Chilean Empanadas

Okay, so if you have seen my status recently on Facebook, you know that I have been raving about a place called "Yah Poh!" in our little Logan town.  It's this awesome Chilean restaurant we tried out about a week ago, and we have been there twice (almost 3 times actually) since we tried it.  Jeff and I wanted to try making their fabulous empanadas because they were so dang tasty!  Seeing as how we won't be living in this little town for much longer (thanks to graduation, finally!), we needed to learn how to make it ourselves.  I include a recipe that comes from 3 different ones I found online that seemed to work right.  Check out the notes section at the end though, we have some things we will try differently next time.

Chilean Beef Empanadas

Dough:

4 c flour
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp butter
3/4 c shortening or lard (12 tbsp)
3/4 c water
2 egg yolks

Combine dry ingredients lightly with fork.  Add shortening and butter, and cut in with pastry blender.  Add egg yolks to water and beat lightly.   Pour egg/water mixture over the dry ingredients.   Knead well til it forms a soft dough.  Roll out dough to about a 1/4 inch thickness.  Use a bowl (I used a cereal bowl) to cut out round pieces of dough, and fill with filling (recipe below).

Filling

1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp paprika
1/8 tsp cayenne
2 medium onions, finely chopped
1/2 lb ground beef
1/4 tsp dried oregano
2 tsp sea salt
1 bay leaf
1/2 c beef stock
1/4 c raisins
1/4 c sliced olives

In a skillet, brown the ground beef with the olive oil.  Add onion and saute with beef.  Once completely cooked, add the spices and the stock.  Simmer til all of the broth/stock is absorbed and evaporated.  Add raisins and olives and stir.  Remove from heat.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Stuff rounds of dough with filling, and then pinch together the edges with your fingers, and place on a baking sheet.  Bake stuffed empanadas for 30 minutes, or until golden.  Serve with hot sauce, sour cream, salsa, or whatever you like.

**Note**  This recipe for the dough is made for baking them.  We wanted to fry them like they do at Yah Poh, so we did, but the dough didnt quite work for that.  Next time we will try using a lighter dough, probably a yeast dough.   The filling is really good though and we recommend it for sure.