Did I ever tell you about my obsession with learning and investigating? Probably, but in case I didn’t, one of the things I keep doing all day when I’m not working, cooking or exercising, is researching stuff that I find interesting.

Most of the time, it’s food related. A year and a half ago, I started researching about gastronomy by country. All good. The thing is, I research for a while the food of a certain country. I learn about the most common proteins, what are the endless combinations of spices and I also learn a little bit about the country itself to understand their food better.

Even though I started so long ago, I have only made recipes from a couple of countries. I find it’s cheating if I skip from one country to the other without trying all the recipes I’ve noted down in the first place. That’s why I’ll never finish the list. But I have a great time doing this and I get incredible results getting out of my comfort zone.

One of those results are these amazing empanadas. Here in Galicia and the rest of Spain we make them a lot (and we call them empanadillas, because Galician empanada is a different thing) I usually fill them as my grandma does, with mince meat and onion. Also, my mum used to make them with ham and cheese and I keep doing them with tomato and tuna. Although all are great, I’ve never made it with the filling I made for the Argentinian version, which was a great twist on my family recipe for a change. By the way, my grandma’s are the bestest pies ever! Not joking, but if my grandma cooked these, they would be even better 😊 (she just cooks like a food godess).

Ingredients:

For the dough:

50 gr fat (lard, butter or a vegetable oil will do)
1/3 glass of milk (50 gr aprox)
1 glass and 1/2 all purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg (1/2 yolk for the dough itself, the rest for closing and painting the top of the pies)

For the filling:

 

Method:

For the dough you just have to mix the flour and the fat first and then add the egg and the milk little by little.

As with any other dough, you may need more or less liquid. 

Knead the dough for about 10 or 15 minutes (depends on how much you like doing it)

Make a ball and wrap it in plastic. Put in the fridge for half an hour.

Meanwhile make the filling by frying the onion, garlic, pepper and carrots until soft.

Add the minced beef and then the spices.

Let it cook for a couple of minutes and add the wine.

If you feel it’s very dry, add a little bit more wine or water.

Add salt to your taste. Let it cool.

Take the dough out of the fridge and roll it. Make circles (makes around 10-15) and fill with a tablespoon of the filling.

Add some of the beaten egg around the edge of the dough. Wrap them in halves as pictured and use a fork to close them.

Paint with the rest of the beaten egg and put in the oven at 250ºC until golden brown (15-20 minutes)

Have fun and keep fooding!