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Bolivian Saltenas (meat pastries)

Source of Recipe

Brenda/EDC


Recipe Introduction

This is a traditional Bolivian pastry that is typically served for lunch. I learned it from our housekeeper who from Bolivia. It's quite yummy, but a bit of work.

List of Ingredients

Filling:

1 onion, chopped
1 T. olive oil
1 lb. Sirloin steak, cut into tiny pieces (you can use your ground beef here)
1 T. salt
1 T. chili powder
1/4 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1 bunch spinach, washed and dried and cut into 2-3 inch pieces
2 T. raisins
10 green olives, sliced
2 eggs, hard boiled and sliced

Pastry:
4 c flour
1 tsp salt
3 tsp baking soda
1-1/2 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp shortening
3 eggs, beaten
1/4 c warm milk


Recipe

Filling:
Prepare filling first and allow to cool to room temperature before starting dough.

Heat olive oil in a medium-sized heavy pot. Add onions and saute until softened and translucent, about 5-8 minutes. Add steak, salt, chili powder, cumin and ground pepper. Stir to combine.

Cover and cook over low heat until steak is cooked through and juices form. Mix in spinach and cook 2-3 minutes longer, until spinach is wilted. Stir in raisins and immediately remove from heat. Allow to cool to room temperature.

Pastry:
Mix together flour, salt, baking soda and sugar. Using fingers, rub shortening into the flour mixture . Reserve about 1 T. of the beaten eggs for brushing on top of the roll. In a separate bowl, combine the rest of the eggs with the warm milk. Make a hole in the middle of the flour mixture and pour the egg mixture into the hole. Using your hands, combine the ingredients until dough holds together to form a ball. Add water a few drops at a time if the dough is too dry. Knead the dough on a floured surface for 5 minutes until the dough is soft and pliable. Put the dough into a bowl, cover with a towel and let sit for about 10 minutes.

Knead the dough again and form a ball. Roll the dough out on a floured surface into a rough rectangular shape about 16" wide , 24" long and 1/8" thick.

Spread the cooled steak mixture over half of the dough. Place green olive and hard-boiled egg pieces over the steak mixture . Roll up the dough, place on non-stick baking pan.
Brush top with reserved beaten eggs.

Bake at 350 until brown on top.

To serve: Allow it to cool a bit so that it doesn't fall apart when you cut it. Then slice it into 2" thick slices but at a slight angle, and serve it like a sandwich. Great with a tossed green salad and an ice-cold beer.