Who doesn’t love having leftovers from Thanksgiving? With pounds of turkey, stuffing, vegetables, and mashed potatoes, you won’t go hungry for DAYS. Sometimes, I like to shake things up a bit with my leftover dishes instead of making turkey sandwiches.
I was inspired by one of my favorite Colombian restaurants that has the most amazing empanadas and aji picante (think a spicy and flavorful sauce). Typically, the empanadas are made with ground pork or beef. However, with turkey being bountiful, that will be my protein of choice!
Also, for a fun Thanksgiving twist, I made two versions of aji picante, one regular and one with chopped up cranberries! As side dishes, I made fried plantains and baked french fries. All of the carbs! Now onto the cooking!
I made the empanadas using Erica’s recipe: http://www.mycolombianrecipes.com/colombian-empanadas-empanadas-colombianas. What I did differently was use turkey instead of ground pork and beef, and used mashed potatoes with some watered down chicken bouillon cube. I also baked some of the empanadas and fried a handful to see the difference. To bake the empanadas, I preheated the oven to 400 degrees F, and oiled the pan heavily before baking the empanadas. I left them in the oven for about 40 minutes, and flipped them half-way. Note, they will not be as brown as if they were fried.
Results
The aji picante definitely is the best accompaniment to the empanadas. It provided a spicy yet zesty flavor to cut the heavy mashed potato/turkey combination.
Fried empanadas will always be better, but baked is not bad at all. Just make sure you oil the pan well enough before placing the empanadas on it.
For the aji picante, I wanted to make sure it had time to let the flavors fully combine. So, I made the aji picante yesterday. I used a recipe from Erica Dinho, a wonderful blog writer who shares her authentic Colombian recipes with the world. http://www.mycolombianrecipes.com/colombian-hot-sauce-aji-picante
I gathered my ingredients: cilantro, parsley, scallions, a tomato, lime, jalapenos, vinegar, water, salt and sugar and starting mixing!
I used a mini blender to blend the jalapeno, water, and white vinegar. Can anyone say jalapeno smoothie?!
In the meantime, I chopped up the other ingredients and put them in a mason jar. I didn’t want to have to dirty a bowl to then transfer the aji into a jar.
The jalapeno "smoothie" is on the right, mason jar was filled with the remaining ingredients. |
Once the jalapeno combo was done, I added it to my jar and shook it well. For the cranberry aji picante, I used the same recipe and just added a handful of finely chopped cranberries. Next time, I am going to omit the sugar in the cranberry version as they were sweet enough.
From left to right: cranberry aji picante, regular aji picante |
Carb heavy dinner! |
Aji Picante Recipe
Ingredients:
1 seeded jalapeno
½ cup white vinegar
¼ cup water
¼ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon lime juice
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
½ cup chopped fresh cilantro
¼ cup chopped fresh parsley
½ cup chopped scallions
½ cup chopped tomato
½ cup white vinegar
¼ cup water
¼ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon lime juice
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
½ cup chopped fresh cilantro
¼ cup chopped fresh parsley
½ cup chopped scallions
½ cup chopped tomato
For the cranberry version, use all of the same ingredients, but omit the sugar and add a handful of finely chopped cranberries.
Instructions:
- Combine the jalapeno, vinegar, and water in a blender and blend until the jalapeno is finely chopped. There should not be large chunks of jalapeno.
- Place the remaining ingredients into a mason jar. Add the jalapeno mixture.
- Close the jar and shake to combine. Keep refrigerated for 10 days.