Celebrity Argentine chef Francis Mallmann’s empanadas Mendocinas are the perfect shareable starter. (Photo credit: Doug Young; tableware: Il Buco Vita)
Argentina’s Mendoza wine country, well known for its bold, fruit-forward Malbec, also has a regional, symbolic snack that is a favorite of South America’s most celebrated chef, Francis Mallmann. The James Beard award-winning pioneer of open-fire cooking, Mallmann’s recipe for Empanadas Mendocinas (a warm turnover traditionally filled with baked meat, onions, eggs, and olives) is not only (somewhat) easy to prepare, but it also makes a great meal or starter at dinner gatherings.
Just ask il Buco owner and founder Donna Lennard, who recently held an intimate dinner with Mallmann at her Amagansett restaurant il Buco al Mare that began with these flavorful, baked pastry hand pies. “They are the best empanadas in the world,” reiterates Lennard. Friends for over 20 years, the idea of the dinner was celebratory not only for il Buco’s 30th anniversary but for a shared love of food and family. “This was just an idea that we wanted to do,” explains Lennard. “Francis said I’d love to help celebrate the 30th while he was in New York, so we decided to have this event out here.” Along with his culinary team of nine, Mallmann worked closely with il Buco al Mare’s executive chef, Amelia Kirk, and chef de cuisine, Grecia Medrano, to prepare a menu focused on seasonal ingredients, many cooked and charred over large grills of hot coals adjacent to the restaurant’s patio.
The five-course special dinner gathering began with Montauk scallops a la Plancha on buttered sourdough, Jamon Iberico (“from far away,” muses Mallmann), followed by heirloom tomatoes with burnt peaches, basil and olive oil. “We sourced the peaches from Balsam Farms,” says executive chef Kirk, who has worked with Mallmann alumnus and former il Buco Manhattan chef Ignacio Mattos. “I acquired Ignacio because of Francis,” recounts Lennard of Mattos’s seven-year tenure at the flagship restaurant, which will be celebrating its anniversary at its annual pig roast in September. “Francis did the 20th anniversary pig roast but will hopefully just be a guest at our next,” says Lennard of the upcoming Bond Street celebration.
Lennard and Mallmann’s friendship and companionship began in a similar, introductory way. “We have a mutual friend, Peter Kaminski, a food and cookbook writer (notable for the collaborative cookbook “Seven Fires: Grilling the Argentine Way”) and avid fisherman. In 1994, he wrote his first column, “Underground Gourmet,” about il Buco for New York Magazine, and we became very friendly.” Kaminski introduced Lennard to Mallmann, insisting the two would “get along.” “We went to this beautiful lunch, the first of many, at Francis’s home in Quogue,” she says. “At one particular dinner while I was seven months pregnant, I was invited to travel with him and his family to Garzon, Uruguay where they had this beautiful five-room hotel with this gorgeous open fire kitchen in the middle of this little cowboy rodeo, ghost town. Fantastic.”
While it certainly seems to be an unforgettable experience to be a house and dinner guest of Mallman, creating an Argentine-themed dinner with friends and family of your own can be made possible with his trademark, crowd-pleasing dish: empanadas mendocinas. An inside tip from Mallmann? Chill the filling.
“These can be difficult to make,” notes the renowned chef. “It’s best to make these little balls with the filling when cold. Place the ball in the middle of the dough, add a piece of egg and some olives, then carefully fold over, pull, and crimp it closed.”
We won’t mind if you cut a few corners using Goya ready-to-use flour dough discs or save time using an air fryer. Just remember that Mendoza’s signature empanadas should accompany its signature wine: Malbec. Keep it local (and on theme) with Wölffer Estate’s Finca Malbec, an elegant, food-friendly vino that brings an equally delicious taste of Argentina to you.
