South American Cuisine

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Empanadas

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Cuisine: South American Prep time: 30 min(s) Cooking time: 1 hr(s) 5 min(s) Servings: Makes 12–15 empanadas Created by Yvonne Cutro

Debate rages over which country invented the empanada and many varieties using different sorts of pastry abound. Empanadas are the ultimate snack food. They can be filled with any combination of cheese, chilli, meat, tuna, prawns, vegetables, egg and olives. Some recipes are baked whereas others are deep-fried.

Ingredients

3 tbsp vegetable oil
130 g butter
200 g onions, chopped
200 g spring onions, chopped
½ tsp aji chilli powder
1 kg minced beef (not too lean)
250 ml hot beef stock
3 tbsp sugar
salt
1 teaspoon sweet paprika
½ tsp cinnamon
½ tsp ground cloves (optional)
1 kg shortcrust pastry
plain flour
handful of green olives, chopped
130 g sultanas
3 hard-boiled eggs, peeled and roughly chopped
ground cumin
extra butter, melted

Preparation

Level of difficulty: confident cook


Heat the oil and butter in a large, heavy-based saucepan over medium heat and add the onion and spring onion. Fry until the onion is translucent. Add the aji powder, then the beef. Cook until the meat is brown, then add the hot stock and simmer until the beef is cooked through. Add the sugar and season with salt, then add the paprika, cinnamon, ground cloves and a little water. Cook over low heat until the liquid has evaporated. Leave to cool.

Preheat the oven to 200°C. Take pieces of pastry about the size of golf balls and roll out to circles 10–15 cm in diameter. Dust lightly with flour. Put a generous spoonful of meat filling in the centre of each round and add a few pieces of olive, some sultanas and egg. Sprinkle with cumin. Fold the pastry into a half-moon, then fold in the edges, crimping them with your fingers as you go. Place the empanadas on a greased tray and brush the tops with melted butter. Bake for 25 minutes or until golden.

SBS cook’s notes
Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55–60 g, unless specified.

South American Restaurants

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Displaying 10 of 43 South American Restaurants.

Restaurant Suburb
1. Sporting Club Hotel Brunswick
2. Brazilian Touch Restaurant & Bar Milton
3. Enris Restaurant Hawthorn
4. BlueFire Churrascaria Grill & Bar Docklands
5. Bodega Surry Hills
6. El Gaucho Fitzroy North
7. Favela Potts Point
8. Fiesta on Oxford Bondi Junction
9. Churrasco Coogee
10. LuLo Hawthorn
   
25 Mar 2012 09:25 AEST
Gabriela
Cecil Hills
Short crust pastry for empanadas
Does anyone have the recipe for the short crust pastry please? Thank you
20 May 2009 02:21 AEST
Jen
Melbourne
Recipe is not vegetarian!!
I am wondering why this recipe is in the vegetarian section when it has minced beef in it?!?
25 Apr 2009 06:39 AEST
georgie
yeppoon
vegetarian?
This is an interesting vegetarian recipe! It looks amazing and luckily I can try it as I am not vegetarian, just trying to cut back on meat.
24 Apr 2009 02:35 AEST
Gabriel
Mosman
Skip the Shallots
I've never heard of shallots in empanadas so I would just increase the amount of onions by the same amount. Try also increasing the amount of praprika used, however just be sure that its sweet. I would also skip the sultanas as I've never really liked them in empanadas. As there are so many recipies of empanadas throughout South America, there is never a right or wrong way. So be creative and make your own variations to taste.
29 Mar 2009 09:31 AEST
Eric
Gumdale, Qld
Hoping to clear up confusion over "shallots"
The terms used for the "members of the onion family" is confusing; I believe Australians call the long green onion stem (kind of like a baby leek) "shallots", the long green onion with a white bulb at the end "spring onions" and the small brown skinned onions (that peel apart like cloves of garlic) "eschalots" (more commonly known as "french shallots"). Please correct me if I'm wrong. PS. I have not tried the recipe but it sounds delicious!
19 Mar 2009 02:00 AEST
Rosa Pabon
Greenfield Park
Shallots and ingredients
In Mendoza Argentina, sometimes we used some shallots as well, but empanada's recipes vary from one province to another. And also they are different recipe in each country that makes them. To Greg I can tell on the video that they are shallots not spring onions.
02 Feb 2009 12:36 AEST
Sergio
Alexandria
Shallots, Onions
Ive never heard of shallots in the Pino mix before, just use the brown onion.
27 Dec 2008 04:33 AEST
Greg Lehey
No suburb, just Dereel
So what are the ingredients?
This recipe wants 180-200g chopped shallots. But what are they? Real shallots or spring onions? Since the Australian foodstuff industry has unilaterally redefined so many terms, it would help to be more explicit.

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