Empanadas
From Camila in Chile - www.bambuvegetariano.cl

Empanadas are a traditional food in many countries of Latin America. I have seen them in Peru and others, but our empanadas, the chilean empanadas are so special.
Obviously most of people eat empanadas with meat, or shellfish, but we do them with seaplants or soymeat to fill them.

Ingredients for "masa" (the outside part of the empanada)

• 2 cups or white flour
  
• 2 cups of whole wheat flour
  
• 1 fullspoon of baking powder.
  
• 1 fullspoon of vegetal butter.
  
• 1 teaspoon of salt
  
• warm water in enough amount.

Ingredients for the "pino" (the inside part)

One can use a seaplant called "cochayuyo", to get a seafood flavor, or with soymeat instead. The cochayuyo can be cooked and cut in little pices.

• 1 cup of cochayuyo in little pices or 1 cup of soymeat.
• 1 onion cut in little pices.
• red pepper, salt, cumin or some seasoning.

How to make it:
Prepare the pino in the same way that the pastel de papas pino.

For the masa, mix the white flour with the whole wheat flour, add the baking powder and salt and mix everything. In the middle put the vegetal butter adding a bit of warm water, and start to mix and kneading everything.

The result must be a ball that doesn't stick on fingers. Separe little balls (like a tennis ball) of that "masa" and using a "uslero". In spanish, uslero is a sort of wood to roll. Can I say rolling pin? (The same that some women use to hit husband)

Ok then, using the rolling pin stretch the dough out in round forms, the size of a small plate.

Put in the middle 2 tablespun of the "pino", and you can add 2 raisins and a black olive. Then moisten the edges of the dough and fold in half, pinching the edge and folding it over, pinching it again, sealing it carefully. Coock in oven for 15 minutes, middle heat.

Instead of meat, we also can do mix vegetables filled empanadas, using vegetables mixed with the soymeat and onion. In that case you must cut the vegetables in very little pices, so as they get cooked in oven with the empanada. You can use grated carrot, little pices of celery, spinaches, zuccini, and others.