The 1st of many empanadas to come!

So, today I decided to make the first batch of empanadas for my empanada blog adventures.  I was inspired by a pizza I made with my friend John last week.  After taking my scooter to get serviced, I told John I would take him to lunch as a thank you for his help.  He informed me that he had some wonderful pizza dough from Trader Joe's at his place, and recommended we just stop at Whole Foods and pick up some stuff to make our own pie.  We ended up making a delightful pizza with heirloom tomatoes, balsamic caramelized onions, portobello mushrooms, boursin cheese and a little shredded, aged Gruyere cheese.  The pizza was out of this world.

So, today after selling my scooter, I decided to stop at Whole Foods (aka Whole Paycheck) on my way home.  I knew I wanted to make an empanada very similar to the pizza from last week.  So I picked up the ingredients for the dough (eggs, milk, white wine and unsalted butter), some vidalia onions to caramelize, cherry tomatoes, boursin cheese, fresh lemon thyme, crimini mushrooms, and some aged Gruyere.  I also picked up some beautiful flowers, just to add a little life and beauty to the apartment!

When I got home, I started out by prepping the dough.  The dough I made today was a recipe I learned when working in the kitchen of a small bar in southern Spain.  As many of you know, I did a home-stay in highschool in a small olive farming town in Andalucia, and have been lucky enough to go back a number of times to visit.  The family I stay with owns a bar in town, and whenever I  stay with them, I get to help out in the kitchen making and serving tapas and lunch to the customers.   Not only do I enjoy learning about all of the food they make, but am able to share some of my recipes with them.  Last summer when I was there I decided to make empanadas for them.  Up until then I usually had just purchased pre-made frozen empanada dough already cut in circles.  Unfortunately, Spanish supermarkets did not have such a product in the frozen aisle.  They taught me how to make a dough that they use a lot  for pie like dishes.  It is very simple.  You beat 3 egg yolks and one whole egg, then you mix in 1/4 cup milk, and then 1/2 cup wine.  In another bowl blend 3 1/2 cups of flour with 2 teaspoons of salt, and then cut in 6 tablespoons of unsalted butter.  Mix the flower and butter until the butter is in small pea size pieces.  Then pour in the egg mixture and blend until you have one big ball of dough.  Let it sit in the fridge for at least 30 minutes and you are good to go!


Once I had the dough ready and waiting for me in the fridge, I started with the onions.  I caramelized 3 vidalia onions in some unsalted butter and olive oil (the combination allows for them to cook at a higher temperature).  I sprinkled in a little Lawry's seasoned salt and seasoned pepper (2 staple seasoning in my kitchen).  As they were caramelizing away, I started to prep the mushrooms.  I roughly chopped them into pea size pieces.  In another saute pan I took 4 tablespoons unsalted butter and some fresh lemon thyme, and started making my butter for the mushrooms.  By this time my onions were getting soft and delicious, so I added a little balsamic vinegar.  I have a hard time leaving balsamic out of my dishes, I just love the flavor!

Once the butter in the other saute pan was all melted, and the kitchen had a dreamy smell of onions, balsamic, butter and thyme, I added the chopped mushrooms to the thyme butter.  I tossed them around to make sure they were all evenly coated with the butter.  It is really crazy how mushrooms are just lie little sponges for butter and oil.  The onions were just about done so I took them off the heat.  I cooked the mushrooms on medium heat for just a few minutes, nobody like a soggy mushroom!

While the mushrooms and onions were cooling I chopped up the cherry tomatoes.  I used an entire box from Whole Foods.  Once those were done, I mixed the onions, mushrooms and tomatoes together.  Then I crumbled in my boursin cheese, and grated in about 1/2 cup of Gruyere.  I folded everything together.  The filling was ready, the dough was set, it was now time to put them together!

I like to make little empanadas so I tend to cook them at a high heat, about 400 degrees.   I took out baseball size pieces of the dough from the fridge and rolled it out so that it was very thin. I have these handy dandy empanada cutting tools so I use those to cut my circles, but you can use anything to cut them (i.e. a glass and a knife). I placed about a tablespoon of filling in the middle of each empanada and then used some whisked eggs around the edge to glue the edges together.  Once the empanada is closed I press a fork around the edge to really seal it all up.  I sometimes get over excited and put too much filling in them, which makes them open up and ooze out.  They still taste delicious, they just don't look as good when they open up, so be careful.

After I filled up my baking sheet lined with parchment paper, I brushed all the empanadas with a little egg wash and slipped them into the oven.  After about 17 minutes they were golden brown and smelled like heaven!  Now I just need to find people to come over and eat them.....anyone interested?

This recipe is definitely a keeper and I will be making it again.   It was fairly easy to make.  It is obvious though that this empanada escapade is going to take a lot of time each week, mainly becuase of how long it takes to roll out the dough.  While I think they taste better when I make my own dough, I may go buy some pre-made dough next time.  This experiment is all about testing fillings, maybe later on I can take on the challenge of testing different dough recipes.

Until the next empanada!