My daughter gave me the idea for this. Either out of a lack of time, or just plain laziness, we've avoided making empanadas because of the work involved in preparing the flour wrap. Using store-bought egg-roll wraps makes this recipe very simple and the crispiness of the fried wraps bring an extra fun and tasty texture to the empanadas.
Start with a simple meat filling.
1 1/2 lb ground beef
1/2 large onion finely chopped
1/2 green bell pepper finely chopped
2 to 4 cloves of garlic, pressed or minced
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbs paprika
1/2 tsp cumin
1 cup water
12 pimento stuffed green olives, sliced (optional)
olive oil
Brown your ground beef and strain. Set aside. Coat your pan with olive oil and saute the onions, peppers and garlic. Add the beef, the water, the spices and the olives. Simmer, stirring occasionally until everthing is well blended and most of the water has evaporated. Taste and adjust your salt. Set aside and let cool to room temperature.
For the wrap
1 pkg egg roll wrap
Vegetable oil for frying
Place on sheet of the wrap on a flat surface. Place about two tablespoons of your filling in the center. Wet the edges of the wrap with your finger. Fold the wrap over on the diagonal and press to seal. You can fold your wrap rectangular if you prefer. Continue this process for as many empanadas as you wish to make.
Heat about 1/2 inch of oil in a frying pan, and drop your empanadas in one at a time (depending on the size of your frying pan you may only be able to fit two or three at a time). Adjust your temperature so that it doesn't brown too quickly. Turn them to brown on both sides. Place on a paper towel lined plate.
Hint: You can sprinkle cheese atop the filling before folding and sealing the wrap.
What a great idea...I know I hesitate to make empanadas because of making the dough. This would be good with the sweet canned coconut you like and maybe some other fruit like mangoes.
ReplyDeleteHello Lyndsey, so good to hear from you! Yes this works well with fruit filling including guava and cheese!
ReplyDeleteLove this idea, Ivonne. I'll have to book-mark it for the future. It's also a great way to make guava/cheese empanadas. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteHello Maria, I usually see the wonton wrappers, but no the egg roll ones which are much larger. Now that I know where they sell them I can do all sorts of recipes!
ReplyDeletenever thought of eggroll wrappers, always done them with wontons, but now i'll try the eggroll wrappers :) (to be honest I like the thin pastry of the eggrolls, and wontons to the thicker empanada dough that's typically used.... LOL.) we would probably also make regular eggrolls and stuff it with picadillo too :D
ReplyDeleteThey have empanada wrappers in my store but no wonton or eggroll wrappers. Do you think empanada wrappers will work in reverse? If not, I think I will make samosas with them. Now I want wonton samosas. Yum
ReplyDeleteAs a Puerto Rican in the midwest, thank you, I'm going to save this so I can make it this weekend!!
ReplyDeleteLately, mine bubble up in the center and sometimes the filling falls out and it breaks. Why?
ReplyDelete