Empanadas de carne

By Kathy Johnson

These are tasty beef turnovers with a great punch of flavor.

I use Discos de Empanadas from Goya instead of making my own dough because it tastes just like homemade dough without all the work.

The discos can also be filled with cheeses, guava paste, mango paste or any other tasty fillings to make different empanadas. Chicken in tomato sauce or shrimp would work great as a substitute to the ground beef for savory empanadas.

Most of the Puerto Rican ingredients, including the Discos can usually be found at PUBLIX. I have not seen them at any other store.

Ingredients

• 1 pound of ground beef
• 1 medium yellow onion, chopped
• 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tsp crushed garlic (run one or two cloves through a garlic press)
• 1 tsp Adobo powder with pepper (Puerto Rican Adobo is a mix of salt, pepper, garlic, oregano and other Latino spices. Do not confuse with Mexican Adobo which is a red sauce.)
• 1/2 tsp dried oregano
• 1 packet of Sazon (Goya- with coriander and annato)
• 10 small olives stuffed with pimento peppers, sliced thinly
• 1/2 a medium-sized potato, small cubes
• 2 tbsp tomato sauce
• 1 small cube of beef bouillon (adjust adobo to taste if bouillon is too salty)
• 15 to 20 Goya Discos, thawed
• Vegetable or corn oil for frying

Details

Servings 15
Preparation time 5mins
Cooking time 40mins

Preparation

Step 1

1. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add ground beef to skillet together with tomato sauce, half of the adobo, the cube of beef bouillon, Sazon, garlic, and oregano. Cook meat until browned, breaking it up with a wooden spoon, about 10 minutes.

2. In a small saucepan, cook the peeled small potato cubes in water until partially soft (about 5 minutes at high heat).

3. Once meat is mostly cooked, add olives and potatoes and ower heat to medium-low and simmer until mixture thickens, about 15 minutes. Do not mix so as to not break potatoes.

4. Place discos individually on top of a large surface and spoon about 3 tbsp of meat mixture into middle, fold in half to form a half moon; moisten edges with water and seal closed with a fork. Use the fork on both sides to make sure that the empanada will stay closed

5. Fill a deep saucepan with oil to a depth of a couple of inches or you can also use a frying pan with oil. Heat oil over medium-high heat until hot but not smoking (350°F on deep-fry thermometer). Cook Empanadas in batches until crisp and golden brown, flipping once*, 4 – 6 minutes. Transfer to paper towels to drain.

6. Allow several minutes to cool, remember that since the beef is already cooked, we are only cooking the outside dough, so there is no need to slow cook.

7. ENJOY!

*Make sure that empanadas are already light golden brown on one side before turning them over to start cooking the other side. Make sure that the oil has nice bubbles during frying, otherwise, empanadas may be filled with oil.