Argentinian Empanadas

I have made Empanada a few time already with my friends from Latin America. We made the dough from scratch twice. One time it was flour dough(Click here for the post) , another time it was corn flour dough(Click here for that post).

And another time, we made them with already made dough disk. And this time, since I was making it for the first time by myself, I decided to use already made frozen dough disk.

I can find those frozen Empanada disk at my local supermarket frozen food section. There is this brand called "Goya" and that is what I bought.

I love those frozen disks because I am not good with making dough and especially bad at rolling them out.

Anyhow, I made Argentinian style Empanada which has green olives, boiled eggs and ground beef.

I think normally you would put the ingredients separately into the dough and close them but my friend mix them all together and it is much easier and faster and in my opinion it blends the flavor better that way so that is what I did.

I sauteed onion and browned ground beef in it then added chopped green olives and boiled eggs.

I used fork to help seal the empanada edge. Then before baking, brushed some egg to make it shiny when it is baked.

Baked in the oven for about 20mins.

I forgot to take a picture of inside. I am sure that I will be making this again so I will try to take picture of each process next time and post it here :-)

I bought two package of frozen disks and one package has 12 disks. I used all of them and froze half of them in the freezer. This way, I can just take them out whenever I want to eat empanadas and bake in the oven and have my empanada fix.

I think Empanada is also great for kids. The other day, I had this palydate at a place which is like an indoor play ground and we all decided to bring lunch and have it there. I didn't know what to bring and I didn't have anything to make sandwiches so I took these Empanadas out from the freeze and baked it and brought them as lunch. It was great since you don't need utensils and doesn't make too much mess.

I think this is also good for afternoon snack :-)

I love them. My husband love them and my son love them also (except the olive. He spit out olives...)

I also made two apple Empanadas since I ran out of beef mixture and still had two disks left. It was great also.

Tostones with chicken & Tres Leche Cake

About a month ago, we had another cooking playdate. This time, I asked one of the moms who is from Columbia to make this tostones with chicken which she made once and brought them to us last Thanksgiving. I loved it and I always wanted to learn how she made it :-)

As you might remember from the post in 2009, I took a Cuban cooking class once with my husband and learned how to make Tostones. (Click here for that post of Cuban cooking class)

Tostones is double fried plantain. My husband and I love them so after we took the class, we invited our landlord and made those things we learned in the class for them. (Click here for that post)

So we know how to make Tostones. But last Thanksgiving, my friend brought this Tostones with chicken on it and it was amazing. This is the Tostones with chicken.

First, we peeled Plantain and cut them into pieces.

Then we fry plantains.

Once they are cooked, take them out and let it cool a little bit then smash them to make them flat. My friend had a special tool for this so it was easy to do this job. Last time when my husband and I made this at home, we used meat pounder...

Then, we soak plantain in garlic salt water for a second. Then fry them again.

Meanwhile, cut onions and cook them.

Toss tomato sauce in.

Then add shredded cooked chicken. My friend told me she normally cook the chicken herself but I was too lazy so I bought a whole roasted chicken and shredded. Of corse I used skin and bones to make homemade chicken broth. (Click here for how to make homemade chicken stock)

On fried Tostones, place some chicken mixture and cover with cheese. We used parmesan cheese and Mozzarella cheese. Then throw them in the oven for about 10mins until the cheese melt. (Well, the below picture doesn't have cheese because I forgot to take pic with the cheese before I put in the oven. )

This is how it came out. Yummy!!!!

All the moms loved it including me. This is great dish to bring for potluck or as an appetizer when you have a party. It is quite a work but it definitely worth the effort.

For dessert, one of the moms brought Tres Leche Cake. This was also so good! She learned how to make this from her relatives in Venezuela. I have never had this before but it was so good!

It is especially good when you drizzle lots of these milky syrup on the cake. It is moist and Yummy!!!

I need this make this myself also! There are so many thing I would love to try making!

Once again, our cooking playdate was a great success!!! I love having these Yummy Playdates!!!

