i made vast quantities of empanadas for our latino party. i used the smitten kitchen recipe for empanada pastry which was, as deb says, very easy to work with. it’s an interesting pastry as it contains vinegar, which i’ve not come across before, and which is slightly confusing as you smell hints of it when working with the pastry. it’s also a deliciously light and flaky pastry which would, i think, be good for lots of pasty recipes.

i made two fillings. one was deb’s chicken olive and chorizo mix, the other a cheese and pumpkin combination. both worked really well but, as my pumpkin was huge (a wonderfully textured and flavoured crown prince – if you find orange pumpkins bland and watery give this grey-green variety a try) i had lots leftover which we used to make quesadillas with.

this was my first foray into the world of quesadillas and i was surprised how easy it was and how filling they were – two each and both david and i were full. we also found the leftover chilli sweetcorn and courgette bake to be a good quesadilla filling. 

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the mexican cooking technique of frying chillies in a dry pan so they soften and char, which i used to make a very wonderful smokey salsa, is also used in this dish which is based on a thomasina miers recipe for  roasted chilli sweetcorn.

i made this as part of the latin buffet we had last weekend and we ate leftovers as a filling for quesadillas which worked very well. you do need to be a fan of sweetcorn though as it flavour of the vegetables really shines through.

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