» The Search for Empanadas CUBAN TRANSITIONS

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The Search for Empanadas

May 2, 2012 by alcanney

One of the foods I was most eager to try in Cuba was their empanadas. I so far have never met an empanada I haven’t liked. To be fair, I haven’t had that many. Most of my empanada experiences have been from Twisted Soul (which are of the Argentine variety), and from my Cuban aunt and her family. While these experiences have been very gratifying, I wanted to try an “authentic” Cuban empanada.

Much like my search for avocados in Cuba (it must have been the wrong season), empanadas were proving difficult to find throughout the trip. Finally, on one of the last days in Havana, my friends and I found ourselves back at the Plaza Catedral, one of the first places we had visited.

We noticed a little stand next to a touristy restaurant that we hadn’t seen before.

Interestingly, I actually took this picture the first time we visited the plaza, but I didn't notice the stand from which I would later find empanadas.

We watched as the man working the stand prepared sandwiches for the people in front of us. With bare hands, he grabbed slabs of raw chicken and put them on the grill. He wiped off his hands on a piece of cloth, and went right on assembling the bread, tomatoes, and lettuce for the sandwiches. I couldn’t help but think to myself that if this stand were ever to be set up on the streets of New York, it would be shut down by the health department immediately. However, the resulting sandwiches looked good, and the prices looked even better. There was nothing on the menu more than two CUCs. We saw empanadas on the menu for 50 cents each, and so we ordered two for each of us. This was a daring move, as I knew it was very possible that these empanadas could be my digestive downfall. However, I took the chance, and it paid off when we received these beauties:

The empanadas were very bready and stuffed with bits of vegetables and a meat that was probably (hopefully) ham. They weren’t anything like the empanadas I’d had before, but they were tasty, and above all, I was very happy to be having lunch for 1 CUC. Thankfully, they also did not give us food poisoning.

While in Cuba, I learned that the word “empanada” comes from the Spanish verb “empanar,” which means, simply, to wrap with bread. Technically, a lot of things could be considered empanadas under this definition, and perhaps that is why we were served empanadas so different from the ones we were accustomed to. However, I wanted to do some research when I got back into what a traditional empanada is supposed to be, and what makes the Cuban empanada.

The Portuguese and the Spanish are credited with inventing the empanada in the Middle Ages as a filling on-the-go meal. Empanadas are all essentially made by folding dough or a bread patty over a filling, which can include many different ingredients. Spanish empanadas are usually filled with chorizo, tuna or sardines, while Portuguese ones usually have cod or pork loin. However, empanadas have diversified greatly over much of the globe. They are most popular in Spain and Portugal, Latin America, parts of the Caribbean, and parts of Asia. Many other cultures also have their own versions of empanadas, such as Italian calzones, Jamaican beef patties, Jewish knishes, British pastels, Eastern European perogies, Japanese gyozas, and South Asian samosas.

The Cuban empanada is usually filled with seasoned meats, including beef and chicken or even ropa vieja (shredded steak simmered in a tomato sauce) and deep fried. These are sometimes called empanaditas. Some empanadas can be made sweet, including cheese or guava, or other fruits.

A similar dish is Cuban pastelitos, which are made with a lighter pastry dough.

I know I’m going to try to make these when I get home: