♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ - This week on Milk Street, we head to Colombia for a cooking lesson, starting with fried empanadas.

They're filled with beef, potatoes, and spices and served with a green salsa.

Then, it's a braised chicken with coconut and plantain.

And we finish up with Colombian potato soup with chicken, corn, and capers.

Please stay tuned for the cooking of Colombia.

♪ ♪ - I'm Mariana Velásquez.

I'm a food stylist, and I've been based in New York for over 23 years.

I grew up here in Bogotá, where we are, and my passion for food really comes from home.

And so, every time I return to Colombia, I feel I find something new.

♪ ♪ We are in this neighborhood called La Perserverancia, "The Perseverance," right next to the neighborhood of San Diego, where the first beer company was found, and it was called Bavaria, which is still very much a cultural symbol.

So, when you read about empanadas, sometimes you find that they're the perfect combination of that Spanish heritage, the Indigenous Colombian culture, with the corn at the center of the recipe, and then, the Afro-Colombian influence with the addition of spices and different flavors.

They're usually deep-fried, and most of the times, made of two types of corn, and then ground into a dough.

And sometimes there's an addition of dried masa, so that it comes together as a binder.

And, even though Colombian cuisine is so regional and so varied, because we are one of the most biodiverse countries in the world, you'll find empanada everywhere you go.

And what really changes is the filling.

You know, if you're here in Bogotá, in the mountains, most likely empanadas will have meat and potatoes.

Where if you're in the oceans, empanadas can have crab and fish, or smoked rabbit.

There's, of course, cheese empanadas, which are to die for.

In Colombia, people tend to really sit for food and drink.

It's very unusual to see someone drinking coffee walking down the street, as you would in New York, for instance.

But empanadas, they're one of the only foods in Colombia that you actually eat standing up.

♪ ♪ So here we have arepas de huevo, also known as empanadas de huevo.

One of the most important things about empanadas is ají.

It's a combination of cilantro, green onion, red chili, lime, and vinegar.

But, you know, it changes from place to place, and people really take pride on the way they prepare it.

♪ ♪ - (laughs) (speaking Spanish): (sniffs, gasps) ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ - So, you have to clarify empanadas for me.

Like, in Argentina, it's just, like, flour, water, salt, very simple filling.

This looks more elaborate.

- Every Latin American community, South American community, has their own version of empanadas.

These empanadas are from Colombia, and we got the original recipe from Mariana Velásquez, and she told us that there are two types of main empanada dough.

One type of dough uses all corn flour.

And this type of dough that we're going to make uses a combination of corn flour and all-purpose flour, and it makes it easier to handle.

- Okay.

- But, before we make the dough, we'll make the filling, and we're making a beef filling.

But of course, you can have a cheese filling, you can have a vegetable filling or an egg filling.

And the first thing we do is mash a few potatoes, because in Colombia, potatoes are king.

So, while I mash the potatoes, if you would get started on sautéing the onions for the meat filling.

(stovetop beeps) I'll give you a tablespoon, and I will take a tablespoon for the potatoes.

And you'll get those sautéing in the melted butter, and then, we will put a lid on them for about eight minutes to let them brown.

Now, they'll brown without the lid, of course, but the lid helps the onions soften, as you know, and they get a little sweeter.

- As opposing to putting the lid on me, which is also one of Bianca's... - (laughs) - Do you get sweeter?

- (chuckling): No.

I just get kind of damp and... - (chuckles) So, these potatoes were previously boiled in salted water.

We drained the water, we put the potatoes back in the pot, I just added that little bit of butter, and now I'll just mash them.

And those onions sound good.

(pan sizzling) The butter is melted, so I think they're ready for the lid.

Takes about eight minutes, you'll stir occasionally, and then they'll be a nice, light, golden brown.

(laughing): Huh, the onions are ready.

You can take the lid off now-- we're done with that.

Okay, if you'll stir in the tomato paste, we'll let that brown for about, you know, a minute at the most.

Ready to put in fresh tomatoes, the requisite garlic, and some chopped jalapeño.

So now, we're ready for the beef.

A little bit of cumin and some coriander, and some salt.

- I'd just like to say, you're not fooling around.

- That was a good amount of cumin and coriander, actually.

So just break it up, because you don't want any big clumps of beef, because this is going into a tiny empanada.

We want it to be nice and evenly distributed.

So all that's left is to let this cook down for about 15 minutes, until the meat is fully done.

(pan sizzling) Looks good, sounds good.

(stovetop beeps) And we will turn off the heat, fold in the mashed potatoes and some chopped cilantro for a fresh herbal note.

See how thick that got now, suddenly?

- Yeah, it did, yeah.

- So, that's going to have some nice holding power.

So once this cools down a little bit, we'll transfer it to a bowl, and put it in the fridge.

Now we're ready to make the dough.

We have all-purpose flour in here.

We'll add the corn flour to this, and a little bit of salt, of course.

All right, mix that on low.

Now here comes the fat, which is the good part, right?

The melted butter, still warm.

And then we have a good bit of whole-milk Greek-style yogurt.

(laughs) The acid helps tenderize the dough and it makes it very pliable.

We'll mix it for about five minutes to help develop the gluten, which helps make the dough even more pliable.

(chuckles): Okay, look at that.

Look how together it came-- now... - Cooking with you is fun, because you just get all excited.

- But you enjoy it, too.

- I love it, too.

- And now you get to do the fun part.

- Okay.

- Can knead that.

When you feel it's ready, you can divide it in half, and then shape each half into a disc and they get wrapped separately.

Just makes it easier to roll out later-- beautiful.

So we'll wrap these in plastic wrap, we will chill them for an hour, or up to a day ahead, and then when we will roll out the dough and make our little empanadas.

♪ ♪ We took the dough out of the fridge for about 15 minutes, just to let the chill come off of it.

Not to get warm, but just so it's not ice-cold.

This is going to be fun.

This is a completely different type of dough.

We're going to roll it out until it's a 16th-of-an-inch thick.

- (laughs): Okay.

- Okay, a 16th-of-an-inch, like you said, that is kind of hard to tell, but you can tell.

- Bianca... - If you need a ruler, you should get a ruler.

- (chuckles) I have to say, this dough is just marvelous.

It's soft, but it doesn't break and tear.

Didn't I just make fun of you for being excited about dough?

- (chuckles) - Now look at me.

- Four-inch cutter.

If you don't have a cookie cutter four inches, use an upside-down bowl or, you know, a large, wide glass.

You want to get about 12 per half.

So, cut as close to the edge as you can and as close together.

Then, with the scraps, you can mush those together and reroll them if you need to.

So, for Colombian empanadas, we are going to use our cold meat filling to fill these.

So, we'll put about four teaspoons of filling, which is just around a tablespoon, spread it out a little bit, leaving the edges clear.

And then this is important: you don't want to over-moisten the edges, or they'll slide apart instead of sticking together.

So, just a little bit on your finger, and just around half of the dough, not the whole ring, and then, bring the two sides up together, and then you press.

And you want to get all the way down to the corners.

And then, turn it over, smash just a little bit to even out the filling.

And instead of braiding or roping or twisting, the very simple decoration of the Colombian way is just the simple fork pressing.

So you press with a fork, it seals it in, and it gives a little decorative edge, as well.

You can even do a little crosshatch if you like.

Once these are filled, we'll let them chill in the fridge for 30 minutes while we heat the oil.

We have about an inch and a half of a neutral oil in here.

We want to bring it to 350.

Let's talk about frying versus baking for a minute.

- Now, in Argentina, they bake them, yeah.

- In Colombia, they fry them.

- Oh.

- Now, the difference between baking and frying has everything to do with the texture of the dough-- you can bake these, you can put them in a 400-degree oven, with a little egg wash on them, and they will bake up beautifully.

But when you fry them, that dough becomes bubbly and crisp, and the contrast of that against the filling is fantastic.

We will fry them six at a time so we don't overcrowd the pot.

You don't want them to stick together, and you don't want to cool the fat down too much.

These have been in the fridge for half an hour, so they're nice and firm.

Now, this only takes three to four minutes.

That's not much time at all.

You want to let them get nice and golden brown on one side, flip them over, and then you'll scoop them out when they're ready.

Now, you wouldn't think that cold filling would heat up in this amount of time, but it does-- it is piping-hot in there.

So these need to cool down a little bit before you eat them.

Come back up to 350, next batch goes in.

♪ ♪ Now, one thing that Mariana insisted on was that we serve it with the ají.

- Mm-hmm.

- Which is a green salsa made with jalapeños, a little bell pepper, and cilantro.

It has a little vinegar and lime juice on it, so it has a nice tangy freshness.

(pastry crunches) Dig in.

- Mm.

- Mm, I just heard the crunch.

And the fried texture is what, to me, makes it.

- So, these are Colombian-style empanadas, with a really great crust and a nice spiced meat filling.

I should make these for Old Home Day in our town in Vermont.

You know, where they do the fried dough and they do the french fries.

Have the empanada booth-- this will be a hit.

♪ ♪ - This recipe is an adaptation of Mariana Velásquez's pollo guisado and coco y ají criollo.

And while she explains in her book Colombiana it's not exactly a traditional recipe, it does, in fact, keep in the spirit and keeps a lot of the nuances of Colombian cuisine.

We want to add subtle, smoky notes into this chicken braise, and we accomplish that by charring a couple vegetables: shallots, as well as cubanelle peppers.

So, let me go ahead and show you how we prepare these.

So, first things first, you want to lop off that entire top stem, and that exposes all of the seeds on the interior.

But, if you can't easily pull them out at this point, you could always cut them right in half lengthwise.

And then from there, you could use the tip of your knife to cut out any of the membrane.

I like to tap my cubanelles cut-side down to remove any of the seeds that are lingering on the interior.

And then, with the cut side facing up, go ahead and slice all these peppers into half-inch pieces.

And now, we could go ahead and char these things.

Right now, I have the broiler set to high, with a rack set about six inches below the heating element.

And I'm going to transfer all of my peppers here onto a rimmed baking sheet, and of course, we're also throwing on our shallots.

Now, these shallots have been peeled and halved.

So now, I'm going to throw them under the broiler, and they're going to char for about eight to ten minutes, or until everything has a nicely even dark brown coloration.

♪ ♪ While my peppers and shallots char, let's go ahead and cook our chicken.

I have bone-in skin-on chicken thighs here, and we're going to cook them in a large Dutch oven that's set over medium-high heat.

But first, I have to add some oil.

Here I have some coconut oil, but neutral oil will totally work.

And we'll heat that oil up until it begins to shimmer.

And now, we're going to transfer our chicken right into the pan, skin side down.

Now, it's important to work in batches, so that way, all the chicken has enough room to release its moisture and fully brown.

Now, I only have half of my chicken in there, but we're going to leave it there for about eight to ten minutes, so that way, that skin browns up.

Look at that, evenly brown, beautifully caramelized, and it's going to impart such a great smoky note into this really rich braise.

Speaking of braising, my chicken is fully seared.

It developed a really beautiful golden brown on that skin.

You'll also note that I haven't cooked the chicken on the other side.

That's because we're going to finish cooking it in the braise.

Right now, we're browning the skin to develop a lot of flavor in the pot, and it'll also extract a little bit of the chicken fat to bolster the chicken richness.

So now, I'm going to take all that fat that's in the Dutch oven, and actually remove it.

All except for, like, two tablespoons, because that's going to help us cook the rest of the dish.

I'm also going to remove all of this chicken skin, so that way we braise only the chicken thighs.

I only have two tablespoons of that fat left in the pan, and all of the skin on my chicken thighs has been removed, so we're ready to keep on cooking.

The next bit that we're going to sauté is a bunch of cilantro stems that have been finely chopped, along with some jalapeño that's been seeded and chopped up into half-inch pieces, and finally, some garlic.

Now, there's a lot of residual heat happening on this pan, but we have it set over medium to keep things cooking.

The other thing that we're going to be adding into this pan is all of our charred vegetables.

Go ahead and scrape all of those right into the pot.

So now, we'll cook all of these vegetables for about five minutes, or until they soften.

The cubanelles and the shallots are already pretty soft, so look to the jalapeños to be your guide.

All righty, so my veggies are nice and softened, so now, it's time to hit it with some broth.

This is our braising liquid, but it's also going to help us scrape up all of that umami-rich goodness.

You'll see the color of the broth change pretty drastically to a dark brown.

That's flavor, baby.

So now we'll bring this entire mixture up to a boil.

And with everything bubbling away, I'm now going to nestle my chicken in a nice even layer into this braising liquid.

So, with all the chicken in the pan, we're going to reduce the heat down to medium-low and pop a lid on it.

This chicken is going to braise for about 35 to 40 minutes.

♪ ♪ So now we're going to add in some plantains into our braise here.

So, to prep your plantain, you're going to lop off both ends.

Now, you could slip off that peel, you could then cut this plantain right in half, and then slice that in half lengthwise, and just cut them in half lengthwise again.

After cutting them in half, you'll want to cut them into half-inch pieces.

So, as you can see, a little wedge just like that is exactly what we're looking for.

So from here, we could throw this into our braise, along with some full-fat coconut milk.

So, give this a stir, and you'll want to adjust the heat to maintain a low simmer.

It should only take about ten minutes.

The plantains are nice and tender, and since we cooked that without the lid, it's thickened just a little bit.

So now what I'm going to do is, I'm going to remove it from heat altogether, and I'm going to introduce a little bit more freshness, some levity.

So, I'm throwing in some freshly squeezed lime juice, as well as half of my cilantro here, because I want to save the rest for garnish.

Give that a little stir.

So, let me go ahead and scoop myself a little bit of rice, and now let's get some of this good stuff in here.

The chicken is practically falling off the bone here.

Signs of a good braise.

Now we'll top that off with a little extra cilantro.

Mm!

The flavor of coconut and plantain just transports me right to Colombia.

Mariana Velásquez got it right.

This is such a comforting dish, and I have a feeling you're going to fall right in love with it.

This is our braised chicken with coconut and plantains.

♪ ♪ - So here we are, about ten kilometers from the closest town.

We're high up in the Andes, and this is my dear friend Ricardo Umaña, who's having us over in his beautiful home.

- Ajiaco is a soup based on potatoes.

You know, potatoes are so important, because it's, it's one of the species that changed the world when the Spaniards came here and took it to Europe.

In Colombia, we have, like, 750 different kind of potatoes.

But for ajiaco, we only use three, thanks to God.

Uh... (both chuckle) One that is called a pastusa, it's a potato that dissolves.

- Dissolves.

- And the object for this potato is to give a thickness to the soup.

Then, you have the sabanera.

This is the potato that is used for french fries, for instance.

It's harder and it doesn't dissolve it.

And this one is called the criolla, it's a very small, very colorful potato that tastes very, very different.

- Well, we're here, we're shredding the chicken that has already been cooked.

And that's not too, too fine, so that it doesn't get dry and continues to have some consistency.

- And then, on top of that, you put some avocado.

- And this is a native variety of avocado.

Papelillo, no?

- Yes.

- Different from the Hass.

It has a creamier texture, and it's lighter in color, as well.

- You can see, and it's very easy to peel.

And some herbs.

- And don't forget the corn.

So, the corn has been a whole debate.

- Why?

They don't like it?

- No, I'm... Well, no, I mean, there's been debate about having the grains of corn in the soup.

But... - No, no, no, no, no.

No, you, you pinch the, the corn by both sides, and you eat it by hand, like this.

So, the way you do it is that you serve the soup with potatoes, you put the corn as this, and then chicken-- the chicken here.

- Okay.

- You put some capers.

- (speaking Spanish) - Mm-hmm.

You put cream.

Then, you put aguacate.

- I'm going to do my aguacate on the side.

- Mm-hmm.

- You know, like, hot avocado is terrible, so I add it to the soup... - Mm-hmm.

- ...bite by bite.

- Mariana, cheers.

- Cheers.

- For the honor of having you here.

- So, you can really smell the guascas, which are delicious, and then, the soup is quite light, but creamy at the same time.

It's good, you know, the capers give it enough saltiness, and the potatoes have all this dimension and different tastes.

It's quite comforting, no?

This flavor really reminds me of home, you know?

- Yes.

- I mean, of growing up, of Bogotá.

In general, it feels like, like, I'm home.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

♪ ♪ - Colombia boasts 750 varieties of potatoes.

750.

So, it should come as no surprise that when we visited Bogotá, we tried a soup called ajiaco, which is a potato and chicken soup.

And in this soup, the potato is really the star of the show.

It sounds really complex, but it's actually really simple to make.

So we're going to start by making the base of the soup, which is sort of like a chicken broth.

