Empanada

EMPANADA is a Spanish influenced dish, it is a fried or baked bread that are stuffed with various ingredients. Came from the word Empanar mean wrapped  in a bread.

Methods of Cooking Empanada:

► You can do oven cooking (see procedures below) or 
► You can Deep Fry the empanadas; deep fried empanadas are easier to do, just stuffed the dough and deep it into the cooking oil.

Ingredients:

Filling:

You can choose the meat you wanted to use, it is either CHICKEN, PORK, CRABS, SHRIMPS, VEGETARIAN or a combination of your choice. It is up to your distinctive taste and creativity.

• Chicken/ pork/ crabs/ shrimps 
• 1 piece medium-sized onion, minced
• 1 tbsp garlic, minced
• 1 cup potato, diced
• 1 cup carrot, diced
• 1 cup green peas
• 1/4 cup raisins
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1/2 piece chicken cube (or shrimp cubes, pork cubes, depending on your meat choice)
• 2 tbsp cooking oil

Optional/ you can use:

Green Papaya fruit (Shredded)

Togue (Mongo sprout)

Fresh Egg or just the red of the egg
... you can add chopped boiled egg as an extra filling
... for vegetarian you can use Spinach or Kangkong; add some corn, bell pepper, and curry powder

Crust

• 3 cups flour
• 4 tbsp sugar
• 6 tbsp water, cold
• 1 piece raw egg
• 1 cup butter, cold
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt

Cooking Procedure

Cooking the Filing

• In a heated pan, pour the cooking oil and allow to heat-up
• Saute the garlic and onions
• Add the chicken breast then cook until color turns light brown (about 5 minutes)
• Add water and chicken cube then simmer for 10 minutes
• Put-in carrots and potatoes and simmer for 5 minutes
• Add the green peas, raisins, and sugar then simmer for another 5 minutes
• Sprinkle salt and pepper. Turn off the heat, drain the excess liquid, and set aside.

Making the dough

• In a mixing bowl, combine the dry ingredients starting from the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt then mix well.

• Cut the butter into small thin pieces place in the mixing bowl with the dry ingredients.(the butter should be cold and solid before doing this)

• Add water gradually and mix all the ingredients thoroughly until a dough is formed. You may use a pastry blender to easen the process.

• Divide the dough into individual pieces by grabbing a piece from the whole mixture and rolling it in your hand until a spherical shape is formed. Do this until all the dough is consumed. Set aside in a cool place for at least 20 minutes

• Flatten the spherical dough py pressing it with your palm against a flat surface. Use a rolling pin to flatten it fully while creating a round shape.

PREPARING

• Place some filling at the middle of the flattened dough. Fold the dough so that opposite ends meet (you should have formed a half moon shaped dough) then press the edges and seal.

• After all the fillings are consumed, crack the egg and separate the white from the yolk. Beat the egg white lightly and mix a little water.Glaze the crust by brushing the egg wash.

• Put a wax paper on top of a baking tray or grease the baking tray then arranged the sealed doughs.

• Pre-heat oven at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 10 minutes. Bake the sealed doughs for 25 minutes at the same temperature.

• Remove from the oven.

• Serve with a smile.

Featured Video:

BUY EMPANADA MOLDER