Semifinals, Day 2 - Argentina - World Cup Eating Challenge

As a Brazilian, I already hate everything that is going to be in this post. As a foodie and kitchen experimenter - this is one of the meals I was looking forward to the most when I started this challenge. It's hard to hate food from a country that eats steak, chimichurri, great wine, and empanadas. I was excited to make and eat those things too.

Empanadas are awesome. They're just little doughy pockets fully of meaty (or cheesey or veggie but that's less fun) goodness. The recipe that I grabbed was mostly for the dough so I totally ignored the filling part of it and went rouge with a mix I'd used in empanadas past.

The way I've always made the filling is simple and delicious. I cut up chicken thighs and cooked them in pollo asada seasoning. Once they were cooked, I threw in some monterey jack cheese and tomato paste. I took out the filling and let it cool down and bit and then chopped it even finer.

That's about the time that the lovely Shannon came over with a bottle of Malbec straight from Mendoza, Argentina. It was one of my gifts from her trip to South America and I thought I'd repay her with a fitting dinner. The Reserva wine was so smooth and flavorful. Malbec can be a heavier wine and you could tell they let this one settle down in the barrel a little bit. Those are great touches that a thoughtful wine maker will do to make sure their wine is high quality before going on sale.

An Argentinian meal wouldn't be incomplete without Chimichurri. This Argentinian sauce is a mix of cilantro, parsley, basil, oregano, garlic, olive oil, lemon, and vinegar. The recipe I used can be found here. Mine had a little too much astringency. I tried adding more greens to balance it out. I think I might put a touch of honey in it next time to cut the sourness and acidity that was overpowering it a little bit. 

Next it was time for the steaks. I lightly seasoned them with some salt, pepper, garlic, and paprika. These are probably my favorite set of seasonings and I put them on almost everything. They really bring out the best flavors, especially in meats.

For the empanadas, I was really excited to try out a recipe for Paleo dough. I knew that if it worked, this would open all kinds of paleo doughy possibilities so I really wanted to see how it turned out. My eggs were a little small so I threw an extra one in which was a big mistake. I had to keep adding almond and tapioca flour to bring it back to the right consistency. I think mine still ended up a little sticker than ideal but I finally got it to a place I could work with. I found that it broke a little easier than normal dough so I had to make the empanadas bigger than I'd expected. I ended up doing them by hand instead of using the dough press. Maybe I just have a small dough press though because I tend to see empanadas on the larger side. They turned out kind of ugly but as I've seen, that doesn't usually mean much. 

Everything ended up coming together really well. It's hard to go wrong with steak, wine, and greens but it was the empanadas that were the star of the dish. The verdict on the crust? AMAZING. One reason going paleo/gluten free was easy for me was that I never really loved bread. It was always just a vehicle for sauce or fillings and never something I loved on it's own and I NEVER ate crusts... but I ate this one. I think it was the mix of almond and egg wash that just worked. It really reminded me of the crust on these little Brazilian pies my mom makes called Empadas. I definitely plan and reusing this dough recipe to make those in the future.

Despite having and amazing dinner with an awesome friend and Frozen playing in the background (of course), I had another moment that was the highlight of my night. When Dan came home, we were already well into our second plates of dinner. Of the 8 empanadas, 4 were left. He had 2 and then 1 more so there was just one left....

Dan: Do you want me to eat the last one?

Me: NOOO!!!! 

I probably would have bit it right out of his hand if I needed to. It definitely seems like I need to make more empanadas soon... and cheese bread. These things just don't last in this household.