Pork Empanadas

It is time to break from soups, i will come back to them, but for now here is a great dish that stores well that it can be made ahead to serve during the week.

Pork Empanadas

Ingredients

The wrappers
1 cup unbleached flour
2 cup yellow cornmeal
2 sticks unsalted butter, chopped into small pieces
8 oz cream cheesed, chilled and diced small
touch of salt

Filling
1 pounded of pork, cut into cubes
1 onion, minced
4 cloves of garlic, minced
2 jalapeno, minced
1 fresh bay leaf
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground yellow mustard
2/3 cup of diced dried apricots
8 oz cream cheese
1/3 cup diced red pepper
1/4 almonds, minced
4 green onions, minced
1/2 cup cilantro, chopped and stems removed
1 bottle of dark beer, 12 oz
salt & pepper to taste

1 egg
2 table spoons of water

Directions
Wrappers
Place all dried ingredients in food processor and pulse to combine, next add butter and cream cheese and turn processor on until the ingredients form into a ball. Shape dough into a disk, wrap in plastic and chill for at least an hour.

Filling
In a large skillet place pork, beer, onions, garlic jalapenos and spices, bring to a boil then reduce heat and simmer for about 15 minutes. Next add the apricots and cook for an additional 15 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool to warm.
Transfer to food processor once warm, remove bay leaf, and process until coarsely chopped. Remove from processor and set aside.
Next in the food processor add cream cheese, red peppers, almonds, green onions and cilantro, salt and pepper to taste; and pulse to combine. Next add the pork and pulse to incorporate.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

Remove wrapper pastry from fridge and cut into quarters
On a floured surface, roll out each quarter, into about 1/8 inch thick dough and cut into as many 5 inch square as you can. Repeat with the balance of the dough.

Place about 1/4 cup of filling into each square, fold over into a triangle and seal edges with a fork. Place on a parchment cookie sheet, whisk egg and water together and wash each of the empanadas.

Bake in the oven for about 25 to 30 minutes or until lightly brown.

Serve warm

Enjoy cooking