Shrimp Empanadas

One of the foods I love from Puerto Rico and South America is Empanadas or little meat pies, the fillings can be endless from meat, veggie, seafood and even sweet. I remember once visiting a little place in Miami dedicated to them. I made a more British style pastry and made a shrimp filling. Our sweet girl and I really enjoyed rolling the pastry and filling these and to make them a little healthier we baked them. 

Shrimp empanadas 

Makes 10 small ones

Ingredients:

For the pastry:

• plain flour 175g, 1 1/2 cups plus extra for rolling
• baking powder ½ tsp
• fine salt ½ tsp
• unsalted butter 100g (4 oz), cut into small cubes
• egg yolk 
• milk a little
• 1 egg beaten for the glaze

Filling- 

• 1/2 cup shrimp 
• 4 finely chopped spring onions
• 1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika 
• 1/4 teaspoon cumin 
• 7 cherry tomatoes
• Olive oil 
• Salt and pepper 

Method: 

1. Put the flour, baking powder and salt in a mixing bowl, add the butter, cut into small pieces and rub it into the flour till it resembles coarse breadcrumbs. 
2. Mix in the egg yolk and then enough milk to make a soft but rollable dough. Pat into a ball and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.
3. Roll out into little disks fill with the shrimp mixture. 
4. To make the shrimp filling heat a little olive oil, add the onion, garlic and saute for 5 min, add the shrimp, tomato, pepper and spice and cook for 5-10 min
5. Bake at 350 for 20 min 
6. enjoy ;-)

The day we made these we went over to my sweet Russian friends home for dinner and we took them along, she made a delicious beef pilaf and I got the recipe so will be sharing here soon. She grew up in Tajikistan and this was a dish from that region. I adore picking up new recipes to add to my repertoire, and I was proud of the kids that evening as there were other kids there who didn't touch it but mine tried it :-) love that they are willing to trying new cuisines. 

What new dish have you learnt recently?