It’s always a pleasure get closer to Valencia to get carried away by her more and more attractive gastronomic offerEven more so when you have the opportunity to visit one of the recently awarded its first, and well-deserved, Michelin star in our country.
We are talking about Fierro, a restaurant with Argentine soul in which the flavors of the Mediterranean shine with their own light. There he receives us Carito Lourenço with that huge smile that never leaves his face, something that was already the case long before the 2022 Michelin Guide gala was held and his restaurant became part of the first division.
Connect with the origins through an empanada
Once here, we could talk at length about a good handful of dishes with which German Carrizo, from Mendoza, and Carito, from Cordoba, have made us very happy over the last few years from that very particular restaurant in the heart of the Ruzafa neighborhood. A boat soon, its insurmountable “Parsnip”, he enjoys it to the fullest “Creole prawn” or that very elegant ode to onion soup called precisely “Onions”.
But it is not about these careful elaborations that today we have to talk about, but about an apparently much simpler recipe that is part of Fierro’s snacks And it is also wonderfully well represented in Doña Petrona, the food house overlooking the Ruzafa market where Germán and Carito delight us every day with dishes “from there and from here”.
We talk about Justina, the empanada that was named in honor of “Germán’s mother” and that they have been with them “since we opened Fierro six years ago”. After confirming that they could not be more proud of the welcome they have always had within the menu, Carito declares: “We can say that Justina represents us”.
If we stick to the recipe itself, we would be talking about “the traditional Mendoza recipe”, but you will see that everything is much more complex than it seems, especially because the product that our hosts can find here It is not the same as they could get in any Argentine city where this dish is an institution.
Haute street cuisine
When you ask Carito how they got to include this elaboration so street food within a tasting menu signed by two tanned chefs in the kitchens of El Poblet and Vuelve Carolina, the acclaimed Valencian projects of Quique Dacosta, do not think about it for a second: “We were always clear that we did not want to do traditional Argentine cuisine, but we did feel like doing something at that time that, speaking of Valencia, was super new”.
And it seems that time has proved them right, because there is justina six years later. “It already appeared in our first tasting menu, although over the years we have been modifying it, always looking for it to look more and more like the one there.”
However, it has not always occupied the same place within the Fierro experience: “Now it is part of our snacks, but at other times we have used it to welcome diners or to place them in the center of the table looking for the conversation to flow between those people who did not know each other ”.
Here we make a subsection to explain that Fierro was born as a restaurant with a somewhat complex proposal, since they offered a single table for twelve people. Something that, at first, could leave you a little dislodged but that was not at all an inconvenience when you allowed yourself to enjoy the experience to be left in the hands of a height equipment in which the figure of the sommelier Eva Pizarro stands out.
After that first impact, it was time to overcome the next right hand. With all of you, Justina, “When it comes to the table, surprises even Argentines, who manages to win their hearts and take them home for a few minutes, the truth is that it has always had a great acceptance “.
The Justina pie, under examination
We finally reached the moment that you were surely waiting for. Now is when we are going to try to get from Carito what makes Justina so special. “The fundamental thing is prepare the filling a day in advance and let it rest in the fridge overnight, ”says Lourenço.
He then reveals that “it is also very important fill the patty just before baking”. And precisely for this reason the empanadas that we can now find in a multitude of places distributed throughout the country will never be like Justina.
“When you leave them prepared in advance, the texture of the dough is very different and it does not melt in the same way.” And the thing does not stop there: “The hydration of the filling is also very different when you don’t follow the right steps, since these empanadas that you mention are first pre-baked and then heated, so they are not so juicy inside ”.
The other aspect that notably influences Justina’s taste has to do with an ingredient that has not made things easy for them. “The beef fat, which is something very typical of Argentina, here it is not marketed (That’s like going to the supermarket to buy butter), so we have no choice but to buy it dirty, and then melt it and filter it ”.
In other words, They have no choice but to make their own veal fat: “If it is matured veal, it has very different nuances from suckling, for example, that is why we have opted for a mixture of various types of veal to try to get closer to the flavor of those of our land.”
As for the rest of the ingredients of Justina’s filling, in case you are considering making Argentine empanadas at home, take note: onion, minced beef, bay leaf and ground chili.
That being said, try don’t settle for just any minced meat: “We go daily to the market to choose the piece of meat we want, we chop it at the moment, we like to be on top of all the details.” Even so, they cannot prevent some national pride from coming out: “Even so, the meat is not the same that we could get there, despite the fact that it is Argentine ”.
The million dollar question: is there Justina for a while?
There will be many who believe that, with the latest recognitions (and those that are sure to come), Justina has her days numbered in Fierro. But nothing could be further from the truth: “At the moment we are working on the new menu and, although it is too early to comment on anything, yes we want you to continue to be present, it is a symbol for us ”.
And it is that there have been several times that Carito has insisted on the same thing: “Our origins will always be part of Fierro”. In fact, he tells us that “there was a season in which you could enjoy Justina standing up, having a beer in the kitchen, which is the way we usually drink them when we are with friends.”
And it is that, friends, in Argentina they take very seriously this recipe which, by the way, we have discovered to be the queen of delivery: “Ordering food to go is something that is very established in our culture, and empanada, along with pizza, is what most people usually order when they meet friends.”
“In 15 minutes you can be at home enjoying quality empanadas,” Carito tells us before saying goodbye. Now we just have to wait for the reopening of Fierro, which will take place on January 10, to continue enjoying its surprising cuisine. Until then, we have no choice but to get hold of an arsenal of Doña Petrona empanadas so that the way back becomes more bearable.
Photos | iron
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