Doña María's Empanadas

The best moments happen when you least expect them

On the rustic roads of northwestern Argentina it is customary to pass through tiny places frozen in time, each with its corresponding chapel and its cemetery full of colorful paper flowers. Many times even these sites seem more lively than the farmhouse itself.

This is the case of Cóndor. On the way to Iruya, at the foot of the Cuesta del Cóndor, on the border between the provinces of Jujuy and Salta, there are three small adobe houses with sheet metal roofs, protected from the wind by the stones that abound in the landscape.

At the curve of kilometer 36 of Provincial Route 13, María Ramos appeared to meet the traveler to offer her empanadas. She was holding a plastic container with cracks to which she had attached a handwritten sign offering them. We were so disconcerted by the encounter in such an inhospitable and lonely place that we forced ourselves to stop.

The purchase was an act of solidarity, but not a hundred meters later, after smelling the aroma of that pastry, fried in who knows what grease and quickly placed under the gearbox, we decided to try it. What a delicacy! So, with no possibility of making a U-turn on the narrow high road, we reversed back to Maria's small ranch to buy an additional ration, certain that these local delicacies were the find that would make the day's long journey. Her empanadas were the perfect balance of a masterful hand with the genuine flavor of the deep earth: the dough delicately enveloping the knife-cut meat plus onion, potato, paprika and cumin. 

It was then when she told us that she prepared them herself, who subsisted by harvesting beans, peas and carrots and raising kids. At that moment, Ambar, the little girl of the house, appeared to complete the unlikely scene.

We will never forget the shock of the taste of the homemade and simple!