"Cooking isn't just about having a passion for it. It's about creating food with a happy vibe. Oh, and a whole lot of patience," Charles Dodds laughs.
Charles and his wife Claire Clifford understand that patience isn't about waiting in passivity. For the couple, patience is about learning, reworking and perfecting a recipe that has been handed down in Charles' family since the 1970s - the Filipino empanada (Filipino version of baked or fried Spanish turnover pastry typically filled with various meats).
Filipino empanadas Source: Claire Clifford and Charles Dodds
Highlights
- Charles and Claire created The Empanada Boy, a home business built around an heirloom Filipino empanada recipe.
- Making empanadas is a great opportunity for the couple to bond with their kids.
- They describe the perfect empanada pastry as being thin, flaky and crispy with visible bubbles on the crust.
The young family
Half British-Australian and half Filipino Claire and Filipino-American Charles married young and are now raising their four children in Melbourne.
"I grew up in the Philippines and moved to Australia when I was 18. I already had two kids by then," Claire shares, adding, "Charles [who I met in the Philippines] and I got married eight years ago. I'm 29 now with four kids."
The 29-year old mum shares that while parenting certainly has its rewards, she wanted to find another focus aside from just raising their children.
"I've been on leave from my job as a nurse because I just gave birth to our fourth child. During the lockdown, it was also stressful with nothing to do at home.
"Charles [who I met in the Philippines] and I got married eight years ago. I'm 29 now with four kids." Source: Claire Clifford and Charles Dodds
"My husband and I share a love for cooking so we thought, 'Why not make the empanada his family is known for, for friends and Filipino students in need?' So we did and we got a lot of great feedback from the empanadas we made."
A recipe from the 1970s
The empanadas the couple made were based on a recipe handed down since the 1970s in Charles' family.
"My aunt had a bakery in the 1970s where she sold empanadas. All her siblings, including my dad, knew the recipe and helped her make them. That's why we call our business, The Empanada Boy - that's the nickname we gave my dad," Charles says.
"Growing up, the recipe was also passed down to me. I learned how to make it as well."
Charles and his dad Source: Charles Dodds
Marrying into Charles' family, Claire also became privy to the secret recipe, admitting that learning it made her realise how hard it is to perfect.
"We do three kinds of empanadas - classic chicken with chopped chicken breast, potatoes, raisins and potatoes; pork with an egg; and Argentinian-inspired beef with a lot of onions and beans.
"While the filling is pretty straightforward to make, the pastry is hard to learn and perfect. We tried making the pastry with a machine, but it came out so different so we decided to do everything by hand.
"While the filling is pretty straightforward to make, the pastry is hard to learn and perfect." Source: Claire Clifford and Charles Dodds
"Weather also affects our process. It gets really difficult to do the dough when it's hot. We can't turn on the air-conditioning or allow the dough to get exposed to air for a long time because it will dry out."
Charles adds that the perfect fried pastry is thin, crispy and flaky with visible bubbles on the crust.
Charles adds that the perfect fried pastry is thin, crispy and flaky with visible bubbles on the crust. Source: Claire Clifford and Charles Dodds
While the perfect pastry may be difficult to achieve, the family enjoys working on the empanadas together.
"Our kids help make empanadas and help us with packing them as well. It's great bonding for us," Claire shares.
"Post-pandemic, we want to have a food truck to sell the empanadas. Even when other people urge us to have other products, we're firm on focusing on just the empanadas - on the recipe handed down in the family through the years."
"Our kids help make empanadas and help us with packing them as well. It's great bonding for us," Claire shares. Source: Claire Clifford and Charles Dodds
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