Empanadas

4th of July parties, family get togethers, cook outs and turkey burgers, cold pop and chocolate fountains, swimming pools, movies, video games...and of course shopping. Sounds like a good summer/winter (for the Paraguayans) break. While our kids are craving the chips and junk foods, my niece and nephew have been asking for chipa and empanadas. Good thing we brought up many kilos of mandioca flour! I made chipas on Wednesday and right out of the oven, before they were even cooled, they were GONE!
Yesterday we made turkey empanadas. Empanadas can be filled with anything. The normal empanada would be a meat empanada: ground beef, onions, peppers, garlic, salt, pepper, cumin (I use nutmeg instead), boiled eggs and olives. Our kids like pizza empanadas: pepperoni, ham, cheese, tomatoes, oregano, and salt. Sometimes we make scrambled egg and cheese empanadas or chicken empanadas. I like cabagge (sauteed cabbage, onions, peppers, and soy sauce)empanadas (something like egg rolls). Sometimes empanadas are fried and sometimes they are baked. There are many, many ways to eat this popular South American specialty...which actually means...something wrapped inside of bread.
We made baked turkey empanadas...here's the recipe for the dough.
2 Cups Flour
2 Tbsp. butter
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup milk
1 egg
Mix all together. Knead well. Cut up into little balls. Roll out with a rolling pin. Fill the dough with desired filling and seal with a fork. Bake till golden brown.
Have fun.