Mike van de Elzen: Beef and black bean empanadas

Beef and black bean empanadas 

Cook time: 15 minutes 

Prep time: 30 minutes 

Serves: 6-8 

300gm beef mince  

2 whites onions, peeled and diced  

1 can cooked black beans, drained  

1 can whole peeled tomatoes, crushed  

4 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed  

2 tbsp cumin seeds  

1/2 tsp nutmeg powder  

1/2 tsp chili powder  

1 tsp salt  

2 tbsp sunflower oil  

1 egg, beaten  

Optional 

1 cup frozen peas 

Grated cheese  

8 x 150mm circles of short crust pastry

Pre-heat oven to 180*c 

In a heavy based or cast iron fry pan, dry fry of your cumin seeds until they become fragrant. Remove and pound into a dust in a mortar and pestle. Set aside. Reheat the pan and add the oil. Over a medium heat fry you mince, turning for a couple of minutes before adding in the garlic, onions, spices and salt. Continue to cook until all the liquid has cooked out. Add the crushed whole peeled tomatoes and beans, simmer for a further 15 minutes.  

Remove and place mix into a tray and then into a fridge to chill. Once the mixture has fully chilled add your peas (if you want).

Place 2-3 tbsp of mixture into the centre of the short crust, top with a touch of cheese, brush the outside edge of pastry with egg wash and fold over the pastry. Crimp the edges to seal and place onto a baking. Brush with egg wash before pacing into the oven for 15 minutes.  

Serve hot with tomato chili jam.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudgin
from News Talks.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
Edb our Resident chief Mike Van der Elsen is with us.

Speaker 3 (00:15):
Now, good morning, good morning.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
I should say, allah, are you have you you know,
your feedback on the ground, have you are you sort
of back into you know, life, day to day life.

Speaker 3 (00:29):
After wonderful truck to Europe. It was great, it was great.
We were it was a very it was a very
well wind trip. I can say we're in for a
wedding into the UK. And then we took the opportunity
to head over to Spain. We went to Costa del Mar,
which was on the mid down from France, but I

(00:50):
think it's about our north of Barcelona and our south
of Toulouse. And it was great just to just to
chill and soak up some sun because that's what I've
been missing and.

Speaker 2 (01:03):
Enjoy the local produce.

Speaker 3 (01:05):
I'm sure in Pignadas yay tapers. It was amazing because
like we went, we went to Barcelona for a short
period of time and no matter you know, the vast
array of restaurants, but they were all serving pretty much
the same. I think I saw maybe one or two
Japanese restaurants. I saw one burger place and all the

(01:25):
rest were just tapas bars, and you're walking and they're
all pretty much serving the same, which was good because
it was all delegeous.

Speaker 2 (01:33):
So in Impanada it's it's a short cross pastry and
they put a sort of a mince filling inside.

Speaker 1 (01:41):
Is that right?

Speaker 3 (01:43):
Yeah? And it was funny because the ones, the ones
in Barcelona where we went to a couple of markets,
and and they were all pretty much the same. And
they're all kind of shaped like a sausage roll, like
a classic Kiwish sausage roll. And yet you go to Argentina,
they're slightly different. You go to Peru, you go to Ecuador,
you go to Chili, you go to Venezuela. It just
carries on and they're all slightly a different shape. And

(02:05):
I think that half moon sort of crescent shape is
probably the more popular one. But in essence, they are
all pretty much made the same. You can just add
some other kind of like key little ingredients like vegetables
if you wish. And so the restaurant the rest of
today is a beef and black bean upennyarda, which seem
to be the most popular in Barcelona. So it's a

(02:29):
cooked meat filling. So I've got three hundred grams of
beef mints. This will make a decent amount of inpignadas,
obviously depending on the size. So to head things off,
heat up an oven one hundred and eighty degrees and
then into a heavy based cast iron pan you want
to add I've got a touch. I actually go with

(02:50):
the seeds first, So two tablespoons of Cooman seeds. Add
them into a dry pan, high heat, Fry them off
until they become fragrant, or do you start to see
a little bit of smoke rising, Take them out, pop
them into a pest and water, crush them into a dust,
set them aside. Put your pan back on twobles ferns
of oil, and then I've got three hundreds of beef mince.
Add that in. Fry that off, and then I've got

(03:11):
two onions that have been finely diced. For garlic that's
been crushed. Add in your spices, so the Kerman seeds
along with half testpoon and nutmeg half testeent a chili
powder if you wish, and then I've got a testpoon
of salt. Add that in saute that off until basically
all the liquid has evaporator or been absorbed from that mince,
and then in goes one can of whole your tomatoes

(03:33):
and a can of black beans that have been drained.
Cook them for a further fifteen minutes. That pretty much
ensures that that mince is fully cooked through and it's
nice and tender. Take it out of the pan, pop
it into a tray, fire that into your fridge. You
want that to be fully cool when you start to
build up your impignadas for the mpgnarders themselves. I've just
gone out. I've brought some short crust pastry. Obviously you

(03:54):
can make some yourself, easy beasy. I cut that into
little diss one hundred and fifty mili discs, take your
inpignard and mix. It's gonna take about two tablespoons of
that mix into the center, folded over like a present,
and then just nip all the sides. Fire them into
the oven. Once you brush them with a bit of
egg wash. They're going to be in the oven for
about fifteen minutes, because all you're looking is to cook

(04:16):
that pastry so reasonably hot. Oven one hundred and eighty
maybe one hundred ninety degrees after fifteen minutes, pull them
out and serve them piping hot. I've served them with
like a tomato chili jam. But they're a pretty good treat.
Just to walk along and just eat where you look
at all the lovely things and Barcelona.

Speaker 2 (04:35):
Oh it sounds delicious. Love you to have you back.
Thank you so much, Mike.

Speaker 1 (04:39):
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
live to use talks there'd be from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.