Empanadas (whole wheat)

It has been a very very long time since I've last posted something, but here is an update again after several people asked me for a recipe.

This time no Dutch food, but Chilean Empanadas!! A delicious pasty that can have a variety of fillings, meat, cheese, seafood, etc. In this post I will give you the recipe of the meat one and a Greek inspired vegetarian version.

In the meat Empanada the filling is called 'Pino' and consists of:
- 400-500 grams of ground beef
- 4 big finely chopped onions
- 2 finely chopped garlic cloves
- 1 tablespoon of flour
- 2 teaspoons of cumin
- 2 teaspoons of paprika powder
- 2 tablespoons of oregano
- half a teaspoon of cayenne pepper
- 1 cup of raisins
- 2 cups of beef stock
- 3 boiled eggs
- season with salt and pepper to taste

Preparations:
First of all boil 3 eggs and leave them to cool. Soften the onions in a pan with a butter and oil mixture or manteca/vegetable shortening for about 5 to 10 minutes. They should not brown. Add the meat and brown it all over. Add the spices and let it simmer for 1 more minute. Sprinkle over the flour and stir. Add all the spices and the stock (1 or 2 cups depending on the consistency, it should be nice and moist, not dry). Leave it to simmer for 15 minutes adding a little water/stock if necessary). Taste and add more salt or pepper if needed. Leave it to cool down, now it should be nice and gooey, perfect to fill the empanadas.

The Greek inspired vegetarian version has:
- 2 finely chopped big onions
- 4 aubergines chopped in small cubes
- 2 finely chopped garlic cloves
- 2 tablespoons of oregano
- 6 finely chopped big sun-dried tomatoes
- 1 bunch of parsley finely chopped
- 250 grams of feta into small cubes
- salt and pepper (be easy on the salt as the feta is salty)

Preparation for the Greek inspired filling.
First of all soften the onions in a large pan with some oil, remember they should not brown, just get translucent this should take around 5 to 10 minutes. After 5 minutes the garlic can be added. Then add the cubed aubergines and let them shrink, this should take around 30minutes as also most of the juices should be gone. Add all the herbs for the last 5 minutes. Turn off the fire and add the feta. Leave to cool down. The filling should have more or less the same consistency as the meat filling.

The above fillings should make you 30 empanadas each, but you can also make 15 meat and 15 vegetarian empanadas and from the left over halfs make a nice pie in the oven by filling a low dish with the filling and then adding potato mash on top. Brush some milk over the top and toss it in the oven for about 25 minutes on 190 degreese. The last few minutes one could put on the grill to get a nice golden brown look.

For the dough:
- 4 cups of spelt flour (or some other whole wheat flour)
- 4 cups of plain all purpose flour
- 4 spoons of manteca (I used vegetable shortening), but you can also use lard (animal fat)
- 4 spoons of butter
- 2 cups of salter lukewarm water (1 tablespoon of salt)





Assembling the empanadas:
- kneed the dough till it forms a nice ball, don't work it too much though
- leave it to rest in a cool place so the greasy elements can settle again
- cut pieces off and roll them out using some extra flour to prevent them from sticking
- cut the boiled eggs in small pieces

Make small circles (if you want perfect circles, use a small plate and cut them out) and fill them with 1 to 1.5 spoons of filling. For the meat version here you add 2 pieces of the boiled egg. Then brush some water on half of the edges (half a circle) and fold it over to close it holding the filling back with your finger tops and push gently. Try not to wet the working surface when you brush the water on as otherwise the empanada will get stuck, also make sure to do this step on a lightly floured work top to prevent sticking. Fold the edge over in any way you want as long as it remains closed (I folded it over my thumb each time and then pressed it down a bit as you can see in the pictures). Finish it by pushing the back of a fork on the edge to make sure it stays close and to make it look nice. Pinch 2 holes on the top with a knife (not all the way through the bottom, just the top, we don't want all the nice juices to run out of the bottom), or pinch ones with the fork. Our meat empandas were pinched with a knife, our vegetarian versions with a fork. One can also fold the empandas in a different form the distinguish them, which they do in Chile.

Lay the empanadas on a floured oven tray or on a sheet of baking paper to prevent sticking. Finally brush a beaten egg on the top to provide them with a nice golden brown colour. Toss them in a pre-heated oven (205C) for 20 minutes and eat them warm with pebre, a Chilean salsa showed on the first picture below.




How to make pebre:
- 5 very finely chopped ripe tomatoes
- 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 1 bunch of coriander leafs, finely chopped
- 2 tablespoons of red wine vinegar
- 1 flat tablespoon of coarse sea salt
- half cup of olive oil (Chileans don't do it with olive oil, they just use oil)
Stir everything together and leave it in a cool place for at least 30 minutes so that the flavours can get to know each other.

Open a bottle of nice Chilean red wine and ENJOY!!