As the morning quickly turned into afternoon, we all finally agreed on going Mayaro instead, as it was much too late to even attempt the Toco drive, especially with just us four at such a late hour.
Throughout the anticipation though, I had a different plan to consider. As the only vegetarian on board, I and I alone would have to organize something entirely different for me if we were going to cook on the beach for three meat eaters.
As I got lost in my thoughts (once again), I reminisced upon the cuisine of Brooklyn, somewhere I had lived for seven years as a child. As a result of such thoughts, I began craving the old neighborhood food of different cultures. I thought of the big Italian pizza place down the street, the Italian icees sold by carts on every corner, the Spanish snow cones (mango flavored with condensed milk = yum!) on every other corner, and the Mexican empanadas.
Once I got to the subject of empanadas, my brain did something like this: Empanadas. Mmmmm. I want some. I need some. I should have some. Trinidad doesn't have empanadas. *sigh* *gasp* I could...MAKE...empanadas! But wait...I don't have a recipe...I don't have the slightest clue how they do it! Hmmm...the guy on the corner of Fabco shoes used to pat out his dough, fill it with chicken or beef, mark the edges, and dunk it in oil...it wouldn't take too long to fry too...oh yeah...I can do this!
And so I rushed over to the kitchen as I began processing my own way of creating these fried goodies.
HOW I MADE IT
I put some frozen vegetarian lamb and dried soya chunks to soak in hot water. While that soaked, I put about one cup of flour in a medium sized bowl, leaving some extra on hand to knead the dough. I added about 3/4 of a teaspoon of baking powder, 1/2 cup of whole wheat bran, a dash of salt, a dash of sugar, and about 1/2 cup of cornmeal. I mixed all the dry ingredients together, and poured about a cup of lukewarm water as I began kneading it into a dough.
I put the dough aside and drained the water out of the soya chunks and veggie lamb with my hands before washing with flour and water and draining again about three times. I brought the bowl over to my cutting board and diced everything.
I got some pimiento peppers from my little garden (you can replace with jalapenos or any other flavorful pepper without a bitter taste), as well as some green seasoning like chive, podina, and culantro (any green seasoning you have on hand works). I finely chopped the pimientos and green seasoning and put a large saucepan on the stove on medium to high heat.
I started off with a roux once the pot was hot, adding two tablespoons of flour to about two tablespoon of melted butter already in the pan and began mixing with my wooden spoon. I added the pimientos, green seasoning, and 3/4 cup of mixed vegetables (carrots, peas, corn, string beans) followed by about a tablespoon each of chili powder, paprika, oregano, and maggi seasoning (or any bouillon cube). I mixed this together, threw in the soya and veggie lamb, and covered the pot for a minute. Then I uncovered the pot and mixed everything together as I added about a 1/4 cup of water. Then I added a large dash of salt, black pepper, and brown sugar.
I turned the heat down to medium to low, covered the pot, and put the dough on a floured counter as I began patting it down to a circle. I took a spoon and cut the circle into eight, and put the pieces aside. Each piece was now triangular shaped, so I took the three corners of each piece, and pushed it together, and then down, to begin forming a ball.
I patted each ball down to make a small to medium sized circle and took my filling off the stove. I gathered the filling to the center of the pot and then divided it into eight as well, and filled each circle with filling.
I then closed each circle over the filling, forming a semi-circle, and sealed the outer edges on both sides with a fork. I fried each empanada in a small frying pan with soyabean oil at medium to low heat once the oil was hot enough to start, and left them for one minute on each side.
Once taken out, I placed them on a paper towel to soak up any excess oil.
REVIEWS
K and L were kind enough to buy KFC for everyone once the plan to cook on the beach was squashed (mashed potatoes & gravy and fries for me), so the empanadas were not needed, especially as I was too excited taking pictures of the beautiful scenery as well as hubby and K playing football (soccer), to actually eat there.
I remembered the empanadas quite a while after we got home, and just around the time I was planning on going to bed. Remembering the empanadas made me so hungry I didn't bother reheating them and as I had taken up the most browned one, the crust had hardened as it cooled throughout the day and I ate everything but the crust. An hour later I ate from the rest of properly fried ones and ate most of the crust, but I think it would have been better if I microwaved it first. I remembered this morning that the empanada man used to serve his hot, straight out of the oil, onto a heating rack. Regardless, I loved it! The inside was juicy and packed with flavor, so I didn't need the oyster sauce I made to go with it.
Hubby tried one last night as well, and his eyebrows raised as he nodded in agreement and mumbled something that sounded like "mmmhmmmm this is good". He microwaved one this morning after it was refrigerated overnight and shared the same sentiments, with the exception of the crust beginning to harden once it cooled down.
I will definitely make these again, but next time I'll make sure everyone has it straight out of the frying pan, just like the empanada man does it in Brooklyn.
P.S. I returned to the area about a year and a half ago and he's still there. I'm guessing having them hot really does do wonders for the business ^_^
