Sometimes You Just Need an Empanada in 5 minutes

[00:00] You've had an empanada before, but you

[00:02] never had one at home at midnight in 5

[00:04] minutes straight from your freezer.

[00:06] Inspired by this Filipino empanada

[00:09] that's making the rounds. This

[00:10] incredible red aiote spiked dough, flaky

[00:15] and crisp. Sort of reminded me of like a

[00:17] Jamaican beef patty out of bodega. So

[00:19] today I'm showing you how to make

[00:20] empanada dough spiked with that

[00:22] beautiful red and filled with a bodega

[00:25] specialty that I love along with a trick

[00:27] to be able to make these at home within

[00:30] 5 minutes anytime you want. This is the

[00:33] chopped cheese and panada. And I'm going

[00:35] to show you three ways of making them

[00:37] each resulting in slightly different

[00:39] characteristics. Airfried, baked, and

[00:42] deep fried. And let me tell you while

[00:44] all of them are great. Deep fried is

[00:46] something special thanks to a little

[00:48] thing called thermal shock, which we'll

[00:50] talk about later. For now, we got to

[00:52] make our dough. So, I've got a food

[00:54] processor here. Into the bowl, we're

[00:56] going to add 3 cups or about 370 g of

[01:00] allpurpose flour. Season that with a

[01:03] pinch of salt. Then, I just got some

[01:05] anato achiote powder. Did I say paste

[01:08] earlier? The powder is better. The paste

[01:10] is difficult to work with. I'm going to

[01:12] spike that flour. about two tablespoons

[01:15] of the achiote. We're going to get that

[01:17] on.

[01:20] Add a little bit more. I want to make

[01:21] sure they're nice and red. Then I've got

[01:23] six tablespoons of cold lard. You can

[01:26] use butter. You just want to get that

[01:28] fat incorporated into the flour. All

[01:31] we're looking for is to be able to

[01:33] scrunch it up a bit. Right. That shows

[01:35] that fat is distributed. Here I got one

[01:37] egg. Let's go ahead and add some achiote

[01:39] to that. The liquids are probably a

[01:41] better vehicle.

[01:44] Get it going. And then we can add in our

[01:47] egg.

[01:49] Since we want them nice and tender, we

[01:51] don't really want to develop much

[01:52] gluten. So, I'm going to add vinegar,

[01:54] which inhibits gluten development. About

[01:56] a tablespoon. And then we're going to go

[01:58] ahead and pulse in about a half a cup to

[02:02] start of cold water. Little at a time.

[02:09] And you can see some are like darker

[02:11] red, some are drier. I really just want

[02:13] them to all be one color of red.

[02:18] That's what you're looking for. Now, I

[02:19] didn't really even use all that half

[02:21] cup. I probably used around a/4 of a

[02:24] cup. We can get it out of the food

[02:26] processor and see where we're at. Now,

[02:27] I've got a penion of cutting myself on

[02:30] this thing, so always be careful. Maybe

[02:32] needs a little bit more.

[02:37] Now, I'm not kneading it. I'm more like

[02:39] I'm compressing. When I want to add a

[02:40] little bit more moisture, I just pour it

[02:42] into my hands. Just work it in.

[02:48] Now, I've got my ball of dough.

[02:51] What I want to do, turn it into a disc,

[02:55] and I want to cut it into fours.

[02:59] You see all those layers? I'm going to

[03:01] stack them.

[03:04] Now, I can see the edges are pretty

[03:05] hydrated. I've used I don't know a bit

[03:08] more than a/4 of a cup of water. Get

[03:11] that board wiped clean.

[03:14] We're going to get that wrapped. Now,

[03:16] besides the act of preventing gluten

[03:19] development best we can, this is a lot

[03:21] like pasta. We're essentially making

[03:23] Latin raviolis. And so, your pasta

[03:26] training today will pay off. It's going

[03:28] to go into the fridge and relax while we

[03:30] prepare other things. Now, on to the

[03:32] filling. The empanada from the

[03:34] Philippines. It's got langana, mung

[03:38] beans, but I'm a New Yorker and an

[03:40] empanada can be filled with anything

[03:42] much like a ravioli. So, given my bodega

[03:45] inspiration earlier, we're doing chopped

[03:47] cheese filling. Just took some ground

[03:49] beef and form them into patties. Just

[03:51] set that off to the side. I got my

[03:52] onion. I got some garlic. Got a red bell

[03:54] pepper and pickled jalapenos. So, I have

[03:57] one onion. I'm going to cut it in half.

[03:59] Going to make some cuts along the top.

