This year we celebrated Christmas with our families a little early. A work trip allowed us to go out in the middle of the month and we came back home a few days before Christmas. Visiting Chicago was nice, especially since we chose to not rent a car and use public transportation. I always forgot how easy it is to get around that way. It was a lot less stressful! We also went on to visit more family in St Louis. Luckily we were able to get out of the Midwest before the big storms hit.
Since we are mostly lollygagging around and visiting friends, I decided to carry on my family’s tradition of making empañadas or pierogi for Christmas. Empañadas fit the bill for me this year, so I went ahead and made some vegetarian versions.
Our usual dough consists of rolling the mixture in layers of butter. I did that yesterday for the neighbors gifts. Its more of a flaky, croissant-like pastry. I had extra filling so made some more today, but instead used a dough I had used in the past for making samosas. It is more simple- flour, fat (in my case, butter), salt and water. It only requires one rolling out too which makes our lives easier. This version is more crispy and solid, but also bready. Here are some pictures!
Waiting to fry.
Golden crispy goodness.
Nom. Filling consists of Smart Ground, carmelized onion, basmati rice, green olives, raisins and hard boiled egg. Seasoned smart ground with cumin and nutmeg. Then added more nutmeg, salt and pepper to the mixture. So savory.
Hope everyone has a Merry Christmas!