Making Homemade Empanadas

If you love empanadas then there is no reason why you can't make your own right at home as they are fairly easy to make anytime. With a few ingredients or several, depending on what you like in your empanadas, you can throw together a batch in almost no time.

The first thing you should do is make your filling. My favorite is definitely ground beef, but you can make them with shredded beef, chicken or even ham and cheese. I'm going to tell you how to make my ground beef recipe and then you can change your ingredients to make your own variations.

Start with about a pound of ground beef and it can be chuck, round or even sirloin, whatever your preference is can be used. While the beef is browning in a skillet, chopped and add to the beef a medium onion, preferably a sweet one such as Vidalia, and about a teaspoon of garlic. I always keep a jar of already chopped garlic in my fridge since it's easier and less time consuming, but you can always make it fresh if you prefer. Once your beef is all browned and broken up and the onions are tender, drain off any excess fat and liquid and return the pan to to low heat.

Now is the time to add some more flavor and I like to make mine a little spicy so I'll toss in some finely chopped jalapenos, chopped green olives, pimento and all, and season with a sprinkling of cumin, paprika and white pepper. This completes my filling, however you can change it up and make your own variety by using black olives, green pepper, purple onion, chopped raisins, shoe-peg corn, diced tomatoes and seasonings such as oregano, basil, parsley, crushed red pepper and/or black pepper. Use whatever variety you like best. If you're watching your salt intake, as you can see I didn't mention it above because I just about never add salt to anything I cook, you can always skip the seasonings and use a substitute such as Mrs. Dash or something similar. You can use the same variety of ingredients if making chicken or shredded beef. If you like to have ham and cheese empanadas then what I do is just chop up some ham* (I prefer Virginia ham) and heat in a skillet or toss in a bowl and heat slightly in the microwave and then add the cheese when you put the empanadas together.

The next step is to make the dough which couldn't be easier. In a large bowl combine 2 1/2 cups of all purpose flour, 1 teaspoon of baking powder and 3/4 teaspoon of salt. I then use a fork to cut in 1/3 cup of shortening (I use Crisco) a little at a time until the mixture looks like a coarse meal. Next you're going to stir in a half cup of water pressing the mixture into a dough with your fork and pushing the moistened dough to the side of the bowl until all the dough is just moist. You can add additional water by the tablespoon if needed. Divide the dough depending on how many empanadas you plan to make and how big. You can make them small 4" round appetizer size or a larger say 6" size. Place the dough one piece at a time onto a lightly floured piece of wax paper and roll into a circle. Place some of your filling in the middle of the dough and fold over, sealing the edges by pressing down with the tip of a fork until the open side is sealed. Do this for each empanada and place them on a foil lined baking sheet. To give them a nice browned top, beat one egg yolk and a tablespoon of milk and brush the top of each empanada. All that's left is to bake them in a 400 degree oven for about fifteen minutes until golden brown. (*If making ham and cheese empanadas, place your chopped ham in the middle of your dough and top with shredded cheddar cheese and if you like, sprinkle with diced scallion, or not, and finish as above.)

The ground beef recipe I make is great served with a hot picante sauce or any preference of salsa whether it's a red or green variety. If you make chicken using cumin as a spice, then the salsa also works well. You may want to try some Tabasco sauce also. I like the green Tabasco when I make chicken. These are all just some basic suggestions, but you can make them pretty much any way you like.