Empanadas

Posted February 08, 2010

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Yum. Wrap these in a napkin or paper towel before you foil them up for the lunchbox; there's a bit of that appealing orange-grease situation. Not in a bad way.

The secret ingredient: lard. This came from a friend's obese pig. It is a beautiful thing. But it drives the cat to distraction.

See my fancy cutter? Ha ha. In the past I have used the lid of the shortening can.

My mouth watered just from uploading this photo. See how I spaced out and cut the potatoes too big? They took a long time to cook.

Alternately, you could crimp the edges with a fork. But I like them this way, covered in fingerprints.

Here they've gotten their egg wash.

Really, any hand-held meat pie is a food of the gods. My mum makes cornish pasties to die for, for example. And if there's a better picnic food, it is the world's best-kept secret.

I try to make them just *a little* too spicy, but still the children devour them. Alas.

You know the kind of day where you're on the toilet, and you hear a splashy little plonk behind you, and for just a second you're afraid that the glasses that you pushed up onto your head so that you could rub cream into your face because you don't have time to be on the toilet doing nothing else--you're afraid for just a second that your glasses have slipped through your hair and fallen behind you into the actual contents of the toilet bowl? I say "for just a second" because a second later you're not afraid anymore because now you know for sure: they have. That's the kind of day you'll be glad to have empanadas in your freezer: 20 minutes in the toaster oven (really, by the time you've washed and dried your glasses and then washed and dried them again just to be sure, and then sniffed your wrist and forearm for the fiftieth time, they're ready!), and into the lunchboxes they go. Freeze them in foil-wrapped pairs and then heat two packages--and since your little daughter only needs a single empanada for her school lunch, that leaves you one for breakfast. Score.

Interestingly, the day you made the empanadas might have been a different kind of day. That was the kind of day where your computer crashes. And who could have predicted it would crash just because for three days beforehand the screen would go inexplicably black and then start back up with a whirring louder than a helicopter engine? Luckily you're the kind of person who backs everything up religiously! Oh wait. No you're not. That's a different kind of person--probably the kind of person whose glasses don't fall into the toilet. Luckily they do think they'll be able to retrieve your files. Luckily you are a person with perspective. You are: you have a warm house, dinner, kids you love, health. Even though it's the same day that your daughter bursts into tears in the car after school and your hand on her forehead makes a sizzling sound and steams.

The pediatrician wonders about the fact that this is the third time in six weeks she's had strep throat. "Maybe one of you is actually carrying the strep bacteria," she muses, and it makes you think of that Brady Bunch episode: the one where they consider briefly that Jan might be allergic to Mr. Brady, only then it turns out that it's Tiger's new flea powder. It also makes you think of that "It's coming from inside the house!" babysitter horror movie where they finally track the threatening phone calls. The idea that you might be making your child literally sick is more than you can take.

So by the time you're rolling out your empanada dough, your throat is tight with the possibility of crying. Your temper is strapped to you like a pair of huge vulture wings bound with a decaying leather belt. And when the cat leaps up to the counter and trods delicately upon every single filled, egg-washed unbaked empanada before knocking half of them to the floor? That belt snaps and those vulture wings flap enormously open and you yell, "Get out of here!" You actually scream it: Get out of here! And the children scurry out of the room in fright and you have to yell after them, like a jerk, "Oh, you guys, I was talking to the cat."

But when the empanadas are retrieved and baking, filling the house with their spicy, rich promise of lusciousness? Their addictive flaky and succulent insanity? You will take a deep breath. You will dig the cat out from under the couch and speak soothingly to him until he purrs his forgiveness. You will gather your healthy child and your feverish child close and inhale the healthy and feverish smell of their scalps. You will simply sit with them until the timer rings because you have no email to check, no computer to rush off to. And you will understand that this is a silver lining. Or maybe even a golden one.

Empanadas
Makes about 30
Active time: 100 hours; total time: 200 hours

This is not a quick and easy recipe, and you should not attempt it if time is of the essence. It's more of a weekend afternoon recipe, and if you make it in the spirit of leisure, it will be a pleasure. The filling is insanely tasty, and it makes delicious tacos, should you happen to have any left over, which you won't. But here's what you should know: the meat will fill about 20 of the 30 empanadas; I fill the remaining ones with jam and chocolate chips. I know. It's crazy. But if you want to do all meat, then double the filling recipe.

