jueves, 27 de septiembre de 2012

September Daring Bakers Challenge - Empanada Gallega

Blog checking lines: Patri of the blog, Asi Son Los Cosas, was our September 2012 Daring Bakers’ hostess and she decided to tempt us with one of her family’s favorite recipes for Empanadas! We were given two dough recipes to choose from and encouraged to fill our Empanadas as creatively as we wished!

This time, the first part of the post will be in English, and then I'll change into Spanish... just fair for you DB guys!

I am deeply honored to have been asked to be your hostess for this month's challenge. I have been a member of the DK since October 2009, so that's almost three years now!

Thanks to that (well, to you guys!) I have cooked a lot, learned a lot, and pulled my hair quite a few times because whatever I was concocting wasn't the way it ought to be. The challenges I have liked best are the ones that let your imagination fly and give you the basis to build something of your own. That's why I picked empanada. And because of this little story.

My grandparents lived in a country house that my great-grandfather built a hundred years ago. It is in the northwest of Spain, right on top of Portugal, in the region called Galicia. Back in the 70s, the kitchen was the place of gathering, talking, reading… and there was always something cooking on the iron stove, be it a pot of caldo (a hearty soup), or a stew or a cake in the oven. When I think back to those days, I can smell the sweetness of burnt wood or coal, the almost “chocolate” scent that rose up to your nostrils when you opened the door, the warmth of the air when coming in from a cool, windy and wet August morning…