[04:01] We're just going to dice it up. Bell

[04:04] pepper. Just cut the cheeks off. We're

[04:07] going to take those. We're going to cut

[04:08] them into strips. Turn that. And we cut

[04:12] them into a little dice. Those into a

[04:15] bowl. Slice our garlic.

[04:19] Then I got my pickled jalapenos. They're

[04:21] in some of their liquid I've got there.

[04:23] I'm going to keep that. Going to add

[04:25] that into the mixture for some acidity.

[04:27] I'm just going to chop up the jalapenos.

[04:30] Get them back into that little bowl. And

[04:33] of course, we got some seasonings. A

[04:34] little garlic powder, a little onion

[04:35] powder, and a little secret trick of the

[04:37] trade. One of these saon packages. It's

[04:40] got inato in it. The same thing we added

[04:42] to the dough. It's got MSG. It's got all

[04:45] the good stuff. Then, of course, we're

[04:46] adding some cheese later. A little bit

[04:47] of American, a little bit of a Mexican

[04:50] blend. Now, we're ready to cook. So, I'm

[04:52] going to go ahead and get the widest

[04:53] sauté pan I've got on the stove

[04:56] preheating on mediumigh heat. I've got

[04:58] my lard off to the side. Since this is

[05:01] an empanada recipe, I'm going to add the

[05:03] lard to cook this beef in. And then I'm

[05:05] going to add in my burger patties. I'm

[05:07] going to allow them to sear on that

[05:09] first side for a good 2 minutes. Once I

[05:12] start to see browning around the edges,

[05:13] I'll give them a flip. They're not

[05:15] perfectly seared, but that's okay. We're

[05:17] going to continue to sear that second

[05:18] side before proceeding to break up the

[05:21] meat into a nice mince. While that

[05:23] happens, that moisture in the meat is

[05:25] going to release. And we need to be

[05:26] patient and cook out that moisture

[05:28] before the meat begins to brown again.

[05:30] Once we've got a good amount of that

[05:31] moisture evaporated, I'm going to push

[05:33] the meat off to the side and go ahead

[05:35] and add in my onions and my peppers.

[05:37] Season the vegetables. I'm really just

[05:40] looking for them to soften, slightly

[05:42] caramelize a bit before I start

[05:44] incorporating them into the meat. Once

[05:46] those vegetables are mixed in and are

[05:48] starting to soften, then we can go ahead

[05:50] and add in our garlic. And then we could

[05:52] just allow that to start to soften as

[05:54] well. And then get that mixed in. and

[05:56] allow this whole mixture to cook down a

[05:57] bit. And then we can go ahead and add in

[05:59] the chopped pickled jalapenos with that

[06:02] liquid. That liquid will sort of deglaze

[06:03] the pan a bit and get that pickled

[06:05] flavor, that acidity mixed into the

[06:08] meat. Wakes everything up. Once

[06:10] everything's looking great, we're going

[06:11] to start to add in the spices. A little

[06:13] bit of garlic powder, a little bit of

[06:14] onion powder, and then finally that

[06:16] packet of sone. Maybe like a half a

[06:18] pack. Then we're going to get that mixed

[06:20] in and allow those spices to fry a bit

[06:22] and wake up. If everything's looking

[06:25] good, we can go ahead and start to add

[06:27] in our cheeses. I'm going to go with

[06:28] about six slices of American cheese and

[06:32] just slap it on top and allow that steam

[06:34] to sort of loosen it and melt it and get

[06:36] it nice and gooey before we start to

[06:39] fold it into the meat. That cheese

[06:41] should bind it all almost gluing all the

[06:44] meat to one another. Then I'm going to

[06:46] go with a shredded blend of like a four

[06:48] Mexican cheese blend. Get that starting

[06:51] to melt and then we can start to

[06:52] transfer this out of the pan and into a

[06:55] bowl. Also going to add the rest of the

[06:57] cheese in and just fold it so we can try

[07:00] and get some stringy action after

[07:02] they're cooked. You see how it's kind of

[07:04] like homogeneous? That's actually what

[07:06] you want. It's going to create a dense

[07:08] filling so that when you fry it and when

[07:11] you're done you eat it, it's not like

[07:12] this hollow thing. Gooey homogeneous

[07:15] mess. A little bit New York, a little

[07:17] bit Latin. It's going to be so good.

