You’ll always remember your first empanada.
We had just arrived in Santiago, the capital of Chile, after a twenty hour bus trip and we were starving. Santiago was the first truly big city we’d been in since leaving Miami four months before, with backpacks and a vague plan to head south. Along the way we’d had many an adventure, but few opportunities for either shopping or laundry. We checked into our hostel, put on the very last of our clean clothes and put everything else in to be laundered. Then we went in search of food. High on a hill, overlooking the city and being overlooked by the Andes mountains we discovered the empanada. Perhaps I was hungry. I certainly wasn’t paying enough attention to what I was eating. I sunk my teeth through the rich suet-laden pastry and into the spicy mince beneath. My nostrils filled with the warm scent of paprika, of chilli, of long nights of salsa dancing and pisco sours. Yes, I got carried away. It was my first time. I didn’t realise that traditional empanadas include a whole olive. But sure enough, in the next bite, I managed to push it out of its mince meat nest. It toppled, bounced down and then onto the ground, leaving a telltale oily trail all the way down my only clean shirt!
This recipe is again from the fabulous Bourke St Bakery recipe book that was the prize in my first giveaway. It is a lengthy recipe but don’t be put off. It’s not difficult and they taste incredible. In their original recipe, it states the olives should be pitted and finely chopped. Follow their instructions if you must. As for me, I like to live on the edge. I keep them whole!
Empanada dough
3 cups plain flour
1 1/2 teasp salt
210 ml (7 1/2 fl oz) chilled water
1 teasp vinegar
1 egg
50 g (1 3/4oz) suet, grated
1. Combine salt and flour in a bowl. Make a well in the middle, then add the egg, water and grated suet. Mix with a spoon until well combined.
2. Knead dough on a lightly floured work bench for three minutes, allow to rest for five minutes and then knead again for about five minutes or until the dough is soft and elastic. Cover and refrigerate for two hours.
3. Roll out the dough to about 2 mm ( 1/16th inch) thick. Using a saucer as a guide cut 12 circles from the dough. You may need to re roll scraps once or twice to get all twelve circles.
Beef Filling
110 g(3 3/4 oz) suet
6 garlic cloves, finely chopped,
1 large onion, finely chopped
650 g (1 pound 7 oz) ground beef (grass raised please)
1 red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
90 g (3/4 cup) raisins (optional in my book)
110g (3 3/4 oz) olives, pitted
1 teasp paprika
1 1/2 teasp salt
2 hard boiled eggs, finely chopped
A good handful of flat leaf parsley, chopped finely
Milk for brushing pastry
1. Melt the suet in a frying pan over low heat, then strain. Discard the solids and return the liquid fat to the pan.
2. Increase the heat to medium, then add the garlic and fry for one minute. Next, add the onions, frying for 3-4 minutes and then add the beef, stirring to brown on all sides. Cook for five minutes. Stir in the chilli, raisins, olives, paprika and salt and cook for a further five minutes.
3. Remove from the heat. Mix in the hardboiled egg and the parsley and leave aside to cool.
To assemble
1. Preheat oven to 250C (500F).
2. Put approximately two tablespoons of mixture into the centre of each pastry circle, plus one of the olives. Fold the pastry over and seal by pushing the sides together. You can use the edge of a fork to make a crimped pattern on the edge. Brush pastry with milk and place on a baking paper lined tray.
3.Reduce the oven heat to 230C (450F) and cook the empanada for twenty minutes. You may need to turn the tray around after the first ten minutes to ensure the pastry is coked evenly.
4. Serve hot or cold and watch out for escaping olives!
What is Suet?
Suet is the fat that sits around the kidneys of sheep and cattle. It is an old fashioned cooking fat, from the days when people were better about using the whole animal, not just the choice cuts of meat then discarding the rest as we tend to today. Ask for suet at your butcher. If you can’t find suet, Juls of stonesoup has also blogged about these empanadas so perhaps head over there and try out her less traditional but simpler recipe which uses butter. If you can only find vegetarian suet, go with butter instead as vegetarian suet is made from palm oil.