Empanadas de choclo

My second time trying to make corn empanada filling, and this time I opted to use cream cheese and mashed potatoes in the recipe - and liked the result a lot more.

1 can sweet corn (15 oz)
1 large white onion
1 red bell pepper
2 medium red potatoes, peeled and cooked
1/2 pack (4 oz) cream cheese
2 tbsp grated Parmesan
2 tbsp milk
salt, black pepper, extra light olive oil

Makes about 18 medium empanadas.

Chop and saute the onion, add finely cubed red pepper mid-way. When onion turns lightly golden browned, reduce heat, mix in drained sweet corn, keep mixing for 2 or 3 more minutes. Take the frying pan off the heat, add cream cheese and mix thoroughly as it softens. Mix in Parmesan, mashed potatoes, and milk, season and let cool some more before filling the pastries.

(The other two empanadas rusas flavors for this last Saturday's Milonga Sin Nombre were classic Russian rather than Argentine-inspired: morel mushrooms with potatoes and village-style cabbage)

Empanadas and the pre-Thanksgiving milonga decor :)

Empanadas Rusas from the Halloween Milonga

Brian Salibury, Daniel Diaz, and David Peterson trio!

By special request from Daniel Diaz, the bandoneon king of our Intermountain West: Version 2 recipes of the "Classic Argentine Empanadas Rusas" :)

Relleno de pollo

Whenever I tried to prepare trad relleno de carne, the results always came short of expectations.  I reasoned that it's hard to get Argentine-good results with American ground beef. You'd face the twin problems of grease and loss of tenderness if you keep the ground beef on the skillet longer to drain fat more successfully. The v.2 solution is to get rid of beef, or of anything ground - let's go with pre-fried chicken meat instead! Yes, the minced chicken turned out to be tender and juicy just like I wanted, and peas are a nice texture contrast to the meat!

24 oz boneless skinless chicken thighs

2 medium onions, chopped

8 oz frozen green peas

1 cup pre-cooked basmati rice

2 teaspoons ground cumin-coriander mix

Two dozen green olives.

Salt, black pepper, olive oil.

Remove fatty portions from chicken meat, season (using some cumin-coriander and leaving the rest for mixing in later) & pan-fry using small amount of olive oil, on high, them medium-high heat, until they thickest parts aren't pink on the inside anymore. Set aside, let cool until meat can be comfortably handled, and mince. Sautee onions on high heat till lightly golden brown. Mix meat, sauteed onions, dd remaining spices, rice, and peas (no need to cook them, they'll thaw in the remaining heat of the frying pan and that's all you need to do with them). The olives (small whole or halved) are added to individual empanadas during wrapping. Makes 30 small empanadas. 

Relleno de bananas

If you frequented Milonga Sin Nombre, then you may have witnessed the evolution of our banana empanadas. I started with oatmeal-thickened peach-banana "porridge" fillings, then learned to evaporate the juices & to thicken the fruit  on a large non-stick frypan, and then substituted passion fruit juice instead of lime juice. The latest iteration is an apple-banana-tropical empanada

4 apples, chopped in fine pieces no more than 1/4"

4 bananas, cut in circles

1 tablespoon of water

2 tablespoons of passion fruit juice

2 tablespoonful of sugar

A dash of olive oil

Steam chopped apples in a covered pan with oil and water for 10 minutes, add sliced bananas and sugar, open the lid and simmer down and until the juices evaporate. Add passion fruit juice. Makes 2 dozen banana empanadas

Relleno de espinaca

Taiwanese spinach works!

Makes 30 small spinach empanadas. Like the earlier version, this recipe doesn't actually contain any spinach. It isn't exactly the classic Argentine empanadas de espinaca, but we may consider it a spicier version. Regular spinach is substituted by amaranth (Taiwanese spinach) because it settles down less when it wilts in the heat. You'd need a much taller pile of fresh spinach to get the same end volume, and it may be too hard for me to stir enough of it to fill so many pastries!