[07:19] Now, while that cools, I told you we

[07:21] were going to be cooking these three

[07:22] different ways: deep fried, baked, and

[07:25] air fried. And today, we'll be using the

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[08:39] get back into the video. Now, we've got

[08:41] our dough. Let's unravel it. Not going

[08:43] to work with all this dough at once. So,

[08:45] let's cut it in half. Now, I'm going to

[08:48] flatten a piece out. I'm going to start

[08:50] rolling it.

[08:53] I don't need to get it super thin. Then,

[08:55] what I can do is take a ring mold like

[08:57] this, punch out two circles.

[09:02] Now, make sure you get them pretty wide

[09:04] just so you can fit the ring mold.

[09:08] Keep moving it around so it doesn't

[09:10] stick.

[09:12] Then what we do, we take the rolling pin

[09:14] and then we thin it out even more into a

[09:17] nice big circle just like our pasta

[09:19] dough. Quarter turns to keep the circle

[09:22] intact.

[09:24] And this is for if you want to make like

[09:26] a nice big empanada. I go roughly the

[09:29] size of my hand. Then we go a little bit

[09:31] of water that we're just going to wipe

[09:32] on one half. Then I've got my meat here.

[09:35] What I want to do is take one of these

[09:37] ice cream scoops and I want to pack it

[09:39] in there. Remember, we want density so

[09:41] that it doesn't sort of collapse. And

[09:44] then what I'm going to do is take that

[09:45] and sort of mold it. And then what we

[09:47] do, fold it over, pick it up, and I'm

[09:51] going to start at the center where I

[09:52] kept it met. And then I'm going to take

[09:54] my finger and press the air out towards

[09:56] the side where I'm going to pinch it.

[09:59] And then make my way back towards the

[10:01] other side, pressing air out until we

[10:04] get back and we pinch it down here. Now

[10:07] you can flatten it out. I like to lay it

[10:09] down and then use the curvature of my

[10:12] thumbs, sort of seal the meat in there.

[10:15] Now I have this little dowel here to

[10:16] thin out and seal the edges. Pasta

[10:19] cutter with the fluted edge. And we just

[10:21] go around and you got a beautiful

[10:22] empanada in which we're going to place

[10:26] on a sheet tray and it'll go in the

[10:27] freezer.

[10:32] Now with that recipe, you get 12

[10:34] empanadas. And all 12 of the empanadas

[10:37] are in the freezer right now. That's

[10:39] doing two things. One, it allows us to

[10:42] have empanadas in the freezer accessible

[10:44] to us at all times. And if you're frying

[10:47] them, that's empanadas in about 5

[10:50] minutes if your frying oils up to

[10:52] temperature. And at most if you're air

[10:54] frying or baking, 25, 30 minutes. But

[10:56] having them in there means you got

[10:58] empanadas. The second reason is a thing

[11:01] called thermal shock. Here's the idea.

[11:04] Cold dough goes into a hot oven. That

[11:06] kind of creates a reaction where the

[11:08] steam inside of the dough evaporates

[11:10] quickly which puffs the layers of the

[11:12] dough. That happens usually with any

[11:14] dough. But now that we're freezing it

[11:16] and then especially when we deep fry it,

[11:18] those are like extremes, right? So

[11:21] that's going to create real thermal

[11:22] shock. It's going to create a nice

[11:24] tender flaky dough. That's the science

[11:26] lesson of the day. Now, today we're

[11:28] going to bake and air fry our empanadas,

[11:30] and we're going to wait till some of

[11:31] them freeze, and I'm going to show you

[11:33] how they fry up once frozen. First up,

[11:36] we're going to place two of our

[11:37] empanadas on a sizzle platter. All we

[11:39] have to do with these is give them an

[11:41] egg wash. Try and be a little light with

[11:43] it. Get those into about a 400 425°

[11:47] oven. You know, depending on your oven,

[11:48] it's kind of like not browning. Maybe

[11:50] jack it up to 425, but try 400. Place it

[11:53] in the oven for about 25 minutes. We're

[11:56] just looking for that to get brown and

[11:58] beautiful. Then we're going to set up

[11:59] our sousvi for air frying. I've got a

[12:01] drip pan at the low level and then my

[12:03] air frying basket set up in the top

[12:06] shelf of the sousi. I'm going to turn it

[12:08] on, start my cook. The bottom zone is

[12:11] going to be empty on the top zone. We're

[12:13] going to go air fry. I'm going to air

[12:15] fry at 375

[12:18] for about 25 minutes. I get that started

[12:20] now. Get that warming up before these go

[12:23] in the air fryer basket. We can just

[12:25] give those a brush with an egg wash as

[12:27] well. And then we just pop these into

[12:29] the air fryer and let these cook.