For the dough (this recipe is from the Joy of Cooking):
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons kosher salt (or half as much table salt)
10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) cold butter, cut into small pieces
1/2 cup of lard or shortening, cut into small pieces (if you have access to good lard, use it: the baked pastry will shatter into flakes if you so much as look at it)
11-13 tablespoons ice water (This is really what the recipe says! 12 tablespoons is 3/4 of a cup. Just so you know.)

Whisk together the dry ingredients. Rub the butter and lard into the flour mixture with your fingertips, or else pulse the mixture in a food processor until it forms coarse, uneven crumbs, some pea-sized, some like cornmeal. Whichever method you used, stir in the water by hand: drizzle it in, then use a fork to stir it. When it's damp enough to gather into a ball, do so (need be, drizzle in a bit more water, but try to cheat the water a little, since the dough will be flakier if it's not too wet). Flatten it into a disk, wrap it in plastic wrap, and refrigerate while you prepare the filling.

For the filling:
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
1 stalk celery, chopped
1 pound ground beef
1 teaspoon each smoked paprika and sweet paprika
1/2 teaspoon chipotle puree or chipotle powder
a pinch of oregano
1 teaspoon kosher salt (or half as much table salt) plus more to taste
1 tablespoon white vinegar (plus more to taste)
1 cup finely diced peeled potatoes (1 fist-sized potato. Sometimes I forget to cut them fine enough, and then the filling takes forever to cook. Dice them small.)
1 cup canned tomatoes or tomato sauce or mild salsa

Egg wash: 1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon of milk and a pinch of salt

Heat the oil in a wide pan over medium-low heat, then sauté the onion with the garlic and celery until it's all getting nice and soft and translucent, 5-10 minutes.

Break up the meat into the pan, turn the heat up to high, and stir and fry until the meat is lightly browned, another 5-10 minutes. Turn the heat back down to medium-low and add the spices and oregano fry for a second or two until they're fragrant, then stir in the vinegar, potatoes, and tomatoes or sauce. Cover the pan and cook the filling until the potatoes are tender, around 10 or 15 minutes. Stir it frequently to make sure it's not sticking, and add a bit of water if the pan looks dry and the potatoes aren't cooked yet. Or, if the potatoes are cooked and the pan isn't dry, take the lid off and cook the liquid down. Taste. You should have a not-too-wet mixture that is absolutely delicious: add more salt or vinegar if the flavor needs brightening. Put the filling in the fridge to chill while your roll and cut the dough.

Make the empanadas:

Heat the oven to 400 and line two large cookie sheets or sheet pans with parchment paper or foil. On a lightly floured surface, lightly flour the chilled dough and roll it out very thin. You will need a large surface for this, and also a bit of patience. Just keep rolling from the center out, spinning the dough every now and then to change directions and also to make sure it's not sticking. It should be no thicker than 1/8 inch when you're done. Cut 5- or 6-inch circles from the dough (I use a 5-inch sharp-lipped Tupperware container for this) and place them on a different surface where you can fill them in peace without mucking up your rolling surface.

Place a very heaping tablespoon (or very scant 1/4 cup) of filling in the center of each circle, brush the edges with water, then lift the edges up to meet in the middle and pinch to form a semicircle. Pinch the rest of the edge closed and place on a cookie sheet. When you've done a sheet's worth, brush them with the egg wash, poke them with a knife to make a small steam vent, and bake them until they're deeply golden, around 20-25 minutes (but check them at 15 in case they're going fast). Cool them on a rack away from your pets and children and partner.

While they're baking, make more empanadas, pushing together and rerolling the scraps as necessary. If you run out of filling, try a spoonful of jam and a small handful of chocolate chips, then top with egg wash with a small sprinkle of cinnamon sugar. Yum. The very last little bit of dough? I bake it in a little tangly mound with a sprinkle of cinnamon sugar! Funny and good.

Get a printable version of this recipe.

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by Catherine Newman

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by Catherine Newman

Catherine Newman cooks for the family

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Catherine Newman cooks for the family

Empanadas

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Empanadas

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