. Skip to main content

Empanadas / Chimichurri

I used to make these a while ago and was hoping I hadn’t lost my touch, lol. I’m not gonna lie, I had to bake 2 batches, but this is what cooking is all about, repeated trials and errors and eventually... success!

Filling with fish
Very light pastry crust, baked just right.

I tried the Filipino variety on the first try and baked the Argentinian kind on the second try. I prefer baking to deep frying because they come out less oily. My family, even with their Filipino ancestry, preferred the second variety without meat. I liked the Filipino kind, a bit sweet and savory, because they brought back happy memories of my childhood. Isn’t that what finding an old recipe is all about ?

Here’s the recipe, I’ll show you the difference between two batches :

Dough : 
3 cups of flour (450 g)
100 g butter
1 egg
1/2 cup water
1 teaspoon sugar (optional, for the filipino variety)
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder 
2 tablespoons sour cream 

1 egg yolk + 1 tablespoon of water for brushing

Filling (filipino recipe)

2 tablespoons cooking oil
1 chopped onion
2 cloves minced garlic
1 pound lean ground porc
1 potato, diced in small pieces
1 carrot, diced small
200 g (small can) green peas
1/4 cup raisins
2 tablespoons soy sauce or oyster sauce
3 hard boiled eggs, sliced in 6-8 parts
Salt and pepper to taste 

Or

Argentinian filling (tuna fish)
2 tablespoons cooking oil
1 chopped onion
1 potato (optional)
2 bell peppers
2 cloves minced garlic 
1/2 cup olives
3 cans of tuna (400g) 2 or fresh white fish (I used hake)
1-2 tablespoons of capers
1 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon of oregano
3 hard boiled eggs, sliced in 6-8 parts (optional)
Salt and pepper to taste 

For the filling, fry garlic and onions in oil, add porc or fish according to choice of filling and cook about 12-15 minutes or until the potato is cooked. Add all other ingredients (except eggs). Set aside.

For dough, preheat oven to 175 C/325 F. Soften butter, add sour cream and egg, blend in flour and dry ingredients. Make sure the dough isn’t sticky to the touch, add flour if too sticky. Roll out into a flat 1/8 inch thickness, or just thick enough not to break when filling with meat or fish mixture. Cut with the help of a small bowl or cutter into round portions 3-4 inch wide. Fill with a heaping tablespoon of stuffing in the center, (add a slice of egg for the filipino variety), and cup it in your hand and seal with a wipe of water, either folding one lip over the other, or pinching closed with fingers or with a fork. Brush with egg wash and bake in oven for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.

You can serve the empanadas as is or with sauces like a banana ketchup for the filipino variety, or for the Argentinian kind, with chimichurri, which is also a quick recipe that we add to all kinds of dishes (roasts, fried fish or steak, bruschetta): 


A salsa and chimuchurri, so nice to add zing to any dish.

Chimichurrri : 
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
4 cloves garlic
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup chopped parsley
2 small red chilies or 1 jalepeno, deseeded
1/2 teaspoon oregano
Pinch of sea salt + pepper.

Mix all ingredients in a mixer.  That's it!

Enjoy, everyone!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Victoria Sponge cake revisited (gluten-free)

Here's a version of a Victoria sponge cake that kind of evolved on its own. This is a fairly straightforward layer cake. It involves 2 cake disks, buttercream and strawberry jam, decorated thereafter with some powdered sugar, or more cream and strawberries. I did, however, take liberties... Well, first of all, I didn't have any jam but I did have strawberries so made a quick jam by simmering about a dozen diced strawberries, a couple tablespoons of sugar and a star anise which I love adding lately to all jams (try it with fig jam, awesome combination).  But I digress... use some jam if you have some at home!  I also swirled one of the disks with raspberry reduction, mixed with a bit of the batter to add some color.  (Also, no need to do this except for a bit of fun or if you're always experimenting like me). Here's the rest of the recipe made with 2 eggs, a sign of the times : Batter: 1/2 cup softened butter or margarine 1 cup of sugar 2 eggs 1/2 cup of milk or juice...

Checkerboard cake

This was actually another accidental cake!  I had been wanting to make one of these checkerboard cakes for a while, and one day, I realized I had all the ingredients ready to go in my freezer, so in essence it went pretty quickly.  I often make cake disks and use them for cakes I'm making, and freeze extra disks for later use. So I had 2 chocolate cake disks and 2 vanilla cake disks in the freezer.  All that was needed was the cream and that went pretty easily since I also had some chocolate mousse frosting I had made previously. This was my first attempt, and although it was far from perfect (leaning to one side, lol), it turned out much better and easier than I expected. For tips, I would say 1) have some good cake cutters (I used glass cups and it's not ideal) 2) spread the frosting fairly thinly in between the layers in order to see the checkboard pattern 3) if you freeze cake disks or frosting ahead of time, it is a time saver, in a delulu kind of way 4) the wow fact...

Clafoutis with cherries

Clafoutis is one of my favorite French words because it can make me feel like I’m cursing or insulting someone, "You club-foot-id i o t. » Ok, only me ?! Never mind... It’s also the most delicious flan, so that’s double the fun, and the best part is it's quite easy to make. I often make different kinds depending on the fruits of the season and here you have pictures of an all cherry version, because our tree was so abundant with cherries just ready to harvest. Here's the recipe : 3 eggs 1/2 cup sugar (100 g) 3/4 cup flour (110 g) 1 cup milk (250 ml) 1 teaspoon vanilla or half teaspoon vanilla bean 1/2 teaspoon salt 3 tablespoons melted butter 1/2 pound of cherries (300 g) Preheat oven to 350° F / 180° C.  Butter a deep dish, pan or ramekin. In a bowl, beat the eggs and sugar until you get a smooth batter. Add milk, flour, vanilla, salt, melted butter. Place the cherries (remove stems, but no need to remove pits) in the pan or ramekin. Pour the batter over the cherries. Bak...