Empanadas from Chile

 Empanadas are typical in Chile, the dish was brought by the spanish conqueror Pedro de Valdivia. In the 1600s the empanadas were eaten by creoles and indigenous people. The most common filling is called pino; a mixture of meat, onion, raisins, eggs and chili pepper.

Pino comes from the mapuche word 'pinu' that means filling.

Ingredients for the filling:


- 900 grams onion.
- 1 clove of garlic.
- 450 grams minced meat.
- 1 teaspoon salt.
- 1 teaspoon cumin.
- 1/2 tablespoon paprika or merkén.
- 1/2 tablespoon ground garlic.
- 1/2 tablespoon corn starch.
- 2 boiled eggs.
- 8 olives.
- 24 raisins.


Ingredients for the dough (8 empanadas):


- 450 grams wheat flour.
- 1 teaspoon chemical yeast.
- 100 grams butter.
- 120 cc water.
- 120 cc milk.
- Salt. 

Method:

1- First we will prepare the filling, it must be cold when we are going to use it for the filling. Because of this we can prepare it the day before.

2- Cut the onion in little pieces, cook in boiling water for 30 seconds.

3- Get rid of the water and keep the onion.

4- Cut the garlic in pieces and sautée it , then add the onion and sautée for some more minutes.

5- Add salt, cumin, paprika, ground garlic and meat, stir well and cook at medium heat covered with a lid until the meat is done.

6- Add corn starch, mix well and cook one more minute.

Let cool, you can use it the following day.

7- Now it is time to do the dough. Mix the flour and chemical yeast.

8- Melt the butter and add it to the flour.

9- Add salt, warm milk and water. Mix well.

9- Knead until the dough is homogeneous, at this moment you should stop kneading. Let stand for half an hour, covered by cling film.

9- Put some flour on a surface, put the dough on the surface and put the dough in the shape of a cilinder. 

Cut the dough in pieces of 60 grams weight, make a little ball for each piece.

10- Flatten every ball with the help of a rolling pin, put it in a circle of 20 cm diameter.

11- Now it is time to fill the empanada, put some filling in the middle, leave some space without filling at the borders.

12- The filling has the meat prepared the previous day, some pieces of boiled egg, raisins and some pieces of olives.

13- Use some water to wet the borders of the circle.

14- Look at the pictures to see how to close the empanadas.

15- Pinch the surface to allow some air  to enter into the empanada.

16- Paint the surface with beaten egg.

17- Cook in the oven at 200 ºC  for 45 minutes.

You can also watch the recipe at my Youtube Channel:

Here you have my  favourite cooking tools: https://viaja-en-mi-cocina-english.blogspot.com/2023/05/shop.html

Chile