Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Empadinhas de Carne (Meat Pastries)

Here’s another Portuguese yummy for you.

I’m all for shortcuts so I use Frozen Puff Pastry, but, that is nowadays because a few years ago I would make them from scratch and it’s not that they’re difficult to make or time consuming, there’s just days that I need dinner on the table faster than usual.

Empadinhas de Carne 

As for the filling, you can use whatever meat filling you like, I just browned some ground beef in a little bit of olive oil, added a little bit of diced onion, some salt, pepper, garlic and then a little bit of heavy cream.  That was all.

If you have leftover roast, just shredded it and use that.  Of course you can use chicken too, just get creative.

These are not only delicious but the kids love them cause they’re small muffin size little pies.

Empadinhas de Carne

It’s easier to use the puff pastry sheets but all I had were the circles, so I sliced them in half, takes a little of finagling but it works, just be careful not to cut yourself.

Empadinhas de Carne

Slide them into greased muffin tins, fill with meat mixture.

Empadinhas de Carne

Take the other half and place it on the top, seal edges.  Make a little cut on top for the steam to escape.

Empadinhas de Carne 

Bake at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes or until golden brown.

Empadinhas de Carne 

And when you run out of dough, like I did because I didn’t realize I only had one box of puff pastry LOL….you have to improvise.

So out came the bread slices, I cut them into circles with a cookie cutter (aka my mason jar lid haha), fit them into the muffin pan and filled them with the meat. They’re still really good that way too. :)

Empadinhas de Carne 

These are so cute too and you can use them as breakfast bowls, just do the same thing with the bread, but add diced cooked bacon, or some sausage, then add some cheese and crack an egg into each slice, season with salt and pepper and bake until cooked.

About 10 minutes for runny yolks and about 5 minutes more if you want harder yolks :)

Empadinhas de Carne

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