Recipes

Berta’s salteñas

They are the kind they make in the Beni.

Dough:

1 K flour (7-8 cups)
1/2 C oil
1 Tbs. Salt
2 C water
1 egg

Roll the dough into a long tube and cut in 30 pieces. Roll those pieces into rounds, put on filling, close and pinch shut. Paint with urucu oil. Bake in very hot oven. (Of course we don’t have urucu. You can color the dough with some orange food coloring or figure out some other way to make them the right color. Heat some paprika in oil? Paint with egg yolk?)

Filling:

Cover 1 small chicken with water and cook. Take it off the bones and cut up.

1 K (or a little less) potatoes cooked and cubed.
1 to 2 cans peas (or frozen ones)
1 large onion chopped
1 large green or red pepper diced
1 T cumin with a little black pepper
black or green olives
1/4 C oil simmered with urucu.

Saute onion, peppers and spices in the urucu oil. Add potatoes and chicken and fry 10 min, then add broth to 1 cm over the ingredients and simmer 30 min. Let cool before putting into shells.

Note: Berta didn’t always put an egg in the dough.

Aunt Ila’s salteñas

Makes approximately 50 Salteñas

Filling:

1 & 1/2 C lard
10 pkgs. of each Bolivian spices pkgs. ("aji panca" sin picante and "aji panca" picante), mixed with water, to make 1 cup OR mix 1/4 cup cayenne pepper & 1/4 cup parika with water to make 1 cup.
***
1/2 T ground cumin
1/2 T ground black pepper
1/2 T oregano
1 & 1/2 T white salt, or as to taste (if using Bolivian spice packages, no salt needed.)
***
2 C chopped white onions (do not rinse)
1 & 1/2 chopped green onions (rinse leaves before cutting)
***
1/4 C sugar
1/2 T vinegar or worcestershire sauce
1/2 C fresh chopped parsley
1 C+ cubed & cooked potatoes
1 C peas
***
3 pkgs. gelatine (Knox) mixed with 4 cups water
5 C chopped/cubed steak or roast beef (about 3 lbs.)
***
1/2 black olive for each salteña
1 piece of boiled egg for each salteña

Put lard and hot pepper in frying pan; cook until the pepper and lard separate. Add cumin, pepper, oregano and salt. Let cook for 10 minutes on low heat, stirring constantly. Add white onions and cook for 5 more minutes. Then add green onions.

Remove frying pan from element and add sugar, vinegar or worcestershire sauce, parsley, potatoes and peas.

Bring the gelatine to boil and add the 5 cups of diced meat; mix/stir rapidly and remove from element.

Mix together all ingredientes and cool overnight, or until it sets in the fridge. (If desired, add olives and eggs before the mix sets; or add the same when filling the pastry.)

Pastry:

12 C flour
1 & 1/2 C lard (boiling) (Also, for colour add 3 envelopes of "aji sin picante")
6 eggs
1/2 C sugar or to taste
2 & 1/4 C warm water

Sift the flour and put into large bowl. Add the lard and mix rapidly and thoroughly with a wooden spoon. Cool for 5 minutes, then add eggs, sugar, water with salt. Knead well until dough is no longer sticky. Cover with small towel and let set for 10 minutes.

Paint:

6 T lard
2 ground red peppers
4 T water
1/2 t salt

Put all ingredients in frying pan. Cook, mixing constantly, until water disappears. Remove from element.

Finally, divide the dough into 50 balls. Roll them flat (about 1/2 centimeter thick and 14 centimeters round). Put 1 T of the filling on each round pastry (add olive and egg). Wet the edges and pinch together with rope design.

Place on lightly greased cookie sheet. Using "paint" mixture, paint the top of the salteñas with a pastry brush. Bake on high heat (572 degrees F) for 7-10 minutes.

Serve piping hot!

Debbie and Carla’s salteñas

Filling:

1 ½ cups lard
3 T cayenne pepper (I prefer mine mild, so I use 1 T)
¼ cup paprika
Mix spices with water to make 1 cup
***
½ T ground cumin
½ T ground black pepper
½ T oregano
½ T salt
***
2 cups chopped onions
1 ½ cups chopped green onions
***
¼ cup sugar (I prefer mine less sweet, so I use 2 T)
½ T vinegar or Worcestershire
½ cup fresh chopped parsley
1 cup cubed cooked potato
1 cup peas
***
3 packages gelatin mixed with 4 cups water or broth
5 cups chopped beef or chicken
½ black olive for each Saltena (Make sure it has a pit. Kalamara ones are good.)
¼ boiled egg for each Saltena

1. Put lard and hot pepper mix into frying pan. Cook until the pepper and lard separate. Add spice mix. Cook 10 minutes on low stirring constantly. Add white onions and cook 5 minutes. Add green onions.

2. Remove from heat and add next 5 ingredients.

3. Bring gelatin and water to a boil in a big pot. Add diced meat. Stir rapidly and remove from heat.

4. Mix all ingredients and cool overnight.

Pastry:

12 cups flour
1 ½ cups lard (boiling) (I didn’t actually get it to boil, but it must be very hot.)
½ cup paprika
6 eggs
¼ cup sugar
2 ¼ cups warm water
1 t salt

1. Sift flour and paprika into large bowl. Add boiling lard and mix rapidly and thoroughly. Cool 5 minutes. Add eggs, sugar, water and salt. Knead well until no longer sticky. Cover and let rest 10 minutes.

