Empanada recipe (as requested)

[buddyleebaby]

This is for Colombian style empanadas. the main difference between South American and Carribean empanadas is that the first uses a crunchy corn outside while the other uses a flaky flour outside. they are both delicious.
For this recipe you will need:
Queso de freir (soft salty frying cheeses, they have it at BJ's or any store that carries hispanic food products)
OR
2-3 lb. roast or 2-3 lbs. of ground beef.
One bag PRE-COOKED corn meal
7-8 good sized potatoes
3 medium onions, coarsely chopped
Sazon goya or a suitable mix of seasonings (salt, pepper, cumin, garlic, etc.)
Corn oil

If you are filling your Empanadas with cheese, all you have to do is chop up the cheese.
If you are using meat, boil the roast and then shred in a food processor or be lazy like me and just boil and drain the ground beef. (It really tastes just the same).
Fry the onions and boil the potatoes (no need to peel).
When the meat, potatoes and onions are cool enough to touch, simply mush them all together in a big bowl making sure to break up the potatoes and add seasoning to taste.
That will serve as your filling.
For the dough, empty the corn meal into a big bowl, make a well and slowly add warm water, kneading as you go. The dough is ready when you can work with it w/o it sticking to your hands (Roughly the consistency of play-dough). Ifthe dough is too dry it will stick to everything, but if it's too wet it will fall apart so be cautious. Make sure to add a little salt to the dough when it's almost done or it will not have much taste.
To "assemble" the empanadas:
We cut plastic bags straight down the middle and give each of our helpers one to serve as their workspace at the table. It keeps the dough from sticking to the table.
We also keep a shallow bowl of water on the table, you may occasionally have to wet your hands.
Make the dough into small balls (about the size of a pre-schooler's fist) and then flatten into circle. Put your choice of filling in the middle. Fold circle in half (bag and all). Use a bowl to shape the empanada and cut away the excess dough. Peel back the top layer of plastic, use your finger to seal any holes or gaps in the seam of the empanada. If you forget to seal it, it will come apart in the oil.
Save the excess dough, you can always combine it back with the rest.
Deep fry the empanadas until golden brown.
If you want to make hot sauce to sppon on the finished product, simply combine white vinegar and tabasco (obviously the more tabasco the hotter it will be) and add some chopped scallions and cilantro.

Some times we make dessert empanadas. We add cinnamon and sugar to the dough instead of salt, and fill them with rice pudding or caramel.

They are SUPER easy to make (although time consuming). We have had children as young as barely two helping to put them together. It is really fun to do as a family and always delicious.
I hope I explained the process well enough.
I have just never followed a recipe, we just know what to do, kwim?
Enjoy!

[bluej]

Thanks Alicia! These sound yummy and seems like it would be a fun family activity for my kids!

[m448]

sounds very similar to our dominican empanadas/pastelitos! I agree with the time consuming although I've recently found the dough cirles locally which makes things much easier.

[bostonsmama]

Thanks Alicia for posting the recipe....could Queso blanco (a white slicing and frying cheese) work okay? I got it at Costco a while back and never really had a use for it since it didn't quite make the chiles rellenos. I might have to look for that already prepared dough, though. :)

Larissa
who's gettin in the holiday mood
**Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way. Oh what fun it is to ride in a one-horse open sleigh, hey!**

"Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them." -James Baldwin

[buddyleebaby]

I think queso blanco is probably the same thing.

As for the dough, they usually have the masarepa byt he beans in "ethnic foods". It's a very fine yellow flour. Just be sure to get the pre-cooked one or it won't form a dough. It's really not hard!

I think Goya sells some pre-made dough, but you'd have to buy several packages and I don't really think any of Goya's ready prepared food tastes so great.

[m448]

oh so yours are the corn flour dough ones. It's neat to see the differences from country to country (just like the venezuelan arepa). The dominican ones are more of a pastry flour (traditional filling is ground beef/pork picadillo with a bit of chopped raisins, olives, eggs thrown in at the end, I also make a chicken filling that is divine as a whole pie, yum!).

[buddyleebaby]

LOL, I know. I made the dominican ones until I got married and was forced to convert for my South American spouse.

My friend, who is Cuban, went to a Colombian restaurant with us once and was so MAD when they served the crunchy kind because she'll only eat the flaky ones.

I think I prefer the Colombian ones at this point (although I like them both). But I desperately miss my Dominican quipes, which I never get anymore because dh won't eat them.

[m448]

*drooool* quipes. I've actually found quipes here at a middle eastern deli of all places. They make a grilled patty for a pita sandwich or the traditonal fried football shaped ones for catering orders. While I will make tons of pastelitos/arepas for our garage freezer stash quipes are the one thing I won't delve into making since I'm the only one that eats them. I'm not about to grind wheat for a one person thing KWIM?

Hubby is from Georgia but looooooves pastelitos and my son gets giddy if I even turn on the deep fryer singing, "litos, litos, litos" LOL.

You know now that you've described them as crunchy I've had those empanadas at a tapas place run by a venezuelan lady nearby. It's hard to get hispanic food fixes around here so the pregnant lady either has to search them out and deal with slight variations or make them herself.