell you, it was interesting trying to finish the task of the day - cutting, mixing, shaping, and stuffing the tapitas. But all in all it was worth it; the empanadas were absolutely delicious!