2. Divide dough into 32 balls. Roll flat. Put filling, olive and egg slice on each circle. Pinch together with rope design.

3. Place on lightly greased cookie sheet. Paint. (I usually skip the paint.) Bake at 572 for 7 – 10 minutes. Serve hot.

Paint:

6 T lard
2 ground red peppers
4 T water
½ t salt

1. Put all ingredients in frying pan. Cook, stirring constantly until water disappears. Remove from heat and paint on top of Saltenas.

Locro de Pollo

serves 6

5 C water
1 chicken
6 big potatos - peeled and cut into large pieces
6 big pieces of yuca
6 T (uncooked) rice
2 T chopped onion
2 T ají
1 T salt

6 boiled eggs

Boil the chicken. When it’s about done, add the potatos, yuca and rice. When well done, turn heat down and add chopped onion, ají and salt. Serve with one boiled egg on each plate.

Chicken Picante

serves 6

1 boiled chicken
4 large onions, chopped & washed
3 medium tomatoes, peeled & chopped
1-2 T chopped parsley
6-8 hot peppers ground in blender (or about 1 1/2 t chili pepper)
salt to taste
1/2 t ground cumin
1/8 t pepper

1 t oregano
2-3 T oil or shortening
2 C chicken broth

Place onion, tomato, parsley, salt and 1 cup broth in a big pan and boil for 10 minutes. Add peppers and oil to tomato mixture and continue cooking for 20 minutes. Cut chicken in pieces. Add pieces to sauce with cumin, pepper, oregano, salt and other cup of broth. Simmer for a few minutes until chicken is heated through. Serve with boiled potatoes.

Silpancho

from Debbie Olson Holford

Slice beef thinly.
Marinate with salt, pepper, cumin and soy sauce.
Coat with bread crumbs.
Pound thin.
Fry in hot oil.

(We pounded the meat, then pounded in the bread crumbs, with a 6 lb sledge hammer on a large wooden cutting board.)

Cook potatoes with skins on.
Peel.
Slice ¼ inch thick.
Fry in hot oil.

Slice or chop onion very thin. Soak in water. Changing water 4 or 5 times.

Chop an equal amount of tomato.

Just before serving, mix onion and tomato with 2 T oil, 2 T vinegar and 2 T salt.

Cook rice.

Serve:

Put rice on one half of plate with potatoes on the other half.
Put meat on top of potatoes and an over-easy egg on the rice.
Top with onion and tomato salad.

Or
Put rice in middle of plate.
Put potatoes around outside.
Put meat on top of rice.
Top with over-easy egg and then onion/tomato salad.

Peanut Soup

serves 4

6 C chicken broth
2 C chicken pieces
1 medium onion, chopped
1 medium tomato, chopped
1 T chopped parsley
1 T oil
1/2 C cooked peas
1 carrot, cooked & chopped fine
1/2 C raw peanuts, peeled & ground in blender
1 C potatoes, chopped
salt and pepper to taste

Simmer together the onion, tomato & parsley in oil until tender. Add the broth and all other ingredients. Cook without stirring for 30 minutes.

Huminta (Corn Casserole)

from Gloria Farah

2 cans cream style corn
1 box corn bread muffin mix
4 T melted margarine
1 t baking powder
3 eggs
cayenne pepper - small to medium amount (I use 1 t)

Beat all of above together. Put 1/2 of mixture in 13x9 pan.

Place approximately 1/2 lb of munster cheese on the mixture, then put remainder of mixture in the pan.

Sprinkle cayenne pepper (red) on top for taste and decoration.

Bake uncovered 35-40 minutes in 350 degree (F) oven.

Tamales

8 C fresh corn off cob
2 T sugar
1/4 C sugar
salt to taste
2 eggs
4 heaping tablespoons lard (or equivalent in oil)
2 C grated cheese
1 t anise seed
sliced cheese

Cut the husks at stalk end and remove leaves, keeping as whole as possible to use for wrapping. Grind corn in food grinder. Add sugar, salt, crumbled cheese, anise, milk and eggs. Mix well. Add hot lard. Mix. Take 2 husks and place together, the wide end overlapping. Place 2 tablespoons of mixture in center of cheese. (I guess this means you should put a piece of sliced cheese on the husk first.) Fold over leaves to make wrapping and tie with strip of husk. Place 4 or 5 cobs in the bottom of a large pan and fill pan 1/3 full with boiling water. Add salt and bring to boil. Then place tamales in pan. Cover and boil 1 or 2 hours, or until tender. Serve in husks.

Tamales may be placed in a greased pyrex dish in oven instead of in husk. Bake at 350-400 degree F for 1 hour or until cooked.

Cheese Empanadas

Filling:

1 t ground red pepper
1 T milk
2 C grated cheese
pinch of salt (or more depending on kind of cheese)
2 egg whites

Mix red pepper and milk. Add and mix with cheese and salt. Beat egg whites until fluffy and add to cheese mixture.

Pastry:

3/4 C lard
3 C flour, unsifted
2 heaping tablespoons sugar
1 whole egg and 2 yolks
1 T baking powder
1 t salt in 1 C water

On a pastry board form a ring with the flour; in the hole in the center add the melted lard, the eggs, sugar and baking powder. Mix with tips of fingers, adding salt water as you mix. Knead. Divide into small balls. Roll out each ball, fill with cheese mixture and fold over and seal, twisting the edges so the filling does not come out during the cooking process. Put a toothpick hole in the top of each just before baking. Bake in hot oven until lightly browned.