If you’ve been reading our blog for a while, you’ll notice that our dishes tend to segue into one another – the leftovers from one meal will often inspire the next, potstickers will lead to vegetarian dumplings, or a technique that we tried on Thursday will be reworked into something new on Sunday.
Such is the case with this dish – the saved fat from Römertopf pork ribs a couple of weeks ago went into the pastry for our curry puffs, and that pastry then inspired us to try our hand at empanadas.
As our good friend and neighbour Marcela is Argentinian, I was keen to make a reasonable attempt at these, so I was delighted to find this recipe with video from the old SBS Food Safari series. I followed the filling instructions quite closely, then wrapped the meat in our homemade pastry.
Pastry:
- 600g plain (AP) flour
- ¾ teaspoon fine sea salt
- 112g lard or leftover fat from a roast or meat bake (or substitute more butter)
- 112g butter
- 225ml cold water
Filling:
- 1 tablespoon light olive oil (or other vegetable oil)
- 60g butter
- 100g onions, diced
- 100g spring onions, finely chopped
- ½ teaspoon chilli powder, to taste (I used mild ancho chilli powder)
- 500g beef mince
- 125ml (½ cup) water (original recipe used beef stock)
- 1½ tablespoons sugar
- fine sea salt to taste
- ½ teaspoon sweet paprika
- ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- pinch ground cloves
- green olives, pitted and chopped
- sultanas
- 2 hardboiled free range eggs, chopped coarsely
- ground cumin
Note: the original recipe for the filling makes double this amount – we only used half of it, so I’ve provided reduced quantities above. We froze our excess filling (it defrosted perfectly a couple of weeks later).
1. Make the pastry first – put the flour into a large mixing bowl and stir in the salt. Rub in the lard and butter, then add in the cold water and knead briefly to combine. Wrap in plastic and rest in the fridge until needed.
2. Make the filling next – heat the oil and butter in large frying pan and fry the onions and spring onions until soft. Add the beef and stir to break it up and brown it a little, then add the chilli powder, paprika, cinnamon, cloves, sugar, salt and water. Cook over a low heat until the liquid and fat have separated from the meat. Check for seasoning and adjust as required.
2. This next step is optional – the original recipe uses the cooked meat from the step above as the completed filling. We scooped the meat out with a slotted spoon, then poured the residual liquid into an oil separator. We poured just the stock back into the pan and cooked it down to a thick caramel glaze, which we then stirred through the meat.
The flavoured fat (mostly butter) that was left in the separator was kept for brushing the tops of the empanadas prior to baking…
Allow the filling to cool before assembling the empanadas (a double quantity is shown below)…
3. Preheat the oven to 200C with fan. Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface, then using a small saucer as a template, cut out circles of dough. In the middle of each circle, place a generous spoonful of filling, topped with a few pieces of green olive and hardboiled egg, a sprinkle of sultanas, and a pinch of ground cumin…
4. Fold the pastry in half and pinch and crimp the edges together. Place on a parchment lined baking tray. When all the empanadas are made, brush the tops with either melted butter, or with the residual fat saved from the meat. Bake for 25-30 minutes until golden brown.
The original recipe uses shortcrust pastry – but I like the flakiness of our version. The filling is fabulous – the meat is slightly sweet, but still savoury, and the green olives and egg seem to balance out the sultanas perfectly…
So what was the verdict? Marcela, and more importantly, Marcela’s mum, liked these a lot. As did Pete and Big Boy (there’s no way we’d get sultanas in a savoury pastie past Small Man), so it’s definitely one to make again.
I can’t wait to see if this recipe segues into something else – I still have some of the leftover fat in the fridge, so it might!
Edit: Actually, it did. I added the leftover fat to another batch of pastry, and made more empanadas with the defrosted filling. I eggwashed the second batch rather than brushing with butter, and they baked to a deep golden brown.
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
I love empanadas. My husband tells me I am the empanada queen. These look so yummy.
