Spiced Beef Empanadas
Hola! I’m back with another Spanish inspired recipe. To be honest, not sure in empanadas are a Spanish or Latin American dish, but all I know is that they are everywhere in Málaga. They are the most popular street food and you can get them filled with almost anything. Empanadas are essentially a filling of your choice wrapped in a pastry filling that is either baked or fried. The nicest ones I’ve tried have been filled with carne (beef), tuna and also the classic serrano ham & manchego cheese.
I was trying to be healthy in my meal prep this week, to make room for all the delicious restaurant food I’ll be eating over the weekend, so I opted to make the baked variety. You can absolutely freeze these too and pop them in the oven for 35-40 minutes, whenever you fancy. I made a big batch of the filling to use as lunch for a few days so the quantity of meat in this recipe is double what the quantity of pastry is ie. you will get enough pastry to make 10 empanadas but will have enough meat to make 20. I used the leftover meat as a taco filling for my lunch with some salsa, hot sauce and lettuce, and it was really tasty.
You can fill these with whatever you like. Pulled pork or chicken would be nice, mixed sautéed veggies would be nice too. There are no rules with empanadas, as I have literally seen so many different varieties, just walking the streets of Málaga. I made my own pastry in this instance, as it’s pretty easy (the worst part is trying to transfer them to the tray!), but feel free to use shop bought shortcrust, if you want the convenience.
Ingredients for Pastry (enough for 10 empanandas)
250g plain flour
pinch of sea salt
110g butter (chilled & cubed)
80ml cold water
1 egg
Ingredients for the filling (enough to fill 20 pastry cases)
500g lean steak mince
1 large white potato, cubed small
2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 large white onion, diced fine
1 red pepper, diced
handful mushrooms, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp chilli powder
2 tsp cumin
1 tsp oregano
Salt & Pepper, to taste
handful of frozen peas
150ml beef stock
1 beaten egg
Method
In a large pot with salted boiling water, add your potatoes and cook them for 4-5 minutes, until just about cooked (you want them to still be firm to touch, but a knife should go through with a little pressure).
Drain and set aside, until needed.
Heat oil in large pan/ skillet and sauté meat and vegetables (except peas & garlic), until meat is almost browned.
Add all your spices, herbs & garlic and cook for a further minute. Add back in your potatoes with the stock and stir together. Season with salt & pepper.
Once the stock is almost all absorbed, add in your peas. When all liquid is absorbed, turn off the heat and set aside. (I make the mince first as I find the pastry easier to handle when trying to transfer the filled empanadas to the baking tray, when the filling is not hot).
To make the pastry: In a large bowl add your butter, flour and salt and rub with fingertips to form fine breadcrumbs.
Add your egg and add the water little by little and mix with your hands. You don’t want the mixture to be too wet. (if you find that it is too wet just place it on a heavily floured surface and roll it around in the flour until it isn’t) You don’t want to over handle your pastry so once it comes together and is not sticky from too much water / falling apart from too little, roll it in a large ball & cover it in cling film and place in fridge for at least 30 mins.
After 30 minutes, separate the dough ball into roughly 10 even sized balls.
Squash slightly with your hand to form a circle, then using a rolling pin flatten until thin (about the diameter of a saucer).
Using a tablespoon, spoon 2 tablespoons of the meat onto one side of the pastry circle (see photo at bottom), leaving a small edge about 1/4 inch free of filling.
Brush the edge around the meat filling with a bit of beaten egg.
Fold over the empty pastry on top of the meat filling and using a fork dipped in beaten egg, press down the edges so that the sides are sealed. (The folded over pastry should be pressed against the edge brushed with egg).
Carefully transfer to a lined baking tray. (If you overfill your pastry, it will burst. It also becomes harder to transfer if the filling is too hot). Brush the top of the empanada with egg wash so it will get a nice sheen in the oven. Repeat this process for each of the 10 balls.
Bake at 150 Celcius for 27-30minutes, until golden.
Calories per filled empanada = 241
