Empanadas are made all over the Latin world, but with different and sometimes unique techniques and recipes. For example, in Venezuela and Colombia, empanadas are made with corn meal, salt, water and oil, and they’re fried. In the rest of the central and South American, they’re  made with flour, eggs, lard or butter and water, and they’re baked.

On a resent trip to my home town of Puerto La Cruz, Venezuela, my brother and sister took me to eat empanadas at the ferry terminal where empanaderos make them 24 hours a day and they’re so delicious. On this particular night, it was my birthday, so after a long night of partying, we got hungry and decided have to some.

Hot and ready to eat

The most famous empanadas are the Argentinian and Chilean versions of this beautiful savory or sweet pastry,  served with different sauces, salsas  and dips depending on where it’s made.

Here in Toronto you can get them in any Latin American food store, but my favorites are made by  Marina Queirolo, owner of Surkl Empanadas. She sells them at The Brickworks Market and the Cheese Boutique.

Here’s my version of a spinach, queso fresco and pine nut empanada, with salsa criolla [spicy-sweet peppers, tomatoes and aji] on Market Mondays on Taste T.O

Happy cooking!

Yours on making Empanadas

Carlos

Case in point is the Hallaca, which is made through Central and South America and has many manes like Tamal, Hayaca, Tamale, Envulto, chachas, chalas, Humitas rellanas and the list goes on.

Hallaca with chicken salad and picadillo[ Oriente style]

In Venezuela making hallacas is serious business. When I was child living in Venezuela I remember seeing people having big discussions about whose hallacas were best.
It’s a family affair, the process is long and involves everyone, especially family members who reunite to make big batch to eat during ‘La Navidad’ or Christmas.

The Families work like an assembly line. The grandmothers clean the plantain leaves, which the hallacas are wrap up with, the Moms make the guiso [stew and fillings] and masa [dough], the youngest stuff and wrap them; the eldest tie them and they all cook and eat them.

Other interesting dishes that we make for Navidad are: Pan de Jamon [Ham bread] which is stuffed with smoked ham, panchetta and raisins; Ensalada de Gallina [chicken salad], Torta Navideña [Christmas cake] and Ponche Crema [eggnog]

Rolling up the pan de Jamon

Pan de Jamom

Pan de Jamon with chicken salad

Some of the ingredients for the Christmas cake and pan de Jamon
When talking about hallacas in Venezuela everyone will say “Las mejores hallacas son las de mi mamá” which translates to “my mom makes the best hallacas”.

Without Hallacas, Pan de Jamon, Torta Navideña and Ponche crema it would not be Navidad in Venezuela.

Thinking of those good memories, I decided to do something: I decided to do a class to introduce my style of Venezuelan cooking to new generations of Toronto foodies, who are looking for something different for this Christmas. The class took place last November 19 at the Kingsway LCBO.
I was very surprise by the great comments that I got from the guests at the class.

They really enjoyed the food and the history that it came with it.

Now you can have the change to taste this delicious dishes at Arepa Cafe, which is located at 490 Queen Street West.

Special thanks to lcbo’s Joanne Leese for your continued support on celebrating Latin American food and culture through my cooking classes.

Yours, celebrating the holidays, Venezuelan style,

Carlos

With Eduardo Lee

Cachapas, which are made with fresh corn, salt, pepper, butter and top up with queso fresco, basil and olive oil. A traditional dish from Venezuela and people who came out to the testing welcomed our ideas and flavours with excitement and understanding of what chacapas really are. A humble, but delicious dish.

Serving cachapas con queso y albahaca (fresh corn pancakes with fresco cheese and basil)

The corn and basil was donated by Sandra and John Paul Mooney from Godelie Family Farm.
Queso fresco from the Local Dairy Products from Ingersoll, Ontario

Stay tune for opening party date

Arepa Cafe= Venezuelan Urbanity

Yours from the Market
Carlos

The President’s Choice 1000 Tastes of Toronto meant that there were more chefs showcasing their food. Luminato also welcomed more artists, musicians, filmmakers and dancers from all over the globe. And let’s not forget Cirque de Soleil, which performed for free for the crowd once the chefs tore down their tables. “One City One Table” was done serving food by 8pm.

With Kelly at our table

My team and I decided to make something simple and great. We went 80 per cent local, as in corn tortillas, queso fresco, onions and greenhouse tomatoes. We made an onion confit and used it as a sweet note. We made a loose coronet with the tortilla and stuffed it with queso fresco, the onion confit and a sexy avocado relish, and we handed to our happy customers in a banana leaf. I’m happy to report that it was a hit with all of our vegetarian friends.

Single tortilla; Vegetarians loved us.