Thumb-size chunk of ginger root

1 medium onion, chopped

24 oz Taiwanese spinach (amaranth, Amaranthus gangeticus), carefully washed and cut into half-inch pieces, stems and leaves but of course no roots. 

1/2 pack firm tofu, cubed (1/4-1/2 in pieces) (9 oz)

2 tablespoonfuls of extra light olive oil

two fits-sized spools of sweet potato thread noodles

sauces per description

Finely chop ginger, sauté until very lightly browned, add onions and sauté until golden brown, mix in tofu and amaranth, add soy sauce, and your fav flavorings such as oyster sauce, a couple drops of sesame oil, a few drops of Sriracha, and stir-fry for a couple more minutes until wilted. In the meantime, cover sweet potato thread "glass" noodle spools with boiling water in a pot, briefly bring to boil, drain, and chop with scissors. Mix undercooked chopped noodles to the spinach stir-fry and set aside for a few minutes. The noodles will soak all the remaining juices. A possible suggestion for the future is to add pine nuts to the recipe?

The secret of the dough

Like a properly lazy tanguero, I don't make dough from scratch. Yes, I buy frozen jumbo white rolls dough in a store. My fav brand is local, Terrel's Country Bakery. Set them on flour-dusted trays in a reasonably warm place, under cover such us cut-up plastic bags (to prevent the doughsurface from drying), for 2+ hours. Once they thaw and rise some, divide each roll into 4 parts for a small empanada (that's 3/4 of an ounce per pastry), or 3 parts for a biggie (an ounce per pastry)

Shape each piece into a ball and let them rise, on flour-dusted trays under plastic cover, for another half an hour. Now it's time to roll (palm size for smallies, two palms for biggies) and fill. Rope-pinch the edges and place on buttered baking trays with the rope-pinch edge facing up. For the bright golden color of the crust, brush them with egg yolk before baking (a yolk of just one egg, combined with two teaspoons of water and whipped in a cup with a fork, may be enough to "paint" up to 4 dozens pastries). Bake at 350 F. For a pliable crust, smear the empanadas with a softened stick of butter immediately after baking right on the tray, then transfer the still-hot pastries into bowls lined, and covered, by towels. The best way to reheat the pastries, if needed, is a few minutes in an oven (generally meat empanadas are the best when warm, but it may not be important for the dessert ones)

Milonga Sin Nombre del Solsticio playlist, 6/21/2014

The circumstances conspired to rob us from time needed to organize the milonga, but we still got great attendance and fairly smooth operation. We are extremely grateful to those who volunteered to help us, especially Dave, Andrey, Maria, Atakan, and Raina! It wouldn't have worked without you!
On the empanada front, the new flavor this month was my experimental peach-banana (inspired by Analia's banana empanadas from last month, and the first flavor to run out, hurray!). I checked the Internet, but most recipes asked for processed ingredients, and I really wanted to go from scratch, so I struck on my own:

One slightly under-ripe peach, finely chopped
3 bananas, cut in half-circles
Juice of half a lime
A tablespoonful of sugar
A tablespoonful of quick oats

Steam peach in a covered pot with a very small amount of water for 5 minutes, add sliced bananas, sugar, and lime juice, bring to boil, add oats and set aside to thicken (the relleno ended up a bit too juicy, perhaps one may choose to thicken more generously or to evaporate away some liquid?)

