Fill your pockets with Albertamade empanadas BY LYNDA SEA 30 Culinaire | April 2020
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rispy on the outside, chock-full of filling inside, empanadas are baked or fried where all manner of savoury, cheesy, and sweet fillings are encased in hot pockets of dough. The word empanada itself comes from the Spanish verb empar, which means “wrapped or coated in bread.” The original empanada is the Galician empanada from Spain which was a single, large circular or rectangular pie that was cut into individual servings. Now these portable individual-size hand pies, a staple street food of Latin American countries, are a common sight on restaurant menus, food trucks, magazine covers and in cookbooks everywhere. In Alberta, empanadas are steadily making their mark on the food scene. When she first opened Empanada Queen in Calgary 10 years ago, owner Kathy Vallejos says empanadas weren’t that easy to come by. Now, Empanada Queen is a regular at festivals and markets and a destination for Calgary and area residents, and even Edmontonians who come for her Chilean empanadas. “Empanadas are a lot more simple than people think they are,” says Vallejos. “It’s simple clean cooking that’s wrapped in beautiful dough. It’s meat and bread—homey, comfort food.”