Ready for the crowds

It was great watching people enjoy the food, particularly our groovy organic vessel. Let’s hear it for composting.

Special thanks to Adam McDowell of The National Post for mentioned me in his blog, as his favorite taste that day. It’s good to be notice.

Looking forward to be back next year!!!
Yours from the Luminato.
Carlos

“Until a man duplicates a blade of grass, Nature can laugh at his so-called scientific knowledge. Remedies from chemicals will never stand in favorable comparison with the products of Nature, the living cell of a plant, the final result of the rays of the sun, the mother of all life”.
Thomas Alva Edison

Love to you all.

Celebrating our beautiful Mother Earth

Carlos

As I got to know Mary Luz better, I discovered that we had a lot in common. We both have a mission in life: to promote and celebrate our Hispanics roots. And when we compared our greatest influence, we both came up with Cuban-American chef and restaurateur Maricel Presilla.

Maricel is considered to be the continent most influential Latin American food historian. She’s an author, holds a doctorate in medieval Spanish history from New York University, writes for Gourmet, Saveur, Food and Wine, and contributes a weekly column to The Miami Herald.

Out of the blue, Mary Luz calls to say that she had signed Maricel to a episode of At The Table With, that she was going to Miami to interview her, and then to Hoboken, NJ, home of Maricel’s two restaurants, Cucharamama and Zafra, where the remainder of the episode would be filmed. [The episode will air in the fall.]

Mary Luz [left] and Maricel in Miami

Then, comes the call. Mary Luz says Maricel is coming to town on business and would I like to come to dinner? Would I like to cook?

Who wouldn’t love the opportunity to cook for a culinary heroes? I couldn’t believe my good fortune. So last Monday, there we were at Mary Luz’s house, cooking for the Queen of Latino American cuisine.

We started with pan-seared scallops, dusted with annatto, and served with an avocado, cucumber and apple salsa, inspired by my wife Stephanie, who first made this dish in a similar version. We paired the dish with a pinot gris.

Finishing the scallops with Mary Luz

Next came roasted organic pork tenderloin, with a parsnip and mushroom stew, and a relish of fennel, pickled eggplant and green olives. We paired this with an Alsatian Gewurztraminer.

Mary Luz’s husband, Mario, made the main course — a Croatian-style dish of paprika sweet peppers, stuffed with beef and barley, served with a light tomato sauce and sour cream. We paired this with a Spanish garancha.

For dessert, I made sweet plantain empanadas stuffed with dulce de leche and served with vanilla almond ice cream. Mario brought out a great port from his cellar.

Sweet plantain empanadas just waiting to be eaten.

It was an incredible experience just because of the guest of honour, but it was also like dinner with old friends you haven’t seen for a while. You are having so much fun you don’t want the night to end.

Yours in cooking for new friends
Carlos

Luis believes that doing so he is helping to improve the lives of people who do not have the chance to go to school in one of the most impoverished region in Colombia.

Foto: Andrea Moreno / EL TIEMPO
He started out with 70 books and has grow into a traveling library of nearly 5,000 books.
This began as a necessity,” Soriano told the NY Times, “and then it became an obligation, and after that a custom. Now, it’s an institution.

The most admirable and impressive thing he does is to travel without any escort in one of Colombia’s most volatile regions. On the battlefied are Colombian national army, numerous paramilitary groups and FARC, the Spanish acronym for the Columbian Revolutionary Armed Forces.

In this environment, Soriano has been robbed, and because he didn’t have any money (all he carries is books], the theives tied him to a tree and left him there for several days, but he says nothing will stop him from doing this work.

He’s married with three children, He and his wife have open a little restaurant, so they could make ends meet and to help to buy more books. They don’t get any help from the local or national government.

Luis Sorriano you are my hero.

I just want to leave you with this quote from Jacques Cousteau, which comes to mind when thinking of Sorriano.

” If we were logical, the future would be bleak indeed. But we are more that logical. We are human beings, and we have faith, and we have hope”

Yours honoring an exceptional hero

Carlos

Finding organic chayote was a challenge, but luckily Whole Foods had some that was naturally grown, which means it wont be long before certified organic is available, too.

My offering on that drizzly day, which beautifully turned into a gorgeous sunny day at Everdale farm, just east of Georgetown it“ was a chayote guiso [Spanish for stew] with boniato [white sweet potato], topped off by organic chorizo from The Healthy Butcher.

it was great to see people enjoying the food, particularly the groovy organic vessel I designed to carry the guiso to avoid plastic or unnecessary paper.

We cut squares of plantain leaf, wrapped them into the shape of a cup and then pierced them with small, sturdy wooden skewers from Chinatown, all of it beautiful compost.

I don’t mind saying I’m proud of that, too.

