Plated empanadas with chopped salad
The New York Times ran an article on Chilean empanadas about a month ago, and the recipe has been nagging my subconscious stomach since. Living in Miami, empanadas are hardly novel. But making them at home is.
These tasty little pies aren’t weeknight friendly, but I stretched the preparation over two nights. I prepared the meat filling and pastry dough on Wednesday night, and assembled and baked the pies on Thursday. I used a doctored and doubled version of the Times filling, substituting olive oil for lard and green olives for black.
Although we could have stopped after two, my dinner guests, Laura and Rick, and I ate three empanadas each, plus a mound of chopped salad. The meat was perfectly seasoned, and bits of egg, olive and raisin made each bite taste a little different. I can’t wait to make these again for William, for more guests, for a party, for me.
Trust me. Skip the Latin corner cafe and make these at home. You control the quality of the ingredients and the leftovers—if you have any.
Chilean Beef Empanadas
Beef Filling
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion, diced
1 pound ground chuck
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 teaspoon cumin
Salt and pepper to taste
12 green, pimento-stuffed olives, sliced in half
Handful of raisins
2 hard boiled eggs, cut into 12 thin slices
Empanada Pastry (epicurious.com)
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 stick, cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 large egg
1/3 cup ice water
1 tablespoon white vinegar
Egg wash (Beat 1 egg + a splash of water)
Instructions
Heat olive oil in a large frying pan over medium high. Add onion and cook for 5 to 7 minutes. Add beef to the pan, breaking it into small pieces with a spoon. Cook beef until well browned. Stir in smoked paprika, cumin, and salt and pepper to taste. Transfer meat to a bowl and set aside (this can be made one day in advance).
For the dough, combine flour and salt in a large bowl. Add butter and blend with fingertips or a pastry blender. Work the dough until the flour and butter form pea-sized clumps. In a separate bowl, whisk together egg, water, and vinegar. Pour liquid ingredients into the flour mixture and stir until incorporated. Turn dough onto a floured surface and knead 2 to 3 times. Flatten dough into a disk, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 1 hour (this can be made one day in advance).
Preheat oven to 400°. To assemble the empanadas, divide dough into 12 pieces. One at a time, roll a piece of dough into a ball. On a floured surface, flatten the dough into a disk with a rolling pin. Roll until pastry is 1/8-inch thick and about 5 inches in diameter.
Fill the dough with 2 tablespoons beef, 2 olive halves, 4 to 5 raisins, and 1 slice boiled egg. Brush egg wash along half of the pastry’s border. Fold dough over the filling to enclose. Crimp edges with a fork, and set on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Repeat with remaining dough and filling.
Brush the tops of the empanadas with egg wash, place them in the oven, and bake for 25 minutes, until golden.
Makes 12 empanadas