Wrap it up! Empanadas can be the star of any meal

Chocolate-Sea Salt Empanada

Just about every Latin American culture has some version of empanadas.

They are a stuffed bread or pastry that is baked or fried. The fillings vary widely fro cheese to veggies to fruit and - even one of my favorites - chocolate.

My two favorite kinds of empanadas are the ones filled with cheese and those filled with chocolate and sea salt. One makes a great appetizer, the other is a great dessert. I suppose one could make a whole meal with empanadas.

Once you make the filling, you simply plop a couple of tablespoons of the filling in the middle of a dough circle, fold it over and seal the edges shut with damp fingers, crimping the seam with a squeeze or the back side of a fork. 

4 ounces of ricotta cheese

My grandfather was from Argentina. There, at least the ones made by members of his family, the empanadas were filled with ground pork or beef and olives and raisins. He used to tell me that he would always take the money his mother gave him for lunch and buy an empanada from a street vendor on the way to school. Of course, he'd eat the treat on the way to school and had nothing to eat when lunch time rolled around.

I can remember him tinkering around in the kitchen when I was a kid trying to recreate the dough for the perfect empanada. He was never satisfied with the results. He emigrated first to Italy and then to the US, where he arrived at the age of 21 and didn't return to Argentina until he was 75. When he arrived back, the first thing his mother said to him (yes, his mother was still there to greet him when he was three-quarters of a century old) was, "Mingo!!! You want an empanada?"

Of course he did.

Today you can buy the round circles of dough for empanadas, called Discos, in the frozen food section at just about any grocery store. I can get up in the morning, as I did today, thaw out a few Discos and have empanadas any time I want.

Though my grandfather probably preferred those filled with meat or with verdura (vegetables), I think he might have taken quite a liking to the more updated ones that I like best.

For these, I am going to assume that you've gone to the store to purchase Discos, so I am not offering a recipe for the dough. Quite frankly, it is probably more cost effective (and certainly more convenient) to use the Discos.  I am just going to give you the recipes for the fillings.

They can be, brushed with a bit of egg and water and baked at 350º F for about half an hour or fried in hot oil until they turn a crispy golden brown. Either way, they are delicious, but the baked is probably a little healthier.

Each of these recipes makes enough filling for 4 or 5 empanadas.

Chocolate and Sea Salt Filling

4 ounces of dark chocolate

1 tablespoon of sugar

1 tablespoon of butter

2 teaspoons of sea salt flakes, divided

• In a double boiler over hot, but not boiling water, mix together the chocolate, the sugar and the butter.
• Stir constantly until the chocolate is melted.
• Put the filling in the middle of the dough circle and sprinkle with about a half teaspoon of sea salt before folding and sealing.

Cheese Filling

2 scallions cut into the smallest rounds you can manage

1 tablespoon of honey

1/4 teaspoon of salt

• Mix all four ingredients together and proceed as above.