Although this is the second article of the autumn issue, the cold nights and mornings this week have felt a little premature. Instagram is already full of images of ‘cozy’ autumn dishes made of pumpkin, potatoes and root vegetables, but I am not ready to turn my back on the produce of summer quite yet. The pumpkins will remain on the vines for another couple of weeks, taking up as much of the remaining sunshine they can. There are many months of roots and brassicas ahead, and I’m in no rush to get there. What we are harvesting and eating right now are considered to be the quintessential summer vegetables – tomatoes, peppers, aubergines, chillis, sweetcorn. Together with the last courgettes and beans, this is the food of this early autumn season.
When you grow your own food, eating really seasonally sometimes feels out of step with what you see on social media or restaurant menus. Wild garlic in February, broad beans in March, asparagus in April, courgettes and new potatoes in May. But these jumps on the real season are not what is actually happening in most people’s vegetable patches. The very earliest wild garlic comes from the warmer gulfstream-influenced woods of Devon and Cornwall, while the broad beans, asparagus, courgettes and potatoes, even if local and not shipped in from overseas, come from polytunnels that are also in the southernmost parts of England. This can lead to the slightly frustrating feeling that you are behind in your vegetable growing and can lead to you berating your growing abilities or wishing the weeks away. I am not keen on this mad rush to get to the next season and much prefer the gentler bridges between seasons where, facing both backwards and forwards, you can eat the best of each season. Celeriac and spinach alongside the first broad beans, or potatoes and kale with the last tomatoes and first squash.
As heat lovers, the plants that are producing right now all originate from hotter climates and the majority are from Central and South America so, when thinking about what to cook with them, my mind naturally wanders to that part of the world. My introduction to South and Central American cuisine came primarily from two friends and two cookbooks, copies of which each of them gave me in the early ‘90’s. The first was Sundays at Moosewood Restaurant, a collection of recipes from around the world assembled by members of the Moosewood Collective who, in 1973, started a renowned vegetarian restaurant in Ithaca, New York. The recipes span from North Africa to Armenia, the Caribbean to Japan (there is even a section on the cuisine of the British Isles featuring that well-known national dish of Orange and Mushroom Salad), but the sections I was most struck by were those covering Chile, Mexico and the Southern United States. The inspiration and pastry for this recipe comes from there.
The second book was Katherine Kagel’s Café Pasqual’s Cookbook: Spirited Recipes from Santa Fe. This I was given by my good friend, John-Paul, who had lived in Santa Fe for a while and knew both Kathy and her café, where the bold and energetic cooking was influenced by New Mexican, Mexican and Asian cuisines. These two friends and two books introduced me to an unfamiliar pantry of cornmeal, pimientos, soured cream, squash, black beans, jalapeños, chipotles, avocados, tomatillos, burritos, quesadillas and cilantro, conjuring food which at that point I could only imagine.
Although most of the empanadas I have eaten have been in Spain where they originated, (a tuna and tomato empanada was a must-have beach lunch on the annual holidays we used to take in Almeria before we discovered Greece) it is no surprise that, once introduced by the Spanish, they reached their full potential in Latin America with regional variations in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Uruguay, Paraguay, Venezuela and Peru. Most commonly they have a filling of ground beef often with a hardboiled egg, but chicken, pork and shrimp empanadas are also common as are sweet variations filled with apple, plums and pears. Its choice as beach food for me and Dan was also the reason it was popular in Spain and the Americas. Like miniature Cornish pasties, empanadas were a great transportable food for workers. Made with warm water which activates the gluten in the flour, the pastry is sturdy enough, even when rolled thinly, to survive transportation without breaking. In Spain empanadas were (and still are) more commonly made as large pies which are cut into slices, but the smaller half-moon shaped hand pies here is how they have become more commonly known in Latin America.
Empanadas are believed to originate from South and West Asian samosas, which were introduced to Spain from North Africa in the 16th century. Again, like Cornish pasties, samosas were an economical way to make a little animal protein go further through the addition of potatoes, peas and other vegetables, while also making an easily portable food that could be sold on the street.
