Argentinian Beef Empanadas

Like all dumplings these are a labor of love! This took a while but the end product?! Flaky, light, and delish!!! I will be making these again. They freeze/reheat well too! I used the tomato sauce can with both ends cut off as my cookie cutter.

Argentinian Beef Empanadas

Adapted from: Turntable Kitchen
Makes approximately 16 5 inch empanadas

For the dough:
4 1/2 cups of flour
3 teaspoons of salt
2 stick of cold unsalted butter, diced
2 large egg
2/3 cup of ice water
2 tablespoon of distilled white vinegar

For the filling:
1 pound of lean ground beef
2 tablespoon of smoked paprika
2 tablespoon of ground cumin
1 red bell pepper, seeded and diced
1 large onion, finely chopped (or 6 tbsp dried onion minced)
4 tablespoon of capers
olive oil
2 hard-boiled egg, roughly chopped
1 cup of chopped, canned tomatoes (1 6oz can tomato paste)
salt and pepper, to taste

1 egg, gently beaten with a fork (for the egg wash)

1. Combine Butter, Salt, and Flour in the food processor until reaching a sandy texture.
2. In a separate small bowl, beat the egg, water and vinegar together with a fork. Pulse into the dry mix until just combined.
3. Place it on a lightly floured surface and use a light hand to knead it gently a few times before forming it into a flattened ball. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour.
4. To make the filling, heat approximately olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onion and cook until it begins to soften. Add the pepper and continue cooking. Next, add the diced tomatoes with their juices and let cook for a few minutes.
5. Add the beef, use the spoon to crush it up in the frying pan. Stir in the spices and capers. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Cook until the beef has browned. Stir, occasionally, so that the meat cooks evenly. Stir in the hard boiled egg and let it cool.
6. Preheat your oven to 425 degrees F. Remove the dough from the refrigerator and roll it out until it is about 1/4 inch thick. Cut out roughly 4 inch round circles in the dough then use your fingers to spread it to about a 5 or 6 inch circle. Place 3 heaping tablespoons of filling in the center and fold the circle into a half moon. Pinch and fold the edges to seal them and place onto a prepared baking sheet. Continue to do this with the remaining dough and filling.
7. Once you’ve formed all of your empanadas, brush them with the egg wash. Bake the empanadas for approximately 25 minutes (until golden brown). You can freeze formed empanadas in a freezer bag and also refrigerate uneaten empanadas.

White Bean Dip

What an easy make ahead dip for parties and a nice change from the sour cream dips! The recipe is adapted from Giada De Laurentiis.

I adapted the recipe with beans seasoned with garlic, rosemary, and sage (Wegman's Tuscan Cannellini Beans). Because the beans were flavored I changed the recipe to only combine the beans (not rinsed, slightly drained), lemon juice, and 1/4 cup olive oil. I used a box of wheat crackers instead of making my pita chips as well.

This recipe can be easily adapted! Alternate flavors to use with the beans include roasted red peppers, sun dried tomatoes, extra garlic, basil, thyme, and more!

White Bean Dip and Pita Chips
Serves: 6 servings (or more depending on how polite everyone is!)

Ingredients
1 (15-ounce) can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
2 cloves garlic
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1/3 cup olive oil
1 teaspoon dried oregano

1/4 cup (loosely packed) fresh Italian parsley leaves
Salt & Black Pepper
Pita Chips/Crackers

Directions
Place the beans, garlic, lemon juice, 1/3 cup olive oil, and parsley in the work bowl of a food processor. Pulse until the mixture is coarsely chopped. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Transfer the bean puree to a small bowl.

Spinach Puffs

Light little cloud puffs with spinach and feta... the perfect combo. This recipe is similar to Greek spinach pie (Spanakopita) but without layering the filo dough. I didn't change much from the original recipe except that I used onion powder and omited the dill. I used a light cream wash instead of an egg wash.

This looked and tasted as good as I hoped. I might make these in mini muffin tins for some holiday appetizers!

This is also a recipe that can be adapted very easily. You could do fruit and cream filling, add meat (like bacon!), change the cheese, mini quiche, etc. I imagine the spinach filling would also be good in a fried ravioli... I'll keep you posted if I try any of these!

 Also, spray the muffin tin well because some stick to the bottom and are not possible to remove without squishing them.

Spinach and Feta

Mix with the rest of the ingredients

Once the egg was added

Keep this chilled, otherwise it sticks to the surface

Spray the tin, add the squares, add in the filling

Fold the corners into the center, used a light cream wash

 

Spinach Puffs
Makes 9 puffs

1 10 oz package of frozen chopped spinach, thawed
1/2 cup crumbled feta
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp minced garlic (1 big garlic clove)
salt & pepper
1 egg
1 sheet frozen puff pastry, thawed and rolled out lightly


Preheat oven to 400F. Spray muffin tin with non stick spray.

