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Recipe for Empanadas from San Miguel de Tucumán (Empanadas tucumanas)

The official Empanadas from the northern part of Argentina, a city called San Miguel de Tucumán; this city is a beautiful colonial Spain city that is quite old and as such it has many things to visit...

Ingredients

* 6 cups and half all purpose flour,
* 4 tablespoons lard or shortening,
* 4 tsp Salt
* 3 tablespoons butter,
* 6 tablespoons of oil,
* 1 large cup of water

For the filling:
* 1 and 1/2 lb. Meat can be butt, roast beef or other beef cuts,
* 1 lb. green onions, shallots,
* 10 or 12 green olives,
* 2 eggs hard,
* Veal fat (grasa de pella) or oil, as needed,
* salt
* White pepper,
* cumin,
* pepper to taste
* 200 cc of meat broth

1) For the dough: Sift flour with salt and arrange on a flat working surface as a donut shape. In the center put the warm melted fat and oil. Mix; this will give you a granular mass. Reshape this dough mixture as a donut again and put water in the center. Combine the ingredients until smooth. Let stand 15 min. Knead the dough until you get a smooth and elastic dough. Leave it 15 minutes again to rest. Roll out dough and cut into 5 and 1/2 inch in diameter discs.

2) For the filling: It is advisable to buy meat for patties because it is easier to chop. Cut the meat into strips and then into half inch cubes approximately. Season with salt. In the fat saute green onions until cooked, season to taste. Add meat and saute a few minutes just until it changes color. Remove from heat and add the chopped olives and beef stock. Let stand in a overnight. On the second day: chop the boiled eggs. Take a dough disc, fill with a spoonful of the filling and sprinkle with egg. Close by the repulgue style of your choice. They are baked at high temp for 15 min. approx.

Tips: It is important to let the stuffing stand for the aromas to blend nicely together, and if there is time, let it cool down completely. Never fill empanadas with still hot stuffing because this will dampen the dough. * These empanadas traditionally are never brushed with beaten egg.

* It is customary in other provinces to add raisins to the stuffing, although in Tucuman this is not the custom with their empanadas...

* The repulgue is made by closing the empanadas by twisting the dough in a special way, if you aren’t sure how to do it, the easier way is to close and seal each empanada pressing each edge of the dough disc against the other with a fork.