Love and Olive Oil

Sherried Mushroom Empanadas

We have a thing for Spanish tapas. We spent a week last year at a cooking school in Napa (thanks Mom!), and one of the sessions was all about tapas. Our wonderful cousin took us to an amazing tapas restaurant in New York City, and it was literally the best dinner of our lives. Obviously, we like tapas. :)

Needless to say when we saw the food network feature on Tapas, we knew we had to try some. We’re doing a shrimp tapas recipe later this week, and you can definitely expect to see more.

These were delicious! Definitely a keeper. Especially when served with the fabulous Sangria (recipe to follow). Mmmm! They’d also be fun if made into little bite size empanadas, more work yes, but easier to eat.

Sherried Mushroom Empanadas
Sherried Mushroom Empanadas

Recipe from Food Network. Makes 8-10 appetizer servings, 4-6 main servings.
We actually used olive oil to sauté instead of butter. Probably doesn’t make a huge difference, but obviously, we prefer olive oil over anything else. It also makes the recipe entirely dairy free.

Ingredients
2 medium onions, finely chopped
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 1/2 pounds mushrooms, finely chopped
2 small red bell peppers, finely chopped
1 (6-ounce) piece serrano ham or prosciutto, trimmed and chopped fine
1/3 cup cream Sherry
1/2 cup packed fresh parsley leaves, washed, spun dry, and minced
3 tablespoons fine dry bread crumbs
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 (17 1/4-ounce) package frozen puff pastry sheets (2 pastry sheets) thawed
Egg wash, made by beating 1 large egg with 1 teaspoon water

Directions
In a 12-inch heavy skillet set over moderately low heat, cook onions in butter, stirring occasionally, until softened. Stir in mushrooms and bell peppers and cook over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until liquid mushrooms give off is evaporated and mixture begins to brown. Add ham and Sherry and cook, stirring, until liquid is evaporated.

In a bowl stir together mushroom mixture, parsley, and bread crumbs. Season with salt and pepper, to taste, and cool, uncovered.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

On a lightly floured surface roll out 1 pastry sheet into a 14 by 10-inch rectangle. Halve rectangle lengthwise with a long sharp knife and spread about half of mushroom filling on 1 half, leaving a 1-inch border all around. Brush edges of mushroom-topped pastry with some egg wash and put remaining pastry half on top of filling. Crimp edges of dough together with fork tines and cut several slits in empanada with small sharp knife. Carefully transfer empanada with 2 spatulas to a large baking sheet, leaving room for second empanada, and brush with some remaining egg wash. Make another empanada in same manner with remaining puff pastry sheet, filling, and egg wash.

Put empanadas in middle of oven and reduce temperature to 375 degrees F. Bake empanadas until golden, about 35 minutes. Empanadas may be made 1 day ahead, cooled completely on a rack, and chilled, wrapped in foil. Reheat empanadas, uncovered, on a baking sheet in a preheated 375 degree F oven until hot, about 6 minutes.

With a serrated knife cut empanadas into 3/4-inch slices and serve.

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3 Comments

  1. Tried this recipe with a bunch of my friends I met on the Camino de Santiago in Northern Spain, and it was huge hit!

  2. I’m a newbie around here but this looks (and sounds delicious) if I left out the prosciutto and used Marsala instead of the cream sherry would you be very upset?!

  3. My girlfriend gave me a tapas book for Christmas–we always go to a tapas place in Minneapolis when I visit her–and it’s such a tasty way to eat. I still haven’t made anything out of the book, though; maybe this’ll be inspiration for next week. Did you make another tapas to go with it, or just the empanadas and sangria?

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