And we're going to use bone-in, what once was skin-on chicken breasts, but we took the skins off because we don't want the soup to get greasy.

So, we can put these in the pot whole, and then we'll add some aromatics.

We have some scallions-- those go in whole-- some celery, and then, some whole cilantro, leaves and stems.

And then, for the potatoes, we're going to use three different varieties of potatoes.

But we had to find some potatoes that were comparable to the ones that they have in Colombia.

So, the first potato they use in Colombia is called pastusa.

It's a really starchy yellow potato.

In place of that one, we're going to use a russet, also very starchy.

The next one that they use in Colombia is called criolla.

It's a tiny little potato, really, really buttery.

In place of that one, we're going to use a Yukon Gold potato, and both of these get sliced into about quarter-inch-thick slices.

So those can go into the pot.

Now, these potatoes that are going in at the beginning are really going to kind of break down, and that's going to make almost, like, a creamy texture to the soup.

Now, the next thing that's kind of a critical element in the soup is corn.

So, the recipe calls for four cobs of corn.

Two of those get plopped right into the middle of your bowl.

The other two, we're going to cut the kernels off the cob, and then put the cobs in.

The cob still has a ton of really great corn flavor, so that's going to do a wonderful job of seasoning our soup.

So, we're going to put in some garlic and some salt and pepper.

And then, some water.

All right, I'm going to keep these kernels of corn.

We're going to add them at the very end.

In the meantime, this is going to come up to a simmer.

We'll reduce the heat to medium and let that go for about 30 minutes, just until those chicken breasts are reaching 160 at the thickest part of the breast.

♪ ♪ All right, the chicken is cooked through, so we can take that out now.

We're going to just set that aside until it's cool enough to touch, and then eventually, we're going to shred it.

In the meantime, I'm going to take out all those aromatics we put in earlier.

And you can see that these potatoes that are in here are already starting to break down.

So I mentioned three different types of potatoes.

We've only seen two so far.

So the last one would replace a Colombian potato called a sabanera.

It's a dense, waxy potato, kind of purplish in color.

Instead, we're going to use a Red Bliss potato, or any sort of small, waxy, dense potato.

And we're putting these in a little bit later so they're going to hold their shape.

So we've got this really nice contrast, have the potatoes that have broken down, and then, we have these potatoes that are going to keep their shape.

So, we're going to have a really nice contrast of textures.

And then, we can add in the corn that's on the cob.

So, two cobs of corn, cut into three pieces.

So I'm just going to let that come back up to a simmer, and let that go for about five minutes, until the corn that's on the cob is cooked through.

So, it's been five minutes, the corn is cooked.

I'm going to take it out at this point, and we'll set those aside.

You'll get that on the table, and you'll be able to put one in your bowl, if you'd like.

In the meantime, this is going to continue to cook for probably another 20 to 25 minutes.

In the meantime, I'm going to shred up our chicken.

All right, these potatoes have broken down.

Their starchiness really helps kind of thicken the soup.

So, the last couple of things we're going to put in are those corn kernels that we cut off a cob earlier, and then a traditional Colombian herb, really an important one in this recipe.

It's called guascas, it's a mountainous herb.

I sort of feel like it tastes kind of like a combination between bay leaf and parsley.

It's dried, it's really easy to order online, but, if you can't find it, our friend Mariana Velásquez, who's a Colombian food expert, says you can use chopped up celery leaves.

All right, that's going to just take about five minutes for that corn to cook through.

♪ ♪ All right, now we can finally start our soup bar.

Some chicken.

Plop in some corn.

Do not sleep on the capers.

They are so good in this.

I can't stress that enough.

And then a little bit of cream.

I'm going to put my avocado on the top where it's protected from any heat.

All right, this looks fantastic.

It smells so good, it's very aromatic.

So you can smell that guascas and the corn in this.

So, so delicious.

♪ ♪ It's great-- those corn kernels at the end are still kind of crisp, which is really, really nice.

And you have these creamy potatoes in here.

It has so much flavor.

It's so complex, but it's really quite simple and rustic.

This is ajiaco, Colombian potato soup with chicken, corn, and capers.

It's on every table in Bogotá, Colombia, and we think it should be on yours, too.

You can get this recipe, and all of the recipes from this season of Milk Street, at MilkStreetTV.com.

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