'Hola'!
I've gone all Mexican in my house lately. I discovered a little freebie Mexican cook book tucked in my bookcase which turned out to be vegetarian and actually 90% vegan! So it's revived my love of this tasty cuisine.
Empanadas are basically fried Mexican pasties and while the recipe I've used (as you'll see from the 'chaos' pic below, was tasty - it sure as hell was messy! So I've rewritten it, with my slant on improved flavour AND a methodology that won't have you getting sweet potato and dough up the walls for 3 hours (sorry Dave).
I've been meaning to make these for ages and I'm
so glad I finally have. These are 'deliciosa'! and I unapologetically scoffed 4 of them and then
needed a siesta...
Chantal xx
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| sweet potato and chilli empanadas with ribbon salad & lime mayonnaise |
[ makes either 12 or 24 large empanadas - enough for you and a mariachi band :) ]
Gather
Kitchen stuff you'll need:
Food processor, large pan,
kettle, chopping board, peeler and knives, 2 large roasting tins,
rolling pin, pastry brush, pastry cutter, large bowl, dessert spoon,
fish slice and spatula, sense of adventure, poncho, apron...
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| ingredients |
Filling (for 24, halve if you only want to make 12)
600g sweet potato - peeled and cubed
2 tbsp vegetable oil
2 small brown onions - finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic - grated / crushed
1 red jalapeno chili - deseeded and very finely sliced (leave some seeds if you like it hot!)
1 green jalapeno chili - deseeded and very finely sliced (leave some seeds if you like it hot!)
30g raisins
30g ground almonds
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground white pepper
Dough (for 12, make 2 lots if you want to make all 24 empanadas)
350g plain flour
50g soft sunflower margarine (I use Pure)
1/2 tsp salt
200ml boiling water
Oil to cook - approx 200ml+
Extra flour to dust your work surface and rolling pin.
Dip
4 heaped dessert spoons of mayonnaise (I use Plamil Organic Egg Free)
Juice and zest of 1 lime
Create
1. Cook the sweet potato in simmering water for about 10 minutes or until soft. Drain and add to your large bowl.
2. While the potatoes are cooking sautee your onions in the oil on a low to medium heat until they start to soften and go translucent.
3. Add the garlic, chillies and raisins to the onions and continue to cook gently for another 5 minutes.
4. Add the onion mix to the potatoes, sprinkle over the ground almonds, cinnamon, salt and pepper and mix really well to combine. It is fine if the potato mashes up a little.
5. Switch on your oven to warm up and pour enough oil into the roasting tins to completely cover the bottom - up to about 5ml deep. Place the trays in the oven.
6. Next prepare your dough - add all of the dry ingredients to your blender, switch it on and carefully add the boiling water. Keep the blender running until a dough ball has formed -
** this will not take very long - just a few moments**.
7. Flour your work surface and tip the dough out onto it. Cut the dough into 12 pieces - half, half again and then each piece into 3 will help to make them equal.
8. Flour your rolling pin and roll a piece into as round a shape as you can manage - about 3mm thickness and 18cm diameter. Don't worry too much about getting a perfect round though as you can trim them to tidy them up.
9. Place a heaped dessert spoon of your sweet potato mix onto the dough circle. Place it on the half furthest from you (there's a good reason for this).
10. Use a pastry brush to brush a little water in a crescent shape around the filling on the far side from you.
11. Gently fold the dough nearest you over the filling using a cupped hand to press the filling down and expel excess air. Then press the dough together where the water has been brushed to form a tight seal. (NB the dough should be big enough that no filling will ooze out of the sides.)
12. You can then trim excess 'scruffy' dough either using a sharp knife or a serrated pastry cutter to form a neat & pretty edge and a large crescent shape.
13. Gently lift the empanada with a fish slice and set to one side on a lightly floured surface and repeat with the remainder of the dough and the filling. (You can either make a second batch of dough as mentioned above or keep the remaining filling to make chimichangas or enchiladas!)
Tip: I used a 'fish slice' spatula to lift the empanadas off the work surface as they are quite delicate to lift by hand and you don't want to risk tearing them.
14. By the time you've made all 12 your oven should be up to temperature, so take out the roasting trays and carefully add 6 empanadas to each - flipping them over gently with two spatulas so that they are covered in oil.
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| empanadas gently place on tray of hot oil |
15. Place the trays back in the oven and bake for approx 8 minutes. (you can make a salad accompaniment during this time). Then carefully remove the trays and turn each empanada over with your 2 spatulas (I say carefully as they can still be a little fragile at this stage and the oil will be bubbling hot.)
16. Return to the oven and bake for another 8 minutes or until you can see that the pastries are a lovely golden brown colour. (You can make the mayo dip during this time by simply combining the ingredients listed in a small bowl with a fork or small whisk).
17. Once the empanadas are cooked, carefully remove them from the oven and rest on some pieces of laid out kitchen roll to absorb some of the excess oil.
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| chaotic aftermath - but worth it! |
Enjoy!
Serve with a fresh crisp salad (as you can see, this time I used a mixed baby leaf salad with ribbons of cucumber and carrots topped with tomatoes slices, drizzled with a little omega 3,6,9 oil and some grinds of fresh black pepper. I had the mayo as a dip on the side but ended up pouring it all over the salad!
Cooks tip: for an authentic taste use Serrano chillies - which are a little hotter than jalapenos. If this has inspired you to get your sombrero on I'd recommend these great Mexican food product websites:
http://www.mexgrocer.co.uk/home.php