Much of the playlist ended up being added / deleted in a hurry, but I still enjoyed occasional discoveries of tango DJ's homework.
01. Carlos di Sarli - Instrumental  "El recodo" 1941 2:20
02. Carlos di Sarli - Instrumental  "Siete palabras" 1945 2:38
03. Carlos di Sarli - Instrumental  "Marejada" 1941 2:32
04. Russian Folk  "Kalinka-Malinka 2 (cortina)"  0:25
05. Juan D'Arienzo - Instrumental "El flete" 1936 2:58
06. Juan D'Arienzo - Instrumental  "Jueves" 1937 2:33
07. Juan D'Arienzo - Instrumental "El Cencerro" 1937 2:40
08. Victor Tsoy  "Gruppa Krovi (cortina)"  0:36
I had some trouble finding the 3rd Calo's record to go with the classic two valses (which are, of course, often paired with "El vals soñador"), and ended up choosing a Donato unusual. 
09. Miguel Calo - Alberto Podesta  "Pedacito de cielo (vals)" 1942 2:21
10. Miguel Calo - Alberto Podesta  "Bajo un cielo de estrellas (vals)" 1941 2:37
11. Edgardo Donato - Hugo del Carril "El vals de los recuerdos" 1935 2:18
12. Lidiya Ruslanova  "Valenki 3 (cortina)"  0:24
13. Osvaldo Fresedo - Roberto Ray "Adios Para Siempre" 1936 3:05
14. Osvaldo Fresedo - Instrumental  "Arrabalero" 1939 2:32
15. Osvaldo Fresedo - Roberto Ray "En la huella del dolor" 1934 2:48
16. Russian Folk  "Kalinka-Malinka 2 (cortina)"  0:25
17. Enrique Rodriguez - Armando Moreno  "No te quiero mas" 1940 2:18
18. Enrique Rodriguez - Armando Moreno  "Tabernero" 1941 2:33
19. Enrique Rodriguez - Armando Moreno "Llorar por una mujer" 1941 2:51
20. Russian Elvises The Red Elvises "Cosmonaut Petrov 1 (-3dB)" 1999 0:28
The quest to find tanda mates for Saca chispas ... and of course I was drawn to Canaro's "No hay tierra como la mia" but de Caro's sounded pretty intriguing ... however, just like with many De Caro records, the sound quality came out a bit too dull
21. Julio de Caro - Hector Farrel "Saca chispas" 1938 2:32
22. Quinteto Pirincho - Instrumental "Milongón (Milonga)" 1940 2:33
23. Julio de Caro - Hector Farrel  "No hay tierra como la mia" 1939 1:58
24. Maya Kristalinskaya  "Nezhnost (Tenderness)"  0:17
25. Carlos di Sarli - Jorge Durán "La vida me engañó" 1946 3:06
26. Carlos di Sarli - Jorge Durán "Duelo criollo" 1946 2:46
27. Carlos di Sarli - Jorge Durán "Un Tango Y Nada Mas" 1945 2:46
28. Russian Folk  "Kalinka-Malinka 2 (cortina)"  0:25
29. Ricardo Tanturi - Enrique Campos "Que Nunca Me Falte"  2:42
30. Ricardo Tanturi - Alberto Castillo  "Pocas Palabras"  2:21
31. Ricardo Tanturi - Alberto Castillo  "Así Se Baila El Tango"  2:34
32. Victor Tsoy  "Gruppa Krovi (cortina)"  0:36
The first of these light-hearted valses was used as a birthday dance, so I added Fru Fru to the list for everybody to enjoy a full-length tanda