Norma, is there a recipe on your blog? I’m sure yours would be amazing.. x
How fantastic! That crust look to die for… What fun playing around with different recipes- so creative & resourceful! xx
Thanks Em! They were a big hit here, and you know me, I was just grateful not to waste the leftover fat! :D
My husband was looking over my shoulder as I opened up your blog. Now I have been asked to ‘make some of those!’ I will have to be more careful about checking where he is in future :)
Hahaha…sorry about that! :D
Among my friends and some of my family I am considered a gourmet and yet frugal cook. So glad they don’t read your blog or I would be outed as a poser. I love empanadas, too- I don’t make them very often- and that is because I don’t have the appreciative eaters around to encourage and well, eat them! :)
It is always great to see your delicious meals, Celia!
Heidi, you’re the best cook ever! I wish you had more people to feed – they all don’t know what they’re missing out on! :)
These look delightful, Celia. I love how careful you are with your ingredients and you toss nothing away. I strive to be more like you.
We learned to make empanadas from our Colombian friends. A real treat. They used to bring them to our get togethers, but moved away. :-(. We make them rarely as they are a lot of work. But soo delicious. And ours are fried.
Maureen, you’re very kind, thank you! It’s not just that I don’t like to toss stuff away, it’s just the the leftover – the flavoured fat or amazing stock – is often the best bit of the dish. As a friend of mine would say, it’s gold. :D
Gorgeous – we make empanadas here but I have to confess they sell teeny little empanada wrappings that most people use :( They are mostly fried here but I am going to give yours a go. Big Man’s father was born in Argentina, so I’ll be able to give Big Man a taste of the old country!
Chica, it’s interesting how many people make small empanadas – the ones on the video were quite large. Marcela told me they’re often fried as well – might have to try that next time! :)
Empanadas is one typical spanish dish, you can check our blog because in the next days we will upload a recipe very similar.
We love your empanadas! Congratulations :)
Thank you! I wonder how different the Spanish ones are to the Argentinian version? Look forward to seeing your recipe!
I saw that SBS recipe in question and thought “gotta make me some empanadas” but that is about as far as it got. I am a bit of a pastry phobe. No real reason why as my pastry tends to turn out well, just lazy I guess ;). I think Steve would love empanadas and that’s part of my problem. He gets a jag on something and suddenly we have to make it all of the time and me, making pastry, all of the time…NADA! ;). I love the look of these little babies and might make them quietly one day and not make a big fuss out of them in order to get them to slip under his radar…my guess is that they are delicious so I doubt that is going to happen. Cheers for the share Celia :) Oh, they are also a good way to use up excess eggs? I am IN! :)
Fran, me too! Our five chooks aren’t laying that much, but we still have a couple of dozen to use up at any time. Hey…don’t you have a squillion chooks? How many eggs a day are you getting? ;-)
Celia they look just perfect and very authentic!
Ooh, thanks Claire! x
Fantastic! These are so tasty and we need to make them again. Thanks for the reminder.
Just went over to your blog to check out yours Greg – the black bean and sweet potato version sounds great! And thanks for the link to the epicurious recipe – I wonder what the addition of vinegar does to the dough?
Totally delicious, Celia. I love the way you note that the recipe you’ve worked from hasn’t provided the correct proportions… I find that to be the case too. Recipe testing is an art form and you do it so well.
Lizzy, to be fair, the recipe I worked from provided the correct proportions for THEIR pastry – I just used my own pastry recipe and their filling! :)
I’m with Small Man, I’d leave out the sultanas too thanks! The rest looks great though Celia, and you are my food hero Celia- you don’t waste anything and that fat is perfect for the pastry. Yummo! Xox
Becca, the sultanas are a surprisingly good addition – they’re well balanced out by the egg and green olives. (Pete just read this over my shoulder and said that the sultanas are integrat to the dish! :))
I’ve never tasted one of these, Celia. I must try!
Misky, do try them! It’s the first time I’ve made them, but it won’t be the last. I hope you can view the video..
I don’t think I’ve ever tried empanadas, but these look very tempting. Your pastry looks fantastic – again!
Amanda, they’re delicious – the mince is amazingly flavoured, quite different from a regular meat pastie filling.
i haven’t ever made these either celia..i just love the way you use up left over fat in the pastry..that makes me as happy as the idea of chomping into one! x
Jane, do you have any of that lovely lard leftover in your fridge? This would be a wonderful way to use it up! :)
G’day! I LOVE empanadas Celia! WISH I could try one right now too!
Cheers! Joanne
Joanne, I wish you could too! :)
there is always serious debate over empanadas in this household. I’m of the lets jazz them up variety, ‘others’ are traditional.
