Vegetarian Salteñas
Why I Love This Recipe
I'm an ethnic mutt, one of my elements being married into the Bolivian culture. Growing up, Salteñas were always my fave!!!!!!
Ingredients You'll Need
Salteñas
(15-20 salteñas)
FILLING
Ingredients:
Salteñas
1/2 cup butter or margarine
1/2 cup ground spicy red pepper (cayenne) mixed with water
1/4 tablespoon ground cumin
1/4 tablespoon black ground pepper
1/4 tablespoon crumbled oregano
3/4 tablespoon salt
1 cups white onion, cut into small cubes
3/4 cup green onion, finely chopped
1 1/2 pounds lean meat, cut into small cubes (I substitute with Gimme Lean for vegetarian ones)
1/2 cup potato, peeled, cooked, and cut into small cubes
1/4 cup cooked green peas
1/8 cup granulated sugar
1/4 tablespoon vinegar
1/4 cup parsley, finely chopped
1 spoonful unflavored gelatin (I use pectin) dissolved in 3 cups water
(I usually do a 4 oz can) sliced black olives for every salteña
(to taste, I do 1 cup) raisins for every salteña
1 slice of boiled egg per salteña
DOUGH
Ingredients:
6 cups flour (I do 3 unbleached, 3 whole wheat)
3/4 cup butter or margarine (boiling)
3 whole eggs
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
about 1 cups lukewarm water (more or less)
Directions
Filling:
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 (pectin) 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 (veggie)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
1. Sift the flour in a bowl and add the boiling lard (or butter). 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). Cover with plastic to prevent drying.
3. Roll out dough to about 1/4 inch or less. 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./Broil) between seven to ten minutes. Serve them warm.
My Mods:
(I brush the dough with egg wash instead of sprinkling with flour, and I place the saltenas on a cookie sheet with foil (they will ooze butter when they are done)
