Directions
Empanadas are one of the most delicious delicacies of Spanish and South American cuisine. The street food par excellence is a joy for both the eyes and the palate.
But what exactly are empanadas?
At first glance, empanadas are a kind of calzoni, simple, exquisite caskets of bread dough or puff pastry, which can be stuffed with meat or vegetables, not to mention empanadas with fish or shrimp and cheese.
On the other hand, the word empanadas itself derives from empanar, which means to wrap in bread.
They are thought to have originated in Galicia or Portugal, coincidentally after the foundation of the first Indian colonies. It is no coincidence that they could derive from samosas or perhaps from Italian calzoni?
However, let’s not make it a national question because each person has their own empanadas, even if today we will make meat empanadas, with a galactic recipe.
That of Gordon Ramsay, slightly modified, but taken from one of his most successful books: In the kitchen with Gordon Ramsay, where great recipes, (many ethnic), alternate with beautiful pages where the main cooking techniques are explained with clarity and precision.
Ingredients for making beef empanadas
- 2 X 375 grams packs of puff pastry
- peanut oil for frying
- 2 onions
- 1/4 of bell pepper
- 1 pinch of ground cumin
- 1 pinch of ground cinnamon
- 1 pinch of ground cloves
- 1/2 teaspoon of sweet paprika
- 300 grams of meat, shoulder, sirloin, baby spinach, to be ground by the butcher
- 70 grams of wine
- 6 tablespoons of green olives
- sprinkled with chili
- a pinch of sugar
- 2 hard-boiled eggs, chopped
- 1 large egg
- salt and freshly ground pepper
How to make beef empanadas like Gordon
Roll out the puff pastry, place an 11 cm diameter mold on top and cut the puff pastry discs. Wrap the discs in cling film and leave them to rest in the refrigerator.
Fill a saucepan with water, put the eggs inside and bring to a boil. When the water boils, cook for 10 minutes, then turn off and put the eggs in ice water.
Heat a pan with 8 tablespoons of oil, then stew the onion and garlic for 10 minutes, without them taking on color.
Cut the pepper into very thin strips and toss it in the pan.
After 5 minutes, add the meat, blend with a drop of white wine, then season with salt, pepper, cumin, cinnamon, cloves, sugar, olives and cook for 10 minutes.
Turn off and add the hard-boiled eggs. Wait for the empanadas mixture to cool.
Ok, a little more effort, now we are!
Take out the puff pastry and put a knob of meat mixture in the middle of each disc, leaving at least 1 cm from the edge.
Beat the egg in a bowl, then brush half of the disc with a brush, fold them, giving it the shape of a crescent, pushing with your thumbs on the side of the filling to fold the empanada.
Squeeze well with cupped hands to let the air out and then seal.
Make a couple of holes to allow the steam to escape during cooking.
Brush each bundle with the rest of the beaten egg and then move on to cooking the empanadas.
Bake in a pre-heated oven at 180 degrees for 20 minutes.
When the empanadas are golden brown, take them out of the oven and wait for them to cool, then as good old Gordon advises in his book, serve with chimichurri, the Argentine sauce with garlic and parsley.
As a variant try, brush them with an egg and 2 tablespoons of tomato paste before cooking the empanadas.
