In Central and South American countries where I have lived or neighbouring countries, there is a food that represents the country called Empanada. They look like Korean flat dumplings, and the contents inside are very diverse, such as cheese, beef, chicken and ham, to suit your taste, and the outside is coated with flour blood, so it is fried until crispy. Of course, the style differs from country to country.
It is sometimes used for breakfast, as a meal substitute or as a snack, and when I drink beer, I also enjoy eating it with hot empanadas.
Would it be an exaggeration to say that it is the food of your soul?
By the way, among them, Venezuelan empanadas are not made of wheat flour, but of cornstarch (?). The particles look like grains of sand that are big enough to be called starch, but anyway, this corn flour is the main ingredient to make arepa, the representative food of Venezuela.
My family is quite familiar with arepa. While living there, many acquaintances made arepa and ate it with various fillings, and some Koreans also stuffed it with kimchi. The older boy has memories of that time, so he likes Arepa quite a lot.
Anyway, is that the effect?
A while ago, Cacharepa, a Venezuelan food brand here, sells frozen cheese empanadas, so I bought one without thinking much about it and served it to my kids as a snack. When I asked him if it was that good, he said that the texture of the empanada made with corn flour was amazing.
I also vaguely remembered learning how to make it, and I bought the ingredients because I thought it would be better to make it myself instead of freezing it. There is nothing called material. I bought just that yellow cornmeal and mozzarella cheese (ground).
The corn flour in the yellow bag is like longing for my hometown. Nostalgia of living abroad for the first time....
Add 2 cups of cornmeal, 2 and a half cups of water and 1 tablespoon of salt, mix well and put in the fridge for 2 hours to ripen a bit.
Then knead well, make a circle in the plastic, fill it with cheese, fold it in half and shape the ends with a bowl of rice. I wanted to make it bigger enough to sell, but I didn't have many tricks yet, so I thought it would break if I made it bigger, so I made it half the size.
The size is like the candy seller, so there are 13 of them.
They fried it in hot oil and the two children took it out just in time for the farewell.
It tastes better when you eat it hot, you know how it feels!
The brown spots on the cute little empanadas must have spilled here and there as they filled the cheese. silly mama...
The result is a great success.
I didn't put as much cheese as sold (I thought it would burst if I filled it too much...), but the kids said the dough was much richer than frozen. I had sandwiches with 6 big kids and 3 little kids.
Next time I'll have to mix the ham sandwich with garlic mayo to fill the inside. Because it's sweet too. You know that feeling!
So, I'm proud that the kids ate well today and finished the day.
