Salteña

Ingredients

Jigote (filling, made the day before)

• 600 gbeef chuck, in 1 cm dice (or the same weight of chicken thigh)
• 2large onions, finely diced
• 300 gpotatoes, in 1 cm dice
• 200 gfresh or frozen peas
• 3 tbspají colorado paste (or 3 tbsp mild red chilli paste)
• 1 tbspají amarillo paste
• 1 tspground cumin
• 1 tspdried oregano
• 1 tbspsugar
• 2 tspsalt
• 1 tspblack pepper
• 600 mlbeef stock
• 3 tbspvegetable oil
• 12 gpowdered gelatine (about 2 sachets)
• 3hard-boiled eggs, sliced
• 12black olives, whole with the stone
• 2 tbspparsley, chopped

Dough

• 600 gplain flour
• 150 gbutter or vegetable shortening
• 2eggs
• 80 gsugar
• 2 tspsalt
• 1 tbspají colorado paste or 1 tsp annatto, for colour
• 220 mlhot water

Glaze

• 1egg yolk beaten with 1 tbsp water and a pinch of ají colorado

Directions

1. Make the jigote a day ahead. Fry the onions in the oil for 10 minutes until soft, stir in both ají pastes, cumin and oregano and cook 3 minutes until the oil turns red.
2. Add the beef and brown it briefly, then the stock, sugar, salt and pepper, and simmer 30 minutes until the meat is tender and the liquid is well flavoured and still generous.
3. Add the diced potato and cook 8 minutes until it is just done, then stir in the peas and take the pot off the heat. The mixture must be distinctly soupy at this point.
4. Sprinkle the gelatine over 60 ml of cold water, let it bloom 5 minutes, then stir it into the hot jigote until fully dissolved. Cool, then refrigerate overnight until set to a firm jelly. This is the trick that makes a salteña possible: a solid filling that turns back into soup in the oven.
5. For the dough, rub the butter into the flour, sugar and salt, beat the eggs and ají paste into the hot water, then bring it together quickly and knead 5 minutes to a smooth, warm, pliable dough. Rest 30 minutes covered.
6. Divide the dough into 12 pieces and roll each into a 15 cm disc, slightly thicker in the middle than at the edge so the base can carry the weight of the juice.
7. Spoon a heaped serving of the set jigote into the centre of each disc, add a slice of egg and a whole olive, and dampen the rim.
8. Fold the disc over into a half moon and seal by pressing the edge flat, then work the repulgue: fold and pinch a small overlapping pleat, then the next, along the whole rim to make a rope-like braid standing up along the top. Sit each salteña on its base so the braid sits proud like a crest.
9. Chill the shaped salteñas 30 minutes, brush with the ají yolk glaze, and bake on a preheated tray at 230°C (450°F) for 15–18 minutes until the pastry is deep gold and blistered and juice is just beginning to weep at the seam.
10. Rest 5 minutes. Eat standing, holding the salteña upright by the braid, biting a small hole in the top corner first and drinking the juice before it escapes.

Technique

• The gelatine is not a shortcut — it is the classical technique that lets a soup be wrapped in pastry. Without it you cannot fill or seal the salteña at all.
• Salteñas are a mid-morning food in Bolivia, eaten between about nine and noon; a salteñería that is still open at two in the afternoon is regarded with suspicion.
• The name honours Juana Manuela Gorriti, an exiled Argentinian writer from Salta who is credited with selling them in Tarija in the 19th century.
• The repulgue braid must be genuinely sealed. One weak pleat and the whole filling runs out onto the tray, which is why bakers rest the shaped salteñas cold before baking.

Substitutions

• No ají colorado or amarillo paste: use 2 tbsp sweet paprika plus 1 tsp cayenne for the red, and 1 tbsp of yellow chilli sauce or a little turmeric with fresh chilli for the yellow.
• For a vegetarian-friendly seal, agar can replace the gelatine, but use 6 g and expect a firmer set that melts less cleanly.

Variations

• Salteña de pollo, made with diced chicken thigh, is as common as the beef version and slightly sweeter.
• Tucumana, the fried Bolivian cousin, with a looser filling and served with a table of sauces to spoon in.

History

Named for Salta; tradition credits the Argentine writer Juana Manuela Gorriti, exiled in Tarija in the 1800s, with selling the juicy baked pastries.

Frequently asked questions

What is Salteña?

Salteña is a street food from Bolivia: baked juicy empanada of stewed meat in sweet-spicy gravy; mid-morning ritual. Named for Salta; tradition credits the Argentine writer Juana Manuela Gorriti, exiled in Tarija in the 1800s, with selling the juicy baked pastries.

How long does Salteña take to make?

Salteña takes 1 hr plus overnight setting of preparation and 1 hr 20 min of cooking. The recipe makes 12 salteñas. It is rated hard to make.

What can I substitute in Salteña?

Yes, within limits. No ají colorado or amarillo paste: use 2 tbsp sweet paprika plus 1 tsp cayenne for the red, and 1 tbsp of yellow chilli sauce or a little turmeric with fresh chilli for the yellow. For a vegetarian-friendly seal, agar can replace the gelatine, but use 6 g and expect a firmer set that melts less cleanly.

What is the most important thing to get right in Salteña?

Add the diced potato and cook 8 minutes until it is just done, then stir in the peas and take the pot off the heat. The mixture must be distinctly soupy at this point.