Food Holidays: April 8th

Good morning, welcome to our series sharing Food Holidays April 8th National Empanada Day. Have you ever had a Empanda? I have and I like to get Beef Empanada at old Border.

Sounds like its time for lunch…

Five thing to know about:

1. The Spanish word for bread is “pan”and “Empanar” is a verb form that means “to bread”.  Emapanada is the past-participle, “breaded”. (Homeschool Language Tip)
2. Empanada is basically a single-serving turnover.  They can be filled with sweet foods like fruits, sugars, and syrups, or savory foods like meats, cheeses, and oils.
3. Empanadas originated in northwest Spain, in a region known as Galicia.
4. They’re the most popular in Spanish-speaking countries across Europe and South America.
5. Originally Empanadas were made with bread dough, but now they’re made with pastries as well.

Fun Fact:

The Bolani is an Afghan variant of the empanada. Bolanis are flatbreads stuffed with vegetables such as spinach or potato. Served in the evenings during the Muslim feast of Ramadan as well as at other times.

Bolivian empanadas are made with beef, pork, or chicken, and usually contain potatoes, peas and carrots, as well as a hard-boiled egg, an olive, or raisins. They’re called salteñas and are moon-shaped pouches of dough customarily seamed along the top of the pastry.

Empanadas are known as panada or pastel in Indonesia. The panada, has a thick crust made of fried bread, giving it bread texture and is filled with spicy tuna and chili peppers. The pastel has thin crust and a fillings typically made of finely diced potatoes, carrot, green onions, chicken, garlic, and glass noodles.

Recipe:

Empanada Dough

3 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for the work surface

1 tablespoon baking powder

2 teaspoons sugar

Pinch salt

1/2 cup lard or shortening

1 egg

3/4 cup chicken stock

Empanada Filling:

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 pound ground beef

1 tablespoon garlic salt

2 tablespoons tomato paste

2 tablespoons vinegar

2 teaspoons ground cumin

1 teaspoon chili powder

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1 teaspoon seasoned salt

5 cloves garlic, minced

1 green bell pepper, chopped

1 red bell pepper, chopped

1 medium onion, chopped

Oil or shortening, for frying

Directions

1. For the empanada dough: Combine the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt in a large bowl. Cut in the lard with a pastry blender or 2 knives until the mixture resembles coarse cornmeal.
2. In a separate bowl, beat the egg and then whisk in the stock. Add the egg mixture to the flour mixture and knead until a dough forms. Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, for the empanada filling: In a large nonstick skillet, heat 1 tablespoon olive oil over medium heat. Add the ground beef and garlic salt and cook until the beef is cooked completely. Drain the grease and set the beef aside.
4. In the same pan, heat the remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil. Add the tomato paste, vinegar, cumin, chili powder, oregano, seasoned salt, garlic, bell peppers and onions. Cook until softened, 8 to 10 minutes. Add the beef and let them love each other with fire over low heat for about 5 more minutes. The mixture should be moist but not dripping wet. Now you are ready to fill the empanadas.
5. Lightly flour a work surface and roll out the dough to 1/4 inch thick. Cut out 4-, 5- or 6-inch rounds, depending on how large you prefer. Add some meat filling to each empanada and fold the dough over in half to enclose the filling. Use a fork to press and seal the edges closed. You can refrigerate the uncooked empanadas for up to 3 hours.
6. Heat the oil in a deep fryer to 350 degrees F. Fry the empanadas until golden brown, 6 to 7 minutes.
7. For the aioli dip: Mix together the mayonnaise, adobo sauce and lime juice. (The flavor will enhance if it sits in the refrigerator.)

Thank you,

Glenda, Charlie and David Cates