33. Enrique Rodriguez - Ricardo Herrera  "Mañana por la mañana" 1947 2:49
34. Enrique Rodriguez - Roberto Flores  "Fru Fru (vals)"  2:57
35. Enrique Rodriguez - Roberto Flores  "Tengo Mil Novias (vals)"  3:08
36. Enrique Rodriguez - Armando Moreno  "Nyanzas y malevos" 1941 2:41
37. Lidiya Ruslanova  "Valenki 3 (cortina)"  0:24
38. Rodolfo Biagi - Instrumental "La Maleva" 1939 2:35
39. Rodolfo Biagi - Instrumental "El Trece 1938"  2:28
40. Rodolfo Biagi - Instrumental "Pura Clase" 1939 2:37
41. Russian Folk  "Kalinka-Malinka 2 (cortina)"  0:25
42. Carlos Di Sarli Alberto Podesta "No esta"  2:45
43. Carlos Di Sarli Alberto Podesta "Tu!...El cielo y tu!"  2:59
44. Carlos Di Sarli Alberto Podesta "Al compas del Corazon"  3:19
45. Edgardo Donato - Horacio Lago "Ella Es Asi - milonga" 1938 2:35
46. Edgardo Donato - Horacio Lagos "De punta a punta (milonga)" 1939 2:21
47. Edgardo Donato - Horacio Lagos "Sácale punta" 1938 2:18
48. Maya Kristalinskaya  "Nezhnost (Tenderness)"  0:17
This really must be a four-song tanda, with Carablanca!
49. Lucio Demare - Juan Carlos Miranda "Manana zarpa un barco" 1942 3:22
50. Lucio Demare - Horacio Quintan "Igual que un bandoneon" 1945 3:02
51. Lucio Demare - Raul Beron "Como se hace un tango" 1943 3:14
52. Russian Folk  "Kalinka-Malinka 2 (cortina)"  0:25
53. Juan D'Arienzo - Alberto Echagüe  "Nada más" 1994 2:43
54. Juan D'Arienzo - Alberto Echagüe  "La bruja (fast)" 1938 2:13
55. Juan D'Arienzo - Alberto Echagüe  "Pensalo bien (fast)" 1938 2:20
56. Rodolfo Biagi - Andres Falgas  "El ultimo adios (vals)" 1940 2:09
57. Rodolfo Biagi - Teofilo Ibanez  "La loca de amor (vals)" 1938 2:13
58. Rodolfo Biagi - Alberto Lago  "Amor y vals" 1942 2:48
59. Carmen Piculeata  "Egy kis cigainy dal" 2013, 2013 0:29

Saul Zhadan's handwritten score,
dedicated to "dear Celia" and entitled,
in Russian,  "Your eyes"

Gitana Rusa, a composition by Saul Zhadan, a Jewish fiddler from Uman', Ukraine, has been smuggled out by sea from Odessa as a wedding gift to his son, a Buenos Aires banker, just before Zhadan perished in the Holocaust, and eventually renamed and remixed in Argentina with a subtitle "Tango Europeo" - yet even with the sound of a BsAs ochestra, it retains one-of-a-kind musical flavor and remains hard to pair up with other records into a tanda. My solution was rather standard - to combine it with other records of the same orchestra - and alas, it gave me the weakest tanda of the night. Malerbo-Medina's Remembranza may be a more fitting choice.
60. Ricardo Malerba - Orlando Medina "Gitana Rusa" 1942 2:47
61. Ricardo Malerba - Orlando Medina "Embrujamiento" 1943 2:52
62. Ricardo Malerba - Antonio Maida "Encuentro" 1944 2:20
63. Russian Folk  "Kalinka-Malinka 2 (cortina)"  0:25
More lyrical Donato favorites:
64. Edgardo Donato - Horacio Lagos "El Adios" 1938 3:09
65. Edgardo Donato - Romeo Gavioli y Lita Morales "Mi Serenata" 1940 3:02
66. Edgardo Donato - Horacio Lagos, Lita Morales y Romeo Gavioli "Sinfonía De Arrabal" 1940 3:07
67. Lidiya Ruslanova  "Valenki 5 (cortina)"  0:36
68. Pedro Laurenz - Hector Farrel  "Abandono" 1937 2:32
69. Pedro Laurenz - Alberto Podesta  "Recien" 1943 2:43
70. Pedro Laurenz - Alberto Podesta  "Todo" 1943 2:37
71. Carmen Piculeata  "Egy kis cigainy dal" 2013, 2013 0:29
A solid vals tanda but at milonga's homestretch, the penultimate tanda may have had more spice, more drama and complexity in it
72. Pedro Laurenz - Juan Carlos Casas "Mascarita"  2:53
73. Pedro Láurenz - Alberto Podestá  "Paisaje" 1943 2:51
74. Pedro Láurenz - C. Bermudez y J. Linares "Mendocina" 1944 2:35
75. Lidiya Ruslanova  "Valenki 3 (cortina)"  0:24
76. Alfredo de Angelis - Carlos Dante  "Carillon de La Merced" 1957 2:50
77. Osváldo Pugliese - Jorge Maciel "Remembranzas" 1956 3:41
78. Osvaldo Pugliese - Roberto Chanel  "Rondando tu esquina" 1945 2:48
79. Juan D'Arienzo - Instrumental  "La cumparsita" 1951 3:49
80. Israel Kamakawiwo'ole  "Over The Rainbow" 2001 3:32
(80 total)

