I'm going to be using frozen Goya discs. I am going to fry the empanadas. I will look into finding a recipe for a good dough that can be fried and made from scratch. If you have one, please leave me a comment. Thanks.
I usually make a Cuban picadillo and use the leftovers for the empanadas, but today I decided to make the filling Argentinian style. (It turned out really good, my husband gave me a thumbs up!)
Ingredients:
1 1/2 pound ground beef
1 large yellow onion chopped (I use red, remember the yellow make me cry, so half a large red onion for me)
1/2 cup green olives, finely chopped
2 tablespoons raisins
1 tablespoon ground paprika
1 tablespoon cumin
Salt to taste
olive oil
1 cup water
3 hard boiled eggs, finely chopped
vegetable oil for frying
Brown your ground beef and drain. In a skillet sautee your onions in a little olive oil, add your ground beef and all other ingredients except the eggs. Cover and simmer for about 20 minutes. Let cool.
Boil your eggs and chop them. Incorporate them into the ground beef mixture.
Shhh! When I went to grab my raisins, I realized I was all out. That's why there is no picture of the raisins. So I chopped up a couple of prunes instead, and I actually think it tasted better than the raisin. Don't tell my husband! LOL!
Defrost your discs and lay them out on a working surface. Wet the edges of your disc with water (use your fingers). With a slotted spoon place about 2 of tablespoonsful of your ground beef mixture in the center and fold over. Using a fork press the edges together. (Make sure the side ares sealed, you do not want oil to seep into them when frying). Repeat this process for all your discs. At this point you can refrigerate or freeze those that you don't not plan to eat right away.
Heat about an haf an inch of oil in a heavy skillet and place your discs one or two at a time (depending on the size of your pan) into the hot oil. Watch the heat, turn it down if the discs brown too quickly. Brown on both sides and remove to a paper towel-lined plate.
Hi there! I always make my own empanada dough - it is a breeze to make.
ReplyDelete2 1/4 cups of unbleached all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 stick cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1 large egg
1/3 cup ice water
1 tablespoong distilled white vinegar
Sift flour with salt into a large bowl and blen in butter with your fingertips or a pastry blender until mixture resembles coarse meal with some roughly pea-size butter lumps.
Beat together egg, water and vinegar in a small bowl with a fork. Add to flour mixture, stirring with fork until just incorporated (mixture will look shaggy).
Turn mixture onto a lightly floured surface and gather together, then knead gently with heel of your hand once of twice, just enough to bring dough together. Form dough into a flat rectangle and chill, wrapped in plastic wrap, at least 1 hour.
The vinegar helps the dough not absorb so much oil.
This recipe is from epicurious.com, a great site for recipes, particularly with you have user comments and reviews to help you decide whether the recipe is worth making.
Here's the link:
www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/printerfriendly/Empanada-Dough-230786
Hope you enjoy it!
Mercy
A Cuban-American in Southwest Florida
Than you Mercy. The next time, I'll make the dough from scratch using this recipe. :-)
ReplyDeleteHah, I meant Thank You.
ReplyDeleteI'm Cuban descent but having an abuela from Spain, the doughs I make and learned are more Spanish style (which means they are olive oil pastry based or just oil based)
ReplyDeletethe one for frying I make is 1/2 cup olive oil, 1/2 cup white wine, 1/2 cup water and salt, put those all in a bowl, and start adding flour little by little until you have a compact soft workable dough, work it as you add flour. Spread it on a floured surface and make you disk, fill and deep-fry.
Here's the original blogpost, I learned it from my favorite Gallega ja ja:
http://www.lacocinadelechuza.com/2007/09/empanadillas-de-carne-en-casa-somos-muy.html
Here is me and my boyfriend making them:
http://nathanscomida.blogspot.com/2009/10/empanadilla-de-carne-mini-galician-meat.html
for the baked version it's a different type of pastry (this one won't work for frying):
http://nathanscomida.blogspot.com/2009/12/empanadillas-al-horno-oven-baked_06.html
trust me I've tried many many empanada recipes and have tried them over and over these are teh best!
I learned it from here:
http://acibecheria.blogspot.com/2007/12/empanadillas-de-bacalao.html
and it's a combination of Gurdis version (see video):
Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ky5c0h_KgKY&feature=related
Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOf41xYB1Io&feature=related
Trust me no one makes empanadas like the spanish ;) and with our Cuban fillings they taste even BETTER! :D
Let me know wat u think
Looks yummy!
ReplyDeleteWow! I'm learning so much. I'm going to try your dough as well Nathan. The youtube was a hoot! I love the novela in the background.
ReplyDeleteThanks!! Make sure to write out a post when you try it from scratch. I want to know what you think before I try it out....hahaha, you like how I'm making you out to be the slave cook and the guinea pig? :-D
ReplyDeleteI've never seen "discos grandes" They sound exciting! I've only seen the regular sized ones. I think I may have to make empanadas this week!
AND!!!!! I'm so excited to see you have more followers! :-) I hope I can be considered as one of the original groupies! hahaha :-D
ReplyDeleteI finally ended up baking them.
ReplyDeleteIvonne, your empanadas look really good. You can always use for the masa pastelera de recipe of pate brisee given here http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/pate-brisee-pie-dough by Martha Stewart. I find this pie dough (it's basically the original French recipe) very delicious, light and flaky, especially when baked (I prefer to bake my empanadas, sweet or not). Now you have several recipes and versions to try and choose your favorite. Hugs.
ReplyDeleteThank you everyone for your input. I think the next batch of empanadas I will make will be baked. I am curious to try out all the pie dough recipes, so I'll have to come up with different fillings for each. I'm putting on my thinking cap!
ReplyDeleteSharline, I don't know how I got so many followers this week, but I am grateful, and yes, you are one of the original groupies. Yay for the groupies!
Ivonne, I'll tell you why you got so many followers this week: PEOPLE LOVE TO EAT! And Cuban food and your recipes and postings and photos are all VERY enticing and make peoples' mouths salivate wanting to taste every delicious Cuban morsel that your pretty "midwestern" Cuban hands make... Congratulations! You are becoming an internet celebrity chef! Besitos.
ReplyDeleteTry the oil based one for baking, trust me it's very very easy to work with (the one you saw in the video and the one at
ReplyDeletehttp://acibecheria.blogspot.com/2007/12/empanadillas-de-bacalao.html)
It's a dough that won't shrink on you or anything, just make it, then use the method you saw in the video to form the empanadas and put whatever filling.
It's always equal water to oil, add salt, bring those to a boil, then add flour little by little until you get a soft workable dough. I always make it and it's a hit, The "Pimenton Dulce" is optional. I usually like to make the dough plain then just brush it with egg :) and bake.
Yeah, Yay for the groupies! hahahaha!
ReplyDeleteI learned how to make Pastelillos de Carne (Puerto Rican fried Empanadas) from a friend a couple of years ago. Her mother uses the goya discos but rolls them out a little thinner so that they fry up lighter and crispier. Without rolling them out a little thinner, the ends sometimes get hard when you fry them.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the tip Chris.
ReplyDeleteI am so excited to make these! I just discovered your blog....thanks so much for the step by step photos, they are so helpful!
ReplyDeleteWelcome to Cuban in the Midwest Denisse. I'm glad you're enjoying the blog, and that I can be of help to you in the kitchen!!
ReplyDeleteI liked the Cuban Empanadas con Carne recipe!
ReplyDeleteWelcome to the blog Gardenia, I have posted a couple more recipes for empanadas with home-made dough if you want to make the dough from scratch. The filling for this recipe is really tasty!
ReplyDelete