Empanadas de mierda

Second night in a row I am cooking a nice, healthy dinner from scratch!  AND blogging about it!  I'm impressed with myself.  Tonight I made some empanadas that were stuffed with mashed sweet potatoes, black beans, cumin, chipotle chile powder, green onion, and they were supposed to have poblano peppers which I couldn't find at ANY of our stores this week, so I substituted diced green chiles from a can -- definitely not the same, but they worked.  As Chris and I were assembling the empanadas, a few of them looked less than beautiful, so I said it was a shitty empanada, which turned into Empanadas de Mierda, hence the vulgar blog title.

The empanadas were good!  We dipped them in salsa verde, and I will be eating them for lunch the rest of the week as the recipe made 10 empanadas!

Sweet Potato and Black Bean Empanadas

• 9  ounces  all-purpose flour (2 cups)
• 3/4  teaspoon  kosher salt
• 1/3  cup  canola oil
• 1/4  cup  cold water
• 1  tablespoon  cider vinegar
• 1  large egg, lightly beaten
• 1  poblano chile
• 1  tablespoon  cumin seeds
• 1  cup  mashed cooked sweet potatoes
• 1  cup  canned black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1/3  cup  chopped green onions
• 2  tablespoons  chopped fresh cilantro
• 1  teaspoon  ancho chile powder
• 1/2  teaspoon  kosher salt
• 1  egg white, lightly beaten
• 1. Weigh or lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups, and level with a knife. Combine flour and 3/4 teaspoon salt in a large bowl, stirring with a whisk. Combine canola oil, 1/4 cup water, 1 tablespoon vinegar, and egg in a medium bowl. Gradually add oil mixture to flour mixture, stirring just until moist. Knead lightly until smooth. Shape dough into a ball, and wrap in plastic wrap. Chill for 1 hour.
  2. Preheat broiler.
  3. Place poblano on a foil-lined baking sheet; broil 8 minutes or until blackened, turning after 6 minutes. Place in a paper bag; close tightly. Let stand 15 minutes. Peel chile; cut in half lengthwise. Discard seeds and membranes. Finely chop.
  4. Preheat oven to 400°.
  5. Cook the cumin seeds in a large saucepan over medium heat 1 minute or until toasted, stirring constantly. Place cumin in a clean spice or coffee grinder; process until ground. Combine cumin, poblano, sweet potatoes, and next 5 ingredients (through 1/2 teaspoon salt) in a large bowl; mash with a fork until almost smooth.
  6. Divide dough into 10 equal portions, shaping each into a ball. Roll each dough portion into a (5-inch) circle on a lightly floured surface. Working with 1 portion at a time (cover remaining dough to keep from drying), spoon 3 level tablespoons poblano mixture into center of each circle. Moisten edges of dough with egg white; fold dough over filling. Press edges together to seal. Place empanadas on a large baking sheet coated with cooking spray. Cut 3 diagonal slits across top of each empanada. Bake at 400° for 16 minutes or until lightly browned.

 In addition to making a healthy dinner (we had a spinach salad along with the empanadas), I baked my favorite Christmas cookies!  I was sad that I didn't get to make this recipe at cookie bake this year.  I had made the dough and brought it to Faith's house prepared to make the cookies, and then wound up with the stomach flu, leaving Faith to finish and enjoy the cookies herself.  Poor Faith (not really).  So, here they are, my all time favorite Christmas cookie, Chocolate Filled Russian Tea Cookies:

Recipe:

1 cup butter or margarine, softened

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup finely chopped walnuts

48 Brach's milk chocolate stars (from 14-oz bag)

Sugar Coating:

1 cup powdered sugar

1 tablespoon red sugar

1 tablespoon green sugar

(Christmas being over, I just omitted the red and green sugars)

Heat oven to 400F.  In large bowl, beat butter, 1/2 cup powdered sugar and the vanilla with electric mixer on medium speed until well mixed.  On low speed, beat in flour, salt and walnuts.

for each cookie, shape scant measuring tablespoonful dough around chocolate star to make 1-inch ball; place 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets.

Bake 12 to 15 minutes or until set and bottoms begin to turn golden brown.  Meanwhile, in small bowl, mix sugar coating ingredients.

Immediately remove cookies from cookie sheets, roll in sugar coating.  Cool completely on cooling racks, about 30 minutes.  Roll in sugar coating again.