RIO CARNIVAL EMPANADAS (Tiny chicken pastries)
Pastry: Filling:
4 cups flour 3 chicken breasts
1 tbsp unsalted butter Half cup cooked peas
1 cup shortening or marg 10 green olives, chopped
2 eggs 1 clove garlic, crushed
1 egg yolk 1 tblsp olive oil
2 teasp salt 2 tbsp tomato puree
1 and a half cup ice- cold water 3 tbsp flour
Half tsp cayenne pepper
Salt and pepper to taste
Beaten egg yolk for glaze
Put the flour in a bowl and make a well in the middle.
Put the butter, shortening, eggs, salt and 1 cup of water into the well, and mix well.
Squeeze the mixture through your fingers until you have a paste, then gradually stir in the flour and bring together to a dough consistency with your hands, adding water little by little as necessary until you have a soft dough.
Set dough aside for 30 minutes while you make the filling.
Heat the olive oil in a large pan and add the onion and garlic. Cook until soft but not brown.
Add the chicken and seasonings (not the cayenne pepper), and enough water to just cover the rest of the ingredients.
Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer until the chicken is cooked through. Take the pan off the stove
Remove the chicken from the pan and shred in a food processor or with your hands.
Put the chicken back into a bowl and stir in the peas, flour, olives and cayenne pepper and the remaining juices in the pan. You should now have a soft, squidgy filling.
Take small balls of pastry - about the size of a marble - and line small dishes with it, so it just reaches over the top of the mould. Then spoon some filling into each mould.
Roll out the rest of the dough and cut out little pie tops to go over each mould.
Seal by pinching together top and bottom pieces of pastry and sealing with a fork if necessary, then brush with the egg yolk glaze and bake for approx 30 mins in a medium-hot oven.
If this is not it try this recipe at this link
www.caribbeanavenue.com/kitchen/recipes/pelau023.shtml
