Empanadas

This recipe makes more filling than is needed for the empanadas. Use the leftover to top crostini or toss with pasta.

This large empanada pie hails from Galicia. It’s filled with a delectable and savory mix of tuna, peppers, olives, tomatoes and paprika.

Santiago Garat makes these flaky beef empanadas the traditional way--by hand-chopping the beef for the filling. He cooks the meat in lard, so it's extra succulent.

Jose Andres says: "I love America! Without a doubt, one of my favorite American ingredients is blue crabs, a true delicacy! And a great value, I think." This recipe is his twist on the traditional Basque txangurro (crab simmered with tomato), crossed with a Galician empanada (a savory pie). "Part of my efforts to build a bridge between America and Spain," he explains.

At Panamonte Inn & Spa, chef Charlie Collins teaches students how to make perfectly flaky empanada dough. For fillings, he uses local ingredients like beef jerk (dried, preseasoned meat) and culantro (a long-leafed herb with a pungent flavor); ground beef and cilantro are fine substitutes.

"In Argentina, we eat so much beef. When I talked to [Mauricio] Couly about making empanadas, I said, 'It would be great to fill them with something that is not meat,'" Piero Incisa della Rocchetta recalls. Mauricio Couly uses a mix of spinach, fava beans, green beans and a good amount of mint. He makes his own paprika-spiced empanada dough; store-bought empanada wrappers (available in the freezer section of many supermarkets and specialty food stores) work well, too.

"We try to make a different menu every day, often using the same ingredients," says Pedro Miguel Schiaffino about the challenges of creating recipes for a cruise ship. Yucca, one of the most ubiquitous root vegetables in the Amazon, appears in many of his dishes. Here he turns pure yucca into a dough for fried empanadas, a typical street food in Iquitos, the largest city in the Peruvian rain forest.

These traditional Argentine empanadas are filled with a mixture of ground beef, smoked paprika, green olives and cumin, then baked until golden.

Tempeh has a long way to go before it becomes as popular as other soy products, but its wonderfully firm texture and versatility make it an excellent protein source. Here, it's a stand-in for ground meat in a vegan baked empanada.