Beef Empanadas - Super Yummy!

Every week or so, hubby and I go through recipes and figure out what we want to make for the week and make a grocery list. A few weeks ago he came across a recipe from Food & Wine magazine for beef empanadas. We had just made a new recipe for chicken pot pie (PERFECT recipe, at least for us!) and were on a dough-making kick. I made them and they just disappeared! They were delicious and are one of hubby's favorite meals now. We made them again a few nights ago and I remembered (barely) to take pictures so I could share the recipe with all of you.


Beef Empanadas

Ingredients:
Dough
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 Tbsp. sugar
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1 stick unsalted butter, cut into small pieces and chilled
- 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
- 1/4 cup dry white wine
- 1 tsp. white vinegar

Filling
- 1 Tbsp. vegetable oil
- 1/2 tsp. achiote seeds (also called annatto seeds) **Note - we omit this because they don't
carry them here in GTMO, so I can't personally say if it makes a taste difference.
- 1/4 lb. ground beef
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 1 small onion, finely diced (I'm not a big fan of onions so I put in less)
- 1/4 cup finely diced red bell pepper (hubby prefers a little less than this)
- 1/4 cup chopped, seeded tomato
- 1/2 Tbsp. tomato paste
- 1/4 cup chicken stock or low-sodium broth
- 2 Tbsp. chopped cilantro
- Salt and freshly ground pepper
- Vegetable oil for frying

1. Make the dough. In a food processor, pulse the flour with the sugar and salt. (We have a mini processor so we use our stand mixer.) Add the butter and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Beat the eggs with the wine and vinegar and drizzle over the flour mixture. Pulse until the dough just comes together. On a floured surface, gently knead the dough until smooth. Wrap the dough in plastic and refrigerate until firm, about 1 hour.

2. Prepare the filling. In a medium skillet, heat the oil. Add the achiote seeds and cook over moderately high heat until the seeds darken and the oil is orange, about 1 minute (again, we omit the seeds and just heat the oil since our NEX doesn't carry achiote seeds). Discard the seeds. Add the ground beef to the skillet and cook, breaking up the meat with a wooden spoon, until no pink remains, about 3 minutes. Add the garlic, onion and bell pepper and cook over moderate heat until the onion is softened, about 5 minutes. Add the tomato, tomato paste and chicken stock and simmer over moderate heat until the liquid has nearly evaporated, about 3 minutes. Stir in the cilantro and season with salt and pepper. Let cool.

3. On a generously floured work surface (and they mean generously! This dough is sticky), roll out the dough 1/8 inch thick. With a 3-inch round biscuit cutter (we used a cup about the same size because we don't have biscuit cutters... yet), stamp out as many rounds as possible (you should have about 24). Reroll the dough scraps and stamp out additional rounds if possible. Brush the excess flour off the rounds. Working with 1 round at a time and keeping the rest covered in plastic wrap, form the empanadas: Spoon 2 tsp. of the filling on one side of the dough round. Fold the dough over to enclose the filling and crimp the edges with a fork to seal. Cover with plastic wrap while you form the rest of the empanadas.


4. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a deep skillet, heat 1/2 inch of oil to 350 degrees. Fry 4 empanadas at a time, turning once, until browned and crisp, about 2 minutes. Drain on paper towels and transfer to a baking sheet. When all of the empanadas have been fried, reheat them in the oven and serve.


DELICIOUS! Make a quick side of spanish rice and you're set! I totally suggest trying this out. Enjoy!