Tuesday, November 29, 2011
new job at Jelly Belly
Sunday, November 6, 2011
Homemade empanadas for my friend's birthday party
Today I made homemade empanadas for my friend's birthday party. Empanadas are a Spanish meat turnover. They're a popular snack food or side dish in Latin America and the Philippines.
As I've never had too much luck making my own pastries, I decided to buy the ready made empanada wrappers at the local Mexican bodega. They didn't have my favorite brand La Saltena empanada wrappers, which all my Latino friends and acquaintances recommend. I used the Goya brand, which is a workable substitute, but yields a lot less flaky pastry.
I started by cooking 1 lb. of ground beef and a chopped yellow onion:
I let that cook for a while and then added cumin, paprika, and a little bit of black pepper.
I let the meat simmer in that wonderfully smelling season mix and then added a can of pitted, chopped olives. Right before turning off the heat, I added a little bit of sugar and canned tomatos. The canned tomatos keep the meat moist when the empanada is being baked. 
I then turned off the heat and added some raisins. I let the stuffing mixture sit covered for 5-10 minutes to let the raisins soak up some of the liquids. 
Now for the time consuming part, building the empanadas. I added a couple of spoonfuls of filling with two slices of hard boiled egg on one wrapper. The trick is to lay the just enough filling at one end of the wrapper, so that when you fold it over, it will seal nicely and not spill out. 
I sealed the empanada with a fork.
As I've never had too much luck making my own pastries, I decided to buy the ready made empanada wrappers at the local Mexican bodega. They didn't have my favorite brand La Saltena empanada wrappers, which all my Latino friends and acquaintances recommend. I used the Goya brand, which is a workable substitute, but yields a lot less flaky pastry.I started by cooking 1 lb. of ground beef and a chopped yellow onion:
I let that cook for a while and then added cumin, paprika, and a little bit of black pepper.
I let the meat simmer in that wonderfully smelling season mix and then added a can of pitted, chopped olives. Right before turning off the heat, I added a little bit of sugar and canned tomatos. The canned tomatos keep the meat moist when the empanada is being baked. 
I then turned off the heat and added some raisins. I let the stuffing mixture sit covered for 5-10 minutes to let the raisins soak up some of the liquids. 
Now for the time consuming part, building the empanadas. I added a couple of spoonfuls of filling with two slices of hard boiled egg on one wrapper. The trick is to lay the just enough filling at one end of the wrapper, so that when you fold it over, it will seal nicely and not spill out. 
I sealed the empanada with a fork. Finally I had a cookie sheet worth of these empanadas made. I then brushed some egg on top of each empanada to give it a nice golden baked color. I then baked the empanadas for 20-25 minutes at 400 degrees. I was quite pleased with the end results:
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