Beef Empanadas

My Hubby's birthday is New Year's Eve and this year his only request was that I make him empanadas.
He served as a missionary in Chile and he actually tried to make empanadas for me
on one of our first dates.
They were miserable and I barely choked them down, wishing I had a huge napkin
to hide everything in while I also tried to convinced him I was "The One".

It's been a long time since then and I finally got a real authentic recipe from our neighbor who was a missionary in Argentina.  They are delicious and our whole family pitched in to put them together!

Beef Empanadas
Dough:
8 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
12 tablespoons (3/4 cup) vegetable shortening, melted
4 tablespoons (1/4 cup) vegetable oil
1 1/3 cup milk
1 1/3 cup water

Filling:
2 cups chopped onion
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
3 tablespoons chili powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
2 lbs extra lean ground beef
6 hard boiled eggs, chopped
1 can olives, drained and sliced, black or green
1/2 cup raisins
Salt to taste

Prepare Dough:
Combine flour, salt, shortening and vegetable oil in large mixing bowl; stir to blend.  Heat milk in microwave until small bubbles appear around edges (about 4 min).  Add flour to mixture along with warm water.  Stir to form soft dough.  Knead on lightly floured surface until smooth (about 3 min).  Cover with plastic wrap and let rest 20 minutes.
Prepare Filling:
Saute onion in the oil in large skillet until tender and translucent, about 5 minutes.  Add garlic at the end.  Set aside onions.  Crumble beef into skillet, saute, stirring until browned.  Stir in chili powder and cumin.  Stir in olives, raisins, onions, and chopped eggs.

Form dough into 4 12" long rolls.  Slice each roll into 10 equal pieces and roll each piece into a 5 inch round.
Put about 3-4 tablespoons of the filling in the center of each round.  Moisten the edges and fold in half.  Press edges firmly together and twist along the edge to secure.  Each empanada should be very plump with filling.  Place on a greased cookie sheet until you are finished.

To bake: Bake in a preheated 400 degree oven for 15 minutes.
To fry: Heat oil till bubbles from immediately when a tiny piece of dough is dropped in oil.  Fry on each side until golden brown.  Drain on a paper towel lined plate.

Serve hot with salsa and sour cream.  We actually did a mixture of half sour cream half Chili Verde salsa for a dipping sauce and it was great!  I fried mine and they cooked so quick and were so good!  My daughter even ate them and that's a miracle in itself!  At 9 years old she has refused to eat anything besides chicken till this year~when finally the enticing smell of bacon cooking made her broader her horizon's as far as protein goes....

This makes a huge batch~for us 3 it means we've been eating empanadas every day this week.  We also made a few with just a cube of pepper jack cheese in them~which is great if you aren't brave enough to eat raisins, egg and green olive in the same bite!

I finished taking down all my Christmas decorations today.  Our kids only got 1 1/2 weeks off from school and it disappeared so fast!  We decided to put our blogging aside and enjoy them to the fullest.
I am happy that I get to put up Valentine stuff soon.  How long do you wait till you put up Valentines?