Empanadas Argentinas

Argentine empanadas are hand-sized baked or fried pastries with a soft wheat dough folded over a savoury filling and sealed with a rope-like crimp called the repulgue, whose pattern tells you what is inside. The classic is carne, a filling of hand-cut or minced beef cooked with onion, cumin, paprika and sometimes hard-boiled egg, olive and raisin, and every province argues for its own version: Salta's are small, spicy, with potato and spring onion; Tucumán's use matambre cut by knife and are baked in a clay oven; Mendoza's add olive and more onion; and Córdoba's include a little sugar in the dough and sometimes in the filling. Beyond beef the standard menu runs to ham and cheese, chicken, humita of creamed corn, spinach, and the sweet quince or dulce de leche. They are the national snack and party food, ordered by the dozen from specialist shops, and the Tucumán festival each September crowns a champion.