Colombian Style Empanadas
These Colombian style empanadas are a great dish to serve as an appetizer and are delicious little bites for everyone.
Ingredients
Dough
- 2 cups masa
- 1 ½ cups warm water
- sprinkle of adobo with sazon and tumeric for color
Filling
- ½ lb ground beef
- ½ red and green pepper diced
- 1-2 large potato peeled and diced
- ½ diced onion
- 1-2 tomatoes, diced
- 1 tbsp chicken bouillon more or less depending on your preference
- salt
- 1-2 tbsp adobo con sazon I use the one from la flor, but if you do not have you can use the regular adobo and a packet of sazon
- 1 cup fresh parsley chopped
- 2 tbsp achoite oil
- vegetable or canola oil for frying
Instructions
Masa Prep
- In a bowl , combine masa, sazon and tumeric. Gradually stir in warm water to make a dough. Let sit covered while you make the filling, or at least 15 minutes to activate the masa dough.
Filling
- In a small pot, place water and some chicken bouillon and the potato and bring to a boil. Do not boil till mush, just parboil so it can hold its shape and will continue to cook with the meat.
- In a pan, pour some achiote oil. Once heated add onions, peppers, tomatoes, and parsley. Season lightly with salt and pepper.
- Then add beef and seasoning (garlic powder and adobo with sazon) and cook partially through
- Add the potatoes to the beef and continue to cook through.
Assembly
- Take a portion of the masa (about a handful size and place it between two pieces of wax paper (or ziplock bags whatever you have that wont stick) and roll out the masa to your desired thickness.
- Add about a tablespoon of the filling to the center. Use the ziplock to fold over the masa dough to seal the empanada into the shape of a halfmoon.
- use a rounded edge, like a bowl or a cup, to seal and round the edges. Squeeze any seams you see that may be open.
- In preheated vegetable oil, carefully place the empanada to deep fry. They should be a golden yellow color once ready, do not over fry as they will dry out.