(ps. Tania’s hot water pastry recipe is a cracker for empanadas too Celia.)
Cool, I’ll check it out. Thanks Brydie! (The Chileans take their empanadas very seriously, love :))
It’s true: one good thing does lead to another. May the stream of continuous great dishes go on in perpetuity! :D
xo
K
Kathryn, thank you for understanding that! I love how the food from one day rolls into the next! :)
You are so inventive with your cooking Celia. Puts me to shame:)
Hardly, Jody! And you’re a vegetarian – it’s not like you’re going to have leftover fat from a roast to play with.. :)
That’s true, there’s no fat left over from what I cook but I still think you are very inventive with your cooking and your gardening. Please keep it up. We all love reading your blog:)
Oh wow! You just keep making me hungry!
Thank you! My work is done, then. :D
I love how one meal progresses into another xxx
Tandy, it’s the best thing, isn’t it? I love the leftover bits and pieces – they’re like secret ingredients. :)
These look wonderful. My husband grew up on these when he lived in Chile and they always had eggs, olives and sultanas in them. Sultanas seem to feature heavily in savoury dishes in Chile – my MIL is very fond of adding sultanas to her dishes. I love how nothing is going to waste in your kitchen xx
Charlie, you really need to make these for Carl! Use whatever pastry you have on hand – the big thing is the filling, and it’s superb!
Hiya – I’ve just bought a Romertopf due to your post. I had one decades ago but over time and international moves, it was left by the way somewhere. I do hope you will post more recipes using this wonderful dish! Thank-you for getting me back in touch with it.
Lorelle, I hope you enjoy yours as much as we’ve loved ours. We used it again last night! I baked a 2.2kg piece of pulled pork – it fed us for dinner, and I shredded and vac-sealed and froze four x 250g portions of meat for future meals. The meat was incredibly tender, yet almost no fat came off it at all.
I’m a bit obsessed with empanadas after my recent trip to Chile. I tried seafood ones there too which were new to me. They’ve usually had beef or chicken in them.
Seafood empanadas! Now there’s an idea!
Oh, you cheeky thing … saving the flavoured fat for brushing over the top! And you’ve just reminded me i’ve got a stash of empanda filling in the freezer from the last batch i made … time to pull it out. I love these bite-sized parcels.
Rachel, I’m interested that many folks make little empanadas – the ones on the show were really very big, like a Cornish pasty. I’ll have to try making little ones as well! :)
Oh! Yes!! Empanadas, one of our national foods!!
We eat them as often as posible, only I buy the pastry at the supermarket.
I don´t use sultanas, because my kids don´t love them.
Enjoy them!
In the “In the kitchen” next blogpost I´ll try to post “empanadas de humita”….same pastry but different filling.
Your empanadas look wonderful!
Oh yes, please do! I’d love to see your recipe, Ale! :)
You say empanadas, I say calzones…I think the difference is mainly in the pastry maybe? I see some things in your mixtures that I’d definitely toss into mine next time – I like the spices that you’ve added in yours. Very nice idea with the hard boiled eggs though.
You certainly do know how to stretch out any leftovers I must say. Must be your creative mind.
Di, I think the main difference is the filling – no cheese in the empanadas, and they addition of egg, olives and sultanas make them quite different as well.
Yummy… Yummy… Yummy! After reading your post I realise just how dang lazy I have become in the kitchen. These look delightful, can’t wait to try. :)
Cheers Anna, hope you enjoy them!
There is no doubt in my mind that you are an example to be followed! I am in constant awe every time I open one of your posts, always something to learn, to admire…
awesome!
Sally, are empanadas eaten in Brazil? These were great fun to make – both times! :)
I agree with Sally. There’s always something to learn here. I’ve enjoyed empanadas but never thought to make them myself. If I ever get the urge, I’ll come back here for the instructions. Glad to hear that the filling freezes so well. It makes the recipe so much for accessible to me.
John, the filling froze brilliantly! I reckon you could make up a batch of whatever dough you wanted to use, and portion it out, then do the same with the filling. I’ve found pastry doughs defrost perfectly, so in theory, you could make everything, then defrost just enough for two or three big empanadas for dinner on any given night, boil an egg, add some green olives and sultanas, and you’re done! :)