Empanadas Chilenas de Pino

Ingredients

• For the pino: 700g beef chuck or skirt
• 1kg white onions
• 3 tbsp lard or vegetable oil
• 2 tbsp sweet paprika
• 1 tbsp merken, or 1 tsp smoked paprika plus 1/2 tsp chilli flakes
• 1 tbsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 2 tbsp plain flour
• 300ml beef stock
• Sea salt and black pepper
• 12 black olives, whole with stones in
• 60g raisins
• 3 eggs, hard-boiled
• For the dough: 700g plain flour
• 2 tsp fine sea salt
• 170g lard or vegetable shortening
• 1 egg
• 280ml warm dry white wine
• 1 egg beaten with 1 tbsp milk, to glaze

Before you cook

• Dice the beef by hand into 5mm pieces, keeping any fat in
• Peel the onions and cut them into 5mm dice, which is the single longest job in this recipe
• Soak the raisins in warm water for 10 minutes, then drain them
• Peel the hard-boiled eggs and cut each into four thick slices
• Warm the white wine gently until it is just hot to the finger

Steps

1. Melt the lard in a very large pan over medium heat.
2. Add the diced onion with 2 teaspoons of salt and cook it for 25 minutes, stirring often, until it has collapsed to a soft sweet mass with no colour.
3. Push the onion aside, raise the heat and brown the diced beef in the cleared space for 5 minutes.
4. Stir the beef through the onion and add the paprika, merken, cumin and oregano.
5. Cook the spices for 3 minutes so they toast into the fat.
6. Sprinkle over the flour and stir it in for 2 minutes.
7. Pour in the stock and simmer for 20 minutes, until the pino is thick enough that a spoon dragged across the base leaves a trail.
8. Season the pino heavily with salt and pepper, then spread it in a shallow tray.
9. Cool the pino to room temperature, then refrigerate it for at least 4 hours or overnight, because warm filling turns the pastry to paste.
10. Mix the flour and salt in a large bowl.
11. Melt the lard until it is hot but not smoking and pour it into the flour, stirring with a wooden spoon.
12. Beat the egg into the warm wine and pour that in too.
13. Bring the dough together and knead it on the worktop for 8 minutes, until smooth and satiny.
14. Cover the dough and rest it for 30 minutes at room temperature.
15. Heat the oven to 210C fan and line two large baking trays.
16. Divide the dough into 12 pieces and roll each into a rough 18cm circle about 3mm thick.
17. Put a heaped spoonful of cold pino slightly off centre on each circle.
18. Top the pino with a slice of egg, an olive and a few raisins.
19. Brush the pastry border with water, fold it over the filling and press it flat to force out the air.
20. Fold the flat seam over onto itself twice to make a firm sealed lip, then tuck the two ends underneath.
21. Lift the empanadas onto the trays and pierce the top of each once with a knife tip so steam escapes.
22. Brush them all over with the egg glaze.
23. Bake for 25 minutes, until deep bronze and firm.
24. Rest them for 10 minutes before eating, and warn everyone about the olive stone.