Empanadas YUMMY
So delicious...beef empanada.
An empanada (Portuguese empada) is essentially a stuffed pastry. The name comes from the Spanish verb, empanar, meaning to wrap or coat in bread. Usually the empanada is made by folding a thin circular-shaped dough patty over the stuffing, creating its typical semicircular shape. Empanadas are also known by a wide variety of regional names, see the entries for the individual countries below.
It is likely that the Latin American empanadas were originally from Galicia, Spain, where an empanada is prepared similar to a pie that is cut in pieces making it a portable and hearty meal for working people. The Galician empanada is usually prepared with cod fish or chicken. Due to the large number of Galician immigrants in Latin America (mostly to Argentina and Uruguay during the 19th and 20th century) the empanada gallega has also become very popular in that region. The idea of an empanada is possibly the influence of the Moors who occupied Spain for 800 years. Middle Eastern cuisine to this day has similar foods, like simbusak (a fried, chickpea filled "empanada") from Iraq.
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