Empanada

By RecipeLot

{{Recipe summary In Spain, Latin America, and the Philippines, an empanada is essentially a stuffed pastry. They are likely originally from Galicia, Spain, where they were prepared rather like Cornish pasties as a portable and hearty meal for working people and often filled with leftovers or staple ingredients. Tuna and chicken are varieties still seen in Galicia. The filling usually consists primarily of beef. It may also contain ham and cheese, humita corn with Béchamel sauce, or spinach. Fruit is used to create dessert empanadas, which are usually baked, but may be fried. In some Argentinean provinces, empanadas can be spiced with peppers, more akin to those of the rest of South America. Every household in Argentina has its own special recipe for empanada filling. The fillings vary from region to region, with some being sweet and others spicy. The below is a recipe for a sweet empanada filling typical of those found in the province of Santa Fe. Chilean empanadas also use a wheat flour-based dough, but the meat filling is slightly different and often contains more onion. Chileans consider the Argentine filling seco, or dry. Fried empanadas of shrimp/prawns and cheese are a favourite dish of the coastal areas, like Viña del Mar. "Pino" is the name of the filling used in Chilean empanadas. Much like filling for Argentine empanadas, each Chilean household has their own pino. The one below is like the Argentine but includes more onions and does not have the cinnamon, nutmeg, or cloves, and uses less sugar. In Colombia, common empanadas are filled with chopped meat, pieces of potato, and yellow rice, and are eaten with a spicy sauce made of cilantro and ají pepper, stuffed in a corn-based pastry and fried. Empanadas are usually eaten with your hands (like a taco or burrito).

• Cooking time: 20 minutes
• Servings: 1