Cooking empanadas

I've been craving an empanada ever since I returned to London. These mini pasties, normally filled with beef, ham and cheese or chicken are a staple in Argentina. I ate them all the time in Buenos Aires and even made this video for the Argentina Independent. But despite my enthusiasm for all things pastry/meat based, I've only cooked empanadas a couple of times, and always under the watchful eye of my argentine flatmate.

With Miguel long gone and google search my only aide I began my London empanada adventure this weekend. I had hoped to buy the 'tapas' (the pastry cases) but I couldn't find them anywhere so I started from scratch.

After some loose interpretation of the words 'rolling pin' and 'scales' (wine bottle/glass), I started with the dough.

The first recipe I found called for:

3 cups flour (plus a little more for kneading)
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup cold water
1 egg
1 egg white
1 teaspoon vinegar
3 tablespoons shortening

I decided to use butter instead of shortening (mainly as I had no idea what shortening was) and red wine vinegar instead of normal (because it's all I had in my cupboard). In one bowl I mixed the eggs, water and vinegar and in the other, the flour and salt.

Separating the ingredients

Next, the recipe told me to 'cut the shortening into the flour mix with a pastry blender or two butter knives'. Assuming this meant 'combine the butter and flour' I ploughed onwards. Lacking butter knives and a pastry blender, I went for the next best option: My hands. It's what Nigella would do. Probably.

I rubbed together the chunks of butter with the flour then cut the mixture in a criss cross motion using two knifes. I ended up with a mixture vaguely reminiscent of crumble.

Mixing the flour and butter (or shortening...)

 Next it was time to combine the eggs. Still channeling the cake baking method, I made a well in the middle of the flour and poured them in. The recipes I checked all advised the use of a fork to mix them into a 'stiff' mixture. I decided to use two forks- for no reason other than I'd already used two knives and wanted to continue with the Noah's ark theme.

The Noah's Ark fork technique

When combined, I covered my work surface (and kitchen, and Tshirt) in flour and started kneading the dough. It went better than expected, considering my rather slap dash approach to measurement, and I ended up with a firm, smooth dough. Next it was time to wrap it in plastic and chill it for an hour.

the dough - ready to chill

After removing the dough from the fridge I rolled it out. The dough seemed surprisingly elastic-getting it thin enough to put ingredients on was tricky-but eventually it was ready to roll (pun intended). Empanadas are quite small- they normally fit in the palm of your hand-so I chose the smallest bowl I had and cut around it.

Cutting the circles

Then I decided in ingredients. For my first batch I thought I'd go with ham and cheese as they're more straightforward than the mince mixture, and less liquidy. When I've perfected the technique I'll graduate to more exotic flavours. I placed the filling in the middle of the circle, wet the outside with water and folded it in half.

Filling the empanada

Something I really want to master is the folding of the edges of the empanadas. But you know what they say about walking and running...so I began by using a fork to press together the sides. I couldn't resist having a go at the more experimental latticework though. In Argentina, different empanadas were denoted by different lattice patterns. Take aways came with mini pictures showing which filling corresponded to which pattern. Obviously I'm not quite at the coding level yet, but a chef can dream....

I brushed my creations with egg wash and put them in the oven at 190 degrees. Twenty five minutes later, I took out my fresh empanadas. Success!




The finished product!



The pastry could have been thinner but they were light and fluffy and just the right level of gooey. I also went out on a limb with an experimental vegetarian flavour- spinach, cherry tomato and basil- which actually turned out to be my favourite.


Ham and cheese (jamon y queso)


I'm pretty proud of my efforts, though there's definitely ready for improvement. I may not be quite ready for a Borough Market stall but by next week? Quizas....until then though,

Beso Beso chao!