I’ll always remember my first empanadas with beef in Chile. We went to Santiago, the capital of Chile, and it is a big city. Along the way, we’d had many adventures, and we were always in search of food. High on a hill, overlooking the city and being overlooked by the Andes mountains, we discovered their empanada.
Perhaps I was hungry. I certainly wasn’t paying enough attention to what I was eating. I sunk my teeth through the rich suet-laden pastry and into the spicy mince beneath. My nostrils are filled with the warm scent of paprika, chili, long nights of salsa dancing and pisco sours. Yes, I got carried away. It was my first time. I didn’t realize that traditional empanadas with beef include a whole olive. But sure enough, in the next bite, I managed to push it out of its ground meat or minced meat nest. It toppled, bounced down and then onto the ground, leaving a telltale oily trail all the way down my only clean shirt!
These empanadas with beef are not that difficult to make. Here’s how.
Seriously Amazing Empanadas With Beef
Ingredients
TO MAKE THE EMPANADA DOUGH:
3 cups all purpose flour (plain flour Australia and UK)- 1 teaspoon salt
- 210 milliliter water - chilled
- 1 teaspoon white vinegar
- 1 medium egg
- 50 grams suet (beef fat) - grated
TO MAKE THE BEEF FILLING:
- 110 grams suet (beef fat)
- 6 cloves garlic - finely chopped
- 1 large white onion - finely chopped
- 1 pound ground beef (minced beef)
- 1 small red chili (red chilli in British English) - deseeded and finely chopped
- 90 grams raisins - (optional)
- 110 grams black olives - pitted
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 medium egg - hard-boiled, finely chopped
- 1 handful parsley - flat-leaf, chopped finely
- ¼ cup milk - for brushing pastry
Instructions
To Make The Empanada Dough:
- Combine salt and flour in a bowl. Make a well in the middle, then add the egg, water and grated suet. Mix with a spoon until well combined.
- Knead dough on a lightly floured workbench for three minutes, allow to rest for five minutes and then knead again for about five minutes or until the dough is soft and elastic. Cover and refrigerate for two hours.
- Roll out the dough to about 2 millimeter ( 1/16th-inch) thick. Using a saucer as a guide, cut 12 circles from the dough. You may need to re-roll scraps once or twice to get all twelve circles.
To Make The Beef Filling:
- Melt the suet in a frying pan over low heat, then strain. Discard the solids and return the liquid fat to the pan.
- Increase the heat to medium, then add the garlic and fry for one minute. Next, add the onions, frying for 3-4 minutes and then add the beef, stirring to brown on all sides. Cook for five minutes. Stir in the chili, raisins, olives, paprika and salt and cook for a further five minutes.
- Remove from the heat. Mix in the hardboiled egg and the parsley and leave aside to cool.
To Assemble:
- Preheat the oven to 250°C (500°F).
- Put approximately two tablespoons of mixture into the center of each pastry circle, plus one of the olives. Fold the pastry over and seal by pushing the sides together. You can use the edge of a fork to make a crimped pattern on edge. Brush pastry with milk and place on a baking paper-lined tray.
- Reduce the oven heat to 230°C (450°F) and cook the empanada for twenty minutes. You may need to turn the tray around after the first ten minutes to ensure the pastry is cooked evenly.
- Serve hot or cold, and watch out for escaping olives!