Francis Mallmann’s Empanadas Mendocinas
Prep Time 1 hour hour 30 minutes minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes minutes
Serves 30 empanadas
Ingredients
For the dough
- 2 cups of water
- 1 tbsp kosher salt
- 1/4 cup of lard
- 4 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
For the filling
- 1 lb well-marbled beef, such as tri-tip or sirloin, cut into small, bite size pieces
- 4 cups of water
- 1/4 cup lard
- 6 tbsp unsalted butter (4 tbsp cut into tablespoons, 2 tbsp cut into small cubes)
- 3 medium onions quartered and thinly sliced
- 1 tbsp ground cumin
- 1 tbsp smoked paprika
- 4 scallions, white and green parts minced and separated
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1/4 cup chopped oregano
- 2 large hard-cooked eggs, chopped
- 1/2 cup pitted green olives, roughly chopped
- 2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
- kosher salt, to taste
Directions
To make the dough
In a small saucepan, combine the water and salt and bring to a simmer. Add the lard and stir until melted. Pour the liquid into a large bowl and let cool to room temperature.
Using a wooden spoon, stir in 4 cups of the flour, 1 cup at a time, until the dough begins to form a ball. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead, adding the remaining flour as necessary, 2 tablespoons at a time, until a stiff, dry dough forms. Divide the dough into 4 equal pieces, pat them into 1-inch-thick disks and cover with plastic wrap. Chill for at least 1 hour and up to 24 hours.
To make the filling
Season the cut meat well with salt and black pepper.
In a large pot or dutch oven, bring 4 cups of water to a boil. Submerge the beef pieces with enough room to easily cover the meat with about an inch of water. Reduce heat to a simmer and poach meat for 1 minute. With a slotted spoon, remove the beef from the poaching liquid to a large bowl.
In a large nonstick skillet, melt 1 tablespoon of the lard in the 4 tablespoons of butter. Add the onions and cook over moderately low heat, stirring, until translucent, about 8 minutes. Stir in the cumin, paprika and the scallion whites and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes. Off the heat, stir in the scallion greens. Season with salt and black pepper and transfer the onion mixture to the large bowl with cooked beef. Let the filling rest and cool before prepping the empanadas.
To assemble
Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. On a lightly floured work surface, using a lightly floured rolling pin, roll out one piece of dough to a 7-by-14-inch rectangle, about an 1/8 of an inch thick. Using a 3 1/2-inch round cookie cutter, stamp out 6 rounds of dough and transfer them to the prepared baking sheets; save the scraps. Repeat with the remaining 3 pieces of dough. Combine all of the scraps and knead them into a disk. Roll out and stamp out 6 more rounds; transfer to the baking sheet.
Preheat the oven to 350°. Place 1 tablespoon of the meat filling in the center of each dough round. Top with the chopped eggs, olives and small cubes of butter. Using your finger, moisten the rim of each dough round with water and fold the dough in half over the filling to form half moons. Pinch the edges together to seal and crimp. Bake the empanadas for 20 to 25 minutes, flipping them halfway through baking, until golden. Serve hot.
If using an air fryer
In a small bowl, whisk together one egg and 1 tablespoon of water. Brush onto assembled empanadas.
Spray your air fryer basket with nonstick spray. Add as many empanadas as will fit in a single layer – likely 2 to 6, depending on the size of your air fryer.
Air fry at 325°F for 8 minutes.
Repeat with the remaining empanadas and enjoy!
Doug Young is a food, drink, hospitality and lifestyle photographer who moonlights as a writer and tabletop stylist for various projects. His love of gardens is evident in his photographic contribution to the acclaimed coffee table book, "Hamptons Gardens" (Assouline). Most notably he was the principal photographer for the "Ladies Village Improvement Society Cookbook" by Florence Fabricant (Rizzoli), working closely with many renowned Hamptons chefs, restaurants and celebrities. He is currently working on a new cookbook and lives in Bohemia, NY—when he isn't being a perfect East End houseguest or hotel occupant.
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