Venezuelan Empanadas Playdate

So we made Chilean Empanadas the other day and this time we decided to try Venezuelan Empanadas.

One of the moms got recipe from her family. Last time, we used flour and we baked the empanadas in the oven. This time, we used corn meal and fried these empanadas.

This is how it came out!!

Don't they look good? It came out great and it tasted good!

For fillings, we used ground turkey, bell peppers and onions.

First, we made fillings.

While the filling cool down, we made the dough.

Mix corn flour and lukewarm water until desired consistency.

When it is good consistency, you make balls like this.

Then, you roll the dough out with your fingers. If you have a plastic sheet underneath, it is very useful for rolling. Add the filling in the middle.

Bring the plastic sheet over and put the edge together.

Then, using a small bowl, cut the edge to make empanada shape.

This is how it should look.

 Then, fry in a vegetable oil until crispy.

It is quite a process but when you make something with your hands, somehow it gives me a great accomplished feeling. I would love to make this again but it might be a bit difficult to make it by myself especially when I have my baby around.

I love learning how to make new dish from friends! Look at this picture below. Do you see the one which is enormous? That was the one I made in the very beginning. It was a monster empanada. I gave this one to my husband. He loved it :-)

We used hot sauce and it was quite good. I should have made some cilantro sauce but I forgot. Oh well, next time.

Everybody was very happy with the result and since we made a lot, everyone brought some home to their husbands :-)

Well, it was so much fun to cook and play with them. I love cooking playdate!

Empanadas cooking play date

The other day, I had a play date with some other moms. We decided to have a play date and also cook something together. I always wanted to try making Empanadas so we decided to make empanadas on this play date.

Empanada is a very popular dish in Latin America and Spain. You make a dough and wrap meat and some vegetables with the dough and bake or fry them.

This time, we decided to try baked Empanada. One of my mom friend got a recipe from her friend in Chile. This particular Emapandas have ground beef, onions, boiled egg and olives. Also, it supposed to have raisins in it but I forgot to have the raisin ready so we totally forgot about the raisin.

First, we knelt the dough.

At the same time, make the filling. Saute the onions.

Add meat and spices.

Divide the dough into small balls and roll it out. ( For me, this was the most difficult part. So my friend rolled most of them out!)

My friend brought Empanada molding so we used them to shape empanadas. With this tool, it is easy to make a perfect empanadas. I love it!

Add the fillings. Ground beef with onion, boiled egg and olive.

Then, close it to make the empanada shape! Oh we brushed the edge with egg wash to make it stick better.

Brush the empanadas with egg wash and bake in the oven. Here is the end result! Looking great.

I think it came out really good! This was my first time making Empanada and it took us a while to get it done but we had lots of fun and it was great! I definitely try making this again!

This was the Chilean version of Empanadas but one of the mom said that she knows Venezuelan version of Empanadas so we will try that sometime.

One of the great thing about living in the U.S. (Especially in California and NY) is that you meet people from all over the world. You get to learn different cultures and you get to learn some special dishes like this.

It is sometimes quite a challenge to cook and watch your kid but since we were four of us today, one of us were able to watch the kids all the time so others can concentrate on cooking.

It was a great idea to do cooking and have a play date. We made lots of Empanadas so everybody brought some home for dinner. So, we have play date and when you get home, the dinner is ready!

Before I have a baby, I was not sure if I will be able to have mom friends around here since I didn't know many people but I found wonderful mom friends. And our kids are about same age so we can always talk about their growth and help each other with what we know. I am so thankful that I met these ladies. I hope we can keep our friendship and watch our kids grow together!

Back to Empanadas, we had a little bit of dough left over so after dinner, I made some dessert Empanadas with chopped apple and chocolate. It tasted good but since I am not good with rolling the dough out, the dough part was too thick. I think it was great if the dough was thinner. I need to practice rolling our the dough.

Anyhow, great turn out! I loved cooking play date. I am sure there are more to come!