← Nouns Cooking · Brazilian & Peruvian

Ingredients

• 500 g plain flour
• 1 tsp Salt
• 120 g cold butter (or lard), diced
• 220 ml warm water, roughly
• 2 tbsp Vegetable oil
• 2 Onion, finely chopped
• 1 red bell pepper, finely chopped
• 2 Spring onion, sliced
• 500 g beef mince (or hand-cut beef)
• 1 tbsp sweet paprika
• 1 tsp Cumin
• ½ tsp Chilli flakes
• 1 tsp salt, for the filling
• 2 hard-boiled eggs, chopped
• 60 g green olives, chopped
• 1 egg, beaten, to glaze

Method

1. Mix the flour and salt, then rub in the butter with your fingertips until it looks like breadcrumbs. Add the water gradually and knead for 5 min into a smooth, soft dough. Wrap and rest in the fridge for 30 min.
2. For the filling, heat the oil in a large frying pan over medium heat and cook the onions and pepper for 10 min, until soft and sweet. Turn up the heat, add the beef and cook for 6–8 min, until browned.
3. Stir in the spring onions, paprika, cumin, chilli and salt and cook for 1 minute. Spread on a plate and chill for 30 min, until completely cold (warm filling melts the pastry).
4. Heat the oven to 200°C (400°F) and line two baking trays. Roll the dough out to 3 mm thick and cut out 13 cm circles; re-roll the scraps to make about 12.
5. Put 2 tbsp of filling on each circle with some chopped egg and olive. Brush the edge with water, fold into a half-moon and press to seal, then pinch and fold the edge over itself to make a rope pattern (or press with a fork).
6. Brush with beaten egg and bake for 18–20 min, until deep golden. Leave to cool for 5 min before biting in, as the juices are very hot.

Tips

• Ready-made empanada discs (tapas para empanadas) from Latin shops make this much quicker.
• Mendoza-style empanadas add a few raisins to the filling for a sweet note.

Sources

Written in our own words after cross-checking these recipes:

Camila Made Olivia’s Cuisine