download stuffed flatbreads recipes here

Better late than never is what they taught me in middle school. So here are the recipes from last week’s stuffy class, ready to go for willy-nilly mix-and-matching, as we got down to at the crust of things.

Dough: for Parotha or Empanada
The standard dough I ad(a/o)pted for Empanadas has

1 kilogram of flour
100 grams of oil

And that may not mean much to you, or me, or anybody else. Visually, we want to mix the flour (with a little salt thrown in) with small amounts of oil at a time, until there is a slightly crumbly consistency. Something on your way to a pie-crust but not nearly that pea-like. If you don’t have enough oil in the dough, it will likely crack and not taste as good. And if there’s too much, you won’t like the taste either. So, like everything else in life, it’s a balance of

Do what feels right to You
Expand your You to mean Everybody

Once you’ve mastered that, you can begin adding water. Again, slowly, so the dough is not too wet. Pour a few ounces of water with one hand and knead with the other, until the dough is smooth and not sticky. You can pretend to play volleyball with it. After the dough has been formed, let it rest for half an hour or so, to further “become what it is”.

Meanwhile…

Tortilla Masa
The flour we use for tortillas is called masa harina, and is a corn product made by cooking whole corn kernels with wood ash or lime (calcium carbonate). There’s a mystical-scientific chemical reaction that takes place (we call it “nixtamalization”) which forms (reveals?) complete proteins in the corn. The corn is then rinsed thoroughly and then ground into a paste with water. This process, generally done everyday in villages around rural Mexico and Central America, has been industrialized for our benefit into a product called “Maseca” that you can buy at most supermarkets. The corn used is genetically modified white corn grown in Iowa. They use this “Maseca”, which includes many different chemicals and preservatives (for free!) all over tortillerias in Mexico as well. According to Shakespeare:

“Hell hath no fury like the commodity market’s scorn”

Since the dough is nothing more than mixing this “Maseca” with water, I’m only here to tell you to watch out: this is not wheat flour, and it is not easy. Keep palms and fingertips moist as you make the racquetballs out of the masa, and don’t be afraid to start from scratch. Professional Mexican ladies roll out their thin tortillas between two sheets of plastic and a metal press. In El Salvador they are done by hand (techniques demonstrated in class) and come out much thicker (think pizza pocket) and heartier. You, in Sequim, are free to do whatever you please.

Empanada Filling
The main commandment of the empanada filling is not to poke out of the dough. Within that textural limitation, whole realms of culinary delight open up to you. You can make Indian curries or applesauce or grated carrot salads or whatever strikes your fancy. In class, we cut

Zucchini
Tomato
Broccoli

into small pieces and sautéed them over medium-heat in olive oil. The correct order of insertion depends on hardness and density – I think we put in the zuke first because the broccoli was quite small, and the tomato much later, when the hard corners of the zukes had already been sanded down.

After taking the vegetables off the heat, somebody snuck in and added grated Trailhead cheese from the local Port Townsend creamery, and freshly minced Italian parsley.

Parotha Filling
These parothas are called aloo parothas (a-loooooooo), where aloo means potato.

Almost 1 steamed potato per person (larger ones, maybe russets)
Equal quantities of garlic and green chile (finely chopped)
½ red onion, diced
A few morsels of clove, cinnamon, black peppercorns (ground together)

The potatoes should be cooked but firm. Tender. We want to grate them (once they’ve cooled) into a large bowl, then add the spices, some salt, the onion, ginger, and green chile. Mix together briefly, until uniform. My mother would probably add a little sugar and a little lemon juice (if the dough wasn’t too watery).

The most important part, as some of our students quickly figured out, is the tasting. If the potatoes aren’t good, the aloo parotha don’t have a chance. Taste, add salt, taste, add ginger, ad delirium…

Squash Filling
For the papusas, I took one butternut squash (it’s officially fall, isn’t it?), sliced it in half, and baked it faced down in the oven while waiting for the potatoes to steam.  We then scraped out the tender pulp (in the oven for 40 minutes at 400, perhaps?) and mixed it with

Salt
fromage blanc
freshly chopped Italian parsley.

Squash and fromage blanc is a combination worthy of alternation with mashed potatoes on your fall table. Hot and steamy and soft and squishy and sweet and – if you care to add some black pepper or jalapeños – even a bit spicy.

Assembly
To assembly the parothas and papusas, first roll out a golf ball’s worth of dough to a disc slightly larger than a Marvin Gaye compact disc. Groove. For the parothas, specialized rolling equipment helps, but you can use a normal rolling pin as well. For the papusas, it’s best to use your hands (as noted above).

For the parothas, have an assistant turn the potato mixture into racquetball-sized spheres. They will look too big for your dough. It’s okay – gluten stretches. Place the sphere on top of the disc and stretch up one edge of the circumference to the top of the sphere. Repeat in 5-7 places around the disc, pulling each point over the top of the sphere so there is no gap. When you have the wrapped ball, you can slightly gently flatten into a flying saucer shape, taking care not to puncture the dough. After 15 seconds of gentle squeezing and patting, you can put the fat disc back on your floured board, and roll out into another disc, as you did the first time. It’s now ready to hand to your assistant who is cooking. Ideally, if you don’t have assistants, it will take exactly as long to roll one as to cook one, so you’ll be moving right along.

For the papusas, it’s a little different. The ball of squash should be smaller than the original ball of masa harina, and you will not be able to pull the dough over the top, but rather, fold up the edges around the filling like a closing flower. Join the dough at the top and gently press the sphere back into a fat tortilla.

The parothas are cooked without oil, and drizzled with oil on top while the bottom is cooking. When they are flipped, the new bottom will have already been oiled.

The papusas are generally cooked with a little more oil. With both, keep in mind their thickness: the heat should be low enough that you can cook through without burning the outside.

As for the empanadas, they can be considerably simpler. Roll out the dough thinner than the parothas, to a similar Marvin Gaye-sized compact disc. Place a dollop of vegetable filling in the middle and top with extra cheese if we have it. Pull one side of the disc over the other side, folding into a bumpy half-moon. Now work around the edges, gently pressing the two sides together, until they are one. Once fused, you can try any of the variety of braids (“repulgadas”) we learned in class. The empanadas can be baked (about 10 minutes), pan-fried, or deep-fried. You can also brush them with a little big of egg so they have that nice sheen you see in bakery counters.

Salsa
Dipping sauces are very important. My book is full of them, in fact. One pattern that I really love experimenting with involves carrots (here we use Nash’s Best’s Carrot’s) and is variously called “carrot salsa”, “carrot hummus”, or “carrot mayonnaise.”

Steam some carrots and blend or mash them together with:

Toasted sesame seeds
Raw diced onion
Olive oil
Salt
Lemon juice or vinegar (very little)
Grated ginger

The proportions are the magic experimentation of it. Start with the carrots and slowly add other ingredients as you see fit. If you want it to be runnier, add more water or oil. If you want it to be thicker, act appropriately. It’s all under control: your control.

This time we had some extra fromage blanc from the empanada fillings, and added that for a creamier edge. It was delicious.

*

Thank you to everyone who came. Please send any questions to me at

ankurbhai@mangolandia.org

Ankur

SEPTEMBER 30TH, 2008