HEY STEEMIANS! Are your taste buds ready for a little travel today. How about Tasty Travel Tuesday?!
ALL CONTENT IS MINE AND ORIGINAL! All of these food photos were taken with my Nikon D5300 and my favorite Lens, the Nikon AF-S FX NIKKOR 50mm f/1.8G. Most every time, I cross post on my personal blog which you can find in my INTRO POST.
For those of you who follow me, you'll know that I live in Southern Chile. I say Southern Chile because it is very distinct from central and Northern Chile. Chile's coast line is 2,653 miles long and at it's average width of 110 miles, you can imagine that drastic diferences in climate. In the North is the Atacama desert which is the driest desert on the planet. I happen to live in the Valdivian Rain Forest, HUGE difference. What does this have to do with today's post, you might ask? Well, I thought I'd throw a little Chile trivia into the mix.
With all of Chile's diversity, one thing remains constant and that is the empenada. Overall, I must say, the Chilean cuisine is very simple and at times bland. But, the empenada is a different story. It's basically the fast food of Chile.
Here in Chile, they stuff them with just about anything you can imagine, including octopus which we call pulpo. Remember I said that we have 2,653 miles of coastline, so we have a lot of seafood, lots.
Well, the empenada I present to you today is NOT a traditional empenada of Chile. It's my creation and addition to the long list of possibilities. Think about it, stinky cheese with ground meet wrapped in a flaky crust - SCORE! This is my creation, I have never seen this combo offered anywhere her in Chile, but, really, is there anything new under the sun? You have to give this a try - YOU'LL THANK ME LATER!!
RECIPE
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 3 minutes
Total Time: 50 minutes
Yield: 17 - 18 empanadas
1 onion, dicedIngredients
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tablespoon butter
2/3 pound ground turkey
1 teaspoon ground sage
2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon thyme
1/4 teaspoon rosemary
1/4 cup flour
2 - 2 1/2 cups whole milk
1 1/2 cups (4 ounces) grated Gruyere cheese
1/3 cup (1 ounce) grated parmesan cheese
1 20-count package empanada wrappers. Or you can make them using the pastry in this recipe
1 quart of oil for fryingInstructions
A. In a skillet, cook onion and garlic in 1 tablespoon of butter until soft.
B. Add turkey and cook until browned, breaking it into small pieces as it cooks.
C. Remove as much of the turkey and onions from skillet as you can using a slotted spoon and place in a separate dish. Leave the grease in pan.
D. Stir in sage, salt, pepper, nutmeg, paprika, thyme, and rosemary. (If you don't have all of these, just use what you have, no worries)
E. Turn off heat to the skillet and sift in flour while stirring until you have a thick and pasty mixture.
F. Turn on the heat to low and slowly pour in milk while whisking until completely smooth.
G. Continue whisking the mix until thickened.
H. Add turkey back into the pan and stir until heated, then remove from heat and stir in the cheeses.
I. Spoon filling into the center of each wrapper. Wetting the edges with water and folding them in half to form little half-moon shaped empanadas.
J. Press edges together to seal and place them on a parchment lined tray.
K. Heat oil to 350 degrees F (180 C) in a deep fryer (or you can use a dutch overn) and fry the empanadas in batches until crispy and golden brown (5 - 6 minutes), flipping once.
L. Transfer to paper towels to drain.
Serve these babies hot.
So, tell me, what do you all think about TASTY TRAVEL TUESDAY? This is my second post with that theme, last week's was PERSIAN JEWELED BASMATI RICE PILAF which received 133 upvotes. So let me know what you think.
UPVOTE AND FOLLOW ME
