TAKE A COOKING CLASS IN BUENOS AIRES FOR AN AUTHENTIC ARGENTINE EXPERIENCE By Debbie Stone

It’s hard to go anywhere in Argentina without coming across empanadas. They’re indisputably the most famous Latin American street food—and they’re delicious! For those unfamiliar with empanadas, they are crescent-shaped, savory pastries made of dough and filled with a variety of ingredients. You can find everything from beef, chicken, and pork to shellfish, cheese, and veggies, all baked or fried to golden perfection. One bite of their buttery, flaky crust and you’ll be hooked! Best of all, you can eat them with your hands, making them the ideal fast-food solution.

There are many ways to make them, and every Latin American country has its own variation. Other cultures have their own versions of this style of food, too. In the UK, for example, it’s pasties and meat pies. In Italy, it’s calzones, and in India, it’s samosas.

While on a recent trip to Argentina, I ate my fill of empanadas, which motivated me to learn how to make them myself. Enter Norma Soued and her Argentine Cooking Classes. Norma has a passion for cooking and traveling the world—and by the way, she is fluent in four languages.

When she was a little girl, Norma spent hours in the kitchen learning from her mom how to prepare traditional dishes. Later, she developed a great interest in studying different cultures through their cuisine.

Norma is actually a psychotherapist by profession and has her own private practice. You’re probably wondering, as I did, what cooking has to do with psychotherapy. She explains: “As a trained psychotherapist, I believe that cooking can be a therapeutic activity for adults and for kids. While cooking and enjoying every step of it, we enter a state of joy and ‘flow’ and thus forget about ourselves and all our worries. It gives us the possibility to use our creativity while preparing with love dishes to share with our relatives and friends.”

Since 2008, Norma has been offering cooking classes in her home in Buenos Aires. She hosts two small group classes per week, as well as private sessions on demand. In her class, you’ll learn how to prepare some typical Argentine specialties, including empanadas, a hearty lentil stew, and alfajores (a traditional cookie filled with dulce de leche), before enjoying the rewards of your efforts. You’ll also sample mate while hearing all about this traditional hot beverage—accompanied, of course, by wine naturally produced in Argentina.

We started the class with the lentil stew, which was fairly basic and similar to stews I’ve made myself. Norma noted that soaking the lentils in cold water for at least two hours is important, as it activates all the goodness of the seed and boosts the nutritional value. After they’re rinsed, you cook them for about twenty minutes in a stockpot. During this time, you sauté onions, peppers, and garlic, and then add this mixture to the lentils along with other veggies like carrots and squash, plus tomato paste, seasonings, and water. Then, the whole concoction simmers for about an hour.

Next up were the empanadas, which we made using both premade shells and dough made from scratch. We opted for a shredded chicken filling mixed with sautéed red and green peppers, onions, scallions, garlic, diced hard-boiled eggs, and savory seasonings.

When filling an empanada, it’s important to put enough ingredients inside, aiming right for the center, but not too much—you definitely want to avoid any leakage.

The tricky part comes in sealing the dough. There are a number of different seals, or repulgues, and each unique fold indicates a specific filling. This system eliminates the guesswork when they are served. You use your fingers to pinch and fold the dough to create the seal, or a fork in some cases. It took a bit of practice along with Norma’s attentive guidance to get it right, but eventually, I got the hang of it. Once assembled, the empanadas are baked in the oven until golden brown.

As for the differences in the dough, I noted that the store-bought shells created a thinner-skinned empanada, whereas the ones made from scratch were thicker and puffier. Both, however, tasted absolutely yummy!

We then got to work on the alfajores de dulce de leche, the cookies for our dessert. Dulce de leche is extremely popular in Argentina, and you’ll see a massive variety of sweets and ice creams made from this rich caramel. Norma had prepared the dough ahead of time, so we rolled it out, cut small circles, placed them on a cookie sheet, and baked them for eight minutes.

Although you can make your own dulce de leche from scratch, for expediency's sake, Norma used a high-quality, store-bought type made especially for pastry work. Assembling the cookies was easy: you simply sandwich the dulce de leche between two cookies, then roll the borders in grated coconut.

Dining on the fruits of our efforts was incredibly enjoyable. A robust Malbec accompanied the meal. Norma explained that Argentina is known worldwide for its red wines, and Malbec is a natural partner for the steak that serves as a signature dish across the country.

Along with our dessert, we tried mate, a traditional South American, caffeine-rich, infused drink. In Argentina, it’s defined by law as the “national infusion.” Yerba mate leaves are dried, chopped, and ground into a powder called yerba. You take a hollow gourd or a special container, fill it with the yerba, and pour hot water over the leaves.

To drink the mate, you use a bombilla, which acts as both a straw and a sieve so you drink the liquid rather than the leaves. It is customary to pass the mate back and forth between people multiple times. Each person drinks all the liquid in the gourd, and then it is refilled with hot water before the next person takes it. It can be refilled often before losing its flavor.

As for the taste, it’s very similar to green tea, though slightly more bitter. I personally liked it because I am already a daily green tea drinker.

Norma is a gracious, sociable host and an engaging, knowledgeable conversationalist. She makes you feel instantly welcome and at ease in her lovely home, which features to-die-for views of the city. The hands-on experience of her class offers the perfect opportunity for travelers to take a piece of Buenos Aires and Argentina home with them.

If You Go: www.argentinecookingclasses.com

Debbie Stone is an established travel writer and columnist, and regular contributor for Big Blend Radio and Big Blend Magazines, who crosses the globe in search of unique destinations and experiences to share with her readers and listeners. She’s an avid explorer who welcomes new opportunities to increase awareness and enthusiasm for places, culture, food, history, nature, outdoor adventure, wellness, and more. Her travels have taken her to nearly 100 countries and all seven continents.

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