[12:33] After about 25 minutes, our baked

[12:35] empanadas are done

[12:39] as are our air fried and we can rest

[12:42] them on a wire rack.

[12:46] Very similar looking

[12:48] mother. All right, we got to let these

[12:50] cool off first. In the meantime, we're

[12:53] going to make a little bodega sauce. Hit

[12:55] it with a little mayo, a little ketchup,

[12:57] a little yellow mustard, a little of

[12:58] that jalapeno juice, another one of

[13:01] those saone packets. Maybe half.

[13:08] Touch more ketchup. Looking for that

[13:09] rosy pink. And take one of our

[13:12] empanadas, a little shredded lettuce, a

[13:15] little diced tomato, bodega sauce all

[13:17] around.

[13:21] Let's see what our air fryer looks like.

[13:25] Take some of our lettuce.

[13:28] Bakes pretty much like a pie dough or a

[13:30] pie crust. Tender, flaky. You can see

[13:33] the flakes throughout. And that's

[13:35] lovely. But I must say, there's just

[13:36] something about the way the fried ones

[13:38] come out that's exceptional. And

[13:41] tomorrow I'm going to show you what it

[13:42] looks like after a day in the freezer.

[13:44] Now they're nice and frozen. So, what we

[13:47] can do now is just package these up for

[13:50] storage in the freezer and we can

[13:53] literally come out and grab them

[13:55] whenever we want. This is the type of

[13:57] meal prep I'm talking about. So, into

[13:59] the freezer tomorrow, we'll wrap it up.

[14:02] Now, here we are the next day or could

[14:04] be 3 months from now. And we got frozen

[14:07] empanadas. Just got home from a night

[14:09] out. I got the munchies. We've already

[14:11] got our oil heating up, so I'm just

[14:13] going to add a little bit of the lard to

[14:14] it just to reinforce some of that

[14:16] flavor. Once we're up to temperature, we

[14:18] got empanadas in 5 minutes. Now, because

[14:21] they're frozen, we need to think about

[14:22] two things. Both based around the

[14:24] temperature of the cooking oil. Because

[14:27] they're frozen, we can't cook them too

[14:29] high of a heat, otherwise the outside

[14:31] crust will cook while the inside stays

[14:34] lukewarm. But we need to get that

[14:36] temperature of the oil high enough

[14:38] because they're frozen. And so that's

[14:40] going to drop the temperature of the oil

[14:42] once we add them to the oil. And so I

[14:44] want to cook them around 340 to 350

[14:47] degrees. So preheating the oil to get it

[14:50] to around 365 370 should drop that heat

[14:54] down to 350 once the empanadas hit the

[14:57] oil. And then all we're going to do is

[14:59] gently fry them for about 4 5 minutes.

[15:03] Generally, we're just looking for the

[15:04] outside to create these bubbles as that

[15:07] thermal shock, which has intensified

[15:10] because of the frozen empanadas, hits

[15:12] the hot oil and all of that dough starts

[15:14] to flake and kind of bubble up a little

[15:17] bit as the steam expands the dough.

[15:23] And once they're golden brown and

[15:25] crispy, we can remove them and dry them

[15:28] on a wire rack. Now, do you see what I'm

[15:30] talking about? When you fry it, there's

[15:32] almost like these layers of flaky pastry

[15:35] that develop because of that thermal

[15:37] shock. They separate more because the

[15:40] heat difference is more intense. It's a

[15:42] much more delicate crisp rather than a

[15:45] crunch. Creates these like air bubbles

[15:47] in the dough that the baked and airfried

[15:49] version kind of lack. Let's see how we

[15:51] did. Smells incredible. You can smell

[15:54] the achiote. You can see the sort of

[15:56] flakes and layers of the pastry.

[16:00] It's amazing. Got this little serving

[16:02] platter right here. Going to place a

[16:03] little bed of shredded lettuce and

[16:05] empanada on top.

[16:08] A little bit tomato for that bodega

[16:10] specialty. A little bit of bodega sauce

[16:12] on top.

[16:16] That's my chopped cheese empanada. Now,

[16:18] of course, you could not add the

[16:21] achiote. You could add picadillo or

[16:23] brazed beef. Whatever you want to add

[16:25] inside, that's up to you. It's more of a

[16:27] framework to make empanadas the way you

[16:30] want and to have them in the freezer

[16:31] whenever you want, which I think is a

[16:33] nice thing to have. Recipes going to be

[16:35] down in the description. That's all that

[16:37] we have today. I'll see you next time.

[16:39] Until then, take care of yourself and go

[16:41] feed yourself.