Chilean Empanadas

Photo: flickr user Helga's Lobster Stew

Ingredients

3 cups All-purpose flour

1 teaspoon Coarse salt

8 tablespoons Unsalted butter cut in bits

2 Egg yolks

2 tablespoons Tarragon vinegar

9 tablespoons Cold water

1 tablespoon Olive oil

1 teaspoon Spanish paprika

teaspoon Cayenne

2 tablespoons Unsalted butter

2 mediums Onions chopped fine

pound Lean ground beef

teaspoon Dried oregano

2 teaspoons Coarse salt

1 Bay leaf

cup Beef stock

3 tablespoons Seedless raisins

8 Kalamata olives chopped

1 Hard-boiled egg chopped

1 Egg yolk

1 whl Egg

1 tablespoon Cold water

Preparation

Sift the flour and salt into a bowl. Add the butter, egg yolks, and vinegar and mix quickly and thoroughly with your fingertips until all ingredient are well incorporated. Add 5 tablespoons of the water and continue mixing, adding just enough of the remaining water, a little at a time, to make a firm dough. Refrigerate until ready to use.

For the filling, heat the oil and butter in a saute pan. Add the onions and saute over medium heat until light brown around the edges, about 5 minutes. Add the beef, oregano, salt, and bay leaf and cook until all the liquid has evaporated. Add the stock and continue cooking until the stock has almost - but not quite - evaporated. Mix in the raisins and olives. Remove from the heat and let cool. Stir in the chopped hard-boiled egg. Correct the seasoning with salt to taste. Set aside.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

On a floured board, roll out the dough about 1/8-inch thick, shaping it into a 16-inch square. Cut out circles about 5-inches in diameter. Knead and re-roll the scraps and cut into additional circles. Place a heaping tablespoon of the meat filling about 1/2-inch from the edge of each circle. Brush the border of the circle with juices from the filling or with water. Fold the dough over to form a half-moon, pressing the edges together with your fingertips or the tines of a fork to seal. Prick the top of each empanada once or twice with the tines of the fork. R

Make the glaze by beating the egg yolk and egg with the water.

Spread parchment paper on a baking sheet. Arrange the empanadas on top and brush with glaze. Bake for 30 minutes, or until golden. Remove the baking tray from the oven, and transfer the empanadas to a serving platter or individual plates, and serve hot.

Comments: While many kinds of empanadas are found in Chile, calduda is considered the Chilean empanada. The meat is slowly cooked in a caldo, or stock, and as the stock evaporates to almost nothing, the meat becomes soft as butter and very moist.

The filling, or pino, is sweetened with raisins, which also contrast with the tart taste of the olives.