This is kind of a funny thing to say, but this really is the perfect thing to make if you ever find yourself with both a lamb’s head and some lard at your disposal. Those of you that have been following this blog will realize that preparing something like this shouldn’t seem so far ‘out there’ as evidenced by my well documented previous experiment with Lamb’s Head Soup and my reasons for even cooking such a thing in the first place. This time I’ll spare you the details of how I prepared the lamb’s head and focus on the empanada dough. For those of you that are interested, to make the empanada filling I basically followed the same steps for making the lamb’s head soup, with one major difference; because I wanted something that could be used as a filling and not eaten as a soup, I cooked with much less liquid this time around. I also cut way back on the wine and used beef stock as a primary liquid…no real reason for that change, I just happened to have lots of beef stock sitting in my ‘fridge.
So why empanadas? Well, why not. I didn’t want to simply rest on my lamb’s head soup accomplishment and make the same thing again. I had also been thinking about ways to repackage such a dish into a more acceptable, less-intimidating, and portable delivery system. Plus, having never made empanadas at home, I thought that it would make for a fun project.
The empanada dough begins with 3 cups of all-purpose and 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt, placed into a large bowl and mixed well.
Add 6 tablespoons of cold lard to the flour and salt.
Using your finger tips, ‘break’ the lard into the flour-salt mixture until the whole thing looks a bit like wet sand.
We are going for a tender, as a opposed to flaky dough, so you don’t want to see any huge pieces of lard in the mixture.
Next, form a well in the middle of the flour-salt-lard mixture. In a separate small bowl, beat 2 eggs, 1 teaspoon of white vinegar and 1/2 cup of cold water, then pour this mixture into the well.
Using a fork and working around the edges of the liquid mixture first, begin incorporating the dry ingredients into the wet until the dough begins to come together. It should look something like this:
Pour this loose dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until the dough becomes homogeneous and you can form a semi-smooth ball out of it.
The less kneading you do in this step, the better. Once you’ve formed a ball, using your hands, flatten it out a bit, then wrap it in plastic and place it in the ‘fridge for an hour or so. After an hour, remove the dough from the ‘fridge, split it in half and roll it out until it’s about an 1/8″ thick. I like to split it in half because a smaller quantity of dough is easier to work with. Stash the second half of dough back in the ‘fridge while you’re rolling out the first batch.
I used a 5 1/2″ bowl as a template and cut circles out of the dough by using a small knife to trace around the circumference of the bowl. Extra dough scraps can be combined together, re-rolled and cut. When it comes time to filling your empanadas, it is better to err on the side of using less filling. Too much filling will make it nearly impossible to seal the empanadas and you also run the risk of having your empanadas bust open when they cook. I used about 2 tablespoons of filling per 5 1/2″ round.
The filling should be placed on one side of the dough, then fold the non-filled side around the filling. Use the tines on a fork to seal in the filling. If conditions are right, you shoudn’t need any ‘glue’ to hold the empanada closed, but if you do, some water or beaten egg will do the trick.
Place the empanadas onto a baking sheet and using a small brush, apply a thin coat of lightly beaten egg to their surface. They should be baked in a 375 degree oven for about 20-25 minutes, or until golden brown. Alternatively, you can deep fry your empanadas. They can also be frozen and baked/fried at a later date (make sure to freeze them before the egg wash is applied).
The beauty of this creation is that I bet you’d have no idea if I didn’t tell you that these innocent little doughy pillows were filled with the meat and juices from lamb’s head that had been braised until it literally fell apart.
I don’t know if I’d ever want to mass produce empanadas – the whole rolling/filling/sealing thing can be a bit labor intensive – but these would certainly make for a fun appetizer the next time we have people over for dinner or we have a party to go to. Hey everyone, who wants to try lamb head?? All joking aside, I was actually quite pleased with the way these turned out and would make them again in an instant, though I might opt for a slightly less adventurous filling next time.
