Pork Empadinhas

Goan Pork Empadinhas is not to be mistaken with empanadas that are popular in Mexican and South American restaurant. They are made with flour, are sweet and are shaped as mini pies. I have only eaten them twice when I was really young. And now I know why…..they take a lot of egg yolks and time 🙂 My aunt who lived with us would make all the Portuguese specialties in our family since they were time-consuming and needed attention to details.

The Goan Pork Empadinhas does have a Portuguese influence. Traditionally empadinhas are made with pork but if you want to make it vegetarian you can use mushroom and follow the same recipe to cook it as below. Do note, the stuffing has to be dry so drain out all the liquid. If you do visit Goa you may not find it on regular restaurant menu’s but ask a Goan born during the Portuguese regime in Goa like my mum’s generation they know about the Empadinhas, Bacalhau (cod fish), Sardinhas à Portuguesa, Beef Roulade, Assado de Leitão(Roasted Piglet) and a few more.

This recipe is a 3 step Process.

1.  Cooking the pork meat.

2.   Making the sweet dough and shaping them in a muffin pan

3.  Baking the mini Pork Pies at 350F for 18-20 minutes.

I made 12 empadinhas and used the remaining dough and meat to make a Pot of Gold ( as I call it).

Serving Size: 12 mini pies + 1

Ingredients:

Cooking the pork meat

1.5 lbs of pork meat diced into small cubes

3 medium onions chopped

8 cloves garlic

1.5″ ginger

8 whole cloves

8 whole peppercorns

1.5″ cinnamon stick

1 green chili

1 red chili

1 dime sized tamarind ball

1/2 tsp of turmeric

1 tsp of vinegar

1 tsp of sugar

1/4 cup water

salt to taste

Directions:

Wash and cut the meat into tiny cubes.

Grind the garlic, ginger, cloves, cinnamon, tamarind, peppercorns, green & red chili and vinegar to a paste.

Apply salt and ground paste to the cut meat. Keep aside.

In a pot heat oil and saute the onions till soften. Next add the turmeric and saute for a minute.

Add the cut meat, sugar, water season with more salt if needed and saute well till all mixes and cover and cook on medium low heat while checking for 15 -20 minutes. Till the meat is cooked well.

Let cool completely. You can also make this the night before.

Making the sweet dough:

1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup cream of wheat

9 egg yolks

2 tbsp – 3 tbsp of cold milk

6 tbsp of fine sugar

2 tbsp of melted butter

1/2 tsp of baking powder

1 egg yolk + 1 tbsp of water beaten together to brush the tops (optional)

1/8 tsp of salt

Directions:

Mix the flour, cream of wheat, baking powder, sugar and salt well.

Next add the melted butter and mix it well into the dry ingredients.

Beat the yolks together and pour in and mix to form a dough if the dough id too dry add some few tablespoon of cold milk to form a nice dough.

Cover and let rest in the refrigerator for 15 minutes.

Spray or brush the muffin pan with oil.

Divide the dough into 12 equal part and roll out each part to have the muffin pan covered at the base and the top. For this I used a 4 1/4 inch round for the bottom and 2 3/4 inch round for the top as per my muffin pan.

Fill each with the pork filling.

Cover  each pie with the 2 3/4 inch crust and give them all a yolk wash on top.

Bake in the oven at 350F for 18-20 minutes till all have a nice golden brown crust.

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