Bolivia Unit

This Bolivia Unit made a great geography lesson for us.

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Bolivia Unit resources

Here you go. Not so many resources but I did find some fun Bolivia fact sites.

• Bolivia facts for kids
• 21 mind-blowing Bolivia facts
• 25 interesting Bolivia facts– but these won’t blow your mind
• Bolivia facts for kids from another site

Seriously, the titles people come up with for country facts are amusing. These facts are mind-blowing, these are interesting, these are just a number.

And this was from the time when Barb was occasionally doing Geography More with three countries, I’ve put it at the time Bolivia starts, in theory.

Bolivia Unit recipe: Saltenas

How do you add the tildes and accent marks on a computer? Back when I was in high school and we were just starting to type reports I remember adding in the accents by hand. I know there must be a way to do that on my computer.

Okay, there is an awesome little restaurant near us that is in a literal house. It is famous for its saltenas, so when I looked up a Bolivian recipe and saw saltenas as a possibility, I knew I had to try it.

Saltena ingredients

• 1 pound ground beef
• 1 packet of unflavored gelatin
• 4 cups beef broth
• 3/4 stick butter
• 2 tablespoons turmeric or Achiote
• 1 onion minced
• 3 large potatoes diced
• 1/2 parsley
• 1 tablespoon cumin
• 1 tablespoon oregano
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1 tablespoon pepper

For the dough:

• 4 1/2 cups flour
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 stick butter melted
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups boiling water

Let’s make some saltenas!

Okay, so the recipe card has the official way to make it, you know the way you’re supposed to make it, here I’m going to add what actually happened as I made it.

First, let me introduce you to an amazing tool you should get if you are planning on making any meal like this. It’s very very important to have: empanada maker. Mine is very simple. It’s literally just a piece of plastic that will help fold and seal it, but when I searched this up I discovered some truly amazing empanada makers. I may have empanada-maker jealousy.

1. Cook the diced potatoes in boiling water until cooked, but still firm.
2. Melt the butter with the achiote powder, and the onions, diced potatoes and season everything with the cumin, salt, pepper, oregano, and parsley
3. Add the sugar and continue cooking for a couple more minutes, then mixed in the cooked ground beef
4. At this point realize the next step says refrigerate for 4 hours, and there is no way you have time to do that. So throw out the gelatin idea and instead use powdered gravy with the beef broth. Add the beef broth and bring to a boil. Stir in the unflavored gelatin, stir well and remove from heat.Transfer to large bowl and let refrigerate for at least 4 hours. Instead bring the broth to a boil, whisk in the gravy powder, and once it has thickened enough add that into the potato and ground beef mixture.
5. While that is refrigerating cooking, combine the flour, sugar, and salt together in a mixing bowl.
6. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs, then slowly incorporate it into the flour mixture. Add the hot water to the mix and knead until a large bowl of dough is formed.
7. Let sit for 20 minutes Who has time for that, start on it right away, then separate it into two balls. Roll out the first ball then cut out circles about 6 inches in diameter. My empanada maker has this amazing cookie cutter that cuts the perfect circle for it. Y’all it has changed my cooking. That’s an exaggeration, really it’s just made it easier to make Hispanic foods, and probably a few African foods. I think I remember some African recipes like this.
8. Preheat the oven to 500 degrees.
9. Take a circle of dough, and in the middle add 1/4 cup of filling. Wet the dough edges and fold over the top, pinching the edges. If you have an empanada maker, fold in half, and press tightly closed to seal it. If you do not have an empanada maker, twist the edges slightly to create a braided look to better seal the edges closed.
10. Place on a baking sheet, then repeat the process until you are out of dough. Bake for 15 minutes.
11. Allow to rest for 10 minutes after cooking. I think resting for 10 minutes is one of the few things I did, mainly because I got it done cooking for a few minutes before everyone was home to cook.

Yield: 10

Bolivian Saltenas

Print

These Bolivian Saltenas are a great filling meal to serve a crowd.

Cook Time 15 minutes

Additional Time 4 hours

Total Time 4 hours 15 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 pound cooked ground beef
• 1 packet of unflavored gelatin
• 4 cups beef broth
• 3/4 stick butter
• 2 tablespoons turmeric or Achiote
• 1 onion minced
• 3 large potatoes diced
• 1/2 parsley
• 1 tablespoon cumin
• 1 tablespoon oregano
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1 tablespoon pepper
• For the dough:
• 4 1/2 cups flour
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 stick butter melted
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups boiling water

Instructions

1. Cook the diced potatoes in boiling water until cooked, but still firm.
2. Melt the butter with the achiote powder, and the onions, diced potatoes and season everything with the cumin, salt, pepper, oregano, and parsley
3. Add the sugar and continue cooking for a couple more minutes, then mixed in the cooked ground beef
4. Add the beef broth and bring to a boil. Stir in the unflavored gelatin, stir well and remove from heat.
5. Transfer to large bowl and let refrigerate for at least 4 hours.
6. While that is refrigerating, combine the flour, sugar, and salt together in a mixing bowl.
7. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs, the slowly incorporate it into the flour mixture. Add the hot water to the mix and knead until a large bowl of dough is formed.
8. Let sit for 20 minutes, then separate into two balls. Roll out the first ball then cut out circles about 6 inches in diameter (if you have an empanada maker, use that circle cutter).
9. Preheat the oven to 500 degrees.
10. Take a circle of dough, and in the middle add 1/4 cup of filling. Wet the dough edges and fold over the top, pinching the edges. If you have an empanada maker, fold in half, and press tightly closed to seal it. If you do not have an empanada maker, twist the edges slightly to create a braided look to better seal the edges closed.
11. Place on a baking sheet, then repeat the process until you are out of dough. Bake for 15 minutes.
12. Allow to rest for 10 minutes after cooking.

Bolivia Unit: notebooking pages

We grabbed our South America notebooking pages and filled them out while watching our Geography Now video. Anything not covered in the video, which is a lot since it’s fairly early in the alphabet, we looked up on other webpages.

Funny story, at one point The Artist was working through the “Our Flag” badge at AHG, and they talked about the colors of the flag, and she joked “The blood of those who died for our country,” because that’s what red means on every single flag, and everyone looked at her like she was crazy.

But, no she’s right, red is the blood of the martyrs of Bolivia. But, let’s get to the fun facts.

• There are two capitals, La Paz has all the government buildings, and Sucre is the constitutional capital
• After listening to the Revolutions podcast for South America, particularly Bolivia, I have heard so much about Sucre, this is not a fact, but I hear the city and think of Simon Bolivar and his revolution
• Wiphala- 2nd unofficial country flag
• the capital is so high that plasma TVs don’t work
• 55% of the population is Amerindian
• Collas live in West and Chambu live in East
• Wrestling Cholita
• doesn’t get along with their neighbors (this goes back to Simon Bolivar, blame him)
• Peru let Bolivia build a port there
• Death Road- crazy scary road to drive on

And that is our Bolivia Unit, it was crazy how much I was reminded of the Revolutions podcast, especially because at the time we did this unit Superman and I were listening to this particular revolution.

More learning fun for 9th grade

I’m just kind of deciding we did this in 9th grade, but I suspect we did it in 10th.

• Slovakia Unit
• Six and Henry VIII’s wives
• Raphael artist study
• Zookeeper’s Wife book club
• 9th grade books made into movies

“Bolivia” by szeke is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.