Beef/Pork Empanadas (Adopted 2006)

Nana Lee's Note:

These are great empanadas. You can add cooked, diced white or sweet potato. Make them any size you want. They make wonderful appetizers served warm.

• Total Time: 1 hrs 5 mins
• Prep Time: 45 mins
• Cook Time: 20 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 35

EMPANADA DOUGH

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• ½ cup lard
• 2 ½ tablespoons unsalted butter
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ cup ice water

EMPANADA FILLING

• 1 lb ground beef or 1 lb ground pork
• 1 onion , chopped
• 2 garlic cloves , chopped
• 1⁄3; cup almonds , toasted, chopped
• 1⁄3; cup black raisins
• 8 plum tomatoes
• 24 serrano peppers
• 2 limes, juice of
• 1 ½ teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1⁄8; teaspoon clove
• 1⁄8; teaspoon cinnamon
• egg wash

Directions:

1. FOR DOUGH:.
2. Put flour and salt in Cuisinart, pulse to combine.
3. Add cold lard and butter, pulse to form crumbs.
4. Add water and pulse until it just comes together.
5. Chill at least 30 minutes.
6. Roll out and cut out circles.
7. FILLING:.
8. Saute meat, drain fat.
9. Saute onions for 2 minutes, add garlic, almonds and raisins and saute for 2 minutes more.
10. Place tomato, chiles, lime juice, salt and pepper in blender.
11. Puree until smooth.
12. Add puree, cumin, cloves, cinnamon meat and onion to skillet.
13. Cook 5 minutes or until excess liquid evaporates.
14. Cool. Fill pastry circles, fold and crimp with fork.
15. Refrigerate or freeze.
16. Bake frozen for 20 minutes at 400ºF.

Reviews

[Bergy]

These Empanadas are a winner! I served the with Robin"s Kakadu Plum & Chili Sauce, perfect combination. I admit that I am not good at rolling pastry and took a shortcut I used round egg roll wrappers and they are wonderful, came out crisp on the outside and a nice bite to the filling.I would love to try them with the Empanada dough but it's hard to imagine that they could be any better than these. Serrano peppers were not available so I used Jalapeno, they are not quite as hot but much larger so I used 9, left the seeds in- just the right kick. I found that I had to simmer the filling (after adding the tomatoe) for apprx. 15 minutes to get it to the right consistency . Perhaps my Romas were extra juicy. My freezer smiled when I slipped these in. This recipe is 5 star all the way. Thanks Mean Chef for a "Mean" recipe

[Kimke]

My sister, BIL, and husband made these exactly according to the directions. THe dough was VERY easy (we used the kitchen aid mixer rather than the food processor) and it was easy to work with. THe filling was VERY hot but delicious. 24 serrano peppers does seem a bit excessive but we wanted to do it as directed. If you didn't want it to be REALLY hot you could use fewer. All in all, we loved it! Our mouth were watering as we waited for the second batch to come out of the oven! Thanks for delicious recipe.

[Samibib]

Great balance of spiciness and sweetness -- I couldn't stop eating the filling! I had good results pre-making these, freezing them, and baking them at 400 for about 20 minutes. I didn't taste any difference between fresh and frozen. I did end up simmering the filling for longer than expected, but it was worth it.