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Cheese pin wheel - Remake

Kulinarya Cooking Club - Mushroom Empanadas and Goat Cheese and Olive Empanadas

One of my many blogs I read daily is Divina blog, Sense & Serendipity, this last post was about a cooking club called Kulinarya.  The Kulinarya website goal is to inspire individuals to explore into the Filipino crusine.  This months topic was Empanada.  As some of you know, I make quite a bit of empanadas.  This has been one of the first recipes I learned.  Since first learning how to make it, I have adjusted the dough recipe and even tried different combinations.  My staple are the traditional ground chicken, beef, or pork with dice carrots, potatoes, peas, and rasins.  Since then, I have created various vegetarian versions and even dessert ones.  The Husband's favorite is my pumpkin while The Daughter loves any kind I make for her.  I had the opportunity to make quite a bit of empanadas this past weekend.  It was my god daughter's 3rd birthday so I wanted to bring some for her party.  I mainly made my traditional chicken version but I also made mushroom and goat cheese and olives.  I have made the mushroom version a couple of times but this is the first time I tried goat cheese and olives.  Lets just say, I am not a fan of olives and The Husband said it would be better if there was rasins.  I think due to the saltiness of the goat cheese and the taste of the olives, a nice sweetness would have been good.  What do you think? 

My crust is actually not the traditional crust.  I use a pie crust.  I started to use this type of recipe in attempt to make it a little healthier.  Every little bit helps, at least that is what I tell myself.  Anyway, my recipe I actually don't use eggs like in all the traditional recipes.  I even bake them instead of frying them.  Here are the recipes:

Dough


Ingredients
1 1/4 Cups of All-Purpose Flour
1/4 Teaspoon Salt

1/2 Cup Butter Diced

1/4 Cup Ice Water

2 Tbs of Sugar

Directions *You could do this in a mixer or food processor

1. Put all the flour in the tool of your choice.
2. Add the butter and mix it in with the flour.
3. Once it is all incorporated, add the salt and sugar.
4. Than add the water.  It should form a ball *If it is too wet, add more flour

Mushroom Filling
Ingredients
1 Large Package of Bella Mushrooms or 10 portabella mushrooms *You could pick any type of mushrooms but I perferr the portabella types.
2 Medium Potatos

1 Cup of Diced Carrots *I cheat and I use frozen mix of carrots and peas, now you know my secrete.  I hate chopping carrots with a passion!

1 Cup of Peas
1/2 Cup of Dice Onions
2 Cloves of Garlic

Directions

1. Take the potatoes and put them into a pot of boiling water. 
2. While waiting for the potatoes to soften, chop of the mushrooms into large chunks *keep in mind, they do shrink when cook.
3. When the potatoes soften enough to be mashed, drain the water and mash the potatoes until it is very soft.  You could add butter to assist in softening the potatoes
4. Let it cool and while it is cooling, sauteed onions and garlic in the oil of your choice, I tend to use olive oil. 
5. Add the mushrooms and cook until it is tender
6. Add the carrots and peas
7. Add the mashed potatoes into the pan and than with salt and pepper. 

Goat Cheese and Olives
(Adapted from The Perfect Pantry)

Ingredients

6 oz of Goat Cheese
1/3 Cups of Pitted Black Olives *I used Kalamenta Olives, it was a bit strong for this
1 Garlic CLove mashed

1/2 Tsp of Olive Oil

Salt and Black Pepper to taste


Directions

1. Finely chop the olives
2. Mix the remainder of the ingredients with the olives and fully incorporate the ingredients.

To Assemble
I totally cheat and use an empanada press.  It allows me to be as consistant as possible. 

1. Roll out the dough into 1/3 inch thick discs
2. Place the dough into the form
3. Place the filling in the middle and fold up

 The Husband got conned to helping me make these

He thought he was being smart by making a big disc and cutting it in half

He realized the half pieces were not wide enough so he had to reroll the dough

Even The Daughter got in the action

Bake

1. Place the empanada on a greased cookie sheet.
2. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes
3. Brush a egg wash over the empanadas after the empanadas and than continue to bake for 5-10 minutes. 

 Mushroom filled

Goat Cheese and Olives

Kulinarya was started by a group of Filipinio bloggers living in Sydney, who are passionate about the Filipino culture and its cusines. Each month we will showcase a new dish along with their family recipes. By sharing these recipes, we hope you find the same passion and love for Filipino Food as we do.

If you are interested in joining our Kulinarya Cooking Club, please feel free to stop by our foodblog and leave a commnet - we would love to hear from you. 

