Empanadas…the authentic hot pocket before the hot pocket! It seems as if every culture has their own version of the empanadas. The Polish have perogies, Indians have their samosas, Japanese have their gyzoa, Americans have their turnovers and Hispanics…we have empanadas. Take these chilean empanadas for example, all in a league of their own. It seems as if globally there has always been a fascination of some sort with wrapping foods in a little pocket with dough. Can you blame anyone?
Growing up one of my favorite passtimes with my mom was to help her cook in the kitchen. A recipe that was definitely one I looked forward to making then eating was empanadas. My mom has never really followed a recipe by measurements but more by a pinch of this, a bit of that…Cuban measurements, which is nothing short of a minor undertaking. She always made her empanada meat the same way she made her picadillo, which was wonderful then until one day our Chilean neighbors brought us a plate of their empanadas. First of all the dough was a bit stiffer and so much tastier! To my surprise the inside did not contain anything to the likes of picadillo. It did have ground beef but in observing further I could see hard boiled egg, julienned onions, garlic, and raisins and I could definitely taste tomato sauce, oregano, cumin, red wine vinegar, and something sweet.
About two years ago I developed this recipe to match what my neighbor’s Chilean empanadas tasted like. This recipe is the perfect of many comfort foods and is sure to make your tummy happy! 🙂
Chilean Empanadas
Ingredients
- 1 small package of lean ground beef
- 2 packages of 10 dough discs (La Fe from Ethnic frozen food section)
- 1/2 of a medium size yellow onion, julienned
- 3 garlic cloves, mashed and minced
- 1 small can on sliced black olives
- 3 hard boiled eggs
- 3 tbsp brown sugar
- 2 tbsp red wine vinegar
- 1 15 oz. can of tomato sauce
- 1 small package of raisins
- 4 tbsp pitted green olives (with manzanilla)
- 1/2 tsp cumin
- 1/2 tsp oregano
- EVOO
Prepare
- First, fill a small sauce pan 2/3 of the way full with three eggs and boil for 7 minutes.
- Next, let cool for 3 minutes then rinse with cold water and peel egg shell off, place the eggs in a small bowl.
- Then heat a large skillet with 1 tbsp of EVOO on medium.
- Place the ground beef in the middle and brown, bring down to low heat. At this time also preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Add the tomato sauce, onion, garlic, brown sugar, red wine vinegar, raisins, black olives, green olives, and cumin, and oregano and mix well with a wooden cooking spoon.
- Add the hard boiled eggs and mash them up with the meat mixture.
- Lightly flour a flat surface and roll out each of the 6 puff pastries using the rolling pin, adding more flour as needed to keep the dough from sticking to the pin and work surface. (Roll out to about 5 inches in diameter.
- Place 3 tsp of the meat mixture into each dough and fold in half into a moon shape.
- Using a fork press the edges closed (see photos).
- Cover a cookie tray with aluminum foil, spray with floured baking spray, and place the six empanadas on the sheet.
- Bake for 12 minutes, take out of the oven, let cool, and serve.
