Juicy Argentinian Empanadas

These are delicious! And everyone knows that, which is why there are already a million empanada recipes online, so I don’t think anyone is ever going to see my recipe, which is a shame as these are delicious and the recipe comes straight from Corrientes Province.

You can fill empanadas with literally anything you like as long as it is tasty, the filling suggestions I was given with the recipe are; ham & cheese, cheese & onion, pancetta plum & cheese, blue cheese & bacon, sauteed vegetables, humita (similar to tamale dough), mushroom, cheese and sherry, tomato cheese & basil, tuna, mixed cheeses… you get the idea, sweetened and fruit flavoured empanadas can also be made as a dessert.

– Recipe –

makes roughly 40 empanadas

– The Filling –

1.5kg Beef (Sirloin Tip is very cheap and ideal, otherwise Chuck, or Rump Roast) // 250g Lard // 125ml Vegetable Oil // 4 medium Onions // 4 Red Bell Peppers // 1 large Potato //  1 Beef Stock-cube dissolved in 50mls Water // 1.5 tablespoons Paprika // Cumin, Salt and Pepper to taste

1. Finely dice the Beef into very small pieces or mince using the coarsest setting possible (you want the beef to still have texture).
2. Peel and then chop the Potato into 1cm cubes, to help them keep their texture mix these with a cupful of vinegar and then wash them with a small amount of cold water.
3. Warm the Lard in a pan and mix with 75ml of the Oil. Finely chop the Onion and Bell Pepper, add the onion to the pan for a few minutes and then the Bell Pepper. Add the Beef to the mix and season well with the Cumin, Salt and Pepper. Add in the Stock and the Potato cubes, then when the meat is cooked through mix in the Paprika. Taste and adjust the seasoning.
4. Allow the mix to cool and then leave to thicken in the fridge for at least a few hours or  at best a day.

– The Dough –

1kg Plain Flour // 250g Lard (or Butter) // 250ml lukewarm Water (mixed with one soup-spoon of Coarse Salt) // 1 tablespoon Paprika

1. Mix the Flour with the Paprika and make a well in the middle.
2. Melt the Lard and mix it into the Flour. Slowly add the Water to the dough, a little at a time until it is smooth and moist but not too sticky.Leave the dough to rest for an hour.
3. Cut the dough into manageable sections and roll the sections out (wide rectangles work better than rounded shapes). Use a saucer about 10-14cm wide to cut out circles of the dough. Then rub Flour on the surface of each of the circles and stack them on a plate and store in the fridge.

– Finishing –

a bunch of Green Onions // 4 Eggs // Black Olives

1. Hard boil the Eggs and when cooled chop into small cubes, chop the Olives into pieces of equal size and finely chop the Green Onions.
2. Take out the Dough disks from the fridge and hold one in the palm of your hand, place a heaped tablespoon of the filling into the centre of the disk then sprinkle the Green Onion, Egg and Black Olives on top.
3. And now the hard to explain bit, not least because I am not all the great at it, so here is a video showing how you hacer el repulgue, or crimp-it as we Brits say.
4. The recipe-giver had no idea what the cooking temperature is (apparently she normally looks at the size of the flame), so we went heated the oven to 200c and for half the batch and shallow-fat fried the rest in a pan. If cooking in the oven then glaze the Empanadas with Egg, if frying leave unglazed.
5. They are done when they are golden all over and piping hot inside.

Enjoy!