Tag: appetizer
Pork and Bean Empanadas
Pork and Bean Empanadas
There are many different variations of empanadas in many cultures. This recipe is of Mexican variety, stuffed with ground pork, red beans, and queso fresco. The dough is made out of masa harina flour and water. Simple enough. The easiest way to assemble the empanadas is with a tortilla press. When using a tortilla press, I recommend cutting a gallon sized ziplock bag in 2 pieces to keep the dough from sticking. You also will use the bottom ziplock bag to fold over the empanada and crimp. If you don’t have a tortilla press, roll the dough in between the ziplock bags with a rolling pin to no more than 1/8″ thick. If you don’t have a rolling pin, you’re fucked. There are endless options to what you can fill an empanada with. Cheese, beans, chorizo and potatoes, chicken tinga; what ever sounds good to you.
Servings: 8 empanadas
Ingredients
Empanada Filling
- 1 lb ground pork
- 1/2 medium onion diced
- 1 cup cooked beans pinto, red, or black
- 6 garlic cloves minced
- 2 tsp cumin
- 1 tsp cayenne pepper
- 2 green onion chopped
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1 cup crumbled queso fresco
Empanada Dough
- 2 1/2 cups masa harina
- 1 1/2 cups warm water
- 1 tsp salt
- vegetable or canola oil for frying
Instructions
Empanada Filling
- In a large saute pan over medium high heat, brown the ground pork, onions, and garlic until cooked through.
- Add in the beans, green onion, cumin, cayenne pepper, salt, and pepper. Cook for another 4-5 minutes.
- Transfer the filling to a bowl. Let cool. Stir in the queso fresco. Set aside.
Empanada Dough and assembly
- Mix together the masa harina flour, warm water, and salt. Form into a dough.
- Place a cut apart gallon sized ziplock bag over your tortilla press.
- Place a small dough ball, a little smaller than a golf ball, in the center of the press, with the other side of the ziplock bag over the top.
- Press until the dough is about 1/8″ thick.
- Remove the top ziplock bag. Place a heaping tbsp of the filling in the center of the top half portion of the pressed dough.
- Fold the bottom half of the bag over the empanada, crimping it while it’s underneath the ziplock bag.
- I like to take the edges of the empanada and curl them in a little more.
- I then take a fork and crimp the edges once more.
- You should yield about 8 of these.
- In a medium sized skillet over medium high heat, add enough oil so that it will cover the empanadas half way. Once hot, add in 2 empanadas.
- Cook for 4-5 minutes a side, until golden brown. Cook these in batches. Drain on paper towel.
- erve empanadas over finely shredded cabbage. Top with sour cream and hot sauce.
Zucchini Pancake
Zucchini Pancake
My love for Korean savory pancakes is never-ending. So far I’ve made green onion, seafood scallion, kimchi, and chive flower pancakes. This zucchini pancake is very simple to make and is so satisfying. The sliced red chilies in the batter give this pancake a little kick. The most important thing about this pancake is to get out as much liquid form the grated zucchini as possible. Zucchini holds a lot of water. If the zucchini was grated and just added to the batter without getting rid of the excess moisture, the batter would be very runny and the pancake wouldn’t get crispy right. After I let the salted zucchini sit for 10 minutes, I squeezed the zucchini into a ball and drained the zucchini water into another bowl. Use this liquid later to thin out the batter when mixing the pancake flour and egg together.
Servings: 1
Ingredients
Korean Pancake Flour
- 1/2 cup minus 2 tbsp wheat flour
- 1 tbsp sweet rice flour
- 1 tbsp corn starch
- 1/4 tsp salt
Zucchini Pancake Batter
- 1/2 cup korean pancake flour
- 8 oz grated zucchini
- 1/4 medium onion sliced
- 2 red thai chilies thinly sliced
- 1 large beaten egg
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2-3 tbsp squeezed zucchini water
- 2 tbsp vegetable or canola oil
Dipping Sauce
- 1 tbsp light soy sauce
- 1 tbsp water
- 1 tsp vinegar
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1/4 tsp gochugaru pepper flakes
Instructions
Korean Pancake Flour
- Mix all pancake flour ingredients together.
Zucchini Pancake Batter
- Grate the zucchini into a bowl. Lightly salt the zucchini to draw out moisture. Let sit for 10 minutes.
- Squeeze out as much moisture as you can from the zucchini into a separate bowl. Save the water and set aside.
- Mix the korean pancake flour with 1 beaten egg. The batter will be a little stiff. Add 2-3 tbsp of the saved zucchini water. Add in the zucchini, onion, Thai chilies.
- Heat up the cooking oil on a griddle over medium high heat. Portion out the batter into 4 equal pancakes. Cook for 4 minutes.
- Flip. Cook the pancakes for another 4 minutes.
- Serve with dipping sauce.
Kimchi Dumplings
Kimchi Dumplings
These kimchi dumplings are quite tasty! I got to use some of my homemade kimchi for this recipe. While this recipe can be a little time consuming, it sure pays off in the end. The most important part of this recipe is to make sure to get rid of as much excess moisture from the kimchi, tofu, yam noodles, and bean sprouts. So squeeze the extra juices from the kimchi. Drain and press the tofu. Drain and pat dry the yam noodles and bean sprouts. When everything is mixed together, you want the dumpling mix to be more of a paste. The ground pork, starch from the yam noodles, and tofu help hold everything together. If the dumpling mix is too wet, it will make it harder to stuff the dumplings. When stuffing, wet the edges of the dumpling wrapper. Hold the wrapper in the palm of your hand and add about 1 tsp of the dumpling mix to the center. Gently fold over in half and crimp with your fingers. This recipe yields about 100 dumplings. Steam these dumplings in a single layer on top of parchment paper or cabbage leaves for 10 minutes.Any dumpling you aren’t going to cook right away, layer on a floured baking sheet and freeze for an hour. Then transfer them to a freezer bag.Not only are these dumpling great as an appetizer, but there are great in soups such as rice cake soup with kimchi dumplings and pork riblets, which will be featured on a later recipe.
Ingredients
Kimchi Dumplings
- 2 oz yam noodles soaked in warm water for 30 minutes, drained and finely chopped
- 1 cup kimchee drained of juices, finely chopped
- 8 oz firm tofu drained and pressed, finely diced
- 8 oz bean sprouts chopped
- 3 green onion chopped
- 8 oz ground pork
- 1 tbsp minced garlic
- 1 tbsp minced ginger
- 1 tbsp sesame oil
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tbsp gochugaru pepper flakes
- 2 packs dumpling wrappers
Dumpling Dipping Sauce
- 1 tbsp light soy sauce
- 1 tbsp water
- 1/2 tbsp vinegar
- 1/2 tbsp sugar
- 1/2 tsp gochugaru pepper flakes
Instructions
- Mix all of the dumpling ingredients together. The most important thing is to get rid of as much excess moisture from the kimchi, yam noodles, tofu, and bean sprouts. You don’t want the filling to be wet.
- Take a single dumpling wrapper and wet the edges with water. Put a teaspoon of the dumpling filling in the center of the wrapper and for inhale, gently squeezing out any air. Crimp the edges with your fingers.
- This recipe makes about 100 dumplings. Arrange them on a lightly floured baking sheet, making sure that they don’t touch each other. Freeze what you aren’t going to immediately use for 1 hour.
- Store in a freezer bag.
- In a steamer, line with either parchment paper or a couple of cabbage leaves as shown.
- Arrange dumplings in a single layer, making sure they don’t touch each other. Steam for 10 minutes. That’s enough time to go chief down a bowl!
- Serve with dumpling sauce.
