Day 21 - Bolivia! Salteñas for Breakfast - Up Next, Bosnia and Herzegovina

 Salteñas

Bolivia (Sucre) (SA): Today's adventure took me to Bolivia, and since it's Father's Day and our family typically celebrates with a big breakfast, I decided to search for a traditional Bolivian breakfast and so settled on Saltenas,  small pastry filled with meat and vegetables, slightly sweetened with sugar and served alongside fruit, of which Bolivia has an abundant variety.  

But, before I get into the culture, history and food of Bolivia, much, much love to the fathers in my life. And to my next door neighbor and surrogate, Dad whom I adore, Mr. David Moore.  Happy Father's Day!! 

Liam - My husband and father extraordinaire of our beautiful boys, Ian and Tim

My Dad, Bill Scoble

My Step Dad, Michael Drezner

Now, about the beautiful country of Bolivia...

Bolivia is largely characterized by harsh mountain landscapes and thick jungle which prevented large scale immigration by Europeans – and the native Indians have held onto many of their traditions, with some remote villages remaining virtually untouched for centuries.

Bolivia's  indigenous people are  Native American with the mixed Spanish cultural elements of their ancestors' traditions. The Spanish-speaking population mainly follows the Western customs. Bolivian culture has many Inca, Aymara and other indigenous influences in religion, music and clothing.

The high altitude of most Andean tourist sites – its two biggest attractions, including La Paz the world’s highest capital city, and Lake Titicaca, are both higher than the top of Europe’s tallest mountain – makes it a rough place to travel for all those but the most adventurous travelers and tourists.

Bolivia is also the poorest country in South America, and the tourism infrastructure is not as developed as some of its richer neighbors, so those wishing to have a pampered experience probably wouldn't appreciate the history and beauty of this lovely country.

The Food: Bolivia has a diversity of geographical zones with varied climate, culture and food. Bolivian cuisine has great variety of dishes mainly meat, fish and poultry blended with herbs and spices. The diet also consists of fresh fruit and vegetables.

Some traditional dishes include Majao which is a rice dish with eggs,beef and fried banana, ‘Silpancho’ meat served with rice and potatoes, Pacumutu is a rice dish with grilled beef, fried yucca and cheese, ‘Saltenas’ and ‘Empanadas’ which are meat or vegetable pies, ‘Locro’ is a soup made with rice, chicken and banana and ‘Chicharron de Pacu’ made with the local Pacu fish, rice and yucca.

The Process: So here's the scoop on the recipe...I was planning to serve it for breakfast, but all the preparation took so long that it ended up being brunch. I should have made the filling the night before, but we were out partying last night with our wonderful friends the Farley's and other hockey families, so that just didn't happen!

Get the basic ingredients together

Making Saltenas is a production process, and as long as it took (about 3 hours), it was really fun and totally worth it. Like many traditional dishes, I wish I could learn to make them alongside the women and men who make them in their  countries, but this method will have to do!

Cook up the spices, onions, scallions, peas and sugar

  

Make the dough for the pastry

Make 50 balls of dough, roll out to 5" circles, and fill with a heaping tsp. of filling

 

Fill, fold, brush with glaze and bake in hot over = really, really, really HOT kitchen on a 90 degree morning!

Final Assessment: Okay, first of all, I cut back on the amount of oil used in the recipe because I couldn't bring myself to cook the meat and vegetables in a CUP of oil. Also, the meat mixture didn't thicken up the way it should of, so I added a little flour, which worked fine. Next, I ended up quickly pulsing the meat mixture in the food processor to get it to the right small size and consistency. Lastly, this recipe made a HUGE amount of filling - as it is, the recipe makes 50 Saltenas so I had filling left over.

However - they were DELICIOUS, spicy, fun to eat and pairing them with mango was a great compliment from the heat of the filling!

Salteñas

• 1 cup lard or margarine
  1 cup ground spicy red pepper (cayenne) mixed with water
  ½ tablespoon ground cumin
  ½ tablespoon black ground pepper
  ½ tablespoon crumbled oregano
  1½ tablespoon salt
  2 cups white onion, cut into small cubes
  1½ cups green onion, finely chopped
  3 pounds lean meat, cut into small cubes
  1 cup potato, peeled, cooked, and cut into small cubes
  ½ cup cooked green peas
  ¼ cup granulated sugar
  ½ tablespoon vinegar
  ½ cup parsley, finely chopped
  2 spoonfuls unflavored gelatin dissolved in 3 cups water
  ½ black olive per salteña
  3 raisins per salteña
  1 slice of boiled egg per salteña

Preparation:

1. In a casserole add the margarine and the spicy red pepper. Set to boil over high heat until the margarine separates from the pepper. Next add cumin, ground black pepper, oregano, and salt. Let cook for ten minutes over low heat so that the mixture does not stick. Stir constantly. Next add the white onion and let it cook for five more minutes. Finally add the green onion.
2. Remove the casserole from the heat, add the sugar, vinegar, parsley, potato and cooked peas.
3. In another casserole add the three gelatin cups. Let it cook over high heat and as soon as it starts to boil, add the meat. Mix quickly and remove from the heat.
4. Mix the first preparation with the gelatin and meat. Let it cool in the refrigerator one night or until it thickens. If wanted, add the olives, raisins and egg before it thickens or add them directly on the dough when preparing the salteñas.

DOUGH
Ingredients:

12 cups flour
1½ cups lard or margarine (boiling)
6 whole eggs
½ cup sugar
3 teaspoons salt
2¼ cups lukewarm water (more or less)

Preparation:

1. Sift the flour in a bowl and add the boiling lard or margarine. Mix quickly with a wood spoon. Let it cool for a few minutes and add the eggs, the sugar and lukewarm water with salt. Knead until getting a dry dough. Cover the dough with a kitchen towel  and let it rest for ten minutes.
2. Divide all the dough into fifty small balls and thin them out one by one with a roller, until getting round-shaped pieces (about ¼ of and inch thick by 5 inches of diameter).
3. On each round-shaped piece put a spoonful of the filling with the olive, raisins and egg, if these ingredients were not mixed before.
4. Dampen the edges of each piece with water, fold each one and join the edges very well so that each salteña is closed perfectly. Leave the closing on top.
5. Put salteñas, on a backing sheet sprinkled with flour. Place each salteña separate from the next one.  Bake them at a high temperature (European oven: 300 C.; American oven  572 F.) between seven to ten minutes. Serve them warm.

NOTE 1: If desired, paint salteñas before baking them. In a frying pan add 6 spoonfuls of lard or margarine, 2 spicy red peppers (ground), 4 spoonfuls of water and a teaspoon of salt. Mix the ingredients and cook them over low heat until the water evaporates. Remove the mixture from the heat and paint each salteña with a kitchen brush.
NOTE 2: If desired, you can substitute meat with chicken, or you can combine both.

 

 

Bolivia (Sucre) (SA):