Chilean Cooking School: Beef Empanadas at Val Paraiso, Chile

... Or as the Chileans call them- 'empanadas de pino', which are filled with minced beef, onion, garlic, an egg and an olive, and seasoned with paprika and cumin. This dish was one of the many that we made during our full day Chilean cooking class in Valparaiso, Chile. I was surprised at how easy these were to make (recipe below), and I can't wait to try it out back in Australia. The Chilean seafood filled empanadas (empanada de marisco) are my favourite type, and  I'm going to try my hand at these too.

Ingredients for 4 large empanadas:

For the beef filling

250gr/60lb ground beef

1 medium onion, minced

1 clove garlic, finely minced

3 tbsp olive oil

½ tsp cumin

2tsp sweet paprika

1tsp sugar

1tsp white flour

Salt and pepper

For the dough

2cups white flour

½ tsp baking powder

2 egg yolks

½cup white wine or warm milk

2tbsp olive oil

½ cup raisins

1 hard-boiled egg, peeled and cut in 8 parts

10 olives, pitted and sliced

1tsp salt

Keep reading after the jump!

Instructions:

1.Sauté the onion, garlic in oil until translucent, add the ground beef for 5 minutes. Season with cumin, sweet paprika, salt and black pepper and cook well . After 8 minutes when the mixture is ready add flour.  Remove and let cool.

2. Make a mound of flour. In the center make a crater and add ½ tsp baking powder. 1 egg yolk, salt, and white wine or slowly add the warm milk to the dough and add olive oil. Mix all ingredients.

3 knead well. Divide the dough into small balls and roll out on a floured surface.

4.Cut the dough in 4 circles. Roll them into 1/4 inch thick each. In the center of each round, place 2 tsp of meat, 1 raisin, 1 piece of hard-boiled egg, 1 piece of olive. Moisten the edges with warm water and fold the pastry to make a half circle and press together firmly.

5. Brush the empanadas with 1 egg yolk and bake in a pre-heated medium-temperature oven for 15 minutes until golden browned.