Hispanic Heritage · Bolivia

La Paz y el Altiplano

La Paz · El Alto · Viacha · Copacabana · Achacachi · Sorata

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Salteñas paceñas

Descubre

La Paz’s salteñas offer a rich filling inside a lightly sweet pastry. The challenge and the delight are in holding a juicy mixture of meat, vegetables, and seasoning within a sealed, golden shell.

La Gente

Cool the filling thoroughly before shaping, as the recipe directs. A careful seam helps keep the juices inside during baking. Let the pastries settle briefly before eating, then enjoy the contrast between the dough and its savory center.

Sabor

The altiplano cooks with the ají and the potato. Ají amarillo and ají colorado, the Bolivian chiles, give color and a mid-level heat that sits under everything. Cumin and oregano are the spices. Garlic and onion the base. Sweetness is not unusual in a savory dish here, and the salteña's sweet dough against its hot filling is the clearest example.

Spice DNA · Heat medium · Sweet medium · Herb medium · Smoke low · Acid low

Seasonings to explore

• Minced Garlic in Olive Oil. In the jigote. Adds a savory garlic base.
• Cumin, ground. In the jigote. The altiplano's spice.
• Oregano, whole. In the jigote.
• Paprika. The color and the warmth of ají colorado. Bolivia's ají is its own; this is the honest stand-in for the color.
• Crushed Red Pepper. The heat the ají colorado would bring. Adjust to your city.
• Black Pepper, ground. In the jigote.
• Onion Powder. With the fresh onion, of which there is a lot.

From your market: beef or chicken, potatoes, peas, unflavored gelatin, sugar, eggs, green olives, flour, lard or butter, and if a Bolivian or Peruvian market is near you, ají amarillo and ají colorado pastes, which are the real color and heat and which Badia does not make. The page says so.

Cocina

Salteñas paceñas

The mid-morning pastry of Bolivia. The filling is made the day before so it sets. Eat from one corner, standing up, over nothing you care about.

Makes 12

The jigote, the day before

• 2 tbsp oil
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• 2 tbsp Badia Minced Garlic in Olive Oil, or 4 garlic cloves minced
• ½ tsp Badia Onion Powder
• 1 lb beef sirloin, cut in small dice, or chicken thigh
• 1 tsp Badia Cumin, ground
• 1 tsp Badia Oregano, whole
• 1 tbsp Badia Paprika
• 1 tsp Badia Crushed Red Pepper, or 2 tbsp ají colorado paste
• ½ tsp Badia Black Pepper, ground
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 2 tbsp vinegar
• 2 cups beef broth
• 1 large potato, boiled and diced small
• ½ cup green peas
• 1 tbsp unflavored gelatin, bloomed in ¼ cup cold water
• Salt
• 3 hard-boiled eggs, quartered
• 12 green olives
• 2 tbsp parsley, chopped

The dough

• 4 cups flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 3 tbsp sugar
• ½ cup lard or butter, melted
• 1 tbsp Badia Paprika, for the color
• 2 egg yolks
• 1 cup warm water, about

1. The jigote. Warm the oil. Cook the onion with the garlic and onion powder until soft. Add the meat and cook until it loses its pink. Add cumin, oregano, paprika, chile, pepper, sugar, and vinegar. Add the broth and simmer 15 minutes. Stir in the potato and peas. Stir in the bloomed gelatin until dissolved. Salt. Pour into a shallow dish and refrigerate overnight. It must set firm.
2. The dough. Mix flour, salt, and sugar. Stir the paprika into the melted fat until it is orange and work it into the flour with the yolks. Add warm water a little at a time until it comes together into a soft, smooth dough. Rest 30 minutes.
3. Fill. Divide the dough into 12 balls. Roll each into a 5-inch circle. Hold it in your palm like a boat. Put a spoon of cold, set jigote in the center with a piece of egg, an olive, and a pinch of parsley.
4. Seal on top. Bring the two sides up over the filling and pinch the edges together along the top, then fold and twist the seam into a rope. The seam is on top, not the side. That is what makes it a salteña.
5. Bake hot. 450°F, 12 to 15 minutes, until the tops are deep gold. The gelatin melts into soup inside.
6. Rest 5 minutes. Eat standing, from one corner, leaning forward. Coffee or an api on the side if you have it. It is ten in the morning somewhere in La Paz.

Pueblos del Altiplano

La Paz · El Alto · Viacha · Copacabana · Achacachi · Sorata · Coroico · Oruro · Potosí · Uyuni · Tupiza · Sucre · Tarabuco · Llallagua · Challapata · Villazón

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