Despite the lack of heat this summer we have seen a bumper crop of sweetcorn. The variety, Special Swiss, has been bred to produce early and crop well in a northern climate. It is also short-growing, only reaching 5 foot, which means that they are more successful on our exposed and windy hillside than taller-growing varieties which are prone to wind-rock. This weekend, with Dan away and the cobs threatening to turn starchy, I plan to strip and blanch the kernels from all of the remaining cobs and freeze them. With the huge number of peppers being produced – 20 harvested from three different varieties earlier this week – I have been slowly skinning and preserving them under oil in the evenings. This meant that I already had my peppers prepared for this recipe. If the idea of grilling and skinning peppers doesn’t appeal you can add the sliced pepper raw to the pan with the onion, chilli and garlic. If you don’t grow your own sweetcorn or can’t get it at the greengrocer then canned or frozen is perfectly acceptable.
These empanadas are good for freezing. Allow to thaw at room temperature, then reheat in a hot oven for 5 minutes.
Makes 14 to 16
Pastry
420g plain flour
165ml warm water
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
1 teaspoon salt
100g unsalted butter
To glaze
1 egg
3 tablespoons milk
Filling
3 ears of corn, to give around 350g of kernels or one can
1 large red pepper
1 medium tomato, about 125g
A bunch of spring onions, about 125g
1 clove of garlic
2 small red chillis
½ teaspoon ground cumin
½ teaspoon smoked paprika
1 teaspoon coriander seed, crushed
½ teaspoon dried thyme
A small bunch of coriander
80g ewe’s curd, soft goat’s cheese or feta
2 tablespoons olive oil
First make the pastry. Melt the butter in a small pan and allow to cool. Put the flour into a food processor. Add the salt and vinegar to the water and stir until the salt has dissolved. With the motor running slowly pour the butter into the flour and mix until combined. Then slowly add the water until a dough forms. You may not need to all of the liquid, although the dough should be quite soft.
Bring the dough together and then knead gently for about 3 minutes until smooth. Roll the dough into a sausage and divide into about 16 equal pieces, each weighing around 40g. Roll each piece between the palms of your hands for 30 seconds applying gentle pressure to produce a smooth ball of dough. Put the dough balls onto a plate, cover and chill in the fridge for half an hour.
To make the filling, first prepare the peppers. Destalk and deseed them and cut them in half. Place them skin side up on a baking sheet and put under a hot grill for around 10 minutes, until the skins are nearly all blistered and black. Put the peppers into a lidded container and leave to steam for 10 minutes. Then peel the skins off and discard. Chop the peppers coarsely.
Remove the husks and silks from the sweetcorn. One at a time stand each ear of corn on its stalk end in a bowl and using a sharp knife slice the kernels from the cob. Run the blunt side of the knife down the cob to extract as much juice as possible.
Remove the leaves from the coriander and chop finely.
Heat the oil in a medium pan with a lid over a low heat. Remove the stalks and deseed the chillis, then finely slice them, the spring onions and garlic. Add to the pan, put the lid on and sweat for 5 minutes until the onions are translucent. Stir every now and again. Add the cumin, paprika, thyme and green coriander seed. Stir and return to the heat for another minute or two until fragrant.
While the onions are cooking cut a small cross with a sharp knife in the bottom of the tomato. Put into a bowl and pour over a kettle of just boiled water. Leave for 3 minutes then carefully remove the tomato from the bowl. Slip off the skin, cut into quarters, deseed and then chop coarsely. Add to the pan of onions with any juice you have managed to retain. Turn up the heat and bring the tomatoes to a boil. After a couple of minutes add the sweetcorn kernels, replace the lid, lower the heat and cook for about 5 minutes, stirring regularly, until all of the corn has turned golden. Add the chopped peppers and stir. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
While the corn is still hot use a stick blender to liquidise about a quarter of the mixture, then add the cheese and chopped coriander and stir thoroughly. Allow to cool completely.
Heat the oven to 200°C. Lightly grease a baking sheet.
In a small bowl whisk the egg with the milk to make an egg wash.
On a floured work surface roll each ball of dough into a circle about 12cm in diameter one at a time. Use an 11cm round pastry cutter to cut them into neat circles.
Brush the edge of the pastry with egg wash. Put a scant tablespoon of the sweetcorn mixture in the centre. Bring the two sides of the circle of pastry together over the filling and crimp between your finger and thumb. Crimp the pastry together towards one corner, then turn the pastry 180 degrees and crimp the remaining edge. Make sure they are well sealed. Brush one side with egg wash and make a few small holes with the point of a skewer to allow steam to escape. As you finish each one place it on the baking sheet.
Bake in the oven for 20 to 25 minutes until puffed up and pale golden brown.
Remove from the oven and after 5 minutes use a spatula to transfer them to a cooling rack.
Best eaten warm.
Recipe and photographs: Huw Morgan
Published 14 September 2024