Argentina Unit

As I was searching for pictures of Argentina to share on this post, I realized most of my visualization for Argentina comes from Evita. That is not exactly a realistic way to think of a country. Not at all realistic. Either way, this was a fun geography lesson, and I thoroughly enjoyed our Argentina Unit and added it to our South America Unit.

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Argentina Unit resources

Here are the strange and interesting facts pages I found in my quick search:

• 22 amazing Argentina facts– I’m shocked, shocked I say, it’s not a multiple of 5
• National Geographic Kids Argentina-This is a great way to get most facts you need, apparently between when I first searched this up a year or two ago, and now when I’m writing the post, National Geographic has consolidated two different versions of this page into one.
• Country Report– just the facts ma’am or sir. I just realized that is such an old reference, it was old when I was a kid.

Geography Now has a bunch of videos on Argentina, and by a bunch I mean 3.

Then I guess their geography was a bit odd, so there was a provinces video explained. Okay, having watched the video, basically when he’s writing a script and need more time he creates filler episodes voted on by Patreons, and they voted for Argentina in 2021.

And finally, there is a Geography More, where he adds in a bit of things he didn’t include in the later episodes, probably because the later episodes are over twice as long as this.

Argentina booklist

I completely forgot when we studied Argentina we had several really fun books.

• Argentina– the giant fact book
• The magic bean tree: a legend of Argentina– I’m pretty sure this was checked out when we learned about Argentina, or it was so unmemorable I don’t remember it
• The Blacksmith and the Devils– Another book checked out sadly
• Ghost hands; a story inspired by Patagonia’s Cave of the Hands– out of print sadly, but this author has great books, and this was no different
• Jemmy Button– This was a sad read as poor Jemmy Button was taken from his family and never felt at home again
• Senor Cat’s romance– This is a collection of Latin American folktales, and I thoroughly enjoyed an excuse to read this
• The Peregrine’s journey: a story of migration– it amazes me that birds will travel across continents in their migrations

Argentina Unit recipe: saltenas

Okay, so there is a local restaurant that makes saltenas, even having a special stand to put them in once you have eaten the first bite out of it, so you can put them down without all of the materials spilling out.

My saltenas did not taste as good as theirs. I found this particular recipe for saltenas. I’m pretty sure this exact same recipe was used for another country’s saltenas. Now I kind of want to research that and find out.

Okay, I looked at the Bolivia Unit, and there are a few differences between the recipes.

Saltena recipe ingredients

Pastry

• 6 tablespoons water
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups flour
• 1/4 cup butter melted
• 1 teaspoon oil as needed

Filling

• 2 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed
• 1/4 butter
• 2 medium onions minced
• 2 green onions finely chopped
• 1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
• 1 pound ground beef
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 3 large hard-boiled eggs, peeled and chopped (optional)

Mixing together the ingredients

1. Mix water and salt, until the salt is dissolved.
2. Combine flour and melted butter in a food processor and pulse until crumbly. Add salt water slowly until a dough ball forms. Add more water if needed. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
3. While the dough is resting, cook potatoes in salted boiling water until soft. While that is cooking melt butter in a skillet and cook onions and green onions until translucent. Add red bell pepper and cook for 5 more minutes, then add ground beef until fully browned. Season with salt and spices.
4. Drain potatoes and combine with the filling. If using eggs, add the chopped eggs.
5. Roll out the dough, and cut out 3-inch circles, if you have an empanada maker, use the cutter from that. Add a spoonful of the mixture to the center. Lightly wet the edges of the saltena and then seal them closed.
6. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 425 for 15 minutes.

Sigh, when I first created the recipe card I spelled Argentinian wrong, and the only way to fix it is to delete and recreate it, and I’m lazy. I have to admit it, this would hit my lazy area.

We did not particularly like this version of saltenas, we’ve figured out we prefer a bit more “gravy” in a pie like this recipe had.

Argentian saltenas

Print

These Argentinian Saltenas are a great meat dish to eat on a cold day.

Prep Time 45 minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes

Total Time 1 hour

Ingredients

• Pastry
• – 6 tablespoons water
• – 1/2 teaspoon salt
• – 2 cups flour
• – 1/4 cup butter melted
• – 1 teaspoon oil as needed
• Filling
• – 2 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed
• – 1/4 butter
• – 2 medium onions minced
• – 2 green onions finely chopped
• – 1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
• – 1 pound ground beef
• – 2 teaspoons salt
• – 1/2 teaspoon cayenne
• – 1 teaspoon cumin
• – 1 teaspoon paprika
• – 3 large hard-boiled eggs, peeled and chopped (optional)

Instructions

1. Mix water and salt, until the salt is dissolved.
2. Combine flour and melted butter in a food processor and pulse until crumbly. Add salt water slowly until a dough ball forms. Add more water if needed. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
3. While the dough is resting, cook potatoes in salted boiling water until soft. While that is cooking melt butter in a skillet and cook onions and green onions until translucent. Add red bell pepper and cook for 5 more minutes, then add ground beef until fully browned. Season with salt and spices.
4. Drain potatoes and combine with the filling. If using eggs, add the chopped eggs.
5. Roll out the dough, and cut out 3-inch circles, if you have an empanada maker, use the cutter from that. Add a spoonful of the mixture to the center. Lightly wet the edges of the saltena and then seal them closed.
6. Bake in pre-heated oven at 425 for 15 minutes.

Argentina Unit notebooking pages

We used the South America notebooking pages

And here are my fun facts I was amused by:

• Tierra del Fuego furthest South island/town
• Argentina was named because they thought there was silver there
• 50% of the population is of Italian descent
• Their Spanish is unique because of all the Italians
• There is a group of Welshman in Argentina, that is highly amusing to me, especially because it’s reference in A Swiftly Tilting Planet

More learning fun

Let’s see what should I pick this time? I feel like I’ve done a bunch of middle school recently, why not let my kids age and go from preschool up to high school?

• Preschool Dinosaur Unit
• How do octopus move science lesson
• Bunnicula book club
• Napoleonic Wars history lesson
• Austria Unit

Argentina picture from (Creative Commons has changed how to search pictures on there again): Argentina. (2023, March 21). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argentina