The crew, left to right: Annick le Goaix, Andrew Pemas, Stephanie Ortenzi. Those are the famous plantain cups in front of Annick. Great work guys. Thanks.

A high note for me was meeting Linda Crago and her riveting basket of colourful organic heirloom tomatillos: pink, purple, yellow and green. Beautiful.

Who knew you could get them so close to home? This opens things up for me: doing Latino locally. Linda says tomatillos have been grown in Ontario for over 10 years. Who knew?
And guess what else she grows [although there wasn't enough hot weather this year]? Chayote!

Linda Crago with some of her beautiful heirloom vegetables
My next move is clear: spread the word about how easy it is to cook these beautiful these vegetables, but more importantly, how delicious. Or should I say, Sabrotito!

On another note; it was great seeing Michael Stadtlander and Mike Dixon promoting the Canadian Chef’s Congress coming up this weekend. Guess who’s going?

Yours in good food from 2008 Feast of Fields
Carlos

To call it a corn bread — which it is because the main ingredient is white cornmeal — is to tell only half the story.

Arepa de cazon: stuffed with fish

Arepas are made by mixing Harina PAN, the Venezuelan brand of special cornmeal [also called masarepa] with warm water, salt and oil. You make soft dough that you turn into patties and then bake, fry or grill.

These are the traditional ingredients, but I like to add butter, milk and eggs, which gives them some air, makes them fluffier and, wow, taste so good.

Like a good bun, its made to carry good stuff inside. You create a pocket in the arepa for whatever you dream up [some ideas to follow] by cutting along one side about 180 degrees, sort of like a pita that is going to become a falafel sandwich.

On offer: reina pepiada, chicken, avocado, red onion, cummin, coriander

Someone else who is crazy about arepas, in a deep-in-the-heart, home-sick kind of way, is Eduardo Lee, the designer responsible for Torito’s cool look. Eduardo is Venezuelan, and out of the blue, he called one day to ask if I would like to get involved in a restaurant project. Guess what? He wants to open an Arepa Cafe, which is clearly right up my alley.

Our first plan of action was to put on an Arepa Night, very likely Toronto’s first and only for now. We needed to test our ideas for the arepa itself and the fillings, and we wanted to know what people thought, what they liked best, what were hits and what were misses.

We had excellent results. A happy crowd of Anglo and Latinos gave us rave reviews.

Left to right: Veronica Laudes, Torito owner, Eduardo Lee, “Arepa Cafe” visionary, and Peter Chapman, a guest

We served up three classics: reina pepiada, carne mechada and queso fresco, tomato, avocado and guasacaca.

To finish, I had to do some of my sweet favourites: chocolate truffles with chipotle and guava; and baked sweet plantain with queso fresco, wild flower honey and roasted pistachios, below

If all goes according to plan, Eduardo will open Arepa Cafe in Kensington this November.

Stay tuned

Yours in good food, great arepas and new beginnings

Carlos

Arepa Cafe poster, design by Eduardo Lee

Factoid
Harina PAN is available in white and yellow corn varieties. It’s easily digested, contains no additives and is perfect for gluten-free diets.

As the story goes, in more recent history, when Hernando Cortez conquered Mexico in 1519, he found that the avocado was a staple in the native diet and fell in love with it as soon as he tasted it and brought it home. Who wouldn’t have? Because it reminded him of a dessert pear, he ate it with cheese, which is a disturbing notion “ maybe too much of a good thing — but his countrymen were more inclined to season it with salt, pepper and olive oil, like me.

They are many kinds of hybrid avocados all over the world, but the three main strains in the Americas are the Mexican, the West Indian and the Guatemalan. Avocados are also a staple food in the tropical regions of the world. Check out Saveurs handy avocado identifier, to see which one you’ve got ripening in your fruit bowl today.

Although its old news that avocados are being used in cosmetics, producers have recently started marketing organic avocado oil for epicures, a sexy elixir with a ridiculously high flash point [500F], which makes it ideal for high-temperature searing. Chile, Mexico, California, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa are revving up their export engines, but chefs aren’t in a big hurry to use them. The flavours too strong. Unless other elements of the dish are going to be a nod to those avocado flavours, this oil tends to get used raw, as a drizzle, where its best qualities and reshness and richness — can be enjoyed.

Olympic Cheese Mart in the St. Lawrence Market sells Chilean and Californian avocado oils [on the main floor, half-way down the left-hand aisle]. At Whole Foods and Brunello Imports.You can find avocado oils under the Pucara, San Pietro and La Tourangelle brands.
And Finally from my repertoire, but inspired by my wife Stephanie.

Annatto pan-seared sea scallops with a salsa made with avocado, apples, cucumbers and mint.

Yours in good food
Carlos