Rosario Umana Multimedia Artist

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Empanadas

Empanadas are made in most cultures with diverse names...
In Chile they are special, big and tasty
Calzones are made by Italians, inside a square sheet of dough
Ours may be made with corn, then fried or with wheat dough, baked.
Yesterday I made a bath of empanadas, here are some of the tricks:

Dough, may be bread or pie pastry or commercial, frozen flake pastry.
with the roller pin it is thinned out over flour and cut in round shapes, any size.
Mine are 10 to 20 cm in diameter.

Filling. Anything is great inside an empanada, favourites are:

• Cooked chicken breast garnished with sweet peas and capers;
• ground meat in a good tomato sauce with finely chopped potato and slices of hard boiled egg
• finely chopped mild sausage, cooked pork meat with rice and finely chopped vegetables (zucchini, leeks, carrots, sweet peas, sweet potato) mixed with stir fried tomato and onion and cooked rice
• cooked fish in white or bechamel sauce with chopped rosemary or dill

Place a spoonful of filling on each dough circle, wet the extra space outside the filling, fold half of it over and seal. You may do a bit of decoration in the seam.

Have a beaten egg at hand to ¨paint¨ the top outside of each empanada to get a golden color when baked.
Bake on oiled cookie sheets for 25 minutes at 350 until golden, not burned

Serve hot with a great salad.
Left over empanadas may be refrigerated (2 or 3 days) and warmed to serve.

2 Salads from Diny: Pasta and Broccoli and Cawliflower Salad

PASTA SALAD

Serves 10 people (Italian Style)

INGREDIENTS:
- 2 lbs. Curly pasta (coloured pasta preferred)
- 1 c. Olive oil
- 1/3 c Lemon juice
- 4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
- 1 tsp. Oregano, Salt and Pepper
- 2 Cans Artichoke hearts (not in oil)
- 1 c. Sliced black Olives
- 1 c. Thinly sliced sun dried tomatoes
- 1 c. Chopped tomatoes (1/2 can)
- 1 c. Asiago or Romano cheese, grated
- Garnish with parsley

INSTRUCTIONS:
1. Cook the pasta. When ‘al-dente’, drain and toss cooked pasta with 2 teaspoons of Olive oil.

2. Mix olive oil, lemon juice, garlic and seasoning. Add this mixture to the warm pasta and stir.

3. Add everything else to the pasta mixture, EXCEPT the grated cheese.

4. Add the cheese before eating.

Note: If you buy the artichoke hearts in oil, drain the oil and use it as part of the required oil in the salad.


Broccoli and Cauliflower Salad

1 head cauliflower 1 cup low fat yogurt or sour cream
1 bunch broccoli ½ cup mayonnaise
1 cup sliced red onion 2 tablespoons sugar
1 cup feta cheese, crumbled 2 tablespoons lemon juice
salt & pepper

Combine broccoli, cauliflower, onion and feta cheese. In separate bowl stir together dressing ingredients. Pour over salad. Toss. Season with salt and pepper. Cover and refrigerate.

Herb -bread

Formula:
2 kg mixed flours (about 5 or 6 cups of unbleached, whole wheat, rye, your choice)
1 or 2 tbs of fresh or dried herbs of your choice
1/4 cup finely cut dried tomatoes
1 teaspoon of salt
2 oz butter or oil
1 egg
1 teaspoon of fresh or dry yeast
1 tablespoon sugar
Warm water

in a bow mix yest, sugar and 1 cup water. set aside.
Mix the rest of the ingredients.
Add the yeast mixture with 3 cups of lukewarm water.
more flour or water, as needed while kneading or wedging your dough...
wedge 10 or 15 min. until it is ready, satin, elastic, perfect.
let rise, the slower, the better...

bake in the kitchen kiln at 350. small bread for 20 min. loafs for 40.
if you like a soft tan glaze, cover the soft bread with a glaze made with beaten egg with water... may drop a few sesame or poppy seeds on top.

Bon apetit.
You may freeze the dough or the bread.
It never gets old, for you eat it all fresh. Delicious.