Here's an empanada recipe using pie dough. Of course I always seem to have some on hand, this was from the last time I doubled the recipe to make those little cherry pies.
I froze the leftover dough disks and they come in handy once removed from the freezer 30 mins in advance to whipping up something. (or in this case frying up)
The filling is easy, just sauteed finely minced onion and green pepper then browning the ground beef nicely, adding salt & pepper, a dash of cumin (not sure if that's authentic or not) and I would have added paprika but I wanted to leave it simple this time. A splash of Worcestershire sauce and a tbsp of flour (not to make it goopey) but just gather up the rest of the liquid on the bottom and seize it into a nice filling that won't drip out. The mixture is cooled before stuffing.
Rolling the pie dough out I made circles using a bowl, about 5 inches in diameter.
Filled them and crimped the edges for a scalloped or twisted look. Now they chill a bit in the fridge while the oil heats up and off they go (everything is cooked inside so it's just a matter of browning that lovely dough to create a flaky crust)
For the sauce it's guava paste (comes in cans and plastic tubs at your local Caribbean grocer) then melt it down with a bit of hot water whisking it (it's pretty gummy but it'll soften) And a drop of plain vinegar goes in and that's about it.
Easy as "pie"
Next time I'll make the dough for empanadas specifically and go with an authentic recipe, I think there is supposed to be an egg in the dough.
mmm, what a great idea. Did you just use ordinary shortcrust pastry?
ReplyDeleteAnother fabulous idea, a guava sauce for empanadas. Sounds interesting.
ReplyDeleteWow! Looking at these pictures takes me right back to living in Mexico. And I love that you can use leftover pie crust. :)
ReplyDeleteActually it's leftover pate brisee from martha stewarts recipe, I used that from now on for my pies and galettes.
ReplyDeleteI would recommend though if you make your dough from scratch to lessen the butter a tad and maybe add an egg. Best of luck with it!
The guava sauce is something I saw on foodnetwork when bobby flay had an empanada throwdown with a latin chef. I always have this ingredient in my pantry so I figured why not try it. It's really good!! The sweeteness is wonderful.
wow! i've never had guava sauce for empanada before.. thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteSeriously? Guava sauce? This is definitely a must try! Thanks!
ReplyDeleteDid you use a deep fryer or a skillet to fry the crusts once you stuffed it?
ReplyDeleteI used a small pot of oil to fry them, so one or two fit in.
ReplyDelete