My son very kindly volunteered me to cook for his Army JROTC’s Marksmanship Team’s Christmas Lunch at South Plantation High School! He came back from school a few days ago and said “Mamacita, can you make empanadas for my team for our luncheon?”
I decided as a good “Mamacita” that I would take the extra step and make some Alfajores de Maizena to complete their meal!
Made my dough, refrigerated it for a bit, then cut the individual cookies, baked them and once they had cooled down I put them together with Dulce de Leche. Tradition dictates that you roll them in coconut but leaving it out as not everyone likes Coconut 🙂 and these are going to school.
Now it was time to tackle the Empanadas. Most people know what Empanadas are and down at home they come in all sorts of flavors and textures. You can order a beef, chicken or seafood, or ham and cheese, or cream of corn, onion and cheese or dulce de leche for a sweet treat! They can come fried or oven baked and made with different types of pastry. All in all a wonderful treat that I can proudly say I grew up with and will keep on making them.
Tonight I made Minced Meat empanadas, I usually like making them with chopped hard boiled eggs, raisins and olives but due to kids being so fussy I decided to leave them out this time.
I cooked my onions, garlic and meat, then added salt, pepper, worcestershire sauce, red wine, chinese five spice, sweet chili sauce and that was it. Once I was happy with the flavors it was time to make the empanadas.
Store bought dough was defrosted and ready to go, sealed them with some water, brushed them with some egg wash and into the oven they went.
With them done, I still had some of the meat left over so I put it in a dish and quickly whipped up some mashed potatoes and we didn’t quite get Shepherds Pie, so tonight for dinner we had Pastel de Carne (Meat Pie)!
