empanadas

I wish I still had the recipe a roommate of mine shared with me many years ago. I had stashed it in a cookbook, but I think it fell out on one of my moves. This woman made the most delicious empanadas that I have ever tasted! I remember that she used raisins in them, which gave a terrific flavor. This woman and her Mom were Uruguayan citizens, and her Dad held Chilean citizenship. She was so fluent in English that you would never know that Spanish was actually her first language. She had lived in several countries while growing up, and was foresighted enough to buy herself some beautiful African fabric during that period. When she became engaged to an American medical student, she used the fabric to make herself a wedding dress, which was the traditional white style, but which had colored trim at the hem. She also did all of the cooking and baking for her wedding reception for 40 people, with the exception of work on the cake; she bought that from an Italian bakery. Baking was one of her strong suits, and I remember how I'd come home from grad school, see covered bowls sitting on the hot air registers, and know that she had set out dough to rise for bread. On her wedding day, she got up early, supervised getting everything into the two ovens at our house, plus two that she "borrowed" from a neighbor, prepared the fresh green beans, oversaw the table decorations, etc. She had a long conversation in Spanish with her parents, who could not come to the U.S. for the wedding, but who wished her well. Then she ran up to change for the photographer's photos on the carved oak staircase. Eventually she and her groom went off to the church, while two other women and I finished the preparations. When she returned, a married woman, the luncheon was served, and it was truly lovely. I remember her as the most amazing roommate I ever had during my "poor student" years, but even more, I can still smell those delicious empanadas. Thanks for reminding me of them. I really do wish I had that recipe. Sharon

We lived in Argentina for a year and oh how we pounded down the empanadas -- of course they never taste as good as the original cafes : ( Below is our recipe from our friend in Argentina for Beef Empanadas -- I actually prefer the taste/texture/crumb of homemade rounds/shells but GOYA makes the shells ie; DISCOS and they are usually in the frozen food dept near international foods. Easy short cut. always taste the filling and adjust seasonings this recipe makes a lot because we are a large family. Also you can adjust any ingredient or omit -- I don't normally do eggs because that would be too much preplanning on my part to boil/cool/peel and I dont like olives so I ixnay them also -- but they both are very traditional ingredients. 5 -6 pkgs of DISCOS 2 pounds ground beef 1 large onion minced 4 cloves chopped garlic 1 finely chopped green pepper 1 cup or more of raisins 3 hard boiled eggs (optional) 1/2 cup sliced olives (optional) 1/2 tsp cumin 1 TBSP Oregano 2 tsp Parsley 1 TBSP sugar Salt and Pepper to your taste 1/2 stick butter (optional but adds a lot of flavor) beaten egg yolk in small bowl pour some boiling water over the raisins in small bowl and let soak while you are working on the rest of the filling. DO NOT discard the raisin water. Brown the beef with the onions, garlic and green pepper. Drain the grease well-- add the butter, spices, sugar, salt pepper as you like -- and simmer and stir til everything looks well distributed. Make sure it is not too wet --it should be moist but not liquidy. Remove from heat. drain raisins reserving liquid -- I prefer to chop the raisins but you don't have to. Add the raisins to your meat mixture along with chopped hard boiled eggs -- stir well. If your meat mixture looks a bit dry add a bit of the raisin liquid - other wise you can discard the raisin liquid. Grease some cookie sheets ( with edges are best incase you have a leak) -- I use a teaspoon from our flatware and use a heaping teaspoon of filling per shell/disco. I can't really explain how to close them up -- but use a few drops of water on your finger run around the edges to moisten, fold in 1/2 and then I pinch pleat/fold over the edge and ends and place on cookie sheet. Brush top with a bit of beaten egg yolk and bake approx 20 min 350 degrees til light brown. there are alot of empanada recipes on the internet -- I think every culture has some sort of meat filling stuffed into a flour pastry/shell thing -- jill

There are several different kinds of empadas. Ones whose outside is made of corn or wheat flour. Ones whose inside has potatoes and meat or rice and chicken. Which ones do you want the recipe for. Ironically I am making empadas of both kinds for my husband's birthday tomorrow. Let me know which recipe wou want.

Thanks, everybody! Sumerce, if it's not too time consuming to post both recipes they both sound great.If you just post one, we always had empanadas with a beef filling in Bucaramanga, so that is what I am most wanting to make.Hope your DH had a great birthday!

Yum, yum! Post all recipes! The first recipe sounds very similar to our recipe for picadillo, with the raisins and the olives, except we mix ground pork and ground beef. YUM you are making me hungry. I also use the frozen disks, because I think I'm just not good at making dough! (see my arepa post). Sumerce I would love to use your recipes if it is not too much trouble to post?:)