For the Crispiest Colombian Empanadas, Pressure Cook Your Popcorn

I absolutely love when a simple kitchen hack leads to mind-blowing results, and my new video up on the NYT Cooking channel does exactly that. If you've spent time in Colombia, you've likely tasted (and loved) their diminutive beef and potato empanadas; in particular, it's the golden, crunchy, hearty, crispy shell that sets them apart from other styles of empanada.

The difficulty with making them at home is ingredient-based. The particular type of corn used for fresh masa (dough) is not easy to source in the U.S. In Colombia, both empanadas and arepa de huevo (the famous deep-fried arepa stuffed with an egg from the Caribbean coast) are made with a masa formed from non-nixtamalized corn.

Nixtamalization is the process of soaking corn in alkaline water so that the tough, plastic-like, fiber-rich, indigestible pericarp (you know, the part that looks the same coming in as going out) is softened, creating a softer, more elastic masa. This nixtamalized corn masa is what's used for things like tamales, tortillas, sopes, huaraches, and the like.

Non-nixtamalized masa, on the other hand, has a much heartier, varied texture. When fried, it delivers massive (masa-ive?) corn flavor and generous crunch.

While you can buy non-nixtamalized masarepa (pre-cooked, dried, ground cornmeal) in the U.S., the texture doesn’t compare to freshly milled corn. The good news? American popcorn actually works beautifully as a substitute.

This trick comes from Chef Carlos Gaviria in Bogotá. Cook popcorn in a pressure cooker until it is softened and hydrated, then grind it up with a food processor or—better yet—a grain mill (I use this one at home), and you’ve got masa with more crunch and more flavor than anything from a bag. When I first tried this at Chef Gaviria’s apartment, the arepa he fried up blew my mind. Back in the U.S., I tested it with grocery-store popcorn and a simple hand-crank mill, and it worked perfectly. It’s been my go-to dough for empanadas and arepa de huevo ever since.

The filling is classic: potatoes and ground beef seasoned with hogao, a savory mix of tomato and onion. Add in a squeeze of lime and some fresh ají — a bright and refreshing Colombian-style salsa with cilantro, onion, and chiles — and you’ve got the kind of snack that disappears at the stove as soon as it’s cool enough to touch.

The links to the recipes below are all gift links (empanadas, ají salsa, and both popcorn and masarepa dough) so you can try them out even if you don’t have a NYT subscription.

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• Standard Masa for Empanadas

• Popcorn Masa for Empanadas

• Colombian Beef and Potato Empanadas

• Ají (Colombian-Style Fresh Salsa)