Dumpling Atlas · Main
Empanadas de Pino
- Advanced
- 70 min
- roughly 3 of 4 for cost
Leads with richness that coats and comforts, a sweet edge rounding the corners, ending saline and clean.
Ingredients
- 500g plain flour
- 120g lard, melted
- 200g warm milk
- 1 egg, for the dough
- 10g salt
- 500g beef chuck, cut into 5mm dice
- 700g onion, cut into 5mm dice
- 40g lard, for the pino
- 10g ground cumin
- 15g sweet paprika or merken
- 5g dried oregano
- 25g plain flour, to bind
- 200g beef stock
- 12 black olives, stones in
- 3 hard-boiled eggs, sliced
- 60g raisins
- 1 egg yolk beaten with 15g milk, to glaze
Equipment
Sheet pan
The skills inside
Empanada foldingReducing a sauceKneading doughSweating aromatics: soft, never brownedResting dough: the pause that does the work
Allergen screen
Found: gluten · dairy · egg
Screened for: gluten, dairy, egg, nuts, peanuts, fish, shellfish, molluscs, soy, sesame, celery, mustard, lupin, alcohol. Not screened: sulphites.
Screened by keyword from the ingredient list, not reviewed by a person; check every label for what the list cannot show.
Method
- Sweat the onion in the 40g lard with a good pinch of salt for 25 minutes, until translucent and sweet with no raw bite left, then add the beef and cook only until it loses its red. 25 min
- Stir in cumin, paprika, oregano and the 25g flour, cook 2 minutes, add the stock, and simmer until a spoon drawn through leaves a track that closes slowly. Cool, then chill overnight: the pino has to be cold and set. 2 min
- Rub the melted lard into the flour and salt, add the egg and warm milk, and knead 5 minutes to a smooth soft dough. Rest 30 minutes, then roll 3mm thick and cut 18cm discs. 5 min
- Load each disc off centre with 60g of cold pino, an olive, a slice of egg and a few raisins. Fold the sides in and the top over into a rectangle, and press the edges shut with a wet finger.
- Sit them folds down on the tray, glaze, and bake at 220C (425F) for 22 to 25 minutes, until deep brown and hollow when tapped. 25 min
How to tell it is going right
This dish has no standard of its own yet. It is judged on the techniques it exercises: checked at the pan, while there is still something to be done about it.
Kneading dough 57 recipes
- The work changed it: what began shaggy and rough is one smooth, cohesive mass, with nothing raggy hanging off it.
- The surface has gone satin and barely tacky, releasing cleanly from hands and board instead of leaving a trail.
- Worked to the point this dough asks for and no further: springy and elastic where structure is wanted, just brought together where tenderness is.
- Torn or cut open, the inside is uniform: no dry streaks, no unmixed pockets, no core of flour that never met the water.
- After its rest it rolls and shapes without snapping back. A dough that fights the pin needed more rest, not more force.
Where it goes wrong Sticking was fought with flour instead of technique or patience, stroke after stroke, until the dough had taken in far more than the formula asked; it turns tight and dry under the hands, and bakes dense however well everything else goes.
Resting dough: the pause that does the work 71 recipes
- It actually rested, covered, for the time stated, not cut short because the rest of the schedule was tight.
- It rolls and shapes without fighting: it stays where it is put, and it does not spring back or shrink on the bench between passes.
- The surface is smooth and supple rather than dry, cracked, or skinned over.
- It is at the temperature the next step needs: cold where the fat must stay solid, cool and relaxed where it must be rolled thin.
- Baked, it holds the dimensions it was shaped to rather than shrinking back from the edges of the tin or the rim of the dish.
Where it goes wrong The rest was skipped or shortened, so the gluten was still tight: the dough fought the pin and sprang back thick and uneven, then shrank down the sides of the tin in the oven.
At the Table
- The Pour
- Cabernet Sauvignon or Malbec
- Also Right
- Tempranillo (Rioja Reserva)
- From the Taps
- Amber ale
- Zero-Proof
- Sparkling water, make room
Tannin binds to seared protein and fat: each bite softens the wine, each sip resets the palate: the steakhouse equation.
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