Empanadas!

My good friend Erica's mom is from Peru and makes the most amazing empanadas (south american pastries filled with savory fillings). Although her recipe is top secret, I thought I'd try my hand at it. I found a recipe on epicurious.com, modified it a bit, and tried it out for my family. They were a hit!

Beef Empañadas

3 hard-boiled large eggs
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 garlic clove, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1 pound ground beef chuck
1 1/2 tablespoons chopped pimiento-stuffed olives ( or more, depending on your taste)
1 (14-ounce) can whole tomatoes in juice, drained, reserving 2 tablespoons juice, and chopped
1 package frozen empanada pastry disks, thawed. Goya brand (I know they are sold at Garden Fresh). You could try making your own empanada dough, rolling it out, and cutting into equal sized circles, but that's too much effort for me!
vegetable oil
 
Hard boil and dice each egg. Set aside. 

Cook onion in olive oil in a heavy medium skillet over medium heat, stirring frequently, until softened. Add garlic, cumin, and oregano and cook, stirring, 1 minute. Stir in beef and cook, breaking up lumps with a fork, until browned.

Add olives, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon pepper, and tomatoes with reserved juice, then cook, stirring occasionally, until liquid is reduced but mixture is still moist, about 5 minutes. Spread on a plate to cool. Add egg.

Preheat oven to 425°F with rack in middle.
Lay a large sheet of plastic wrap on a dampened work surface (to help keep plastic in place), then roll out an empanada disk on plastic wrap to measure about 6 inches. Place 3 tablespoons meat mixture on disk . Moisten edges of disk with water and fold over to form a semicircle, then crimp with a fork or your fingers. Make more empanadas in same manner.
Brush empanadas with oil and bake on an oiled baking sheet in a 425°F oven until golden, about 10 minutes.

(Note - if you have young children/picky eaters, it's easy to just set aside a little of the beef and stuff their empanada shells with just the beef & spices.  Since my boys are not lovers of olives or chunks of tomatoes, I just set aside a little beef before I added the olives, tomatoes, and eggs and stuffed theirs with the plain beef and they liked it! It's a good way to introduce them to a new food without scaring them away before even trying it with ingredients you know they don't like.)