Gary cooks

Spiced Beef Empanadas with Tomato Salsa & Lime Sour Cream

Preparation time:

30 mins

Cooking time:

20 mins

Serves:

4 serves

I adore empanadas. For years I made this dish whilst I cooked in Boston. One of the reasons I love them is because you can put whatever you like into the filling, just like a ravioli. I’ve gone with a tomato salsa and lime sour cream as they work really well with the spiced beef. Feel free to up the spiciness of this dish by adding a pinch or two of dried red chilli flakes. Should you make them spicier my advice would be to make extra lime sour cream and it will balance out the spice.

Ingredients
- 400g all purpose flour
- 170g cubed butter, cold
- 1 egg
- ½ tsp salt
- 70g water
- 2 eggs
- Splash of milk
- 500g cubed beef (passed through the Kenwood Chef Titanium Meat Grinder twice) (See Tip 1 in Chef's notes)
- 1 red chilli, finely diced
- 1 small white onion, finely diced
- ½ red pepper, diced small
- 8 sprigs fresh coriander, chopped
- 2 spring onions, washed and sliced thinly
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 2 potatoes, boiled and mashed
- 4 ripe plum tomatoes (See Tip 2 in Chef's notes), quartered, de-seeded then diced small
- ½ red onion, finely chopped
- Juice of 1 lime
- Generous pour of olive oil (if you prefer the salsa a bit more wet, use more oil)
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 8 basil leaves, sliced wafer thin
- 4tbspn Thick sour cream
- Juice of 1 lime
- Zest of ½ lime
- Three twists Cracked Black Pepper
- 2 Pinches Salt
Method
- Combine all ingredients and set aside.
- Combine all ingredients, adjust seasoning and consistency to taste and set aside.
- Sift the flour and add to the food processor.
- Add in the butter and salt and pulse until it crumbles.
- Add the egg then the water bit by bit until a dough ball is formed.
- Drop onto a flour dusted surface and knead into a smooth ball.
- Wrap and place in the fridge for 45 mins to 1 hour.
- Heat a heavy based pot and add in the beef.
- Sauté until golden, season well then add in the chilli, onion, peppers and season.
- When cooked through strain off the fat but reserve.
- Mix in the coriander and spring onions followed by the mash potato bit by bit until the mixture dries a bit. If it gets too dry simply add in a little of the reserved fat.
- The mixture should be dry but quite soft.
- When the pastry has been rested, remove from the fridge and roll out thin (approx. 1/8”).
- Cut with a regular scone cutter.
- Place a spoonful of meat mixture into the center of the empanada dough and then bring the two ends together and press just like you would a ravioli.
- You can then press the edges with a fork.
- When complete, mix two eggs with a splash of milk and brush each empanada.
- Put some greaseproof paper on some roasting trays and place on the empanadas and glaze with the egg wash.
- Bake until golden. Approx 16-20 minutes.
- Serve with the tomato salsa and lime sour cream.
Chef's notes
- 1. When buying the beef make sure there is a little bit of fat on it. A good gauge for minced meat is the 85/15 one. i.e. 85% meat, 15% fat.
- 2. Any type of tomato will do. The key thing is that it’s ripe. Look for the deepest red coloured ones and you can’t go wrong.
- 3. Yoghurt or crème fraiche will work equally as well. Just try to get a heavy set one as thicker is best. It’ll allow for the addition of the lime juice.
- 4. Empanadas are also lovely fried.
- 5. You can make the pastry ahead of time and keep in the freezer or the fridge prior to making the dish for up to 3 days. You can also have the Spiced Beef mixture made up to three days ahead of time.