Empanada extra...

...what to take to the seaside in Guipuzcoa

Northern Spain’s double-crust pie is - was - available fresh from the oven first thing in the morning in every respectable bakery in Guipozcoa, Asturias, Cantabria and Galicia. Regional fillings vary according to place and season: all manner of fish, fowl, vegetables and meat, including game, are welcome. The original pastry was a yeast-raisted hot-water dough enriched with lard - pork-lard being very acceptable, even preferable, in both sweet and savoury pastries in traditional Spanish cooking.  In the recipe that follows, the original hot-water pastry is leavened with baking-soda and shortened with olive oil (you may well prefer the original - simply replace as appropriate!). For a crunchier crust, include a handful of milled cornmeal, polenta, a post-columbian replacement for oats that’s known as ‘Indian corn’ in the mountains of the interior, where it’s cooked as a flatbread and eaten in much the same way as the Scottish oatcake, with cheese and butter, or chorizo and a fried egg.