Empanadas, beef and vegetarian

As tasted at Milonga Sin Nombre, Especial el la Gitana Rusa :)

Relleno de carne (inspired by Frida Franco)

Makes a dozen large beef empanadas, more smaller ones

4 medium-to-small onions, chopped

2 4 oz organic beef patties (Trader Joe's)

1/2 cup frozen green peas

2 small potatoes, peeled and cooked

1/4 teaspoon ground cumin

Salt, black pepper, olive oil, green olives

Sautee onions on high heat till lightly golden brown, reduce heat and add beef, keep stirring until it browns, but not any longer. Remove the pan from the burner now. Add spices, salt, and peas (no need to cook them, they'll thaw in the remaining heat of the frying pan and that's all you need to do with them). Add mashed taters and olives. All done now. 

Frida says that one can't make relleno de carne any worse by adding even more onions; that olives are better added whole rather than sliced as we did; that hardboiled chopped eggs are a great addition; and that, although I totally made up the peas and the potatoes, these are legit ingredients in some Argentinian provinces.

Killer ginger spinach tofu empanada filling (inspired by Tho Bui)

Makes two dozen small spinach empanadas. Be warned that this recipe doesn't actually contain any spinach. I mean I'm OK with the classic Argentine empanadas de espinaca, but I thought that our vegetarian-minded tangueros deserve a more savory version. Oh, and I chose amaranth because it settles down less when it wilts in the heat. You'd need a taller pile of fresh spinach to get the same end volume, and it may be too hard for me to stir enough of it to fill two dozens empanadas.

pinkie-size chunk of ginger root

half clove of garlic (hey we are all tangueros here and we use the stuff very sparingly)

half cap chopped zucchini

1 small onion, chopped

1 sweet red pepper, chopped

12 oz amaranth (Amaranthus gangeticus), carefully washed and cut into half-inch pieces, stems and leaves but of course no roots.

1/2 pack medium-firm tofu

extra light olive oil

sauces per description

Finely chop ginger and garlic, sautee until very lightly browned (ginger hits the pan first and garlic, a short while later). Scoop them out and set aside. Now we are getting into a frantic stir-fry mode, with onions first, zukes and red pepper next, and finally amaranth a.k.a. Taiwanese spinach topped with previously set aside roasted ginger and garlic. Last goes tofu, soy sauce, and your fav flavorings such as oyster sauce, a couple drops of sesame oil, a few drops of Sriracha... I did a very unthinkable thing and cut on sauces but used salt to reduce juices (in the Far East, all salt must come from sauces or pickles, and you should never use straight salt, but I was afraid that my relleno will have too much liquid). Perhaps next time I'll throw in some finely scissors-cut, undercooked sweet potato thread noodles to soak in the juices?

And what about the dough?

Do not sweat it. A tanguero isn't supposed to work "too" hard. Get frozen jumbo white rolls dough in a store. Set them on flour-dusted trays in a reasonably warm place, covered by plastic lest their surface dries, for 2+ hours. Once they thaw and start rising, divide each roll into 4 parts for a small empanada, or 3 parts for a biggie. 

Shape each piece into a ball and let them rise, under plastic, for another half an hour. Now it's time to roll (palm size for smallies, two palms for biggies) and fill (try your best to rope-pinch the edges, otherwise Frida won't accept your handiwork). We would like to call our pastries empanadas rusas (pirozhki would be another name),  and we have enough Argentine spirit to leave the rope-pinch edges in plain sight - please do not turn the pastries upside-down like you might have done to hide the seam in the old country. Gotta have a bright golden color? Then, after setting your empanadas on a well-buttered baking tray, brush them with egg yolk before baking. Gotta have a pliable crust? Then smear them with a softened stick of butter after baking, and transfer the still-hot pastries into bowls lined, and covered, by towels.