Empanadas are a dish that defines Argentina as a country, a true national pride. It is said that Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, promoter of Argentine education, said during a Tucuman lunch: “Let us love, gentlemen, the national empanada, without prejudice to savoring them all…” And it is that in Argentina, each region of the country has its original recipe. For example, the one from Tucumán, the one made with matambre, the salteña, the smallest one, the one made with potatoes, the Riojana, also made with potatoes, as well as olives, hard-boiled eggs, raisins and greens, or the Jujeña that we can find elaborated. With llama meat, native fauna of the region.
This time, together, we want to teach you how to make an Argentine meat empanada a la Bonaerense. How about we start cooking? The best Argentine empanada!
Ingredients to make Argentine Empanada:
• 12 pie shells
• 600 grams of minced meat
• 600 grams of onion
• 2 eggs
• 12 olives
• 1 dessert spoon of cumin
• 1 tablespoon paprika
• ½ dessert spoon of ground chili
• 1 bay leaf
• 30 grams of raisins
• 30 grams of butter
• 30 cubic centimeters of oil
• ½ bell pepper
• 3 greens
To paint:
• 1 egg
• 20 cubic centimeters of milk
How to make Argentine Empanada:
To start with the Argentine empanada recipe, you must first boil the egg and let it cool. To do this, put it in a pot covered with cold water and take it to the fire for 12 minutes. Peel them, chop them and reserve them.
Meanwhile, mix the butter with the oil in a large saucepan over high heat to sauté the white part of the green onion and the chopped onion. Once they are transparent and golden, add the chopped bell pepper.
When the vegetables are golden, remove them from the pan, reserve them and in the same cooking background with 1 teaspoon of extra oil, sauté the minced meat. Here we seek to seal it to give it flavor and make it juicy.
Remove the browned meat and the sautéed vegetables from the heat to season the filling of your Argentine empanada with the chopped green part of the verdeo, the hard-boiled egg that you had previously cooked, the sliced olives, the paprika, cumin and ground chili. Refrigerate before filling your Argentine empanadillas.
Tip: if you can store it from one day to the next, it will concentrate its flavor even more.
Meanwhile, hydrate the raisins in hot water, if you want to add them.
Tip: You can skip this step if you don’t like grapes.
Turn on the oven to maximum temperature and proceed to fill with the filling for the baked Argentine empanadas. To do this, wet the edge of half a disk of dough and add a tablespoon of the filling in the center along with 3-5 raisins. Next, squeeze the edges and seal them making the classic repulgue of Argentine empanadas. If you want to differentiate the ones with raisins from the ones without, you can make another type of closure, such as 5 or 6 pinches, or close them with a fork.
Arrange the empanadas in a greased roasting pan, separated by at least 1 finger distance. Next, brush them with the beaten egg. Cook for 10-15 minutes or until the dough is nicely browned. You can serve them with a few slices of lemon, raw Creole sauce or enjoy them alone, as they are delicious in any way.