The current members are:
Trish - Sugarlace
Kath - A Cup Cake or Two
Trissa - Trissalicious
Olive - Home Cooking and Baking
Caroline - When Adobo Met Feijoada
Peach - The Peach Kitchen
Cusinera - Busog Sarap
Asha – Fork-Spoon -Knife
Malou - Skip to Malou
Cherrie – Sweet Cherrie Pie
Acdee - Confession Nook
Valerie – A Canadian Foodie
Bel – foodgeek's diary
Divina – Sense and Serendipity

BTW I'm out of town for a couple of days with limited internet so hopefully I'm going to find a Starbucks with internet so I could post a few more things I want to talk about.

Rustic Pear Tart and Fig Jam

My monthly book club was coming up and we read Julie and Julia.  I was amazed I didn't read it yet but than again I have been busy experimenting.  I also lost my four hour commute to work and back.  I wish I had more reading time but it doesn't always work out that way.  So to continue my reading habit I started a book club with two of my cousins and a couple of friends.  Each of us take a turn to pick a book and we meet once a month to discuss, eat, and gossip.  I wanted to make someone out of the Julia Child's cookbook but I saw I had pears so I made a rustic tart and some Fig Jam.  I'm sure I'll get some debate on this but I didn't really like the book.  I like the movie better than the book.  Julie Powell is a bit whiny for my taste.  I love the part in the movie with Julia.  I believe I'll read her book next when I have a chance.  Off topic again, sorry about that.  Since we were watching the movie, I made some fig jam for a snack.  What goes best with figs?  Brie so I brought some with multi-grain crackers.  You know to be healthy :D.  I got the recipe from Swirl and Scramble. 

Mom's Fig Jam with Walnuts

Directions

500gr fresh figs (approx 6-7 figs) * I couldn't find fresh so I used dried figs

250gr sugar

250gr water * add a little more like 300 grs due if you use dried figs

1/2 a lemon, juice of

250gr walnuts, chopped  * I only had enough for 70 grs

1gr ground cloves * Totally though I had some, I did not so I had to opt using pumpkin spice mix

    (approx 1/2 teaspoon- but you can reduce this to 1/4 teaspoon if you find it too strong)

Directions

1. 
   
   Wash figs, dice and place in a pot.
2. 
   
   Add all the remaining ingredients except for the walnuts and the cloves. Place on high heat, until a first boil.
3. 
   
   Then reduce to a very low heat until all the water has evaporated and a jam texture is obtained.
4. 
   
   Add the walnuts and cloves, stir gently, and leave on low heat for 1 minute. Remove from heat and let cool for 24hours.  Cover the pot with a cloth only- no glass or plastic material should be used to cover pot. Fill in jars and enjoy!

So my Misadventure

1. 
   
   I didn't dice the figs enough, I should have make them smaller
2. 
   
   I got impatient and I put the heat to high and it almost made the liquid to the soft ball state of candy making.
3. 
   
   I didn't read the directions fully and I made it the day I needed it. 

Otherwise it came out good.  Especially with the brie, that was the best part.

The rustic tart I tried prior with a different pie dough recipe.  I adapted this from the Simple Recipes website with a few upgrades on the recipe.

Almond pie crust

Ingredients

2 1/2 Cups of All Purpose  *Reserve some extra flour for rolling

1 Cup (2 sticks) of unsalted cold butter - cube into 1/2 inches

1 Teaspoons salt

1 Tablespoon Sugar *It stated to be a teaspoon but I like a sweeter crust

4 to 8 Tablespoon of ice water

2 Tablespoons of Ground Almonds

Directions

1. 
   
   The butter needs to be ice cold so you might want to put it in the freezer for a couple of minutes. 
2. 
   
   Combine the flour, sugar, and salt in a mixer, food processor, or even by hand. 
3. 
   
   Add the butter until it is thoroughly mixed.
4. 
   
   Add water until it become a ball. 
5. 
   
   Take the ground almonds and mix in the dough as you knead the dough.  *You can add this in step 2 but I kinda forgot about it.
6. 
   
   Wrap in Saran wrap and place in refrigerator for at least an hour.
7. 
   
   Remove from fridge and let it sit at until it reaches room temperature
8. 
   
   Roll it out until it is a 1/8 inch thick *Btw I suck at this
9. 
   
   Place the pear slices in a circular motion.  Leave about 1/2 an inch to an inch of dough at the edge.
10. 
    
    Sprinkle some sliced almonds over the filling.
11. 
    
    Pull up the edges where it overs filling.
12. 
    
    Place on a cookie sheet.
13. 
    
    Bake for about 20 minutes. 
14. 
    
    15 minutes in, brush with a egg wash.
15. 
    
    Serve warm with ice cream.

Pear filling

2 Pears any brand sliced thinly *ok really I don't know what kind I used.

2 Tablespoon of sugar

1 Tablespoon of Lemon Juice *optional

Direction

1. Take the slice pears and coat it with the sugar and lemon juice. 
2. Let it marinate for a couple of minutes