I Don't Know How to Spell Empanada

The Friday before I left for my travels I wanted to relax.  We decided to make Sweet Corn & Bacon Empanadas from a recipe I found on Just a Taste.  There was some grilling of a chili pepper involved, and some crimping with a fork, and then..........there was bacon.  I didn't think we could go wrong there :)

Ingredients:

2 large chili peppers (of desired heat)

3 strips bacon

2 cups frozen yellow sweet corn

1½ cups shredded Cheddar cheese

½ cup chopped scallions

1 package pie dough (two 15-oz. sheets)

1 egg yolk

1 Tablespoon water

Pinch of smoked paprika

Directions:

Roast the chili peppers by holding them over an open flame until the skin is completely charred. (Alternate method: Preheat the oven to 400ºF and roast the peppers on a baking sheet for 20 minutes, flipping them over once while roasting).

Place the roasted chilies in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Sweat the peppers for 10 minutes.

Peel the chilies then slice them in half, scraping out the seeds and removing the stem.

Dice the chilies and place them in a bowl.

Cook the bacon in a skillet over medium heat until crispy. Remove the cooked bacon and reserve 1 Tablespoon of the grease.

Chop the cooked bacon and add it to the bowl with the diced chilies.

Add the corn, along with the reserved bacon grease, into the pan and saute for 8-10 minutes until it begins to brown slightly.

Add the diced chilies, chopped bacon, shredded Cheddar cheese and chopped scallions into the pan with the corn. Toss to combine.

(we didn't have any scallions to chop, so TEN went to town on a white onion)

Refrigerate the corn mixture until it has completely cooled.

Preheat the oven to 400ºF.

Unroll one sheet of the pie dough onto a lightly floured work surface. Use a cookie cutter (or trace around a large drinking glass) to cut out 3½" circles.

Arrange the dough circles on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

Add 1 Tablespoon of the corn filling in the center of each dough round then fold the rounds in half. Use a fork to crimp the edges and seal the empanada closed.

Beat the egg yolk with the water. Brush the tops of the empanadas with the egg wash then sprinkle with a pinch of smoked paprika.

Bake until golden, about 15-18 minutes.



These little guys were pretty darn good!  I will say that the whole smoking of the chilies, and sweating them, etc. made for a bit of prep time.  And then the filling of the empanadas was time consuming until we got the hang of it. 

I suspect this could become one of those "quick weeknight meals" if made a few times for practice.  Of course we added some low fat sour cream.  Because that's how we roll at Seersucker Central ;)

I'm playing catch up for the next few days, but I'm getting there!

T