Spanish Empanada Dough (Galician Empanadas) is a traditional Spanish recipe (from Galicia) for a classic yeasted bread flour dough that's traditionally used to prepare empanadas. The full recipe is presented here and I hope you enjoy this classic Spanish version of: Galician Empanadas (Empanadas Gallegas).
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It is an accepted fact that it was Argentina who taught the rest of Latin America to make empanadas and made them so popular; but the question remains, where did these pastries come from before landing in Argentina? Well it is said that these were actually an Arab dish that was taught to the Spaniards; this recipe for empanadas comes from the region of Galicia in Spain...
These are often made from fish, but can also be made with chicken (substitute the fish with 600g cooked and cubed chicken in the recipe below).
Ingredients:
Spanish empanada dough (either yeasted empanada dough or lard-based pastry as in the traditional Cornish pastry recipe)
500g tuna (or two tins of tuna chunks, drained)
240g tin of Sardines, drained (use the oil for preparing the pastry)
3 Eggs, hard boiled
1/2 green bell pepper, chopped
1/2 red bell pepper, chopped
1 Onion, peeled and sliced thinly
125g pitted Green olives, halved (optional)
4 tbsp Olive oil
Salt, freshly-ground black pepper and paprika to taste
Method:
If you're using fresh tuna, clean it then remove the skin and bones. Cut the tuna into chunks and fry in a pan with two tbsp of olive oil. Remove from pan and reserve. If you are using tinned tuna just thoroughly drain it in a strainer for 10 minutes.
Drain the sardines, discard their heads, open the middle and remove viscera and bones
Peel and slice onion into thin slices, remove the pepper stems and seeds then chop.
Hard boil the eggs (boil them for ten minutes), slice them when ready. Remove the pit from the olives then split them in halves.
Place a frying pan over medium heat. Once hot add the remaining oil and use to fry the bell peppers and sliced onion for about 5 minutes until the onion is transparent. Season to taste with salt, black pepper and paprika. Add in the tuna (or chicken), stir to combine and cook for a minute. Remove from heat, add olives and sliced​ hard-boiled eggs, stirring gently so you do not break up the egg slices.
You can cook Galician empanadas ether as pasties or as a pie. If making pasties, roll out the dough on a floured work surface and cut out circles using a saucer as a template. I making a pie, roll the dough out and cut into two pieces.
For a pie, arrange one piece of dough on a greased baking tray. Top with the fish mixture and arrange the sardines on top. Sit the second piece of dough then brush the edges of the dough with a little water before folding back and pressing the tow sheets of dough together.
If you like the top of the dough glossy then brush the surface with beaten egg.
If making pasties, put the filling mixture on one half of the dough, sitting a piece of sardine on top. Brush the edges of the pastry then flip over the pastry half with no filling and crimp the edges to make the half mood. Transfer to a greased baking tray then repeat the process with the remaining pastry circles and dough. IF desired, paint the top with egg wash.
Prick the pastries with the tines of a fork to make steam holes then transfer to an oven pre-heated to 180°C and bake until the surface of the pastry is golden.
These empanadas are best served warm, but they can be eaten hot or cold.
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