Skip to content
LoginRegister
WhatToEat.Today

Recipes with vegetable shortening

6 recipes that use vegetable shortening, with photos, step-by-step instructions and cook times. The quickest, Piaya, takes 70 minutes. It is most often cooked with baking powder, plain flour and egg.

Got a few things in the fridge? Search by everything you have

Guajolota

Commuters in Mexico City grab a guajolota at the tamal stand by the bus stop at seven in the morning: a crusty bolillo roll split open with a whole steaming tamal pushed inside, sometimes with a smear of green salsa, eaten with a cup of atole. It is starch in starch, cheap and filling enough to last until lunch. The name means 'turkey hen', a joke about how stuffed it is. This recipe makes eight vegetarian tamales of roasted poblano strips and melting cheese (rajas con queso); four go into rolls and the rest freeze well. Shop-bought vegetarian tamales work if you are short of time. Chef's tip: warm the bolillo on the comal while the tamal rests, so the crust crackles against the soft masa.

120 minMexicanBreakfast & Brunch
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Tamales de chipilín

Chipilín is a small-leaved wild legume that grows along the fields of Chiapas and Tabasco, and its grassy, faintly bitter leaves turn up in soups, rice and, most of all, these tamales. In Tuxtla Gutiérrez and San Cristóbal they are sold from steaming pots in the early evening and taken home for supper with hot chocolate or atole: soft, pale green-speckled masa wrapped around a cube of fresh cheese, often with a spoon of tomato salsa. Cooks there beat the masa with lard; vegetable shortening gives the same light texture. Frozen chipilín is sold at Central American grocers; spinach with a few watercress leaves is a fair stand-in. Chef's tip: strip the leaves from the stems by pinching and pulling down; stems make the masa stringy.

125 minMexicanSnacks & StartersGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Tortillas de harina sobaqueras

In Sonora, wheat is the grain, and the pride of Hermosillo kitchens is the sobaquera: a flour tortilla stretched over the backs of the hands and arms until it is almost see-through and as wide as a serving tray (the name comes from sobaco, armpit, because it reaches that far). It cooks in seconds on a big comal and is folded around beans, cheese or machaca, or torn and eaten with caldo de queso. Sonoran cooks use lard; vegetable shortening works the same. A 30–35 cm tortilla is a realistic home size. Chef's tip: the long rest is what makes the dough stretch; do not cut it short.

80 minMexicanBreads & ParathasVegan
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Natchitoches meat pies

Natchitoches, the oldest town in Louisiana, is famous for these crescent-shaped fried pies, sold at its Christmas Festival of Lights and from family pie shops on Front Street. The filling is minced beef and pork with onion, garlic and cayenne, wrapped in a short pastry and fried until blistered and crisp. It contains pork. Chef's tip: cool the filling completely before filling the pastry, or the dough softens and tears.

90 minAmericanSnacks & Starters
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Sfogliatelle

Sfogliatella riccia is the most famous pastry of Naples, sold warm from bakeries on Via Toledo and eaten for breakfast with an espresso: dozens of paper-thin layers fanned into a shell that shatters when you bite, around a filling of semolina, ricotta, candied orange and cinnamon. It is a project for a weekend, as the dough needs to be rolled very thin, wound into a tight log and chilled overnight. Neapolitan bakers use lard; this version uses a mix of butter and vegetable shortening. Chef's tip: a pasta machine is your best friend; roll the dough to the thinnest or second-thinnest setting so the layers separate into crisp leaves.

240 minItalianBaking
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Piaya

Piaya is the sweet everyone brings home from Bacolod and the sugar-growing island of Negros: a thin, flaky round of unleavened dough with a layer of dark muscovado inside, cooked on a dry griddle until blistered, and dotted with sesame seeds. The sugar melts and turns chewy as it cools. It is eaten with coffee in the afternoon, and newer shops fill it with ube. Lard is traditional in the dough; vegetable shortening gives the same flakiness. Chef's tip: roll the filled dough gently from the centre outward and keep it thin, or the sugar bursts through.

70 minFilipinoBakingVegan
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Goes well with vegetable shortening