Using your hands, squeeze spinach until dry, forcing out as much water as possible to prevent soggy filling. Mix spinach and the rest of the ingredients in a bowl.

Roll out puff pastry and cut into 9 squares (for a regular muffin tin). Place a square in each muffin cup, pressing into bottom and up sides and leaving corners pointing up. Divide filling among cups. Fold corners into the center. DO AHEAD Spinach puffs can be assembled 3 hours ahead. Cover puffs and chill.

Brush with a little bit of egg/milk/cream to help golden up the puffs. Bake until pastry is golden brown and puffed, about 25 minutes. Let puffs cool in the pan for a few. Then flip the tray over and knocked them out. Serve warm or room temp.

Candied Pecans

N. bought me a silpat mat!! What is a silpat mat, you ask? Basically its a reusable nonstick baking mat that can be used instead of parchment paper. Isn't he the best? I had to try it out and make him something. Since it was late and I was tired, I wanted to go with an easy recipe that didn't require needing to chill dough (shortbread was the other choice).

Seriously, this recipe is pretty much fool proof. It will be tasty no matter what. I wanted to half the recipe, but only successfully halved some of the ingredients... still came out good though!

I made this for the holidays last year, your house will smell amazing! If you wanted to half this recipe, it is easy. If you wanted to double the recipe, it is easy.

The original recipe calls for pecans, which are so good! However, I didn't have enough, so I used 1 cup of walnuts and 1 cup of pecans.

Whip an egg white and tbs of water until its frothy. Didn't half it, just used the whole thing.

Add nuts and coat in the egg white.

Add cinnamon (not halved), sugar (halved), and salt (halved).

Stir it all up. Because I didn't use all the nuts my mixture had some liquid in bottom of the bowl.

Put on a grease/parchment paper/silpat covered cookie sheet and bake at 250 for an hour. Stir them on the cookie sheet every 15 minutes.

(Note the pretty new mat!)

I'm impatient and I was tired, I took them out after 45 minutes.

I let them cool for a little bit and then put them into containers to store at room temperature.

These are tasty as a snack but also would be good on a salad!

Candied Pecans
Makes 1 lb

1 egg white
1 tbs water
1 lb pecans
1 cup white sugar
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 250F. Prepare 1 baking sheet.
2. Whip 1 egg white and water until frothy. In separate bowl combine sugar, salt, and cinnamon.
3. Add nuts to egg white. Add dry ingredients. Stir until well coated.
4. Spread out on baking sheet
5. Bake for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes.

Bruschetta

I was having some of my girlfriends over for dinner the other night, we were all going to bring appetizers.

I had a few tomatoes in my fridge from my CSA and I'm not a huge tomato fan. So what to do with the many tomatoes? Feed them to your friends!

I decided I was going to make bruschetta. I've had brushetta before and I actually don't mind it. Tomatoes aren't so... tomato-y when they are covered in balsamic vinegar and I just adore basil. That said, there was quite a bit of research that went into figuring out the best recipe. I ended up taking elements from a few recipes to create this one.

It is so easy I cannot believe that I didn't make this before!

I prepared the tomato mixture the night before because I wasn't going to have time after work/before people arrived. By making it the night before the tomatoes had some time to marinate and really take on all the flavors of the dressing. I picked up a loaf of bread on my way home from work and then toss the slices of bread under the broiler (crunchy outside, soft inside).

I let everyone assembly their own when they were ready to eat them because I didn't want to get the bread soggy.

Opinions: One of the other girls who was over also doesn't like tomatoes, but we both agreed - bruschetta isn't really tomatoes.
Another said she would have put in more balsamic vinegar, so that is just a matter of opinion, so make sure you test the mix and decide how much you'd like.

 My friends all enjoyed it and we ate all of it!! And this is my go-to appetizer from now on.

Bruschetta 

Approx 6 servings (appetizers)

Ingredients:

1 pint of cherry tomatoes (diced)
1 normal size tomato (diced)
2 tbs sweet onion
1 tsp garlic powder
2 1/2 tsp balsamic vinegar
2-3 tbs fresh basil, chopped
salt & pepper
3 tbs olive oil
1 loaf of bread

Directions:

Dice tomatoes.
Combine garlic, balsamic vinegar, basil, salt, and pepper. Wisk in olive oil.
Combine with tomatoes and onion.

Assembly:
Slice bread, place on a baking sheet and broil for a few minutes. Keep an eye on it though! You want the bread lightly toasty. Top with tomato mixture.

Alternate:

Top tomato mixture w/ cheese & broil (or don't broil); add grated cheese into tomato mixture