Last weekend suddenly I had a craving for Empanadas de Manzana or Apple Empanadas. I never made those before, so I took one of my Spanish cookbooks on empanadas and looked up a recipe for a filling.  The difference between Spanish empanadas and empanadas from Latin America is that Spanish empanadas are usually large and circular in shape and are cut into smaller portions for consumption, whereas in Latin America empanadas are normally small and semi-circular. Anyway, it was a recipe for the filling I was looking for.
I combined this filling with an …

Sealing empanadas can be done in a number of ways. You can use an empanada press or you can crimp the edges with a fork. But if you want empanadas with an authentic look and spiral shaped edges you can use the repulgue-technique. This technique is not hard to learn but like all good things…..practice makes perfect. So, to help you here are three videos demonstrating the repulgue-technique. Notice that the people in all three video use a slightly different technique, but the result is more or less the same.

There are traditional Halloween foods, but this Halloween, you want to serve something different for your family and friends.

This recipe makes about 20 to 24 empanadas
Dough, ingredients

4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons salt
2 sticks (1 cup) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
2 tablespoons distilled white vinegar
2 large eggs
2/3 cup cold water

When I was travelling in Costa Rica with my girlfriend a couple of years ago I realy fell in love with this dish. This is a typical Costa Rican dish you can eat as breakfust, lunch or diner. Well to be honest, it didn’t matter what time of the day it was, I just ate it.

Back home I thought this would be a nice dish to complement empanadas. So now, when serving empanadas on parties, I also serve some Gallo Pinto as a side dish. As an extra you can even serve some fried plantains with it.