Empanadas Antioquia Colombia

Description

Empanadas colombianas
(colombian empanadas, great party item)
(pronounced ehm-pah-nah-dah)

empanadas are a tradition throughout the hispanic world. Depending on what country you may find yourself, empanadas can vary greatly in flavor, uses and fillings. Even within one country, empanadas may be quite different from one region to the other. You see, empanadas developed very much along the same lines as tacos and burritos: whatever happens to be available from leftovers or from the particular agriculture of a region, gets put inside the empanadas.

In colombia alone, there are a multitude of variations of the classic empanada starting from meat fillings to mashed potatoes, rice concoctions, squash, pumpkin, greens, jellies and other sweets, etc. Even in my home city of medellín, empanadas can vary greatly from envigado, to el poblado, to san pedro, to la ceja, to barbosa, to belén, to marique, to la floresta to downtown (these are all suburbs of a city of over 3.5 million people)

Ingredients

• Yellow Cornmeal
• Chicken Broth
• Dark Brown Sugar
• Cassava Meal
• Ground Cumin
• Green Onions
• Tomatoes
• Fresh Cilantro
• Butter
• Cooked White Rice
• Potatoes
• Hamburger Meat
• Garlic Powder
• Salt
• Ground Black Pepper

Instructions

1. The dough
2. Mix all the dry ingredients together in a large bowl and begin to add the chicken broth until you have a smooth, humid, easy to work dough
3. Cover the bowl and let the masa rest for about one hour
4. The filling
5. In a frying pan, heat the butter, margarine or oil over medium heat and partially fry the onions and tomatoes
6. Add the hamburger meat and brown thoroughly
7. Drain
8. In a large bowl, combine the browned meat mixture with the rice, potatoes, chopped cilantro and spices
9. The empanada
10. Now, if you have a tortilla press, youre sitting pretty for the next step
11. If you dont have one, two pieces of 1 wood about 8 square will do just fine
12. Lacking that, anything flat and a counter top will work
13. Or, if you feel adventurous, you can use your own two little hands!
14. Roll the masa into little balls about 1 in diameter
15. Place the masa ball on top of a piece of plastic wrap or wax paper
16. Cover with another piece of plastic or wax paper and press it into a flat circle
17. Remove the top piece of plastic
18. Now add about one rounded tablespoon of the filling to the middle of the circle leaving about 1 / 2 of space on the sides
19. Using the plastic, fold the circle in half and press the edges together so it forms a half-moon
20. Remove from the plastic and, using your fingers, press the edges firmly together so the empanada is sealed
21. I like to make them pretty so, after the empanada is sealed, i take the
22. Cook them in bunches but dont prepare too many at a time and let them sit while the others cook since this tends to dry out the masa too much
23. Also, as you are cooking, keep the bowl of masa covered with a humid towel to keep it from getting too dry
24. Cooking
25. The traditional method, of course, is to fry the empanadas in a large, iron cauldron, on top of a wood fire, outdoors, in about twenty pounds of pork lard that was used to fry the empanadas for the last month and a half
26. However, tradition does not always mean that it is right
27. Most of the time tradition simply means lack of technology and alternate methods
28. I use a deep-fat fryer filled with canola or peanut oil
29. For even healthier empanadas, they can be baked in the oven at 350 degrees f on a greased cookie sheet
30. Baking them, of course, takes longer and you will have to turn the empanadas once
31. Bake or fry until golden brown
32. If you fry them, make sure you place the finished empanadas on a cookie sheet whose bottom you have lined with a thick layer of paper towels
33. This will allow the excess oil to drain
34. The tradition in colombia is to have an empanada in one hand and a wedge of lemon in the other
35. As you take a bite, you squeeze a few drops of lemon juice inside
36. A bowl of your favorite salsa and a teaspoon will also do the job quite well
37. This recipe should yield approximately 4 to 5 dozen empanadas
38. Waste not, want not
39. I made a bunch of empanadas the other day and found that i had mad way too much masa for the amount of filling i had
40. I did not want to waste the masa nor did i want to put it in the refrigerator until the next time i made empanadas
41. So, i thought about it for a while
42. I had about two pounds of masa left so i added a large package of shredded monterey jack cheese, a whole lot more cumin, some more onion powder and garlic powder and a little more salt
43. I then browned one pound of ground sausage and added it to the mixture
44. I rolled the mixture into 1 balls and deep fried them
45. They were great! i love it when my weird experiments turn into new recipes!