The Empanadas de Santa Rita
A traditional dish from a colonia (neighborhood) part of the city of Chihuahua, called Santa Rita; the preparation their Santa Rita empanadas basically involves three parts: the filling, which is a special mixture with ground pork meat with almonds and raisins, the dough with a recipe similar to flour tortillas and a cheese sauce made with Chihuahua cheese accompanying the empanadas when serving. Oddly, these empanadas are sprinkled with some icing sugar to follow the tradition, and served accompanied with a refreshing glass of horchata.
How to make Santa Rita Empanadas:
Ingredients for many guests:
For the dough:
* 1 teaspoon anise oil,
* tequesquite, a chunk the size of a walnut, (substitute for 1 teaspoon baking powder)
* 1/2 cup water,
* 7 cups flour,
* 1 teaspoon salt,
* 1 teaspoon sugar,
* 3 tablespoons butter,
* 1/2 cup milk
* Oil for frying,
* 2/3 cup sugar
(You will need a deep fryer to fry these in oil)
For the Filling:
* 4 tablespoons butter,
* 1 onion, chopped,
* 1 and 1/2 lb. of ground pork,
* 1/2 cup skinned almonds, chopped,
* 1/3 cup raisins,
* 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves,
* 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon,
* 1/2 cup chicken or beef broth and salt,
Enough Chihuahua cheese salsa with your empanadas.
Preparation:
1) First we prepare the picadillo, the filling for this empanada; in a skillet with oil cook together the onion, meat, almonds, raisins and salt with the broth; sparingly season with cloves and cinnamon, frying until the liquid evaporates.
2) Meanwhile, make 1/2 cup of water boil; pour in a bowl and in it pour the anis seed oil and put the tequesquite. Allowed to settle.
3) Mix the flour with the salt, sugar and butter, then gradually incorporate the tequesquite water, mixing constantly. Pour just enough tequesquite water until it becomes a smooth dough, let stand two hours.
4) Roll the dough with a roller, flattening the dough as thin as possible; then cut circles about 3 inches in diameter. At their center, spread with some butter, some picadillo we did earlier then fold in half-circles; seal well the edges, marking them with a fork and let stand half an hour.
5) These empanadas are deep fried in oil (or lard in Mexico...), then immediately sprinkled with sugar as they are taken out of the oil.
The flavor contrast between the savory ground pork picadillo with the fried and sweet dough is what defines these empanadas...
