Traveling empanadas

Tomorrow I am taking off to head to Colorado for the weekend.  I am so excited, as I have never been.  I will be staying with my good friend Jessica in Denver, whom I have known since we were about 12, and then a couple of our other friends from middle/high school are flying in to meet up too. I am so thankful to have friends that have been around for so long.  We always have so much fun together.

I knew I would be gone for the weekend, and I am super committed to making this blog happen, so I thought I would make some empanadas and freeze them to bring to Denver so that my friends from out West could try them.  It was a bit of a struggle to come up with my next filling idea.  So I headed to the market for inspiration.  I was at Whole Foods the other day and saw some tasty looking figs, so I thought I would try and incorporate them in some how.  I also had some leftover fresh lemon thyme from the last empanadas.   After some careful thinking, I decided to do a caramelized fig, goat cheese and lemon thyme infused balsamic reduction empanada. 

As I mentioned in my last empanada post, making the dough myself was taking up a lot of time, and the dough really is not the focus of this project.  With the start of classes, I just don't have as much free time.  So, I was up in Columbia Heights yesterday and found some pre-made empanada dough in the Giant supermarket.  The empanada dough they had was for frying, but I thought I would give it a try in the oven.  I find that fried empanadas are a bit too heavy, and the fried flavor tends to over power the filling flavors.

To begin, I made my balsamic reduction.  I took a couple of cups of balsamic vinegar and threw in a bunch of sprigs of lemon thyme.  I brought it all to a boil, and then turned it down to a simmer for about 20 minutes.  It reduced down to about a cup or so.  Its important to get it to a thick consistency, but not quite as thick as honey.

Next I decided to caramelize the figs.  I cut them up into quarters, laid them on one of my fabulous baking sheets, which I lined with parchment paper (a must in my kitchen), and then sprinkled sugar all over the little ripe fig pieces.  I had never done this before, so I started off by broiling the figs for about 10 minutes.  It didn't look like they were getting caramelized so I decided to take them out of the broiler.  In order to get the sugar on the figs caramelized I decided to heat up my trusty Calphalon pan and just caramelize the figs in there.  It actually ended up working out quite well, and all of the figs had a nice little sugar crust on them.  Here are the figs pre-broil:

Once the figs were caramelized I was ready to put the empanadas together.  As you know I had the pre-made and pre-cut empanada dough, so I was all set to make some great empandas in a flash.  I was planning on making the empanadas and freezing them once prepared, so that my friends and I could bake them and have them fresh in Denver.  I wanted to make sure they were going to work out, so I decided to prepare a few and bake them, and then bring them to class this afternoon to get some feedback from my MBA friends.

I got out all of the empanada stuff: figs, goat cheese, balsamic reduction, dough, water and a fork.  In each empanada I placed two pieces of fig, about a tablespoon of goat cheese and then drizzled some of the balsamic reduction on top of the fillings.  To close up the empanadas I just wet the edge of the dough a little, fold it over, and seal the dough by pressing down firmly with a fork.

 

After brushing the empanadas with a little egg wash, I baked them up.  Even though the dough I bought was for frying, they actually turned out quite well baking in the oven. After about 15 minutes at 350 degrees the empanadas were ready (I could just tell by the smell!). I took them out and let them cool off a little.  It was hard to control myself and not just bite right into one of the wonderful piping hot stuffed dough delicacies.   After waiting patiently for them to cool I cut one open and gave it a try.

 

They tasted delightful.  The thyme really came through in the balsamic reduction.  Although they tasted sublime, they seemed a little empty.  I wondered what I could do to fill them up a little more? I thought about putting in more cheese, but I knew that would just melt away.  The balsamic reduction obviously wouldnt help, and I was a little short on figs.  So, I thought and thought, and I realized, when in doubt, just add caramelized onions!  Lucky for me, I always have some sort of onion in my fridge.  I really think they are one of gods greatest little gifts!  

 

I would love to report on how the onion worked out with the other fillings, but the rest of the empanadas I made are currently in the freezer, waiting to be baked this weekend.  I guess I will have to report back later on how the final ones turned out.

On another note, when I got home from class this evening, around 8:30, I was pretty hungry.  I didn't really want to fix anything that would create any leftovers, since I am leaving for the long weekend.  So I peaked into my fridge to see what I could whip up.  I had a little bit of the filling leftover from last weeks onion, mushroom and tomato empanadas, and a box of orzo in the cupboard.  I thought to myself, I can totally turn this leftover filling into a pasta sauce!  I cooked up a little orzo, and then tossed in the leftover filling once it was cooked al dente.  The boursin cheese in the leftover filling really brought it the pasta dish together.  I just wanted to share my experience, and let you know it is always better to make too much than not enough.  You can always find creative ways to use leftovers, and sometimes they even turn out better than the original dish!