Empanadas With Ham Cheese And Olives Food

ARGENTINE EMPANADAS

Steps:

• Heat olive oil over medium-low heat. Add onion and cook for 10 minutes, stirring often.
• Add garlic and diced red pepper. Cook for another 10 minutes, stirring often. Add chili powder, cumin, sweet paprika, and oregano. Cook for 2 minutes.
• Increase heat to medium and add the ground beef. Season with salt and pepper and cook, crumbling into small pieces, until browned. Stir in beef boullion.
• Remove from heat and transfer mixture to a bowl to cool for 10 minutes. Then, stir in green onion, olives, parsley, and hard-boiled eggs.
• Cover and chill mixture for at least 1 hour or up to 3 days (depending on freshness of ingredients). It's important that the mixture is chilled before filling the empanadas.
• Add flour and salt to a large bowl and stir to combine. Add egg and butter and stir well to combine. Add oil and warm water and stir until the mixture starts to come together into a dough ball. Add more water if it's too dry.
• Place dough in clean greased bowl and cover tightly. Allow to rest at room temperature for 1 hour. (Or, refrigerate for up to 1 day, removing from the fridge 20 minutes before using.)
• Divide the dough into two pieces. On a greased countertop roll each piece into a very large circle, about 1/8in thick (not so thin that it might break when filling or baking).
• Use a small bowl or round cookie cutters to cut the dough into circles about 6in in diameter for regular size empanadas or 3 inch for mini empanadas (empanaditas).
• Remove the excess dough from around the cut circles and keep the circles where they are for filling them (so they hold their perfect circle shape). Leftover scraps can be re-rolled to make more dough to cut out.
• Place about 2 tablespoons of filling (for regular size empanadas) in the center of each circle, leaving plenty of space around the border. Moisten the edges of the circle with water, then fold the dough over and match the ends together to form a semi-circle.
• Pinch the edges together and then seal the ends by crimping them with a fork or pinching and twisting/folding it over.
• Baked Empanadas: Place empanadas on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Brush with a little bit of egg wash and bake at 375° For 25-30 minutes until golden brown and fully cooked.
• Fried Empanadas: (I've found it best to refrigerate the empanadas for 20 minutes before frying to help the dough firm up and hold its shape before placing in the hot oil). Add several inches of hot oil to a pot and heat to about 365° F. Fry one or two empanadas at a time, flipping once, until golden on both sides (1-2 minutes per side). Place on a paper-towel lined plate.

BEEF EMPANADAS WITH OLIVES AND RAISINS

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
• Heat olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Saute onion and garlic in the hot oil until soft, about 5 minutes. Add ground beef, paprika, salt, and pepper; cook and stir until browned and crumbly, 5 to 7 minutes. Transfer mixture to a mixing bowl.
• Mix hard-boiled eggs, olives, raisins, and parsley into the meat mixture.
• Using a spoon or your fingers, take a little of the ground beef mixture and place it in the middle of the dough discs. Fold the disc over and crimp the edges on both sides with the fork, leaving an indentation in the dough. Coat the outsides of the empanadas with egg yolk using a brush and place on a flat baking sheet.
• Bake in the preheated oven until the shells are somewhat browned, 24 to 28 minutes. Let cool for at least 15 minutes before enjoying.

HAM & CHEESE EMPANADAS

Steps:

• Heat oven to 375º F.
• Roll pie crust into 12-inch circle on lightly floured surface; cut into 8 wedges. Separate wedges, then roll each, 1 at a time, to make 1/2 inch wider on all sides.
• Combine ham and cheese; spoon onto centers of pastry wedges. Roll up each wedge, starting at wide end. Place, point sides down, on parchment-covered baking sheet; top with olives.
• Bake 16 min. or until golden brown.

EMPANADAS WITH HAM, CHEESE AND OLIVES

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 425 F and lightly grease two baking trays.
• Combine olives, ham and cheddar in a bowl. Cut about five 4-inch rounds from each pastry sheet. Spoon a tablespoon of the filling into the center of each round, fold the pastry over and crimp the edges to seal.
• Place the pastries on the trays about 2 cm apart. Brush with the egg yolk and bake in the center or top half of oven for 15 minutes, or until well browned and puffed. Swap the trays around and cook another 10 minutes, covering loosely with foil if the empanadas start to brown too much. Serve hot.

HAM AND CHEESE EMPANADAS

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
• Melt butter in saucepan on medium-low heat.
• Whisk flour into butter, and increase heat to medium. Cook, stirring, for 1-2 minutes.
• Whisk milk into flour/butter mixture and bring to boil, stirring. Sauce will thicken slightly.
• Whisk 2 eggs into mixture and cook, stirring, for 1 -2 minutes more or until sauce has thickened.
• Add grated cheese and parmesan and stir until melted. Remove from heat and add cayenne pepper and salt to taste.
• Roll out 1 sheet of puff pastry dough on a floured surface to 12 inches square. With a pizza cutter or sharp knife, cut dough into 12 3 x 4 inch rectangles.
• .Mix egg yolk with water, and brush the edges of half of the rectangles with the egg yolk mixture.
• Place a piece of ham in the center of the rectangles brushed with egg yolk. There should be an edge of dough all around the ham. Top ham with 2 tablespoons of the cheese mixture.
• Cover the ham and cheese with one of the plain rectangles, and firmly press down around the edges to seal.
• Repeat with other sheet of puff pastry. Pastries may be frozen at this point, or kept in the refrigerator for up to 6 hours before baking.
• Prick the top of the empanadas several times with a fork, and brush tops lightly with the egg yolk mixture.
• Bake 20 minutes, or until puffed and golden brown.
• Serve hot or at room temperature.